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Bernard Schutz

@bschutz.bsky.social
868 followers 492 following 6 posts

Astrophysicist, author, grandfather. Have lived in USA, Wales, Germany, Italy. FRS, NAS. Views my own.

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Reposted by Bernard Schutz
Astronomer Royal for Scotland | Catherine Heymans @astroroyalscot.bsky.social · 18/03/2026
The future of UK Astronomy & Particle Physics is at risk from proposed 30% funding cuts that, if implemented, will be "genuinely catastrophic". Great to see this detailed BBC report on the issue by @pallabg.bsky.social 🔭🧪⚛️ #STFCcuts #SaveUKAstronomy 🗞️: www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
The future of Uk scientific research.  Several research projects face funding cuts.  Here are some projects under threat.

Words over a picture of the extremely large telescope (ELT) under construction in ChileScotland's Astronomer Royal, Catherine Heymans, speaking for the UK community of astronomers, told the science select committee that the proposed cuts were "genuinely catastrophic and will be devastating for the UK."
She, along with a particle physicist, told MPs most of the potential cuts would lead to British scientists having to greatly reduce their involvement or withdraw altogether from some of the world's most important international astronomy and particle physics experiments.
Those experiments seek to answer some of the biggest questions in science. These include learning how the Universe began and how it will end, finding the first ever signs of life on planets orbiting distant stars, detecting black holes that ripple space time, mapping newborn planets around distant stars and analysing their atmospheres for signs of life. All of these are experiments in which, historically, the UK played a leading role. But now, British scientists could be largely locked out of them in the future, if the STFC does not pay its way.
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Bernard Schutz @bschutz.bsky.social · 20/01/2026
The US already has a treaty with Denmark that guarantees them Greenland. Trump is breaking it already, which is impeachable. Why aren’t we talking about this? en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_...
en.wikipedia.org
Treaty of the Danish West Indies - Wikipedia
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Dr Jo Edge 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 @hagenilda.bsky.social · 26/06/2025
Spiteful, petty bean counters nation.cymru/news/cardiff...
nation.cymru
Cardiff University academic who objected to cuts robbed of title through 'spite'
Martin Shipton A distinguished archaeologist and academic who publicly opposed Cardiff University’s cuts programme has been “spitefully” denied a status often given to retired professors. James Whitle...
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Shreyas Sudhakar @shreyassudhakar.com · 09/02/2025
This one hits particularly hard. I'm a UIUC alum. There's an experimental field in the middle of the campus that grows corn and soybeans. The large undergraduate library next to it is built underground - legend has it that this is so that the building doesn't cast a shadow on the field. (1/2)
The Morrow Plots are named after the first dean of the college, Professor George Espy Morrow. Established in 1876, the plots are the oldest experimental crop field in America and the second oldest in the world - after the Rothamsted research station in England, established in 1843.
The plots were originally used to build the National Historic Landmark observatory and used  green space. Only three of the original ten plots remain, and they are also protected as a National Historic Landmark. 
Read more
 
Image
Center: The Morrow Plots and observatory, 1924, with open space to the east and west. Bottom left: Construction for the main library.
 
Research on the plots was instrumental in gaining knowledge on crop rotation, soil nutrient depletion, and the effects of synthetic and natural fertilizers. With more than 100 years of research, records of the Morrow Plots continue to provide valuable information for a variety of topics, including soil carbon sequestration and long-term effects of fertilizers on soil bacteria. Corn, wheat, soybeans and other crops are still grown on the plots to this day.
 
Image
The Morrow Plots in 2016 with one of the undergraduate library entrances visible on the left.
 
The plots have often been credited as the reason the university’s undergraduate library, just West of of the plots, was built underground - to avoid shading plants growing in the plots. However the library dedication proceedings cited the desire to keep an open air aesthetic as the primary reason. The University a cappella group, The Other Guys, even have a song they perform at nearly every concert about the Morrow Plots being the reason for the underground library.
 
