Christopher Berry

What I really love about this documentary is how in just a few minutes it shows the impact of the discovery—not just on science, but how it has inspired and motivated individuals, and how technology is finding applications in so many areas of life

🔭🧪⚛️🎢 #GW10Years

A print copy of this paper lives on a bookshelf in my parent's home

It's strange how such a few pages can contain so much

#GW10Years

Professor Mike Cruise. Credit: Lucinda Douglas Menzies.

The RAS was saddened to hear of the passing of our former President, Professor Mike Cruise, who has died aged 78.

"Kind, thoughtful and honourable", Mike was a "stalwart of the RAS". Our thoughts are with his family, friends and all who had the privilege to know him.

ras.ac.uk/news-and-pre...

A photo showing 4 cakes, decorated with the theme of gravitational waves: two cakes depict a gravitational wave black hole merger, one cake depicts a celebrating GW150914 black hole (wearing a party hat!), and one writes "10 anni di onde gravitazionali" - 10 years of gravitational waves.

A photo showing the scientists within the Trieste gravitational wave group, with the celebratory cakes.

The Trieste gravitational wave group celebrated the 10th anniversary of our first gravitational wave detection, #GW150914, with a public lecture and themed cakes!

🖼️: L Smith

🧵🎂 #GW10Years

Celebrating Ten Years A Big Birthday for a New Astronomy

Daniel Williams @daniel-williams.co.uk joined our collaboration on 14 September 2015 at the start of his PhD. He shares his perspectives on the last decade and things to come

astronomersdiary.substack.com/p/celebratin...

#GW10Years 🔭🧪⚛️ #AcademicSky

It has been a busy first decade for gravitational-wave astronomy

Here is to another decade of discoveries!

#GW10Years

A decade since I got to update havewedetectedgravitationalwavesyet.com !

#GW10Years

RAS logo on a purple starry background.

📣 Are you an RAS Fellow or Friend? 📣

We're calling on our members to help force the Government to reconsider its proposed cuts to astronomy and space science, which would be the most drastic in a generation.

Send our template letter to your MP and seek their support 👉️ ras.ac.uk/news-and-pre...

[LIVE] FIRST Gravitational Waves Detected | LIGO (Laser Interferometer Gravitational Observatory) YouTube video by National Science Foundation News

10 years ago today, we told the world

"We have detected gravitational waves. We did it!"

Relive the moment we shared our result with the world www.youtube.com/live/aEPIwEJ...

#GW10Years #OTD 🔭🧪⚛️ 🎂

I love this story

Power! At The Fish Disco

This art features 100 bees of various colors and shapes. These bees are designed in a cartoonish style, based on real species. The common name or species is written below the animals. Some bees are moving leaves, scraping plant hair, or sticking out their tongues. Some male bees have hairy faces and unusually shaped legs. There are also baby bees that have just hatched from their petal nests. Cute and colorful atmosphere. There are over 20,000 species of bees, so I only depicted a very small fraction of them!

Bees 🐝

Post a banger that's not in English

youtu.be/fzyO3fLV5O0

UK soft power latest

Webinar GWTC-4.0: Updating the Gravitational-Wave Transient Catalog with Observations from the First Part of the Fourth LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA Observing Run 12 February 2026 from 15:00 UTC Background image: An artistic representation of a binary black hole merger by Aurore Simonnet

Our next LIGO @egovirgo.bsky.social KAGRA webinar will introduce our latest #GWTC4 detections and discoveries (paper arxiv.org/abs/2508.18082)

Register for free wisconsin-edu.zoom.us/webinar/regi...

12 February at 15:00 UTC, with the recording on YouTube after

🔭☄️⚛️🧪

The money does not go into space. The money does not go into space.
The money does not go into space.

Sure, the money helps us in exploring and understanding the universe, but the money actually goes to people, to local economies, to universities, it provides jobs, and gets young people into STEM.

🎙️Our ECR open letter now has a sibling: an open letter from advanced fellows!👥📣

ECRs: ecr-openletter-stfc.github.io/index.html

Adv. Fellows: advancedfellows-openletter-stfc.github.io/index.html

Together, we hope UKRI and the government will hear the many voices across the PPAN community. 🔭🧪📡⚗️

Penrose process - Wikipedia

The Penrose process is an excellent way to generate energy, but sadly not renewable en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penrose...

If you are an early-career researcher worried about the threats to funding in Astronomy, nuclear and particle physics, you should consider signing this open letter👇

Thanks to @iansample.bsky.social at the Guardian for covering the devastating funding cuts that are being proposed for UK (astro)physics, and the dire impact these would have on young researchers. Will UKRI/STFC reconsider? Will the UKGov step in?🤞👩‍🔬🧪⚛️🔭

www.theguardian.com/science/2026...

