Prof Mike Yearworth

A do-or-die moment for the scientific enterprise Reflecting on our paper “The entities enabling scientific fraud at scale are large, resilient, and growing rapidly”

Today, our article "The entities enabling scientific fraud at scale are large, resilient, and growing rapidly" is finally published in PNAS. I hope that it proves to be a wake-up-call for the whole scientific community.

reeserichardson.blog/2025/08/04/a...

“The entities enabling scientific fraud at scale are large, resilient, and growing rapidly”

doi.org/10.1073/pnas...

LLMs are likely to destroy, fairly quickly, a self-help coding ecosystem that has evolved and developed over the years. Once it’s gone it’s gone.

Opinion: while LLMs can exploit valuable resources like StackOverflow performance will be impressive. Once these platforms cease to be updated by human coders and LLMs start hallucinating their own answers to coding problems then I think they’ll hit a performance wall. …

The AI job cuts are accelerating Companies are preparing for a time where there might be less work for their employees

“Already it’s clear the hiring of coders has dropped off a cliff. And almost daily, my inbox delivers examples of AI’s prowess versus humans.”
…
www.ft.com/content/04a8...

LLMs are likely to destroy, fairly quickly, a self-help coding ecosystem that has evolved and developed over the years. Once it’s gone it’s gone.

Opinion: while LLMs can exploit valuable resources like StackOverflow performance will be impressive. Once these platforms cease to be updated by human coders and LLMs start hallucinating their own answers to coding problems then I think they’ll hit a performance wall. …

The AI job cuts are accelerating Companies are preparing for a time where there might be less work for their employees

“Already it’s clear the hiring of coders has dropped off a cliff. And almost daily, my inbox delivers examples of AI’s prowess versus humans.”
…
www.ft.com/content/04a8...

The increasing intermittency of….nuclear power stations:

Source: Financial Times | “Heatwaves test Europe’s electricity system as air conditioning use soars” on.ft.com/4fsSclS

I would argue that every student needs a robust education in the humanities specifically sociology, anthropology and philosophy/theory in addition to their academic lane of choice. “Stem brain” is dangerous without humanity as a concept that is not just an engineering problem.

August 1, 2025 AMERICAN ECONOMIC ASSOCIATION Committee on Economic Statistics and Committee on Government Relations Statement from the American Economic Association on the Dismissal of the BLS Commissioner Leaders of the American Economic Association express their grave concern over the dismissal of the Commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) earlier today. The independence of the federal statistical agencies is essential to the proper functioning of a modern economy. Accurate, timely, and impartial statistics are the foundation upon which households, businesses, and policymakers make critical decisions. Undermining the independence or credibility of these agencies threatens the integrity of the information that markets, institutions, and the public rely on every day. Measuring the vast and dynamic U.S. economy in real time is inherently challenging. It is standard practice for statistical estimates to be revised as more complete and higher-quality data become available. These revisions reflect the commitment of statistical agencies to accuracy, transparency, and methodological rigor-not failure or bias. The BLS has long had a well-deserved reputation for professional excellence and nonpartisan integrity. Safeguarding this tradition is vital for the continued health of the U.S. economy and public trust in our institutions. We call upon elected officials to respect and preserve the independence of the nation's statistical infrastructure. Lawrence Katz President, American Economic Association Katharine Abraham President-Elect, American Economic Association Karen Dynan Chair, American Economic Association Committee on Economic Statistics Kenneth Troske Chair, American Economic Association Committee on Government Relations

Statement from the largest economics association about the BLS firing

As context: AEA approximately never makes such public statements

This is a big deal

I actually think it’s a good thing that there are people who devote their working lives to studying something that may only be of interest to a small number of people, who get on here with great excitement and say “I nerded the heck out of this for three years, I’m proud of me, read my article!”

Pentanema britannica - Wikipedia

??? en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pentane...