(see https://aces.illinois.edu/research/history/morrow-plots)
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Bernard Schutz @bschutz.bsky.social · 30/01/2025
On his second day in office, Trump fired the head of the TSA, fired the entire Aviation Security Advisory Committee, and froze hiring new air traffic controllers. /1 democrats-transportation.house.gov/news/press-r...
democrats-transportation.house.gov
Ranking Members Larsen, Cohen Statements on Trump’s Dangerous Freeze of Air Traffic Control Hiring | The House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure
The House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure
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Chris Stringer @chrisbstringer.bsky.social · 23/01/2025
A world less safe and secure www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
science.org
A world less safe and secure
On 20 January, President Trump announced the withdrawal of the United States from the World Health Organization (WHO). President Trump shares many of the same concerns about WHO as previous administra...
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Timothy Burke @bubbaprog.xyz · 21/01/2025
Wild. Top is the NBC upload, bottom is the one aired as the live feed
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Alice Roberts @profaliceroberts.bsky.social · 14/01/2025
In early 2020, a pandemic was spreading. The UK’s PM went on a 10 day half-term holiday during which he was uncontactable and the government went into panic mode, focusing, as Hancock related to the COVID enquiry, on buying enough body bags. 1/8
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ProPublica @propublica.org · 12/01/2025
In 2020, we mapped out the danger zones that will close in on Americans over the next 30 years — combining climate data with wildfire projections by US Forest Service researchers. See what changes are in store for your county. By @shaw.al , @abrahm.bsky.social & Jeremy W. Goldsmith
propub.li
New Climate Maps Show a Transformed United States
According to new data analyzed by ProPublica and The New York Times Magazine, warming temperatures, rising seas and changing rainfall will profoundly reshape the way people have lived in North…
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Mia Farrow @miafarrow.bsky.social · 12/01/2025
Huge gratitude for our neighbors, Mexico and Canada have sent fire fighters and army to help us.
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Anne Applebaum @anneapplebaum.wsocial.eu · 11/01/2025
this is it
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Tom Scott @tom--scott.bsky.social · 07/01/2025
Zuck goes full Musk as Facebook dumps third-party fact-checkers & content moderation. Zuckerberg's gestures towards making Facebook less toxic were only ever cosmetic. Money & power are what it's about for the tech-bros, & democracy be damned. www.politico.eu/article/mark...
politico.eu
Zuck goes full Musk, dumps Facebook fact-checking program
Meta will replace it with so-called community notes like on the X platform. The content moderation changes won’t be rolled out in the EU for now.
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Mark Grabowski @markgrabowski.bsky.social · 26/12/2024
Resignation of the Journal of Human Evolution Editorial Board: We are saddened to announce the resignations of The Joint Editors-in-Chief, all Emeritus Editors retired or active in the field, and all but one Associate Editor. Press release below.
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Jon Cooper @joncooper-us.bsky.social · 28/12/2024
Sums up Elon’s position pretty well.
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Anne Applebaum @anneapplebaum.wsocial.eu · 26/12/2024
Thanks to the Republican Congress, and a tsunami of lies from Musk and others, the only US agency dedicated to tracking and exposing Russian and Chinese propaganda around the world ceases to exist www.france24.com/en/live-news...
france24.com
US agency focused on foreign disinformation shuts down
A leading US government agency that tracks foreign disinformation has terminated its operations, the State Department said Tuesday, after Congress failed to extend its funding following years of Repub...
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Chris Stringer @chrisbstringer.bsky.social · 23/12/2024
This Map Lets You Plug in Your Address to See How It’s Changed Over the Past 750 Million Years www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/m...
smithsonianmag.com
This Map Lets You Plug in Your Address to See How It's Changed Over the Past 750 Million Years
The interactive tool enables users to home in on a specific location and visualize how it has evolved between the Cryogenian period and the present
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Chris Stringer @chrisbstringer.bsky.social · 21/12/2024
Scientists protest new “challenge-led” grants replacing funding that supported long-term basic research www.science.org/content/arti...
science.org
Funding overhaul threatens historic U.K. research units
Scientists protest new “challenge-led” grants replacing funding that supported long-term basic research
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Chris Nelder @chrisnelder.bsky.social · 19/12/2024
I can hardly think of a better example of the moral decay in modern health care than a Goldman analyst noting that biotech cures for diseases like hepatitis are cool and all, until their success diminishes the business opportunity for pharmaceutical manufacturers. www.cnbc.com/2018/04/11/g...
cnbc.com
Goldman Sachs asks in biotech research report: 'Is curing patients a sustainable business model?'
