‘Everyone got paid’: How Wippa’s pro-teen social media ban group cashed in on its success www.crikey.com.au/2025/12/09/3...
19.12.2025 21:16 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
‘Everyone got paid’: How Wippa’s pro-teen social media ban group cashed in on its success www.crikey.com.au/2025/12/09/3...
19.12.2025 21:16 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
This is the saddest day of my professional life. Today is not only the final recording of the latest series of The Infinite Monkey Cage, it is my last ever Monkey Cage. I never thought that I would have to leave the show. I always imagined going on until | dropped dead under the studio lights due to a brain aneurysm caused by my final attempt to understand notions of quantum gravity or the shock of being told about fly maggot infestations in the sacks of macaque monkeys. I resigned in September, after sixteen years of dedication to the show, A show that I named and helped develop over all those years. Unfortunately, my opinions outside the BBC have been considered problematic for sometime, whether it has been voicing support for the trans community, criticism of Donald Trump, numerous other outlandish opinions, including once gently criticising Stephen Fry. These things were considered to conflict with being a freelance BBC science presenter
In a recent meeting where BBC Studio executives again voiced problems with me, I realised my choices. Obedience and being quieter to remain making Monkey Cage, or 'Resign and have the freedom to speak out against what I believe are injustices'. • I chose the latter. It broke my heart. I love this show and I love the audience, and it is because of the audience in particular, that this decision was so difficult to make. I kept thinking about all the extremist voices promoting hate and division. They are being given so many platforms, while voices that represent kindness, open mindedness, empathy seem to be scarcer and scarcer. I felt I couldn't pamper myself with the luxury of silence. One of my many privileges is that I am able to resign and I can speak out even if it is to the detriment of my career.
I have thought a lot about my heroes, Sinead O Connor, James Baldwin, Audre Lorde, and so many more. I think of Sinead's words, "the job of an artist is to be themselves at any cost". James Baldwin said prejudice was really just a word for cowardice. Audre Lorde, viewing her life, wrote that her only regrets were her silences. I think of my father as I resign, he brought me up to believe in fairness , justice and kindness. Though my heart is broken, it is also full of fire. I apologise to our incredible listeners for my departure, your love of the show means a great deal. I am so sorry to let you down. I hope that you can understand my reasoning. I have to accept that I am not what the current BBC expects of their freelance presenters.
Despite this I should add that I have always worked far more than my contracted hours to try and ensure the show was always the best it could be, as well as making myself accessible and responsive to the audience wherever and whenever I met them. Every night, we have recorded, I have been filled with determination to make the best show possible. This was not "just a job" I hope that with my departure I can be a better ally to the LGBTQ community, to the neurodivergent community, to activists fighting against those who aim to brutalise society, to those currently in prison on hunger strike, and to all those who fight for a more inclusive world. From many conversations, I know there are many Monkey Cage listeners who support these communities and activists too. The strawberry is dead. Long live the strawberry. B
Very sad that I felt I had no choice but to resign from The Infinite Monkey Cage - a victory for the transphobes and other bigots - I did it because so much of the media has chosen to believe the kind and empathetic people are a fiction - they are real and so often unrepresented.
13.12.2025 00:00 — 👍 10732 🔁 2845 💬 1024 📌 683
Great culture can save lives. Literally.
Amazing letter in today’s @thetimes.com about Tom Stoppard
Read our latest blog article which features a new publication, 'Ngarrngga: An Approach to Indigenous Education for all Australians', published by the Australian Educational Researcher.
https://www.ngarrngga.org/stories-news/aer-new-publication
A photograph of a Brandt's bat face with a comic-style speech bubble reading, "Come learn my secrets."
🦇 Some animals, including the Brandt’s bat, seem to defy the rules of aging. Understanding how they do it could help us live longer, healthier lives: buff.ly/oiQsFRf
03.12.2025 00:54 — 👍 85 🔁 8 💬 4 📌 3What could possibly go wrong
03.12.2025 01:31 — 👍 90 🔁 33 💬 16 📌 2The sugar gums are flowering and the air smells like apples
28.11.2025 08:24 — 👍 146 🔁 16 💬 3 📌 0
Growing old and tolerant? How Eucalypts and Acacias traits vary across life-stages.
Come see my poster and talk at ESA 2025 conference.
Monday, Nov 24
5:44 PM
Tuesday, Nov 25
3:00 PM
#ESA2025 #EcologicalSocietyOfAustralia #EcologyAustralia #BiodiversityOnTheBrink #KaurnaCountry #Adelaide
We donate $25,000 a year to Nature Glenelg Trust. They do remarkable on-ground work for biodiversity in the places that we love #ESA2025. Eaglehawk waterhole, an NGT property, south of Bordertown, probably has South Australia’s best woodland bird diversity.