‘Self-termination is most likely’: the history and future of societal collapse An epic analysis of 5,000 years of civilisation argues that a global collapse is coming unless inequality is vanquished

“But even if you don’t have hope, it doesn’t really matter. This is about defiance. It’s about doing the right thing, fighting for democracy and for people to not be exploited.” Luke Kemp, on his new book Goliath’s Curse.
www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Peer review is broken, and pedagogical research has a fix The lessons of decades of research into assessment and feedback haven’t tracked across into the practice of peer review. Madeleine Pownall wonders why not The lessons of decades of research into assessment...

This week on Wonkhe: The lessons of decades of research into assessment and feedback haven’t tracked across into the practice of peer review. Madeleine Pownall wonders why not

Companies House failed to spot a £100 trillion fake company We’ve found hundreds. of suspect companies with false accounts using a new automated search tool

There are many, many more companies with obviously fake accounts. We created an app that finds them taxpolicy.org.uk/2025/01/31/t...

‘Cleaner, greener and absolute reliability’: trams make UK comeback Pioneering light-rail tech poised to revamp network after chancellor announces £15bn transport boost

We can install light battery powered trams everywhere, really quickly. We've got the tech, we've got new rules about the cash: let's go for it. Could make a big difference in so many ways. www.theguardian.com/world/2025/j...

Vast supplies of U.S. aid remain stranded, despite State Department promises More than 60,000 metric tons of food have languished in warehouses in the United States and around the world — with expiration dates nearing on some items.

So painful to see this www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2025/... #foodinsecurity #reliefitems #perishable

‘Self-termination is most likely’: the history and future of societal collapse An epic analysis of 5,000 years of civilisation argues that a global collapse is coming unless inequality is vanquished

““History is best told as a story of organised crime,” Kemp says. “It is one group creating a monopoly on resources through the use of violence over a certain territory and population.””

www.theguardian.com/environment/...

The government has now officially weighed in on VPNs. #OnlineSafetyAct www.gov.uk/government/n...

Commentary: The health crisis in the USSR: looking behind the facade My first visit to the USSR was in February 1981, by coincidence at exactly the same time that Nick Eberstadt published a commentary on ‘The health crisis i

In a strange circularity, it seems that all the work I was doing in the early 1990s on concealment/distortion of statistics by USSR & DDR is becoming very relevant now

academic.oup.com/ije/article-...

The authoritarian playbook. If the numbers don’t suit you. Change them. Easier than developing policies - and making it hard to do so, as you can no longer trust the statistics.

UK’s largest bioethanol plant under threat after trade deal with the US

Somewhere between the destruction caused by Beeching and the debacle of HS2 there must be some middle ground for investing in our railways

SWR announces train timetable changes due to hot weather Dry soil means some railway track has been disturbed and trains need to travel at a slower speed.

“Railway services between London Waterloo and Exeter St Davids are being reduced following dry weather.
South Western Railway (SWR) trains between the stations will run once every two hours, reduced from once per hour, from 11 August until further notice.”

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

DOGE wasn't just a failure—it was the latest chapter in a 50-year project to dismantle state capacity. The question should have been obvious: efficient at what & for whom? New post on how "efficiency" is used as cover for systematic value extraction ➡️ marianamazzucato.substack.com/p/efficiency...

Silicon Valley's Push Into Transportation Has Been a Miserable Failure The titans of tech brought plenty of disruption to our broken transportation system but delivered little in the way of innovation.

“Elon Musk admitted to his biographer that the reason the Hyperloop was announced—even though he had no intention of pursuing it—was to try to disrupt the California high-speed rail project to get in the way of that actually succeeding.” — @parismarx.com in @gizmodo.com

He’s always been this way.

All of the energy in this lump of coal is just sunlight, transformed by photosynthesis and compacted
over 100s of millions of years.

As we approach the second quarter of the 21st century, you'd think we'd have the know-how to cut out the middlemen and get our energy directly from the source.

Memorise them - Fahrenheit 451