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Stephen Curry

@scurry.bsky.social
6.1K followers 1.1K following 3.6K posts

Proud Ballymena Professor. Senior Strategic Advisor at RoRI; Emeritus Prof at Imperial. Former DORA Chair. Husband, father, carer - 24/7. Also cares about science & equity. Personal a/c. Writes occasionally at occamstypewriter.org/scurry.

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Reposted by Stephen Curry
Frances Ryan @francesryan.bsky.social · 9h
I volunteered for Childline for a decade at uni and I know firsthand a snapshot of how many lives Esther Rantzen changed. Her later years were known for assisted dying but her legacy will be giving vulnerable children someone to listen to and care. www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio...
theguardian.com
Esther Rantzen, TV presenter and Childline founder, dies aged 86
Rantzen announced lung cancer diagnosis in 2023 and became a vocal assisted dying campaigner
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Robin Bisson @robinbisson.bsky.social · 12h
The Labour Party conference didn’t deliver any surprises on R&D, but it was possible to feel which way the wind is blowing I sat down with Emily Darlington MP to talk about it. As an adviser during the New Labour years, both on science and within the Treasury, she had some important insights
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Stephen Curry @scurry.bsky.social · 12h
About as effectively as credit rating agencies regulated the banks?
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Joël Reland @jreland.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
What's that Andy? You want to look at the different options for the UK's relationship with the EU? If only someone had set them out already... ukandeu.ac.uk/introducing-...
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Margot Finn @eicathomefinn.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
'In his [Ivison's] view, the government is avoiding the bigger issues of what universities are for and who should pay for them.' It would help if universities would ask (and answer) that 1st big question in public rather than just parroting government. That's what institutional autonomy is for.
researchprofessionalnews.com
To save UK higher education, start talking about knowledge - Research Professional News
Until debate on universities foregrounds their core purposes, their woes will deepen, says Margot Finn
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Stephen Curry @scurry.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
New mapping app: Google War Crimes
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Metascience 2027 @metascienceconf.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Meet the Metascience 2027 Program Steering Committee! This international group is shaping the program for Metascience 2027 on June 14-16, 2027, in Montreal. 🧵👇 #Metascience2027
Graphic with a dark blue geometric background. At top left is the Metascience 2027 Conference logo, and at top right the title "Program Steering Committee." Below are eight headshots in two rows of four, each with a name and affiliation. Top row: Annabel Seyller, Co-Chair, Tanenbaum Open Science Institute; Vincent Larivière, Co-Chair, Université de Montréal; Dominique Roche, SSHRC-CRSH; Moumita Koley, DST-Centre for Policy Research. Bottom row: Gabriel Pelletier, Tanenbaum Open Science Institute; Emmanuel Boakye, African Reproducibility Network; Kelly Cobey, Ottawa Heart Institute; Tim Errington, Center for Open Science. The sponsor logos for The Neuro Tanenbaum Open Science Institute and the Center for Open Science are along the bottom of the graphic.
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Financial Times @financialtimes.com · 28/09/2026
A strike by a Russian drone destroyed Ukraine’s National Academy of Sciences in central Kyiv. The FT witnessed several people scrambling for safety and climbing out of third-floor windows. ft.trib.al/fTb72h2
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Stephen Curry @scurry.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
How good would it have been to see the first minister and the deputy first minister sit down with community representatives in Drumcree and figure out a compromise solution. With power sharing comes responsibility sharing.
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The Onion @theonion.com · 27/09/2026
Xi Jinping Impressed With How Much Trump’s English Has Improved Since Last Visit
theonion.com
Xi Jinping Impressed With How Much Trump’s English Has Improved Since Last Visit
WASHINGTON—Marveling at how his American counterpart’s grasp of the difficult language had progressed, Chinese leader Xi Jinping told reporters Thursday that he was deeply impressed with how much Pres...
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Jeremy Berg @jeremymberg.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
My quote of the day How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world. Anne Frank
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Stephen Curry @scurry.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Morning all.
An orange sky seen through the gap between two silhouetted trees.
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Tracy King @tracyking.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
This week I interviewed some of the nurses and healthcare staff who worked in intensive care during covid. One of them wanted to go on record as saying how utterly fucked - dead - we’d have been (and still would be) without migrant healthcare workers. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
bbc.co.uk
Angela Rayner criticises worker visa plans on eve of Labour conference
The housing secretary says the government's plans to change wait times for permanent residency are unfair because they "change the goalposts".
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Stephen Curry @scurry.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Can Science feel embarrassment? We must hope so.
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Alex Gibney @alexgibneyfilm.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
The trailer for my new film, "Musk," has just been released.
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Stephen Curry @scurry.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
In preparation for seeing the new film, Mrs C & I have rewatched all of Call My Agent & loved it just as much second time around. The plotting is preposterous but the characters are played so wonderfully the whole thing is carried off with great panache. Et en français!
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draiglerpwl.bsky.social @draiglerpwl.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
As one of the fourteen, I think that Jonathan Freedland has pretty much summed up everything I believe about ...Up. A thoughtful and perceptive piece. Thank you.
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Robert Reich @rbreich.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
DoorDash spent $1.4M trying to stop Zohran Mamdani from becoming mayor. This week's historic $131.5M enforcement action against DoorDash for underpaying NYC delivery workers shows why. Yet another reminder that the only thing that can beat organized money is organized people.
theintercept.com
DoorDash Spent $1.4 Million Trying to Stop Mamdani From Becoming Mayor. Now We Know Why.
In a wage-theft settlement, DoorDash now has to pay its workers around 100 times what it spent trying to beat Zohran Mam
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Katie Martin @katie0martin.ft.com · 25/09/2026
I have blamed The agents That hacked Your website And which You probably Reasonably thought I controlled Forgive me I am rich And unaccustomed To taking responsibility
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Luke LeBrun @lukelebrun.ca · 26/09/2026
Tech companies suddenly decide they can, in fact, moderate content on their platforms after all
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Stephen Curry @scurry.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Good piece by David Matthews on political dilemmas for metascience. sciencebusiness.net/news/interna...
sciencebusiness.net
Is metascience being co-opted?
In July, the White House released a report that argued academia is deeply dysfunctional and in need of radical reform.
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Stephen Curry @scurry.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
The sophisticated Adam Gopnik on…sophistication. www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...
Screenshot from linked article reads:

