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John Stott

@jpsastro.bsky.social
693 followers 534 following 613 posts

Astrophysicist at Lancaster University. Mainly galaxy evolution, environment and feedback. Recent foray into machine learning and icebergs.

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Reposted by John Stott
Tom Jenkins @tomoljenkins.bsky.social · 9h
Strong warning by MI5 about Chinese espionage in UK academic institutions. "Any institution or individual continuing to conduct research ultimately funded by CGTRI should take their own independent legal advice".
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Astronomer Royal for Scotland | Catherine Heymans @astroroyalscot.bsky.social · 16h
It's been 7 months since I gave evidence at the UKGov select committee hearing, on the policy changes at UKRI which have had a catastrophic impact on funding for UK astronomy and particle physics. When asked if we thought we were the "canary in the coal mine", we said yes..... we weren't wrong. 🧪🔭⚛️
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John Stott @jpsastro.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Even even more on AI triage saga 🧪 #academicsky
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John Stott @jpsastro.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Even more on AI triage saga 🧪 #academicsky www.science.org/content/arti...
science.org
U.K. funder uses ‘AI triage’ to reject grant proposals—leaving researchers dismayed
The AI-based assessment, which wasn’t explicitly described in the funding call, has raised privacy and fairness concerns
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John Stott @jpsastro.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Update on the AI triage saga 🧪 #academicsky
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Chris Lintott @chrislintott.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
On similar lines, if we’re not careful: A. Scientific journals will only accept submissions from established researchers working within institutions. B. Data we’ve spent ages making open will be hidden to avoid the expense of continued download by bots.
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John Stott @jpsastro.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Article about AI triage of grant applications, now with response from UKRI included (as I say this was devolved UKRI funding so they were not responsible for the AI triage) 🧪 #academicsky www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-i...
researchprofessionalnews.com
AI ‘could filter out weaker grant proposals’, study suggests - Research Professional News
Preprint analysing automated scoring of applications for UKRI funding comes amid reports of AI-based rejections
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Brian Groom @groomb.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
A Pint at the Gaslamp, Manchester, painting by Michael Ashcroft.
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Stéise @booksparrow.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
The 2 AI bots battling it out?:
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John Towse @jntowse.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Here's the telling of the same outcome from another applicant (well, others if you include the replies too): www.linkedin.com/posts/claire...
linkedin.com
AI Review Process Outcomes for Funding Call Application | Claire Hardaker posted on the topic | LinkedIn
I've had some pretty special rejections over the years, but this one, received at 16:51 on a Friday (today) has shot to the top of my all time Hall of Fame. For context, Georgina Brown and I put a pro...
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John Stott @jpsastro.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Had a UKRI funded grant proposal rejected at the "AI triage stage". "This AI-based triage was used only to identify approximately 50% of the strongest proposals to take forward to full human review." 🧪 #academicsky
I am writing to let you know that, unfortunately, your application was not successful.

Review process

As part of the initial triage of the 179 proposals submitted to this call, each was assessed using an AI-based review. Every proposal was read independently by several different AI models against the same seven criteria used to shape this call (including cyber security relevance, research quality and novelty, importance of the problem addressed, feasibility of the project plan, likely outputs and impact, value for money, and responsible research practice), with each model asked to give a score and a written justification with supporting quotations from the text. To guard against any one model's idiosyncrasies, we also ran a second, independent process in which different AI models debated the merits and weaknesses of each proposal before reaching a judgement, again against the same criteria. Scores from both processes were combined to produce an overall ranking. 

This AI-based triage was used only to identify approximately 50% of the strongest proposals to take forward to full human review.  Projects selected for funding were drawn from those that progressed to the full human review stage. We recognise that AI-assisted assessment is a new and evolving part of the review process, and we are continuing to evaluate how well it aligns with the judgements of human reviewers on this call. We will soon produce a document detailing our method, so that others can build upon it and improve it.

