iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Richard Alexander @richardalexander.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

This is awful, and quite possibly against the funder’s own guidance on assessment, but also why did they think itvwas needed first place? I’ve been on plenty of grant panels that had to review more than 179 applications.

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Richard Alexander @richardalexander.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

Many of my colleagues are at #EPSC2026 in Den Haag this week. Just a reminder to everyone that there's an MC Escher museum in the centre of the city (Escher in het Paleis), which is *awesome*. Plus everyone should go to Madurodam at least once in their lives. 😀

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Simin Tong @simintong.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

Our new disk survey of the Serpens star-forming region is out! 🎉 We studied >300 disks to investigate how their evolution is affected by the local stellar environment. With @nienkemarel.bsky.social , Jonathan Williams and Alexa Anderson. arxiv.org/abs/2609.03759 🧵(1/n)

arxiv.org

Disk survey in the Serpens star-forming region: Environmental effects in nearby star-forming regions

The external environment where protoplanetary disks are embedded regulates disk evolution. External irradiation, which heats and evaporates gas, as well as frequent stellar encounters, which truncate ...

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Richard Alexander @richardalexander.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

Briefly interrupted our holiday to go watch the sunset #eclipse over the Adriatic. 😎

Sunset partial solar eclipse over the Adriatic sea.

A fisherman in silhouette against the partially eclipsed sun.

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Suzanne Aigrain @airbornegrain.bsky.social · 29/07/2026

It's a story that's repeated right across the spectrum of STFC cuts. The UK has a lot to lose by making these - comparatively trivial - cuts, and very little to gain. It's hugely damaging to the UK's international standing, and to its future economy.

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Richard Alexander @richardalexander.bsky.social · 27/07/2026

It's going to be very hard for UKRI to stick to their mantra that there aren't any cuts at STFC, when the impact of "no cuts" includes closing the most iconic telescope in the country.

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Richard Alexander @richardalexander.bsky.social · 24/06/2026

Right then. 28 years later, here we are again. Bring on the Yellow Cowdenbeath! 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 🇧🇷 #worldcup2026 #scobra

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Malcolm Fairbairn @malcfairbairn.bsky.social · 19/06/2026

This is * insane *. STFC council minutes from December have been removed from their website, changed, and reposted. The new version rolls back on funding commitments made explicit in the initial version. I can't think of another adjective other than Trumpian behaviour.

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Richard Alexander @richardalexander.bsky.social · 15/06/2026

Enjoyed the celebration of Egypt's opening goal. You would have to say that he walked like, well...🎶 #WorldCup

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Royal Astronomical Society @royalastrosoc.bsky.social · 15/06/2026

Stars of physics are in Westminster right now to call on the Government to halt funding cuts to astronomy and particle physics research. Professor Brian Cox called them "inexplicable", urging the Government to instead "trust, inspire and continue to invest in the next generation of scientists".

Stars of physics outside the Houses of Parliament.

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Richard Alexander @richardalexander.bsky.social · 09/06/2026

Yep. Even 26 years on, if I hear the opening bars of Rock DJ by Robbie Williams, I’m instinctively going to ask if I can help you.

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Richard Alexander @richardalexander.bsky.social · 28/05/2026

Apparently a CIA official has done Johnny Cash's "One Piece at a Time" scam for real, but with gold bars instead of car parts. 😂

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Prof Jim Wild @jim-wild.bsky.social · 12/05/2026

IOP President Paul Howarth and I have today written to Science Minister Lord Vallance calling for a full impact assessment of proposed STFC cuts to particle physics, astronomy and nuclear (PPAN) research.

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Richard Alexander @richardalexander.bsky.social · 11/05/2026

"If you received an email from us (about xxxx), it was sent in error, so please disregard it." I did not receive any such email, but I'm now super-curious to know what it said...😂

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John Womersley @johnwomersley.bsky.social · 06/05/2026

I just sent this letter to the Science Minister and the CEO of UKRI concerning STFC's budgets

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Ken Rice @kenrice.bsky.social · 24/03/2026

If you really feel that "it is not right that other Councils (and disciplinary areas), EPSRC most notably, are called upon to make cuts towards the end of the financial year to meet overruns from STFC." then ponder the impact on EPSRC if STFC balanced its books by cutting funding to DIAMOND or ISIS.

