iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Seb Falk @sebfalk.com · 27/09/2026

I did wonder what he'd make of these pages in particular 😎

Two pages of a complex five-page stemma codicum

Seb Falk @sebfalk.com · 27/09/2026

Lovely few days in Dublin for the launch of the new "Navigatio Sancti Brendani" at @dias.ie A great range of papers (in English & Irish). And exciting to see the conference get a write-up in the @irishtimes.com after the President gave Trump a copy of the book! www.irishtimes.com/ireland/2026...

Reconstructed currach outside the DIAS building

1213

Seb Falk @sebfalk.com · 16/07/2026

I almost used this photo instead of the other one – might have suited you better 💮

Another photo of the same train station as before, with a white rose motif in the iron arches

111

Seb Falk @sebfalk.com · 16/07/2026

Bonus: a brief stop in my favourite station

Beautiful columns, arches and curved platforms of (can you guess?)

160

Seb Falk @sebfalk.com · 16/07/2026

Since I completely forgot to post about my own presentation beforehand, here's the abstract. Thanks to everyone who came and/or chatted about the project with me afterwards. It was really useful to air some new ideas to a friendly crowd! Even more excited to get writing the book now!

Back to the Future of Wayfinding: Pre-modern astro-navigation in the GPS age

New technologies in the 20th century challenged the need for navigators to look to the stars. The rapid development of radio direction-finding, beam and hyperbolic systems, and finally satellite navigation, promised to make old methods redundant. An unfathomable global system of transmitters and receivers would replace skills in taking sightings and computing with brass and paper tools; the signals from atomic clocks would eclipse the long-fixed shapes of the constellations.

Yet from the beginning this march of new technology was contested. In the first place, while black-box systems promised to make knowledge of location and direction universally accessible, the cost of equipment raised new barriers. As prices plummeted and precision soared, concerns grew that sailors and pilots might lack the understanding necessary to interpret navigational data, leading to increased risk. It has even been suggested that reliance on technology rewires our brains, making us
stupider.

Meanwhile, as ‘traditional’ techniques became outmoded, interest surged in
reconstructing the seemingly miraculous methods of the past. Respect for the
astrolabe-toting heroes of the European ‘Age of Exploration’ was complicated by a
growing pluralistic awareness that their achievements had been preceded by a suite of skills and senses practised in the Pacific. In the Anthropocene, an instinctive feel for one’s environment seems ever more precious when alone atop a vast ocean.

Most recently, fears about the vulnerability of GPS systems to jamming or even spoofing have become stronger – and more realistic. Put together, these pressures have caused hydrographic offices and training schools to pull back from abandoning old materials and methods. This paper will survey the arguments of manufacturers and mapmakers, technologists and traditionalists – from the backstaff to the blue dot – to show why, in the age of Google, navigation is so contested.

3152

Seb Falk @sebfalk.com · 16/07/2026

On my way home from a magnificent #eshs-hss conference. Edinburgh hosted us brilliantly (including the conference ceilidh!) & it was wonderful to catch up with old friends & colleagues, and make meet many new ones. Newly inspired by #HistSTM!

Ceilidh lines in the National Museum of Scotland

Edinburgh castle in the sunshine, with blue sky behind

View down over Edinburgh from Salisbury Crags, with the castle visible in the background

2212

Seb Falk @sebfalk.com · 24/06/2026

Aw thanks for remembering. He deserved so many parties (pic actually from a 2-yo's birthday party, not his own)

Beautiful dog Ridley (Lab/German Shepherd/Rottweiler cross) wearing a party hat

120

Seb Falk @sebfalk.com · 26/05/2026

Job opportunity for an early-career scholar in politics/international relations of the Middle East / North Africa / South Asia. 3 years from 1 September. Apply by 4 June. Come and work with me at wonderful @girtoncollege.bsky.social! Full details: www.jobs.cam.ac.uk/job/55579/

Girton College in the morning sun, with slanting light through the trees, a slight mist, and the tower in the background

145

Seb Falk @sebfalk.com · 06/04/2026

This is obviously best for UK readers

180

Seb Falk @sebfalk.com · 21/03/2026

Authentic medieval "photograph" here 📸 accompanying this interesting @theguardian.com piece on some new (unpublished) research on the Battle of Hastings www.theguardian.com/culture/2026...

