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alexfeakes.bsky.social

@alexfeakes.bsky.social
86 followers 488 following 144 posts
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Matthew Cobb @matthewcobb.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
A lot of excitement on here about the article in Science summarising the discoveries of @alistairsponsel.bsky.social and Brian Sutton, just published in the Journal of the History of Biology. Some people have asked, so here is what I think they show, and what are the implications:
link.springer.com
Photograph 49 is the Key to Understanding the History of Rosalind Franklin’s DNA Photograph 51 - Journal of the History of Biology
This essay, co-authored by a historian of science and an X-ray crystallographer, sheds new light on Rosalind Franklin’s Photograph 51. We refute the infamous claim that, unlike James Watson, Franklin ...
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alexfeakes.bsky.social @alexfeakes.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
The Women’s Institute casts a long shadow.
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Adam Rutherford @adamrutherford.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
I’m back on Start the Week on BBC Radio 4 at 9: Carlo Rovelli on philosophy and physics, Lavinia Greenlaw on difficulty in poetry, and James Graham’s new play about John Maynard Keynes. Stick that heady mix in yer podcast pipe. How lucky we are to have the BBC.
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alexfeakes.bsky.social @alexfeakes.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
The Connolly et al paper is helpful on who is not attending school, but less about why - more of the case studies would be helpful I think (also, given we’re talking about GCSE choices, some data from older children would also help - the mean age in the survey is 11.5).
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alexfeakes.bsky.social @alexfeakes.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
I’m here for data to help inform this discussion about breadth. However, the Lukito et al paper is about a validating a survey instrument rather than the underlying research about neurodivergent YP and attendance, and even then the correlation factor for ‘boring lessons’ is tiny - 0.03. 1/2
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alexfeakes.bsky.social @alexfeakes.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
It would be interesting to compare the breadth of the English national GCSE curriculum to those of other countries. Eg, Mark Enser wrote an interesting piece recently about the dearth of Geography in other countries’ secondary-tier curricula. 2/2
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alexfeakes.bsky.social @alexfeakes.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
It’s the question of what is the purpose of school / the curriculum. The young person is not the only stakeholder - currently, society (expressed through social consensus and electoral outcomes) deem science (and English and Maths) to be slightly more important than the arts and humanities. 1/2
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alexfeakes.bsky.social @alexfeakes.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
Have your investigations into school refusal suggested what the most significant factors are for students? I would be surprised if choice of subjects on offer was a big issue (except for a very small number of young people), but I’m happy to be corrected if that is what you research has thrown up.
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alexfeakes.bsky.social @alexfeakes.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
Reverse / reduce the increase in employers NI? A pitch to the ‘small businesses are the backbone of the UK’ crowd? It’s pro-business, pro-localism, jobs for NEETS, family-friendly and could be seen as green, from the right angle.
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alexfeakes.bsky.social @alexfeakes.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
enserm.substack.com/p/are-americ...
enserm.substack.com
Are Americans Lost?
What Happens When Geography Goes Missing
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Reposted by @alexfeakes.bsky.social
Alom Shaha @alomshaha.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
Good luck to my fellow teachers returning to work today - hope the term ahead is a good one for you and your students.
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alexfeakes.bsky.social @alexfeakes.bsky.social · 30/08/2026
Perhaps a starting point? pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC...
pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
Misogyny incubators: how gaming helps channel everyday sexism into violent extremism
We face a pervasive and proliferating climate of online misogyny, along with an ever-expanding digital ecosystem that makes it faster and easier to express and share hateful content and harass individ...
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alexfeakes.bsky.social @alexfeakes.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
An interesting read, thank you. I fear there are some who will read your commentary without taking in the nuance and warnings about pitfalls. I hope it won’t be taken as permission to stop teaching of ‘hard’ content and use a renewed emphasis on inclusion as an excuse to lower challenge.
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alexfeakes.bsky.social @alexfeakes.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
I entirely understand.
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alexfeakes.bsky.social @alexfeakes.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
Though I can see why a tea & biscuits for £1 club is a bit of a distraction.
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alexfeakes.bsky.social @alexfeakes.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
Oh no! A light on the hill dims! Could I very respectfully ask why?
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alexfeakes.bsky.social @alexfeakes.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
All good advice What ‘process of writing’ have you worked into, now you’ve written a fair bit? What did you try, but didn’t work for you? I still seem to be in the dissertation mode of write 30,000 words to edit down to 5,000…
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Natalie Bennett @nataliegreenpeer.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
Powerful and important letter about artificial so-called intelligence from Sheila Hayman from Minderoo Centre for Technology and Democracy, University of Cambridge, in the FT today
Margaret McGirr’s letter (“AI can lend a hand, but it will struggle to replace one”, July 21) and Chine McDonald’s guest column (“This retro revival is more than a longing for the past”, Opinion, August 7) both touch (sic) on something that should be obvious, but is carefully ignored by almost everyone in the tech world. Namely that our intelligence is embodied, evolved and biological, and inseparable from our bodies.
The brain’s job is to control the body in the world; it is the last organ to develop.