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Richard Alexander @richardalexander.bsky.social · 18/03/2026

Just discovered that the BBC are re-running This Life in full, starting this evening. 😀 It's definitely a product of its time, but I still think it's one of the best TV programmes ever made.

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Prof Stephen Serjeant @stephenserjeant.bsky.social · 18/03/2026

Wow. @pallabg.bsky.social has a obtained leaked document from STFC Council suggesting the origin of the STFC funding crisis was a deliberate decision (by?) 🧪🔭 www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Minutes of STFC's governing council, which are not publicly available, talk of the Council's head of strategy describing "a major shift of funding from curiosity-driven research to priority areas and targeted programmes".

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Eugene Lim @tukohbin.bsky.social · 18/03/2026

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

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Remco de Kok @planetremco.bsky.social · 15/03/2026

Possibly catchy but unnecessary: The new way of writing paper and proposal titles in astronomy. 🔭

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Richard Alexander @richardalexander.bsky.social · 05/03/2026

Proud dad moment: the boy worked a Hamilton lyric into a homework essay. 👏🏻

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Astronomer Royal for Scotland | Catherine Heymans @astroroyalscot.bsky.social · 02/03/2026

Here is a copy of the open letter from the heads of physics departments across the UK- worth reading as it makes a lot of excellent points www.iop.org/about/news/o...

iop.org

Open letter to the Science Minister from Heads of Physics

Heads of Physics departments have expressed concern about UKRI funding changes.

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Richard Alexander @richardalexander.bsky.social · 01/03/2026

Don’t want to say the endless rain is getting to us, but the cycling club group chat has switched from which bikes are affordable or unaffordable, to which roads are fordable or unfordable. ☔️

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Richard Alexander @richardalexander.bsky.social · 26/02/2026

Just encountered Captcha-style anti-robot measures on the NASA ADS search page. I guess it's a sign of the system creaking, presumably under the weight of endless scraping by LLMs. 😢 🔭

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Richard Alexander @richardalexander.bsky.social · 24/02/2026

After spending more than half my life as an ex-pat, I sometimes wonder if I'm really still Scottish. But then I write "skoosher juice" on the shopping list, and I wonder less. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

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Richard Alexander @richardalexander.bsky.social · 16/02/2026

This is yet another example where astronomers don't realise how good we have it. I do actually have a GS account, but the profile is private, and I haven't looked at it for many years. Everything we do is via NASA ADS, which is - and has always been - vastly superior to anything Google offered. 🔭

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Clare Burrage @clareburrage.bsky.social · 16/02/2026

The PPAN budget gets a 30% cut, and Harwell gets an expansion plan.

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Richard Alexander @richardalexander.bsky.social · 11/02/2026

NASA ADS is still down? That's several days of patchy or no service now - starting to become a worry. 😬

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Lucien Heurtier @lucienheurtier.bsky.social · 04/02/2026

Open letter from Early Career Researchers to the UKRI investment plan. We can't let young people pay the price of "outcome-driven strategies". #stfc #ukri ecr-openletter-stfc.github.io If you are a postdoc or PhD, read and sign! 🧬🔭🔬⚗️🧪📡🛰️

ecr-openletter-stfc.github.io

Early Career Researchers Response to UKRI Investment Approach

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Lucy Pearson @lrpearson.bsky.social · 04/02/2026

When people talk about the idea that some universities must go under, there’s a certain tendency to behave as if these smaller local campuses are negligible- regrettable casualties perhaps but not ‘real’ universities. This report does a great job of illustrating why that’s wrong.

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John Womersley @johnwomersley.bsky.social · 03/02/2026

There were some very specific measures put in place after 2008, to separate STFC’s budget into three partitions and protect any of them from being raided to address problems in another. At some point this measure was abandoned, in pursuit of greater flexibility. Predictably things went wrong.

