You're completely correct that this is a normal expectation in Physics and Astronomy and presumably also in GeoSciences. However, I have also seen people successfully defend theses with fewer and, sometimes zero, publications. Your general point, though, is still a good one.
A recommended read by Hiranya Peiris:
"[we] had a quality problem long before LLMs...publish or perish, citation metrics as proxy for impact, volume as proxy for productivity... have been producing incremental, poorly checked, & sometimes wrong papers for decades"🧪🔭⚛️
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Communicating changes in the intensity of UK heatwaves
Global warming of ‘just’ 1°C does not necessarily sound like a problem. But in the UK, the hottest summer days are warming much faster than typical summer days, changing our experience of heatwaves
rmets.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....
By me. A decade-old error in a paper trips up the contrarians.
RealClimate: A reflection on reflection www.realclimate.org/index.php/ar...
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If this is correct, then the claim that the issues in STFC are mostly to do with increased costs, inflation, exchange rates, and being overly ambitious would appear to not be true!
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IIRC, I may have said something like this at the time.
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The climate scenario RCP 8.5 is unfairly understood as "misleading," "controversial," or deceptive. This is unfortunate, write @madisoncondon.bsky.social and @vsrikrish.bsky.social — even if its predicted emissions are unlikely, it's incredibly useful for all kinds of climate modeling
In March, Matt Ridley gave the inaugural "Scientific Freedom Lecture" at NIH, on a lab leak origin of COVID-19.
The talk was so full of misrepresentations, omissions, falsehoods and lies that I will need several blog posts to debunk it. Here's Part I:
pandemonium.hypotheses.org/995
🧪 #covidorigin
Trump has insulted and tariffed his European allies, persuaded Denmark to prepare for a US invasion and, by pressuring Ukraine and not Russia, encouraged Putin to keep fighting. All of which he has forgotten.
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...
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This is one of the most fascinating and under-appreciated figures of the recent IPCC AR6 report (Figure 6.16). It shows the effects of a single year of emissions after 10 and 100 years, and really illustrates the difference between stock and flow pollutants: www.ipcc.ch/report/a...
Cuts to UK Astronomy? It's all about the base(line).
A short post on LinkedIn highlighting that the effective cuts to UK Astronomy funding are not some far off possibility - they have already started.
www.linkedin.com/posts/profji...
It launches 22 April and I can't wait.
For more, I introduce it here: www.linkedin.com/pulse/introd...
If it sounds useful, you can sign up: climatetrunk.com
Inspired by @katharinehayhoe.com @hausfath.bsky.social
@drkatemarvel.bsky.social @carbonbrief.org @ketanjoshi.co @ourworldindata.org ++++
Climate Trunk project by John Lang
Climate and energy are hard to get your head around, unless you're in the climate Bluesky community.
Over the last year, I’ve been building something to help everyone else: @climatetrunk.bsky.social 🌳
One visual a week, for a year. Probably two years now, given I've already drafted more than 52.
Informative post on The Climate Brink by Zeke Zeke Hausfather on the differences between CO2 and CH4 in warming the climate and the scourge of GWPs and CO2e in evaluating climate policy.
As I think someone on the Select committee pointed out, the amount isn't even all that large. The total UKRI budget this year is something like £9B. If their intention really wasn't to significantly damage the PPAN research community, they could clearly do something.
Haven't you worked out yet that it's ALWAYS the scientists' fault!
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Well, I am not sure what my analysis here is worth, but here is my 7,500 word primal scream of a military historian's take on the War in Iran.
My best summary: this war is dumb as hell.
acoup.blog/2026/03/25/m...
If you really feel that "it is not right that other Councils (and disciplinary areas), EPSRC most notably, are called upon to make cuts towards the end of the financial year to meet overruns from STFC." then ponder the impact on EPSRC if STFC balanced its books by cutting funding to DIAMOND or ISIS.
Why do people who defend these "cuts" not recognise that a key issue being highlighted is PPAN bearing the brunt of cost overruns in non-PPAN facilities. profserious.substack.com/p/a-kerfuffl...
Screenshot of the Skeptical Science Team participating in this year's Carbon Brief Quiz: Doug, Bob, Gavin, Jim, Ken, Dana & Bärbel
Our team is having fun at the #CBQuiz 2026 organized by @carbonbrief.org! And the questions are tricky yet again - to nobody's surprise, of course!
@kenrice.bsky.social @baerbelw.bsky.social @jim-hunt.bsky.social @dananuccitelli.bsky.social
Hopeful news about the STFC Crisis
I've just got time this evening to pass on news that the Chair of the Parliamentary Select Committee looking at he current STFC debacle (see this account), Chi Onwurah, has responded to the events in extremely frank terms. Here is an excerpt: The full response -…