Every square centimetre of our hands (and of the rest of our skin) contains about a 170 touch sensors or nerve endings, sensitive to different kinds of touch: a slap, a burn, a caress, a hug — each of which travels to different parts of the midbrain, prompting the appropriate response. Quickly to the autonomic nervous system for something dangerous; more slowly via a different channel for something carrying meaning.
In addition to the hand’s limitless versatility, it is self-repairing, regulates its own temperature, knows without being programmed how much pressure to exert on an egg, a tennis ball or a day-old chick, and can fuse neurologically to whatever it holds.
So when we put a glass down on the table or slide a knife through an apple, we feel the table, or the apple, not the glass or handle in our hand (try it!).
Finally, and most urgently, the entire human body — including the hands — does everything on 25 or so watts of completely renewable energy: a tiny fraction of what a humanoid robot, even one of the current primitive iteration of robots, needs.
The “retro revival” is thus not cultural nostalgia.
It’s millions of years of evolution crying out to be heard, before we suppress it totally in the service of an automated — and dead — planet.
Sheila Hayman
Member of the Advisory Board, Minderoo Centre for Technology and Democracy, University of Cambridge, London NW1, UK
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alexfeakes.bsky.social @alexfeakes.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
I suspect they don’t care whether it properly reflects how social housing allocation works. As you infer, all it needs to do is tap into the sense of grievance felt by their target section of the electorate. And that is where efforts needed to combat its effect need to be focused.
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Rebecca Solnit @rebeccasolnit.bsky.social · 23/08/2026
Geologists and evolutionary biologists do not have to debate creationists. Astronomers do not have to debate pre-Copernican theories of the heavens. Doctors do not have to debate anti-vax nuts. Climate scientists do not have to debate industry-funded deniers. All that goes for racists times ten.
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Rebecca Solnit @rebeccasolnit.bsky.social · 23/08/2026
Said this on another thread about the Out Yourself as Pro-Eugenics in One Easy Petition petition, re the 10% or so of women signing it (in my casual count of the first 100 signatories). bsky.app/profile/rebe...
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alexfeakes.bsky.social @alexfeakes.bsky.social · 22/08/2026
Doesn’t recognise my handle and it’s a bit buggy. Did it work easily for you?
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Neil Mackay @neilmackay.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
Every single journalist in Britain should read this searing essay by Will Self
willself1.substack.com
Jason Arday: J'Accuse the British Media
After the death of Jason Arday, Will Self asks what happens when the media machine mistakes what interests the public for the public interest.
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Professor Tom Crick @proftomcrick.com · 13/08/2026
A brief guide to eclipses, aliens and trying to keep quiet — with Iain Banks, Liu Cixin, the Fermi paradox, and a partial eclipse from Corsica. proftomcrick.com/2026/08/13/a...
proftomcrick.com
A brief guide to eclipses, aliens and trying to keep quiet
The Sun is about four hundred times wider than the Moon. It is also about four hundred times farther away. There is no reason for this. It is a coincidence, and it is the only reason a total solar …
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Reposted by @alexfeakes.bsky.social
Daisy Christodoulou @daisychristo.bsky.social · 15/08/2026
Insights from A-levels: Maths has 115k entries & Eng Lit just 36k. 20 yrs ago they both had about 50k A generation of kids will be far more familiar with quadratics & conditional probability than Mr Rochester & Ophelia. Bayes is destroying Defoe... substack.nomoremarking.com/p/the-fall-o...
substack.nomoremarking.com
The fall of Eng Lit
What is the cause, is it a problem - and if so, what can we do about it?
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Alex Quigley @alexjquigley.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
Unsurprisingly, small schools find implementing national policies a greater challenge than most. This study explores how small schools implemented the early career framework in the face of challenges of recruiting mentors, travel etc. See here: bera-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
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Reposted by @alexfeakes.bsky.social
Ellie Harris @eleanorrrlouise.bsky.social · 09/08/2026
I think while some might have overstated the relative role of schools v wider economy- the debate on here massively undersells the huge role schools play. Attainment, engagement, SEN, mental health- all factors for becoming NEET & something schools can help with. It all feels a bit reactionary.
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alexfeakes.bsky.social @alexfeakes.bsky.social · 08/08/2026
Ah yes Biesta! I’ll have to reacquaint myself for the detail, but definitely part of the convo.
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alexfeakes.bsky.social @alexfeakes.bsky.social · 08/08/2026
A single solution might be unachievable, but partial definitions must be acceptable (and widely agreed)… otherwise, what purpose drives how we structure education? ‘What is a good life’ does sound almost impossibly broad… but might not be a bad starting point for discussions.
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alexfeakes.bsky.social @alexfeakes.bsky.social · 08/08/2026
(Should add here that the above is a quick response to a complex question that needs much more considered thought than this; I will have forgotten something).
