Please help share what must be one of the best jobs ever. We are looking for a writer to join @ourworldindata.org to work with our fantastic team including @maxroser.bsky.social and @hannahritchie.bsky.social. £80k - £120k / ideally full time / location flexible
ourworldindata.org/hiring-write...
A graphic with a green background and a yellow box in the centre on which is written 'Friday 24 April - Online, 10am-11am, Open Research, Trust in Science and the ‘Transparency Paradox’'. At the bottom of the image are 13 logos of various libraries, institutions and university presses in London. At the top, it says 'London Open Science & Scholarship Festival, 20-24 April 2026'
London Open Science & Scholarship Festival💡
'Open Research, Trust in Science and the ‘Transparency Paradox'' 👩💻
A thought-provoking session exploring openness, credibility, and the expectations placed on science and researchers.
🗓️24.04, 10-11am
📍Online
Register: buff.ly/V1ICeKH
#LDNOpenFest26
If you have an academic job this is a part of your role, although it has to compete with all the other things you have to do too.... And yes, publishers have found an amazing way to get us all to do all the work for them for free, while they make large profits
It's voluntary and unpaid, but if you want to publish papers (and you need to to get jobs/ promotions/ grants) then someone has to do the peer review... Ideally, everyone who publishes a paper will at a minimum also review the equivalent number of times their paper was reviewed.
Brilliant news!
‘A wow moment’: ancient Romanian gold helmet returned in plea deal with theft suspects www.theguardian.com/artanddesign...
This whole thread is thought-provoking but this post in particular is why we should talk early and often with students about gAI tools, and what we think of use (and not using) so that they are not left to assume what we are doing.
Unfortunately, I think it's perfectly possible to be patronising without realising it's anything bad, or even thinking about it. Rather like a lot of very affable men of my parents' generation who would never even consider that they should cook or clean for themselves
Unless there's some odd regional thing going on that I'm unaware of, I'm finding it hard to imagine where you got that idea
Exactly! A massive red flag
I'm surprised you say that about England! I'm English and if anyone calls women 'female' in normal spoken English it's definitely patriarchal and demeaning.
‘Researchers studying “model collapse” have shown that AI systems trained on synthetic, rather than human-generated, content degrade in quality. The statistical diversity of human thought — the marginal, the dissonant — is averaged away… Incest is never a good idea’
www.ft.com/content/a8e1...
Should probably tag #STFC
A second letter from the committee, asking further questions.
Shout out to brilliant colleagues across STFC - I can only imagine how low morale must be in the face of all of this 😕
.... PhD supervision, not to mention that masters projects are often done over the summer.....
It would be nice if any of these articles were ever written by anyone who understands how must of the university sector works, had ever actually taught, or got what research involved. We work outside term time. We have summer schools, conferences, research, course development.... #AcademicSky
Interesting thread on AI:
👇THIS
Been watching this whole debate unfold and have been too exhausted to engage but wanted to chime in and recommend this great ethnography of physicists for anyone interested in how the social context where science happens structures scientific practice, even in so-called "hard" sciences
"This is not straightforward... and the STFC thing is particularly difficult"
Understatement 😬
A thread with quotes from Lord Vallance and his thoughts on the "STFC thing"
Companies House has now alerted all five million UK companies of the vulnerability that let anyone, anywhere in the world, access the private dashboard of any company.
Meaning: view confidential personal information, modify company/director details, even file accounts.
Or even "sea" slug..... 🙄
Who doesn't want a tiny wool see slug?!?! 🤩 🧪
QGIS 4.0 Norrköping is released!
The wait is over! We are pleased to announce the new major release of QGIS 4.0. Installers for Windows, Linux, and Mac are already out. What's new? On the surface, existing users should expect to engage with a QGIS experience familiar to what they have come to […]
In case you recently haven't tried to access historic newspapers at newspaperarchive.com, I'll save you the trouble: don't. 🗃️
They soooo need to make this kit! #BookHistory #History #Printing #Lego
Or both!
The Guardian has posted a piece on human remains, and as an osteologist I want to add some thoughts. First off I agree that the legacy of colonialism is a problem, and that there are issues surrounding certain collections.
But
The numbers in that piece are massively inflated for two reasons
It's a poorly written article: I just think it does a disservice to the issue. Which is a shame because a lot of people have put a lot of work into repatriation over the last few decades.
This was what didn't make sense to me... The numbers all through the article, and the accompanying explainer article look very wrong, and I was wondering whether in some cases it's individual bones.
I'm guessing you don't know how copyright law works then......