Goldman Sachs warns sales from the most successful disease treatments are difficult to maintain.
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Kathleen Bachynski @bachynski.bsky.social · 20/12/2024
This is outrageous: “Staffers were also told that it applies to every aspect of the health department's work: Employees could not send out press releases, give interviews, hold vaccine events, give presentations or create social media posts encouraging the public to get the vaccines.”
npr.org
Louisiana forbids public health workers from promoting COVID, flu and mpox shots
An NPR investigation found Louisiana health officials told staff to stop promoting vaccines for COVID, flu and mpox, holding flu shot events or otherwise encouraging the public to get those vaccines.
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Chris Hayes @chrislhayes.bsky.social · 19/12/2024
The world's richest man managed to take $190 million away from a *child cancer research center* with his posts yesterday. Funding now stripped in the new bill.
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Prof Sheena Cruickshank @sheencr.bsky.social · 13/12/2024
Disinformation and Misinformation shared by Steven Bartlett in his so-called health podcast has multiple dubious claims, debunked ‘experts’ including Malhotra and people with stakes in wellness including the host who also makes £££ from the podcasts. 😡😡😡🧪
bbc.co.uk
Steven Bartlett sharing harmful health misinformation on Diary of CEO podcast
Disproven health claims are accepted with little challenge by host on number one podcast, BBC investigation finds.
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Prof Christina Pagel @chrischirp.bsky.social · 28/11/2024
Thread on need to fight for evidence-based policy - a response to Trump's cabinet picks. Based on new @bmj.com article by me, @martinmckee.bsky.social & @kentbuse.bsky.social TLDR: Now is the time to stand up for science, not appease those in power attacking it www.bmj.com/content/387/... 1/14
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Paul Krugman @pkrugman.bsky.social · 23/11/2024
The usual suspects are out there yelling "There are 23 million government workers! Fire most of them!" No awareness that most work for local governments, and most of *them* are schoolteachers. Federal employment hasn't grown since the 1950s
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The Editorial Board @editorialboard.bsky.social · 21/11/2024
A thread you have never seen before.
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Chris Stringer @chrisbstringer.bsky.social · 18/11/2024
Open-access journal elife will lose its ‘impact factor’ over controversial publishing model | Science www.science.org/content/arti...
science.org
Open-access journal elife will lose its ‘impact factor’ over controversial publishing model
Web of Science index decides to strip key metric because elife’s unusual peer review doesn’t meet its criteria
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Anne Applebaum @anneapplebaum.wsocial.eu · 17/11/2024
Thread - on Bluesky design
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Anne Applebaum @anneapplebaum.wsocial.eu · 17/11/2024
There is now some hard evidence that X boosted the Trump campaign and suppressed the Harris campaign. What's to stop Musk from doing the same in other countries? www.threads.net/@profsander....
threads.net
Sander van der Linden (@profsander.vanderlinden) on Threads
New computational analyses from the University of Queensland on algorithmic bias suggest that the X algorithm substantially boosted Republican accounts right after Elon Musk's endorsement of Donald Tr...
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Les Guthman @lesguthman.bsky.social · 16/11/2024
Always a joy to interview on 🎥 LIGO’s wonderful Rai Weiss (Physics Nobel 2017) now 92, in his office at MIT. Our 5th interview over 9 years. #LIGO
LIGO Physics Nobel Laureate Rai Weiss, 92, in his office at MIT
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Jan Rosenow @janrosenow.bsky.social · 15/11/2024
The primary energy fallacy is the idea that all primary energy from fossil fuels must be replaced with an equivalent amount of clean energy. BUT: This is not necessary because conversion losses do not need to be replaced. More than 2/3 of all primary energy is lost as waste heat.
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Kate Starbird @katestarbird.bsky.social · 14/11/2024
I was fairly sure this “obligations” statement from Moscow was a troll… until I saw Trump’s DNI pick. (Kidding / not kidding).
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Chris Stringer @chrisbstringer.bsky.social · 14/11/2024
GW4 universities (Bath, Bristol, Cardiff and Exeter) are amongst those to receive a share of UK Research and Innovation’s total investment of more than £500 million (announced today, 13 November 2024) to support doctoral students to develop their skills and experience gw4.ac.uk/news/major-i...
gw4.ac.uk
Major investment to support next generation of biology and environmental researchers - GW4
GW4 universities (Bath, Bristol, Cardiff and Exeter) are amongst those to receive a share of UK Research and Innovation’s total investment of more than £500 million (announced today, 13 November 2024)...
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Simon Evans @drsimevans.carbonbrief.org · 06/11/2024
Reminder: Victory for Trump is likely to all but end global hopes of staying below 1.5C, our analysis found in March www.carbonbrief.org/...
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