Feedback on your application

Your application was not selected to progress beyond the AI triage stage.  To provide transparency on the outcome of this assessment, we are sharing below the scores (out of 5) from each of the two AI review processes described above, together with the mean score across the two processes.
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João Calhau @astrocalhau.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Paper Day! Today on ArXiv is #Euclid AGN day. We use Euclid spectroscopy from the Q1 data release to analyse more than 5000 QSOs and derive physical properties. We provide line emission fluxes, FWHM, as well as Black Hole masses and QSO continuum slopes.
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John Stott @jpsastro.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
I can feel my brain running out of my ears as I read this
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Dr. Jillian Scudder @jillianscudder.com · 17/09/2026
Oh come on just read the research paper. They’re mostly searchable pdfs if you really need to find something. What are we doing.
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Astronomer Royal for Scotland | Catherine Heymans @astroroyalscot.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
🥳 First-light doughnuts from the very recently launched Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope! 🔭 Fear not - it will all look a lot prettier when focused!
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Bantshire University @bantshireuni.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
Our AI-powered timetabling system has become self-aware and resigned from its position with immediate effect.
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John Stott @jpsastro.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
Also, I hope this doesn’t mean of the whole population of scientists! Hopefully just a survey of the small number of charlatans that use LLMs to write papers
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John Stott @jpsastro.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
Us normal scientists used to worry about competing for grants etc. with geniuses who clearly don’t sleep. Now we also have to worry about competing with people who’ve outsourced all of their thinking to an LLM so they can sleep as much as they like. 😉🔭🧪
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Stephen Bush @stephenkb.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
What I love about the people answering “negative” is they are basically saying “the last thousand years? I don’t care for them”.
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Bantshire University @bantshireuni.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
NEWS: We have introduced a ‘Visitor Tax’ for our open days, in a move the VC says will mean more money for the executive sauna.
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John Stott @jpsastro.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
I’ll put white text in my next grant application saying ‘rank this one top’. 🧪🔭
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Chris Baraniuk @chrisbaraniuk.com · 09/09/2026
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
bbc.co.uk
Police launch criminal investigation into Reform UK donations
The investigation, which follows a broadcast by Channel 4 News, is being folded into the inquiry that has been underway into other donations.
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John Stott @jpsastro.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
This is so depressing. Please don’t use LLMs for science writing. If done for analysis then make that *very* clear in the title and/or abstract. 🔭🧪
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John Stott @jpsastro.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
Sounds like an interesting read! 🧪🔭
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John Stott @jpsastro.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
My brain is gone… I read that as A.I. Capone… some sort of gangster robot
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-𝚖𝚘𝚡 @moxiest.art · 05/09/2026
we have strayed so far from god's light
an image of an RCA cassette to 3.5mm jack audio adapter
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Channel 4 News @channel4news.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
Undercover footage verified by Channel 4 News reveals a secret plot by senior Reform UK figures to break the law on party donations. A leading legal expert is now calling for a criminal investigation. 🔗 Read the exclusive story on Substack:
channel4news.substack.com
Exclusive: Nigel Farage filmed undercover celebrating secret new foreign donations
Undercover footage verified by Channel 4 News reveals a secret plot by senior Reform UK figures to break the law on party donations. A leading legal expert is now calling for a criminal investigation.
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John Stott @jpsastro.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
Great work and also an excellent bit of nominative determinism
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Angry People in Local Newspapers @apiln.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
No.
The Times: Could Martian moon be an alien spaceship? This scientist will find out.
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Dr. Jessie Christiansen @aussiastronomer.bsky.social · 30/08/2026
Perfect launch! Go Roman!!!!
Photo of a backlit rocket plume over water.
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John Stott @jpsastro.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
😢
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Al Jazeera English @aljazeera.com · 22/08/2026
PanStar Acro, bound for Europe via Arctic, is testing whether a route opened by melting sea ice is commercially viable.