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alexfeakes.bsky.social @alexfeakes.bsky.social · 08/08/2026
… I would add to these that it should explicitly aim to “make people more intelligent”, including making them do hard thinking; it should have a social mission, eg education as liberation; and a social education- learning to get on with differences. One system to achieve all these is tricky! 2/2
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alexfeakes.bsky.social @alexfeakes.bsky.social · 08/08/2026
How long have you got? I would imagine they most people would agree that it is meant increase the knowledge and skills of young people (but would probably disagree on details), and probably that it should prepare people to participate in our society as adults (as workers and citizens)… 1/2
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alexfeakes.bsky.social @alexfeakes.bsky.social · 08/08/2026
Fair point 😀
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alexfeakes.bsky.social @alexfeakes.bsky.social · 08/08/2026
… but surely a useful starting point must be try get a broad based agreement of what our education system is actually /for/. 2/2
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alexfeakes.bsky.social @alexfeakes.bsky.social · 08/08/2026
From reading the article it would seem that the many voices and stakeholders concerned each has a different idea of the purpose of our education system. Not all can be satisfied with what comes out the various reviews, but surely a useful… 1/2
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🎃🎃 Hel-LOU-ween 🎃🎃 @louiseankers.bsky.social · 07/08/2026
Also, the only reality TV I like is Bake Off because they criticise something you do rather than something you are
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Dario Perkins @darioperkins.bsky.social · 30/07/2026
I'm slow to this, but here is a beautiful piece on the dynamics of the AI buildout and how they could flip into reverse. Wish I had written it tbh www.groundbrkr.com/p/the-second...
groundbrkr.com
The Second Derivative: Why No One Understands the AI Boom
The market misremembers 2008. That same blind spot sits at the center of the AI boom.
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Will Davies @will-davies.bsky.social · 17/07/2026
Jane Gingrich and I have written an essay for @ippr.org on a fundamental problem, that an age that demands more of the state also suffers from multiple state legitimation crises www.ippr.org/articles/the...
ippr.org
The legitimacy trap | IPPR
In many ways, the public want more government: to shape a fairer, more dynamic economy and protect ordinary people from the consequences of a turbulent wor
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Dan Neidle @danneidle.bsky.social · 14/07/2026
Stamp duty and council tax are terrible taxes. Land value tax could replace both - and Andy Burnham has backed it for 16 years. Who wins? Who loses? What happens to house prices? LVT could drive growth. But it isn’t easy. Our model shows its promise - and its problems.
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alexfeakes.bsky.social @alexfeakes.bsky.social · 30/06/2026
Citizens United was as recent as 2010?!? Its effect seems to have preceded it!
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Nadine Batchelor-Hunt @nadinebh.bsky.social · 23/06/2026
There’ll be a documentary on these hydration breaks in a few years with whistleblowers breaking the silence, what an absolute FARCE #ENGGHA
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Tim Bale @timbale.bsky.social · 13/06/2026
"Why adopting Reform-lite rhetoric or intensifying enforcement measures rarely resolves the political problem for centre-left parties: the goalposts constantly move because the politics is not designed to produce resolution. It is designed to sustain a permanent sense of crisis and cultural threat."
blogs.lse.ac.uk
Why public attitudes to immigration don’t respond to falling migration | LSE British Politics
Migration numbers are falling, but attitudes towards immigration are hardening. That's because immigration concerns are a symbol for other anxieties.
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POLITICO Europe @politico.eu · 12/06/2026
Over the past month, Britain’s Liberal Democrats quietly picked 28 candidates for the U.K.'s next general election. It marks the earliest in a cycle that the country’s third-largest party has ever picked contenders. We take you inside their strategy.
politico.eu
With British politics in chaos, the Liberal Democrats are getting election-ready
The centrist party — eyeing a role in government — is speeding up its candidate selection and overhauling its digital operation.
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Sam Freedman @samfr.bsky.social · 10/06/2026
This is no more about the details of immigration policy than the progroms my great great grandparents fled were about Jews committing crimes. It's straightforward racist violence and it needs the strongest possible response.
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Kate Polling @katepolling.bsky.social · 10/06/2026
Listening to Radio 4 this morning horrified by way they are normalising far right talking points in Belfast. Such a relief to hear @naomilong.bsky.social speaking to the truth that this is unjustifiable racist violence. I wish England had such smart, clear, courageous leaders at the moment.
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Helene von Bismarck @helenebismarck.bsky.social · 24/05/2026
Magnificent rant about marketing-induced bilge about “generations”. About time too. My LinkedIn timeline is full of pseudo-scientific platitudes on how people of different ages are ”radically different”. www.ft.com/content/ff49...
ft.com
Please stop talking about Gen Z in the office
Mindless generational labels don’t help at a time when the workplace is one of the few places where young and old mix
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Adam Rutherford @adamrutherford.bsky.social · 18/05/2026
I am genuinely surprised by this. Of course you don’t just check all references, you actually read them. And yes that includes ones written in languages other than your own.
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alexfeakes.bsky.social @alexfeakes.bsky.social · 16/05/2026
#eurovision #OST armour animal masks? Great beat and interesting staging, but… lyrics are a bit dull. Random guitarist? Hmm.
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alexfeakes.bsky.social @alexfeakes.bsky.social · 16/05/2026
#eurovision #ROM outtakes from Dune? I see they put the guitar bands on at the end… but not all of them are equal. Has some interesting staging and musical elements. Also, not sure about the main lyric…
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