“Sophistication seems a shared longing more than a set style; it's the desire to see the world shine brighter than it does while still knowing that all the light that shines from it is the light we bring to it. In a darkening time, maybe it isn't so shabby an aspiration.”
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Reposted by Stephen Curry
Stephen Curry @scurry.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Thoughtful and important piece on academic freedom by the ever-perceptive @sarahderijcke.nl. www.nature.com/articles/d41...
nature.com
Six principles for supporting academic freedom in universities
Many academics are concerned about threats to independent enquiry in higher education. Here’s how it can be protected while taking legitimate concerns into account.
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Stephen Curry @scurry.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
New Dolly Parton recording coming in November. www.theguardian.com/music/2026/s...
theguardian.com
U2 announce new album Carnaval de Luz, featuring final recording by Dolly Parton
Irish rock legends’ 16th studio album, described by the Edge as ‘a messy, provocative, sacred collection of songs’, to arrive in November
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Research on Research Institute (RoRI) @rorinstitute.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Join us on 16 Nov for our rescheduled webinar on how Narrative CVs are reshaping research evaluation in practice: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/how-narrat... We'll share empirical findings from inside European funding panels and launch our new practical guide for funders.
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Research on Research Institute (RoRI) @rorinstitute.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
The second issue of Meta Morsels by @scurry.bsky.social is live on RoRI's Substack, where we've gathered a selection of new writing on AI’s impact on social science, open-source hardware, and a proposed global panel on inequality: researchonresearchinstitute.substack.com/p/meta-morse...
researchonresearchinstitute.substack.com
Meta Morsels 2
A selection of new and notable writing on metascience
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Stephen Curry @scurry.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Thoughtful and important piece on academic freedom by the ever-perceptive @sarahderijcke.nl. www.nature.com/articles/d41...
nature.com
Six principles for supporting academic freedom in universities
Many academics are concerned about threats to independent enquiry in higher education. Here’s how it can be protected while taking legitimate concerns into account.
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Stephen Curry @scurry.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Britain far less useless than it appeared according to revised stats. giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/...
giftarticle.ft.com
Why your holiday is good news for the UK
For once we should thank the Office for National Statistics for its productivity reporting
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Samantha Asumadu @samanthaasumadu.substack.com · 23/09/2026
So I think maybe I just figured out why @timeshighered.bsky.social has not reported anything negative about James Orr. I could very well be wrong, but here we go: In 2024, THE signed an agreement with Hungary's Culture and Innovation Ministry which oversees Hungarian higher education..
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Tom Gauld @tomgauld.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
My latest @newscientist.com cartoon. many more here: www.newscientist.com/author/tom-gauld/
Image: A graph with lots of red dots clustered together in a curve. The are all looking upwards at a single red dot wearing sunglasses. 