I, along with many other UKRI, STFC and RS fellows are signing this open letter on the STFC cuts. The proposed reductions will devastate UK astronomy and the researchers who make it possible. Please read, share, and, if a fellow, sign.

advancedfellows-openletter-stfc.github.io/index.html

#astro

A man wearing a brown leather jacket with black leather pants, black boots, and a black shirt.

A man wearing a brown shearling bomber with a cream colored turtleneck and tan colored suede pants.

Jim Morrison in a black leather jacket, black t-shirt, black leather pants, and suede boots.

A chart shows that Bitcoin has fallen 34% in the last year. At its peak within this period, it was about $125k. Today, it's $64k.

if you took my advice last year and bought used leather pants, wore those leather pants, and then resold them on eBay, you would have made more money than if you invested in bitcoin

UK ‘could lose generation of scientists’ with cuts to projects and research facilities UK’s research funding body says best scientists are taking posts overseas due to lack of job stability at home

More on the UKRI/STFC funding squeeze.
Significant quote: “It is clear that no UK university will want to open lecturer positions in curiosity-driven research if such lecturers would not be able to attract much national funding." KCL's Lucien Heurtier.

www.theguardian.com/science/2026...

UK ‘could lose generation of scientists’ with cuts to projects and research facilities UK’s research funding body says best scientists are taking posts overseas due to lack of job stability at home

The president of the Royal Astronomical Society urged the government to prevent a “catastrophe” in science. “You lose a whole generation,” he said. “As a nation, we can’t afford for that to happen.”

www.theguardian.com/science/2026...

🔭🛰️🧪⚛️🎢

🔊 Calling UK early career researches in astro, particle & nuclear physics. Please sign this open response to the proposed cuts at STFC ⚛️🧪🔭

"Protecting the UK's reputation as a science superpower requires not only investment, but continuity, confidence, and people"

✍️ ecr-openletter-stfc.github.io

UKRI shelves physics infrastructure projects worth £280m - Research Professional News Exclusive: Major international collaborations with Cern and US Department of Energy in jeopardy

I think it is yet to be seen how prioritisation will play out. Some particle physics infrastructure has been cut www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-r... Infrastructure may be seen as more beneficial to the economy than the actual science?

Open letter from Early Career Researchers to the UKRI investment plan.

We can't let young people pay the price of "outcome-driven strategies". #stfc #ukri

ecr-openletter-stfc.github.io

If you are a postdoc or PhD, read and sign! 🧬🔭🔬⚗️🧪📡🛰️

Screen shot from letter "Re: STFC – reprioritisation of PPAN investments" Excerpts: "In response to STFC’s indicative allocation, UKRI will need to ensure that investments across the portfolio are aligned to a sustainable level over the Spending Review period. For STFC this means striking the right balance between long-term discovery science, our major national facilities, and applied research and innovation. To achieve this, we will need to focus our efforts on a more concentrated set of priorities, funded at a level that can be maintained over time. As part of this, STFC is reviewing its entire portfolio, including facilities and laboratories, to understand how best to deliver a sustainable programme for the future. Within the PPAN programme – now operating fully within STFC’s curiosity-driven research portfolio – we will need to model further adjustments, building on last year’s 15% reduction in new grants, to bring the programme into long-term balance. This prioritisation process will inevitably require some difficult choices. A moresustainable level for STFC's PPAN budget is likely to be around 70% of what this budget grew to in 24/25 off the back of steep inflation and rises in cost of operations in the last Spending Review." "To manage the challenges ahead, we will need to make difficult choices between scientifically excellent projects, this will include ceasing or reducing investments in many of the projects that STFC currently supports in order to continue funding others at a sustainable level. To support a comprehensive appraisal of options, we will be asking individual projects within our PPAN portfolio to identify how their project would respond to flat cash and reductions of 20%, 40% and 60%, and also identify the funding point at which the project becomes non-viable. This will enable Science Board to advise on redistribution and optimise returns."

Letter from Prof. Michele Dougherty, Executive Chair, Science and Technology Facilities Council on re-prioritisation of Astronomy, Particle Physics & Nuclear Physics. Sustainable budget likely to be around 70% of last year (after 15% cut), community asked to assess impact of *60%* cuts.

🔭🧪⚛️ #UKpol

It is the confluence of two issues: UKRI is putting more emphasise onto innovation, likely meaning in practice fewer grants for curiosity-led research which can impact subjects like Astronomy where it is harder to pivot, and STFC having its budget squeezed due to commitments like the national labs

An excellent open-letter enumerating the dangers to early career researchers and then wider society of proposed changes to UK science funding

ecr-openletter-stfc.github.io

Early-career researchers may like to add their signatures

🧪⚛️🔭 #AcademicSky #UKpol