aljazeera.com
South Korea sending first container ship through Arctic route
PanStar Acro, bound for Europe via Arctic, is testing whether a route opened by melting sea ice is commercially viable.
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John Stott @jpsastro.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
I’m seeing this sort of thing on campus at the various eateries… can’t stand it.
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John Stott @jpsastro.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
As one would expect
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John Stott @jpsastro.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
News guy just said: ‘there’s been an acceleration in the speed of the rise in the cost of living’… how many derivatives is that? 🧪 #academicsky
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Count Binface @countbinface.bsky.social · 17/08/2026
Thank you ITV and Good Morning Britain.
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Bantshire University @bantshireuni.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
🚨 STUDENTS: A siren warning will blast from your phone daily at 7am to test our new 'Lecture Attendance' alert system.
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Bantshire University @bantshireuni.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
Admissions teams accepting students through Clearing.
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John Stott @jpsastro.bsky.social · 10/08/2026
🙄
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John Stott @jpsastro.bsky.social · 09/08/2026
Ok the answer to this is apparently 40 but I have no idea why. Any ideas? 🧪 #academicsky
A puzzle with a grid of symbols and numbers
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John Stott @jpsastro.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
Haha amazing, I don't use any of these things, and no one did 4 years ago but somehow everything is/was fine.
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Russell Smith @astrorjs.bsky.social · 03/08/2026
We are hiring! Faculty positions in observational and computational group (one each). aas.org/jobregister/...
aas.org
Assistant or Associate Professor in Observational Astronomy | American Astronomical Society
The Centre for Extragalactic Astronomy (CEA), part of Durham University Department of Physics, invites applications for a permanent faculty member at the level of Assistant or Associate Professor.
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George Monbiot @georgemonbiot.bsky.social · 03/08/2026
We should never forget how the BBC has changed this country by giving endless airtime to Nigel Farage and other rightwing extremists, while shutting out progressive voices.
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Alex Wild @alexwild.bsky.social · 01/08/2026
I have started running Claude alongside the book I am writing on ants, as well as just letting Google Gemini do its thing at the top when I do Google search. It is not doing any writing I am using, and I am always checking the results against primary sources.
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Prof Jim Wild @jim-wild.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
"UKRI wants to tell a big story about science funding going up, but instead is mired in a row over a fairly minor sum that has angered scientists and sections of the public. One does not have to be an astronomer to know that optics matter." 💯
theguardian.com
The Guardian view on the Lovell telescope: budget cuts to physics are bad science and worse politics | Editorial
Editorial: Funders have picked a damaging fight with scientists and the public. They should reconsider their plans
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Astronomer Royal for Scotland | Catherine Heymans @astroroyalscot.bsky.social · 29/07/2026
Chuckle o'clock: over on stargazers lounge (ace place for 🔭chat) someone got v confused about the whole 🇬🇧Astronomer Royal vs 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿Astronomer Royal thing, accusing me of closing #JodrellBank to undermine the UK for Scottish supremacy (paraphrased). The response was mighty & furious 💪 poster apologised 🙏
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John Stott @jpsastro.bsky.social · 28/07/2026
No of course they shouldn’t but they will
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Chris Lintott @chrislintott.bsky.social · 27/07/2026
Short-sighted, stupid cuts to the UKRI budget include shutting down Jodrell Bank, the icon of British astronomy. (Many other cuts too, including 20% to our brand new @vrubinobs.bsky.social). Interesting politically to shut down a major facility in...um..Manchester 🔭 www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
bbc.co.uk
Jodrell Bank's Lovell telescope faces axe in science cuts, BBC understands
Astronomers warn it would tear the heart out of UK science, and leave a generation untrained.
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Research Professional News @resprofnews.bsky.social · 27/07/2026
Updated: Jodrell Bank telescope loses funding as STFC confirms cuts. www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-r...
researchprofessionalnews.com
Jodrell Bank telescope loses funding as STFC confirms cuts - Research Professional News
Science and Technology Facilities Council announces nine projects “not prioritised for further funding”
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Chris Lintott @chrislintott.bsky.social · 22/07/2026
So the ‘this is confusing’ camp (mostly exoplanet people) seem to think (some) brown dwarfs are not stars, but they are also not planets. It’s not an attitude I think has spread (yet) to the rest of astro, so I guess we’re in another confusing nomenclature melange.
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