🚨 Astronomy cuts update 🚨

Next Tuesday (1 September) a debate about the ongoing funding crisis will take place in Westminster Hall from 1-1.30pm. 🗣️🔭

The RAS welcomes the debate and is encouraging all Fellows to contact their MPs to urge them to attend. ✍️

Find out more 👉️ ras.ac.uk/news-and-pre...

10 scientific truths that somehow became unpopular in 2025

Scientific truths exist independently of public opinion.

But when we disbelieve them, we embrace misinformation instead, and that harms more than most of us realize.

bigthink.com/starts-with-...
#space #science #physics #misinformation

As a wise man once said...

Robert F. Kennedy Jr announced last week that the US federal government is terminating US$500 million worth of grants for mRNA vaccine research.

We must never, ever, forget that millions are alive today, or in better health, because of this life-saving technology.

go.nature.com/4msX3WL

Beyond that though, I have been doing this sci comm stuff for a long time, and I have NEVER before known a time when I've had to grapple with so many nonsensical claims from tech leaders. There's just a constant stream, which most of the media gobbles up. I'm frankly really tired of it. 9/9

Screw that. I’m living forever…well, at least my atoms are. Someday they will be scattered to the cosmos, along with every other human that ever lived. Some of them will end up in an alien looking up wondering if there’s any other life in the cosmos.

The rule of thumb should be: the less you are an expert, the more your views should tend to align with those who actually are experts.

"We need more ideological diversity..."

No. Exactly the opposite.

We need ideological positions that contradict factual reality to be ridiculed and deplatformed into oblivion, and same for the people calling for "acceptance" of those "diverse opinions."

Facts and reality are non-negotiable.

We're nearly at 7,000 signatures and I want to hit 10k by Friday with your help!

I've put together a google file with:

- QR code posters to put up in pubs
- Template letter to MPs
- Logo for social
- Press release & one page explainer

Please spread far and wide!

drive.google.com/drive/folder...

We urge all leaders, for the good of their nations’ health, not to ignore or contradict advice that is supported by a consensus of evidence from research.

https://go.nature.com/43Rfr5a

Just deactivated my twitter account after 16 years 🥲

Why is anyone allowed to call these tools “intelligence”? Surely advertising standards should intervene. It’s machine learning, which is really just advanced statistics. It’s not intelligent, and it can’t be trusted to get the sense of a text right. Calling it intelligence is dangerously seductive.

RIP to a real real one