Caption: Mike was an outlier and would probably be excluded from the study, but all the other data points secretly thought he was really cool.
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Lawrence Freedman @ldfreedman.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Russia is stepping up its campaign to weaken Europe and undermine its support for Ukraine. @hannanotte.bsky.social provides an informed and lucid assessment of what Putin is put to, how far he might go, and how European countries should respond. (£/free trial). samf.substack.com/p/putins-cam...?
samf.substack.com
Putin’s campaign against Europe
How far will he go?
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Stephen Curry @scurry.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Intriguing look at oscillations in the relations between the U.S. and Europe. www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...
newyorker.com
The U.S. Helped Make Europe. Can It Break It?
During the Cold War, U.S. policymakers pushed for a unified Europe. Their MAGA successors are trying to undo all that.
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Stephen Curry @scurry.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
*THIS WEEK* on the @rorinstitute.bsky.social Substack smorgasbord - pieces on the impacts of AI on social science and open science, and proposals for properly gearing research to tackle inequality. researchonresearchinstitute.substack.com/p/meta-morse...
researchonresearchinstitute.substack.com
Meta Morsels 2
A selection of new and notable writing on metascience
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Stephen Curry @scurry.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Summertime… and the livin’ is easy. (Today in Southend).
A silhouetted figure carries an ice cream towards 3 people sitting on a bench. Beyond them a beach, the sea and a blue & cloudy sky.
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Stephen Curry @scurry.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
I’m officially changing it back to AI.
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Stephen Curry @scurry.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Here’s some seriously underpowered thinking from the shadow science secretary. Sound bites as durable toilet paper. www.timeshighereducation.com/news/haldane...
timeshighereducation.com
Haldane won’t stop us defunding ‘bizarre’ research, Tories say
Shadow science secretary eyes ‘far clearer strategic objectives and priorities’ for UK Research and Innovation
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Jay Rayner @jayrayner1.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
On the BBC News Katya Adler has just described Germany, where the far right AFD keep winning elections, as entering 'uncharted political territory'. Hmmm. Where Germany is concerned I think that territory is pretty well charted.
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Stephen Curry @scurry.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Has the government created a NATS Zero policy by mistake?
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Stephen Collins @stephencollins.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

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Wide shot of the BRITISH MUSEUM. There are suggestions of fascism around the streets - tanks, barricades, an Orwellian 'Big Brother'-style poster on a wall. A voice of a TOUR GUIDE emanates from the museum:

TOUR GUIDE:
So the Tapestry tells acrucial chapter of our nation's history...

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[Cut to interior of museum. A long Bayeaux-style TAPESTRY is on display, and the Tour Guide is speaking to a tour group]

TOUR GUIDE [smiling]:
How modern fascist Britain was created. 

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TOUR GUIDE:
The Tapestry begins here with the 2008 Crash, then austerity, then the AI Crash...

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TOUR GUIDE:
...and by the end of the room it's just full-on fash. 

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CHILD IN TOUR GROUP [gesturing to the tapestry]:
What's this middle bit?

TOUR GUIDE:
This is the 2026 Battle of Legitimate Concerns 

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TOUR GUIDE:
[show a reporter standing next to the Dover protests]
Here's the media saying the government have got to do something about the legitimate concerns...

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CHILD:
...About the failure of capitalism?

TOUR GUIDE:
No about brown people on boats

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CHILD:
[pointing at boats crossing the sea on the tapestry]
Are these boats the mega-dinghies?

TOUR GUIDE:
Not all of them

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[we see one of the boats  is a giant yacht]
TOUR GUIDE:
That one's a superyacht,
carrying money from the American fascists to the British ones.

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TOUR GUIDE:
You see really it's as much a story of convergence as it is of conflict.

[An alarm sounds in the museum]
DING DING DING DING 

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TOUR GUIDE:
Ok, tour over everyone 

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TOUR GUIDE:
It's time for the Two Minute Hate!