23.11.2025 02:56 — 👍 24 🔁 4 💬 1 📌 0
A First Nations woman standing at the main stage at the Ecological Society of Australia Conference with a large screen in the background
#esa2025 Keynote presentation from Tiahni Adamson #BushHeritage speaking about #FirstNations governance and #RightWay science. First Nations leadership is not only the right thing to do but leads to more effective #ecological outcomes
23.11.2025 23:25 — 👍 15 🔁 5 💬 0 📌 0
Spot the juvenile golden kelp on reef once stripped bare.
Following the dedicated harvest of over 25 tonnes of longspined sea urchins, juvenile golden kelp are starting to grow along shallow rocky reefs within Sydney Harbour.
This rehabilitation work is part of #ProjectRestore
Have you ever wanted to post a summary of a paper you published, but didn’t know where to do it? Or perhaps you thought about writing a blog? 🧪 🔭 #PlanetSci
23.11.2025 22:58 — 👍 19 🔁 5 💬 1 📌 0
Map of billabong site
Darter
Eastern Water Skink, I think? I know nothing about reptiles
The restoration of the billabong
Looking for a nice bird, flower, Rakali, reptile, frog walk at #ESA2025 this week - head to the St Peter’s billabong @ecolsocaus.bsky.social - darter, water skink, c30 bird species, and lots of native plants. Little grassbird and reed warbler nesting.
23.11.2025 02:51 — 👍 16 🔁 2 💬 0 📌 1
Vaccines DO NOT cause autism - there is extensive research showing this. Resurrecting old, discredited, fraudulent work is shameful.
Vaccine-preventable illnesses are serious - this is going to cause real harms.
This is dangerous & disappointing.
A dangerous(ly adorable) predator approaches…
12.09.2025 07:13 — 👍 87 🔁 19 💬 7 📌 2
Open AI loses copyright case in Germany.
Judge Elke Schwager summarized the case saying that if you want to build something and need components, "then you purchase them and do not use the property of others."
The squares for Curium and Meitnerium from periodictable.com, featuring portraits of their respective namesakes, are presented above a caption "Only two women have chemical elements named after them. Both were born on November 7th." (I'm aware that there was some ambiguity surrounding Lise Meitner's birthday, but Ruth Lewin Sime's biography notes that Meitner celebrated the occasion on November 7.)
Happy birthday to the only two women with elements named after them on the periodic table: #MarieCurie & #LiseMeitner.
As I do every year, I will once again repeat my proposal that November 7 should be International #WomenInSTEM Day!
#histSTM #chemistry #physics
#OnThisDay #OTD #PeriodicTable👩🔬🗃️📜
Eight lessons from island archaeology to optimise success in refining (1) targets for space colonisation and (2) the composition and behaviour of the colonist group.
🧪 🏺 #PlanetSci #SpaceArchaeology
One year ago, I started posting observations on BlueSky, and I have thoroughly enjoyed the journey. I've put all 196 observations from the last year into a little book called "What I noticed along the way". I hope you enjoy it. drive.google.com/file/d/1w0zL...
09.10.2025 21:37 — 👍 22 🔁 3 💬 2 📌 2
"Only if we understand, can we care. Only if we care, will we help. Only if we help shall all be saved." - Dr Jane Goodall
Our tribute to Jane's incredible career and profound legacy 👇
Painting of a Kangaroo Island Emu standing by a coastline, with the crashing sea behind it. The bird is standing half in profile, and appears to be making eye contact with the viewer. Art by Terry Matassoni.
In the lead up to #ThreatenedSpeciesDay, we're reflecting on the species that we have lost, and the future we need to protect.
These poignant artworks depict some of the unique Australian animals that are now extinct, as well as one species we can still save.
1) Kangaroo Island Emu (Extinct)
A ladybird beetle spreading its wings captured with a high-speed camera. In real-time wing deployment from the fully folded state takes less than 0.1 seconds.
Credit: University of Tokyo / Saito et al.
Here's a challenging Open Middle problem to help students develop conceptual understanding of quadratics in standard form: www.openmiddle.com/maximum-...
22.08.2025 22:43 — 👍 6 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0
Seaglass can take decades or centuries to be formed by the motion of the waves. Morning Edition's Chad Campbell and his daughter have tips on how beachgoers can search for these small treasures.
22.08.2025 22:58 — 👍 260 🔁 31 💬 10 📌 1‘budget reduces the funding of STEM programs — education and outreach programs …— from $143 million down to $0.’
22.08.2025 23:17 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
bigthink.com/starts-with-...
‘even if NASA’s budget is entirely restored, the loss of personnel, expertise, and mission continuity …is going to set science back by years or even decades…’
AND
A visualisation of major large-language models (LLMs), ranked by performance, using MMLU (Massive Multitasks Language Understanding) a benchmark for evaluating the capabilities of large language models.
21.08.2025 08:38 — 👍 5 🔁 2 💬 0 📌 0
Scientists’ role in defending democracy
The ability to tell the truth, especially when it does not suit any particularly partisan aims, is an essential prerequisite for a free society.
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