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Paul McMillan @mcmillan-astro.bsky.social · 02/02/2026

A rather grim read from the head of UKRI. Basically, the facilities run by STFC that support research across the UKRI's remit have become too expensive. Rather than cut those costs or spread the pain across research areas, the astro and particle physics unlucky enough to be in STFC gets slashed

ukri.org

Open letter from Ian Chapman to research and innovation community

UKRI Chief Executive outlines changes to UKRI investment approach, addressing concerns about research funding and the financial position of STFC.

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Richard Alexander @richardalexander.bsky.social · 29/01/2026

A few thoughts... I moved back to the UK in 2009/10, during the first STFC funding crisis. That was the result of a botched reorganisation of the research councils, which created a huge budget shortfall. The resulting chaos saw projects cancelled, facilities closed, and grants slashed. (1/3) 🔭 🧪

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Institute of Physics @iop.org · 29/01/2026

New Science Technology & Facilities Council (STFC) letters confirm major funding reductions to areas including particle, nuclear and astrophysics, with a similar process expected for national facilities and labs. While investment in quantum, AI and green tech is welcome, the IOP warns cutting (1/3)

Image of a researcher looking through a microscope with text overlay that reads 'Our response to vital science cuts announced by Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC).

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Richard Alexander @richardalexander.bsky.social · 29/01/2026

Many thoughts about this, but the doublespeak of the phrase "building on last year’s 15% reduction" is mind-boggling. 🔭🧪

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Royal Astronomical Society @royalastrosoc.bsky.social · 28/01/2026

The Royal Astronomical Society is gravely concerned at the drastic cuts to support for UK astronomy outlined by the Science and Technology Facilities Council. Read our statement 👉 ras.ac.uk/news-and-pre...

ras.ac.uk

Proposed budget cuts a catastrophe for UK astronomy

The Royal Astronomical Society (RAS) is gravely concerned at the drastic cuts to support for UK astronomy outlined by the Science and Technology Facilities Council (...

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RAS Journals @rasjournals.bsky.social · 12/01/2026

Published in #MNRAS: "Turbulence and dust fragility in protoplanetary discs", Tong et al. This is Fig. 3: for the caption & to read the paper please visit academic.oup.com/mnras/articl... @royalastrosoc.bsky.social @academic.oup.com

Continuum images of GM Aur in ALMA Bands 6 (⁠lambda = 1.3 mm, upper panels) and 4 (⁠lambda = 2.1 mm, lower panels). The left columns are for sky-plane images adopted from J. Huang et al. (2020), and the right columns are for corresponding deprojected images. Beam sizes are denoted as ellipses at the left corners in panels of the sky plane images. Resolution and sensitivity of these data are reported in the caption of Fig. 2. We remind the readers that GM Aur is shown as a representative example of multiple-ringed discs seen in multiwavelength observations, and reproducing the GM Aur disc is not the aim of this study.

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Richard Alexander @richardalexander.bsky.social · 07/01/2026

Noticed this new addition to NASA ADS. Looks like the move to SciX as the only interface is going to happen later this year. 🔭

Screenshot from NASA ADS, showing a tab labelled "SciX Transition Resources", which says "SciX is the evolution of ADS, bringing its powerful capabilities into new domains. SciX will become the sole interface in late 2026."

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Richard Alexander @richardalexander.bsky.social · 17/12/2025

10/10 to the UK university sending out PhD admissions reference requests with a submission deadline of 27 December. That’s next Saturday, and said institution is closed from 23 Dec to 5 Jan. 🙄

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aaccomazzi.bsky.social @aaccomazzi.bsky.social · 09/12/2025

I'm happy to report that "Scenario 2" won't be necessary, as NASA has just communicated to us that SciX funding will continue in 2026 (albeit at a reduced level). Therefore, we will not be forcing astronomers to leave ADS, but rather develop a plan that allows a longer transition.

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Keith Smith @drkeithsmith.bsky.social · 09/12/2025

Well this is worrying. NASA has maintained funding for ADS but not SciX (a broader database). In response, management is planning to *close* ADS in Feb 2026, forcing all users to switch to SciX. ☄️🔭 Funding info: ads.harvard.edu/adsug/2025/0... Transition plan: ads.harvard.edu/adsug/2025/0...

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