Benjamin Pope

kind of great to see “opuscule” in the wild

Very much so! Build a good system and good people will come. (I think there is a good case for intervening for refugee scholars and victims of political repression, but this includes the US situation but is by no means limited to it)

Tbh it would be nice if they weren’t trying to destroy my industry specifically

… yeah I’m not sure

I like it!

The University of Nebraska is closing their statistics department. Especially if you're all in on AI this is so short-sighted. It's like launching the first spacecraft into outer space and being like "welp time to close astrophysics and rocketry and only teach classes on buckling up your seat belts"

not surprising, but also kinda insulting titling it "The Architects of AI" when there are only two (?) legit AI/ML scientists here.

DNA? Fingerprints? Family telephone numbers? IP addresses?
Hell no.

Very much the issue at the moment in Aus/NZ is putting commercialisation (high TRL projects, endpoints of long trajectories) as the only path for science. They want to reap but refuse to sow!

Australian Research Council’s ‘secret restructure’ revealed - Research Professional News National funder confirms it is “aligning staffing levels” to meet public service standards

Here's @jsresearchpro.bsky.social reporting on the proposed ARC job losses & restructure.

Super-concerning to read the "Staff dissatisfaction" stuff here. It serves noone to have staff so unhappy. Sackings & restructuring when "burnout" is so common is 🤯

[Paywalled but see excerpts in reply post]

Yeah I think this is the key problem - you don’t need to attract specifically better scientists than you have locally. You need to make the conditions for science to flourish and the best people internationally will want to work with you

someone should invent a thing that's like a university but it's goal is to facilitate learning

Please use the sharing tools found via the share button at the top or side of articles. Copying articles to share with others is a breach of FT.com T&Cs and Copyright Policy. Email licensing@ft.com to buy additional rights. Subscribers may share up to 10 or 20 articles per month using the gift article service. More information can be found at https://www.ft.com/tour. https://www.ft.com/content/10daa0e9-d57b-4ccd-9bdc-87d321283398 However, the MAC’s analysis also suggests that even low-paid care workers — whose path to work in the UK is now closed as part of a government drive to lower net migration — were no more costly to the public finances than a typical UK resident in the same age bracket.

The basic truth of all claims about immigrants is that immigrants are just, you know, people, and therefore what is true for any human in the UK working in one field is also true of an immigrant in that one: www.ft.com/content/10da...

It’s not you, it’s me. I just need several parsec of space. What does a stellar breakup look like? So dramatic that the stars can’t wait to get away from each other! Today’s authors use physics to search for the one who got away.

From Ryan White @astroryan.bsky.social : What does a stellar breakup look like? So dramatic that the stars can’t wait to get away from each other! Today’s authors use physics to search for the one who got away. ⚛️🔭☄🧪
astrobites.org/2025/12/09/s...

Suggestion for new Bluesky age verification method:

They just check how much you whinge on Bluesky about rejected ARC grants.

Hey kids, if you want a reference shorthand for a library in an old building full of secrets, from a wildly popular bestseller that was adapted into a beloved movie, have I got the Eco for you

The US social media vetting for visas will be devastating for scientific and journalistic conferences, fellowships etc. No global organisation can seriously consider holding an international conference in the US while this policy exists.

yes

It’s all bloody matrices tbh

Conversely I can basically be a single issue voter for bike lane maximalism

(I should be careful about throwing stones about having read much fiction this year tbh, this crisis is certainly affecting me)

Man there is nothing that makes me go more insane than being at Oxford or Sydney Uni and seeing someone compare it to a fictional private school for eugenic children as if this makes the grandeur better

💯! Good thing the crisis of “nobody can read a book” has a solution “read a book”

more than anything about her politics it’s just a bit embarrassing to refer to every old building as Hogwarts. God it kills me

If they just get rid of the through traffic and add some light rail I think it can be saved

I mean I don't really have that impression about LLMs, so much as machine learning in general, which is pretty good stuff for astronomy if I do say so myself

logical endpoint of this hype cycle is being *literally ordered* to use a product, doesn’t matter what for

Tree lined boulevards of Art Deco high rise all the way to the Blue Mountains. Dream the dream

🚀The Roman Cycle 1 Call for Proposals is OPEN!

Unlock new discoveries with the Wide Field Instrument—your science starts here! Apply for funding to analyze Roman data, perform theory/lab research, and propose new observations. 🔭☄️

📅 Deadline: Mar 17, 2026 (5 PM PDT)
📝 bit.ly/4q3jbbL

If Sydney just becomes Greater Potts Point we’ll have made it