"Planned cuts to physics and astronomy funding threaten to undermine a core UK government strategy to harness innovation to boost economic growth, leading researchers have warned ministers."
Thanks @financialtimes.com for covering this really important story
๐๏ธ: www.ft.com/content/a235...
Coming out of mat leave for a bit today for the kick off meeting with my wonderful new team at RHUL that will start working on interdisciplinary modelling of #neutronstar physics across different scales. Combining software development, fluid dynamics, nuclear physics, astronomy and AI. So excited ๐คฉ
Cover meines Buches "Schwarze Lรถcher, schwere Kost leicht verdaulich"
Wohoo, mein Buch ist wieder direkt von Kosmos verfรผgbar ๐๐ซ
Ich glaube รผbrigens, es macht sich gut als ein Chanukka-/Weihnachts-/Neujahrsgeschenk - gerne auch vom lokalen Buchladen ๐
www.kosmos.de/de/schwarze-locher_11807...
[Admin] Schwarze Lรถcher, Satelliten und Sternexplosionen! Begrรผรt unsere neue Kuratorin @vicgrinberg.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy!
realscientistsde.blogspot.com/2025/10/schw...
On my way to Brussels to kick off the new European SCALES network which brings together people working on superfluid physics across laboratory and astrophysical scales (yes the name was intended ... very proud of coming up with that acronym ๐คฃ).
The Astronomy group @royalholloway.bsky.social is organising the annual meeting of the UK #neutronstar community this week. We've already seen so much great science from our UK colleagues ๐คฉ and international collaborators and there are still several more days to go.
In London today to kick off a collaboration with the Research Software Engineering group at UCL who will help me and the new team working on my FLF project write better software. Really excited about this.
Explaining neutron stars... using eggs ๐
This simple experiment, demonstrated by @drvgraber.bsky.social of our Department of Physics, is a neat way of conveying the complex makeup and movement of neutron stars.
Recently, Dr Graber conducted this on an episode of 'The Sky at Night' on BBC Four.
In London today at the Royal Astronomical Society to give a lecture on "ML Approaches to Radio Astronomy" for the annual STFC Intro to Astronomy Summer School organised by UCL. Really excited to be here ๐คฉ
Want to learn some amazing facts about #neutronstars? Alex Andersson, Kaustubh Rajwade, Adriana Dias and Lucie Robbins have a few more exciting pulsar tidbits for you ๐คฉ. #SkyAtNight @royalholloway.bsky.social
Slice of delicious looking golden apple crumble cake on a small grey plate with a silver fork in front of it placed on a dark grey table mat.
First apple crumble cake of the season with apples from our own little tree. Awesome flavour ๐คฉ
Want to hear the wonderful Jocelyn Bell Burnell talk about her discovery of pulsars, the struggles of minorities in science and see me spin some eggs ๐? Then this month's #SkyAtNight episode is for you www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/epis... Including some wonderful shots of @royalholloway.bsky.social
En route back home from a wonderful three-day leadership retreat with 19 other @ukri.org Future Leader Fellows in Manchester. We've shared so many great ideas and conversations. But mainly leaving with a sense of optimism about the future of research and HE, which I haven't felt in a long time.
I spun and cracked some eggs today... all in the name of science ๐คฉ. A great end to this week.
Really looking forward to a week of full on radio astronomy in Gรถrlitz for the 2025 SKAO Science Meeting. So much incredible science will be possible with this new radio telescope #skao2025
It's been a few really busy and exciting weeks on the science front, and we can finally share that our European network grant for SCALES ("Superfluid Condensates in Astrophysics and Laboratory ExperimentS") has been funded. So happy about this one www.cost.eu/actions/CA24...
A chart showing 19 active space missions that will be cut because of the new budgets. This is just a subset of the overall active missions that will be cut including astronomy. At the top are the words "These projects reflect more than $12 billion of investment by US taxpayers and 180 of combined years to build".
Here's another shocking infographic made by @planetarysociety.bsky.social that shows the impact of the 2025 presidential budget cuts on almost 20 successful space missions. The scale of US tax-payer-funded investment waste is really unprecedented.
Courtyard of an Italian villa with a large staircase and the building in the background. The villa facade is painted in yellow and decorated with many white ornaments. The sun is shining and blue sky is visible above the building.
A wonderful and exciting week in Trento is coming to and end. We talked all things superfluid from neutron stars to helium and cold-atom system. Bringing together theorists and experimentslists. Always great to be back in the old villa with an awesome view of the mountains.
A round yellow green serving plate on a kitchen counter with 8 hot cross buns arranged in a circular pattern. The buns are golden brown and shiny from the glaze and look delicious
Finally having some much needed few days off and taking the opportunity to introduce a bunch of Germans to hot cross buns. Everyone approved.
Artist's impression of the exoplanet K2-18b. Credit: A. Smith, University of Cambridge.
๐ก๐ผ, ๐ฎ ๐ฏ๐ถ๐ผ๐๐ถ๐ด๐ป๐ฎ๐๐๐ฟ๐ฒ ๐๐ฎ๐ ๐ป๐ผ๐ ๐ท๐๐๐ ๐ฑ๐ฒ๐๐ฒ๐ฐ๐๐ฒ๐ฑ ๐ถ๐ป ๐๐ฎ-๐ญ๐ด๐ฏ'๐ ๐ฎ๐๐บ๐ผ๐๐ฝ๐ต๐ฒ๐ฟ๐ฒ.
K2-18b is back in the news, now with a bold claim that biosignature molecules (DMS and/or DMDS) have been 'detected at 3ฯ'.
Most exoplanet astronomers are extremely sceptical about these claims, let's see why (1/n).
๐ญ๐งช๐ช #exoplanet
A serendipitous discovery illuminates the kinds of objects that might bridge the gap between pulsars and long-period radio transients. aasnova.org/2025/04/11/a... @ozgrav.bsky.social ๐ญ๐งช
The shadow of a colander on white paper. Each hole acts as a small pinhole camera showing a crescented shadow, a partial solar eclipse.
My little Saturday morning contribution to Astronomy outreach
Writing and reading emails really is the main productivity killer of academics .... I've literally done nothing else for 2 days. How on earth is this possible?!?! And I appreciate that 50% of these were necessary. But the rest definitely wasn't ๐ตโ๐ซ.
Astronomers! One of the best things about the old astro-Twitter was that there was frequent discussion of the latest research.
The new AstroSci feed is the perfect place to have this kind of science discussion! โ๏ธ
If you see a cool paper - post about it!
Thanking the universe for helpful and competent sysadmins today. Makes running simulations on a computing cluster infinitely easier.
โ ๏ธโ ๏ธโ ๏ธ Only one week left to apply for the two postdoc positions I am currently advertising. DL 28 February.
Miniature model of a house on top of a grey sofa. The house has the size of a big book. It is garden themed, has a white wooden frame, transparent windows and brown steps leading up to an open entrance. The interior is decorated with numerous shelves, paper plants and other garden items. It looks colourful and cosy.
Finally had some time yesterday to build a little book nook I got for Christmas. Such a wonderful present.
Reading expressions of interest for the next round of RHUL FLFs today. 2 take aways: (i) Sooo much exciting research. I'd love to sit down with each person & have a chat about their work. (ii) Incredible how much about grant writing one learns doing this. Definitely recommend, if you get the chance.
This Thursday, I am hosting an event called CIENCIA EN ESPAรOL for the community, not just scientists, to have researchers talk about their science in Spanish. There is a Zoom option, so please share it widely!
