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Hugh Aldersey-Williams

@hoooaw.bsky.social
958 followers 741 following 232 posts

Books: Dutch Light: Christiaan Huygens and the Making of Science in Europe, Tide, The Adventures of Sir Thomas Browne in the 21st Century, Periodic Tales and other things. And some exhibitions.

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Hugh Aldersey-Williams @hoooaw.bsky.social · 2h
#otd in 1686, Constantijn Huygens writes to his brother Christiaan: ‘Monsieur Bentinck [the future Earl of Portland] told me he has a Chameleon which has not eaten for 10 or twelve months and does not produce ordure.’ Would Christiaan like to see it . . .? 🦎
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Hugh Aldersey-Williams @hoooaw.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Here’s a piece I wrote about circatidal adaptation some years ago for Nautilus. nautil.us/the-evolutio...
nautil.us
The Evolutionary Pull of Ocean Tides - Nautilus
How animals’ biological clocks turn with the tides.
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Hugh Aldersey-Williams @hoooaw.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Last for now . . .
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Hugh Aldersey-Williams @hoooaw.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
My bit for @societyofauthors.bsky.social on how best, as a writer, to go about picking the brains of experts.
1500-word article with advice for writers on how to pick the brains of experts. In short, be mindful of their busyness, and do your homework first!
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Caroline Lucas @carolinelucas.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
The way British democracy is being bought by crypto billionaires is simply obscene - and a direct result of Labour’s unforgivable inaction
theguardian.com
Burnham drops support for political funding cap aimed at curbing mega-donors
PM said he would set bar at £500k, but trade unions say funding reforms could undermine their ability to donate to Labour
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Hugh Aldersey-Williams @hoooaw.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
This sounds good. Three very different Dutch ‘free-thinkers’ of the 17th century – Johan de Witt, Christiaan Huygens and Spinoza – and the continuing relevance of their ideas today.
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Kate Devlin @drkatedevlin.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
A lot of news coverage on AI doom based off one tweet on a shitposting platform by a prodigal techbro. Do I fear superintelligence wiping us out? No, I fear incompetence and probably climate disaster, both of which could be somewhat mitigated by making tech companies more responsible & accountable.
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Hugh Aldersey-Williams @hoooaw.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
Rereading Nabokov’s Bend Sinister. It’s about pushing back against excessively autocratic regimes, the pressures on academia to bend, and the mechanical imitation of human creativity. 1947!
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Hugh Aldersey-Williams @hoooaw.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
I like everything about this!
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Audra Wolfe @audrajwolfe.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
Look, if authors seem a little punchy it's because everything about this process has been confusing, exploitative, and seemingly designed to demoralize anyone who values the written word. Just a total shitshow, from start to finish.
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Carla Denyer @carladenyer.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
We need a government that will be upfront with the public, not parrot fossil fuel talking points. A Prime Minister who will protect our national security and long-term prosperity. He must say NO to more drilling in the North Sea.
politicshome.com
North Sea oil and gas is a test of leadership for Labour and they’re already failing
This summer we reached an inflection point. From now on, people living in the UK will only become more familiar with the real-world consequences of...
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Sarah Hopewell @sarahhopewell.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
When I turned on Radio 4 today, the first story I heard was about rescue efforts in Nepal following the devastating glacial collapse. Next was a story that Jackdaw gas field is likely to be approved. Then a story that UK residents will be told to stock up in preparation for future climate disasters.
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Zack Polanski @zackpolanski.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
This summer Britain burnt. 3000 people died from the heat. Yet this Government is drilling for more gas, despite scientist warnings & it won't make a difference to bills in the UK. We need to double down on renewables, not bend to the wishes of fossil fuel bosses. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
bbc.co.uk
Jackdaw gas field set to be approved as soon as mid-September, sources say
The government is set to give the go-ahead for the gas field off the coast of Aberdeen, the BBC understands.
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Hugh Aldersey-Williams @hoooaw.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
But fine to give the go ahead to the Jackdaw gas field apparently
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Alan Richardson @alanrichardson.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
Second time as farce is going well
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Hugh Aldersey-Williams @hoooaw.bsky.social · 30/08/2026
Fascinating new evidence that David’s famous portrait of the Lavoisiers was made over to erase his career as a hated collector of taxes and to emphasize in its place his scientific posterity. (Also, Mme L. was once wearing a hat like the Cat in the Hat.)