[They all leave the museum]

[ends]
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Stephen Curry @scurry.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
Lots of gold nuggets in this piece by @alondra.bsky.social on how social science needs to approach AI. www.amacad.org/publication/...
These problems are not incidental to proprietary Al models—they are fundamental to their design. When corporations control the most powerful systems, academic researchers become users rather than architects of their own methods. Training data remain undisclosed, model updates arrive without warning, and access can be revoked or priced beyond reach. Open-source alternatives models, tools, and systems with training data, architectures, and governance that are transparent to research communities and others-address these epistemic limitations directly. There is a strong case that social science should refuse proprietary Al models entirely. The epistemic requirements of scholarly inquiry may be fundamentally at odds with profit-driven, black-boxed systems whose training data, architecture, and governance remain inaccessible to most researchers. Developing such alternatives requires investment and collaboration, but the payoff is research infrastructure that serves scholarship rather than market imperatives.
This is not antitechnology sentiment but a defense of what distinguishes research from consultancy: the imperative that claims about the social world be contestable and answerable to communities of inquiry.Political science has likewise embraced Al for modeling, particularly in the study of electoral behavior and policy outcomes. Models trained on historical data can attempt to forecast voter turnout, partisan shifts, or policy adoption. 50 Yet "predictive" success does not translate into explanatory depth.
Algorithmic models can reproduce observed patterns without shedding light on underlying mechanisms, raising questions about how much weight these analyses should merit for explanation and theory building.Taken together, Weber, Du Bois, and Marcuse remind us that technologies do not merely augment human capacity; they can shuffle social life, redistribute power, and enframe meaning. Returning to them matters now not because their theories are perfectly fitted to the Al era, but because they teach us to ask the right kinds of questions. Their insights remain indispensable for interpreting Al, even as new conditions require us to build upon them with creativity and care. To retrieve this tradition is therefore not to rehearse it mechanically but to renew it, elaborating new categories and methods appropriate to this moment.
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Stephen Curry @scurry.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
Question: which triumph is Trump’s triumphal arch celebrating? His war with Iran?
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Stephen Curry @scurry.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
On the patio for possibly the last time this year, trying to convince myself the sunshine means summer is not yet over, despite the cool breath of the evening breeze.
view from my seated position: A round yellow table with a glass of wine, a pair of glasses and a smaller white plastic speaker. Beyond, grey patio paving and shrubs, grass and trees lit by the evening sun.
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Stephen Curry @scurry.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
Thread demonstrating why @youngvulgarian.marieleconte.com is one of the most interesting and fun people to follow on BlueSky
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Stephen Curry @scurry.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
Very much enjoyed @mjrobbins.com conversation-paced rant about the supposed threat of so-called superintelligent AI. martinrobbins.substack.com/p/the-ai-apo...
Screenshot from linked article reads: 

Civilisation is the gearbox for the engines of our minds; human intelligence is its attribute. The scale of that intelligence is not governed by the person or entity with the highest IQ. You can't make a car that goes at 3000mph by just putting a rocket in it. I'm not sure it's possible to be superintelligent. To me it's like saying you're going to make the ocean superwet by pouring more water into it.
Rationalists desperately wish this wasn't the case, because it means the promise of the Al priesthood, the promise of a world where being smart and thinking better magically solves all your problems - could lead you to the gates of heaven itself! - is a lie: that the world isn't changed by thinkers, but doers. That's why every contrived thought experiment that involves an AI triggering the end of humanity involves, ultimately, human beings doing something incredible stupid with real stuff, like shipping a super-virus to an angry teenager or firing a nuclear arsenal. The boring risks of human agency that we already face today.
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Chris Kendall @ottocr.at · 19/09/2026
Top tip, wait for it to go back to Bayeux and then, go to Bayeux
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Alom Shaha @alomshaha.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
Parents! Carers! This year’s Royal Institution Christmas Lectures are on the science of TIME. If you can’t wait til then, I just so happen to have a book that you might like:
dk.com
About Time
Time is central to our experience as humans, and it’s important for children to know not just how to tell the time, but also how to make the most of it.About Time will help them learn how to tell the ...
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Anand Menon @anandmenon.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
God I hate this 'people who create wealth' nonsense. Let's see how much wealth we have in a society without teachers, nurses etc......
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Jo Wolff @jowolff.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
The Internet was nice while it lasted.
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Stephen Curry @scurry.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Sounds to me like an old trend of some academics not being very good at their job.
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Stephen Curry @scurry.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
ICYMI - a small smorgasbord of some thought-provoking writing in and around metascience (AI, social science, science policy and… fine art): researchonresearchinstitute.substack.com/p/meta-morse...
researchonresearchinstitute.substack.com
Meta Morsels 1
A selection of new and notable writing on metascience
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