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Hugh Aldersey-Williams @hoooaw.bsky.social · 27/07/2026
This is so fucked. If an author feels they must use AI, then the onus is on them to check that the facts *the author appears to be writing* are actually true. Publishers need to get a grip and see the wood for the trees.
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Hugh Aldersey-Williams @hoooaw.bsky.social · 19/07/2026
Great piece here by Rebecca Solnit on the erasure and resistance of Indigenous peoples: ‘cultural survival is . . . achieved by steady practice of that culture’. Diary www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4.... Especially appreciated as I have just finished reading Willa Cather’s Death Comes for the Archbishop
lrb.co.uk
Rebecca Solnit · Diary: Before 1776
In 1848, the US seized the northern half of Mexico, from California to New Mexico, and imposed American law and the...
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Hugh Aldersey-Williams @hoooaw.bsky.social · 18/07/2026
Best banana-based art I’ve seen. Forget Warhol and Maurizio Cattelan.
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Caroline Goldsmith @goldcaro.bsky.social · 16/07/2026
Great news everyone. Our Reform-led county council has solved the problem.
Clip from local news confirming that Reform’s policy to ‘undeclare’ a climate emergency has passed in Suffolk, a county in the east of England
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Dr Francis Young @drfrancisyoung.bsky.social · 16/07/2026
It’s wild that publishers are asking authors to opt in to AI licensing, not because they’ve reached an agreement with AI companies but *in the hope* that a regulatory framework *might* one day exist that remunerates authors for the use of their work by LLMs
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jobs.thebookseller.com @jobs.thebookseller.com · 26/06/2026
New Job: Bookbanks North East Regional Lead - Bookbanks More here ⬇️ jobs.thebookseller.com/career/29094... #PublishingJobs #JobsInBooks
jobs.thebookseller.com
Bookbanks North East Regional Lead - Bookbanks -
Bookbanks North East Regional Lead - Bookbanks - Charity - Operations, Communications, Other Publishing -
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Hugh Aldersey-Williams @hoooaw.bsky.social · 09/07/2026
Important thread on the UK government’s continuing abnegation of its environmental responsibilities.
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Hugh Aldersey-Williams @hoooaw.bsky.social · 28/06/2026
This is surely a thing. I once worked on a publication in America that was to be called Technology Update for Executives Only. Really. Not just a working title. Never made it to launch.
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Hugh Aldersey-Williams @hoooaw.bsky.social · 17/06/2026
You arty types may think you know what a private view is. But here in Norfolk, it seems it’s something a bit different.
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Hugh Aldersey-Williams @hoooaw.bsky.social · 05/06/2026
Ah yes, Escher, whom my last agent hadn’t heard of, and completely blanked me when I suggested a biography. (There is none in English – only one in Dutch.)
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Hugh Aldersey-Williams @hoooaw.bsky.social · 05/06/2026
So happy birthday ‘In our country you're free And so you're born And so they say you're free So happy birthday And even if you're born to lose Even if you're a complete wreck when you were born You might still grow up to be president Because you're free’ (that lyric’s sure gained an extra frisson)
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Patrick Barkham @patrickbarkham.bsky.social · 04/06/2026
The gov's absurd rhetoric about nature "blocking" development continues when of course wild species are (sometimes illegally) destroyed every day by building work. This latest case is tragic. www.theguardian.com/environment/...
theguardian.com
Noted swift nesting site destroyed by contractors in peak season
Campaigners say builders’ demolition of nest site highlights weak protection of wildlife from development
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Helen Rosner @hels.bsky.social · 03/06/2026
“Content” also insidiously shifts significance and validity to the platform, not the substance — content is contained, what defines content is the existence and form of the container
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MꙬse Allain @mooseallain.bsky.social · 03/06/2026
Cartoon. A living room with a coffee table, two armchairs, a standard lamp. One armchair is saying to the other "FUCK OFF" to which the other is replying "NO YOU FUCK OFF". Caption: The Internet of Things
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The Public Domain Review @publicdomainrev.bsky.social · 01/06/2026
Anna Maria van Schurman’s The Learned Maid (1659), a treatise on women’s right to education, written by an exceptional polyglot: publicdomainreview.org/collection/t…
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Hugh Aldersey-Williams @hoooaw.bsky.social · 26/05/2026
This is lovely. So many things floating around in the sky named after Dutch astronomers! The Oort cloud, the Kuiper belt, Hanny’s voorwerp, de Sitter’s universe, the van Allen (US, but NL descent) belt, as I mention in Dutch Light.
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Hugh Aldersey-Williams @hoooaw.bsky.social · 25/05/2026
Everything in the world may be borne, but for a succession of fine days. – Goethe, West-Eastern Divan
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Noreen Masud @noreenmasud.bsky.social · 19/05/2026
I WISH I WAS DEAD
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Hugh Aldersey-Williams @hoooaw.bsky.social · 18/05/2026
love that contraption! Here’s my bit on it from Dutch Light:
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Hugh Aldersey-Williams @hoooaw.bsky.social · 16/05/2026
This Guardian 100 books list is a compilation of opnions, and therefore an average. Reminds me of Francis Galton’s attempt to identify the ‘criminal type’ by layering photographs of assorted Victorian felons. He ended up with the blandest looking composite.
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Caroline Lucas @carolinelucas.bsky.social · 15/05/2026
I hope this isn’t true. There are times when it’s more important to put country before party. This is one of them. Burnham’s longstanding commitment to a fairer voting system could transform our democracy & counter the dire threat of a Reform UK government elected on a minority of the vote
theguardian.com
Greens suggest they will properly contest byelection in blow to Burnham
Statement follows speculation party would not field candidate in Makerfield or barely fight seat
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Hugh Aldersey-Williams @hoooaw.bsky.social · 13/05/2026
May 1690, Christiaan Huygens to his brother Constantijn, who is serving in England as secretary to William III: ‘One has to admit that the English are difficult to govern, for one hears talk at every turn of such discontents and mutinies . . .’
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Hugh Aldersey-Williams @hoooaw.bsky.social · 09/05/2026
Fascinating figure, he studied alchemy in his attempt to uncover the secret of Chinese porcelain, and died in the Bastille for his Huguenot faith at the age of 79
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Philip Ball @philipcball.bsky.social · 07/05/2026
Was there ever a book about the race for total synthesis of taxol between the Nicolaou and Horton groups? Perhaps there should be - though it might just consist of the PIs shouting at the postdocs to Go Faster! I did write about the Woodward/Eschenmoser B12 total synthesis long ago.
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Chris @seismicshed.bsky.social · 04/05/2026
Greens should respond by saying they'll build Colleges of Further Education in Reform council areas.
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Philip Ball @philipcball.bsky.social · 27/04/2026
I gather Kit was on Start the Week today discussing his new book on alchemy, which seems a good reason to give it a shout out. It's hugely enjoyable as well as deeply researched. profilebooks.com/work/the-age...
profilebooks.com
The Age of Alchemy - Profile Books
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Tim Waterman @tim-waterman.co.uk · 21/04/2026
Tried to book trains to Torino from London. No problem booking, but impossible to pay nearly £1000 for two people round trip. We are flying and we really don't want to. The subsidies should be paid to rail not air travel.
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Hugh Aldersey-Williams @hoooaw.bsky.social · 13/04/2026
Which is more ominous: flood, or the ebb? Falstaff dies “just between twelve and one, ev’n at the turning o’ th’ tide.” But at the end of Moby-Dick, Captain Ahab tells Starbuck: “Some men die at ebb tide; some at low water; some at the full of the flood.” lithub.com/on-the-irres...
lithub.com
On the Irresistible Pull of Tidal Metaphors
When did the tide come to be imagined as a moral force as well as a physical one? Why should a blameless cycle of nature be chosen as a metaphor of punishment and mortality? The sun and moon do not…
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Matthias Eberl @eberlmat.bsky.social · 08/04/2026
2026. A brutal war between an authoritarian regime of religious fanatics violating human rights and international law and threatening nuclear annihilation. And Iran.
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Hugh Aldersey-Williams @hoooaw.bsky.social · 08/04/2026
Ha! Found this Periodic Tales playlist I made ages ago: open.spotify.com/playlist/2Lk...
open.spotify.com
Periodic Tales
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Edwin Heathcote @edwinheathcote.bsky.social · 06/04/2026
Remarkable that the agricultural inheritance tax changes which will affect less than 200 estates a year gets a long news report but insane changes to self-employed tax reporting which will burden millions with massive extra bureaucracy is completely ignored.
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Hugh Aldersey-Williams @hoooaw.bsky.social · 31/03/2026
new Brexit metaphor
an ancient cart filled with manure has lost a wheel and a traffic cone has been placed as a warning
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