Artist's portrait of King Harold II, from a Wills cigarette card, c1898. With blond beard, red cloak and fairytale crown. Used on a Guardian web story with caption "Photograph: incamerastock/Alamy"

2194

Seb Falk @sebfalk.com · 20/03/2026

Timely: here's Baron Smith, rocking not one but two hats at his installation as Chancellor of Cambridge University (@cam.ac.uk) earlier this week For full 🎥 bsky.app/profile/cam....

Lord Smith in Cambridge PhD gown with scarlet facings and doctoral bonnet, parading outside the Cambridge Senate-House

Lord Smith in black hat and gown with lots of gold braid, giving an address in the Senate-House

060

Seb Falk @sebfalk.com · 04/02/2026

Stumbled across this article from 2008. How times have changed – not just the policies but also the tenor of political discourse 😔 www.theguardian.com/education/20...

Headline: " This article is more than 17 years old
Plans for 20 new university towns
This article is more than 17 years old
Campuses are to be set up over the next six years at a cost of £150m, with many located in areas suffering high levels of unemployment"

16319

Seb Falk @sebfalk.com · 25/01/2026

Why is this a thing on planes (and only on planes)? Does anyone care if they find the basin slightly wet or soapy?

Sign: "As a Courtesy to the Next Passenger May We Suggest that You Use Your Towel to Wipe Off Water Basin. Thank You!"

4102

Seb Falk @sebfalk.com · 24/01/2026

Having flown on Ryanair just yesterday, I agree with every word of this from @mrkocnnll.bsky.social in the Irish Times

Print article in the newspaper: "Only Elon Musk can bring me to Ryanair's defence"

0113

Seb Falk @sebfalk.com · 10/01/2026

If you need a timeline cleanse: here's a highlight of a lovely selection of avian visitors to our wintry garden today. Like me, this beautiful goldfinch loves teasels!

Collage of four photos of a goldfinch perched on various teasels and just taking off

0241

Seb Falk @sebfalk.com · 05/01/2026

JOB ALERT! 3-year postdoc at @girtoncollege.bsky.social - research anything you like in History, Archaeology or Anthropology in a wonderful, welcoming scholarly community. PLEASE SHARE! Closes 12 January www.girton.cam.ac.uk/job-vacancie...

Here's what it looked like on my return to work this morning - beautiful red brick gabled building of Girton's Hall, with a dusting of snow on the grass in front.

2179190

Seb Falk @sebfalk.com · 03/01/2026

Two fun museum finds in Colchester today: 1. Clock owned by William Gilbert (of De Magnete (1600) fame) 2. Pub sign from the old At the Sign of the Whalebone Inn on East Hill

0150

Seb Falk @sebfalk.com · 03/01/2026

Lovely crisp morning for a run through the Essex countryside. Stopped at this stunning medieval church. Is this graffiti by the door something apotropaic? www.visitchurches.org.uk/visit/our-ch...

180

Seb Falk @sebfalk.com · 31/12/2025

Went to see the much-vaunted murmurations at Fowlmere. Starlings didn't do their thing. Oh well, we were patient, did our best quiet braving the cold and ate gummy bears. Happy new year everyone.

Boy looking out from bird hide over reed beds

People looking out of hide towards reed beds

1171

Seb Falk @sebfalk.com · 23/12/2025

A few more from my morning at @theul.bsky.social Some lovely volvelles in this copy of Martin Cortes' "Art of Navigation", tr. Richard Eden (1579). I also like the pelican on the frontispiece 🪶

Volvelle demonstrating magnetic variation

Volvelle demonstrating the oblique horizon

Volvelle explaining how a nocturnal instrument works

Frontispiece to an English translation of Martin Cortes, "The Arte of Nauigation"

1337

Seb Falk @sebfalk.com · 23/12/2025

Christmas appears in Pedro de Medina's "Art of Navigation"! 🎄 Nice to spot it in this 1554 Italian translation (Venice, Pedrezano) at @theul.bsky.social this morning. Note the commentary on the painless birth of Jesus: he was laid on a bed of hay because there was nothing softer to hand 🌟

Page of old book with calendar featuring commentary in Italian on the nativity – Mary and Joseph go to Bethlehem

0103

Seb Falk @sebfalk.com · 21/07/2025

Some highlights from a brilliant access-all-areas tour of Durham Castle, courtesy of @durhammemsa.bsky.social Chair @charrathompson.bsky.social. Wish me luck with my keynote this morning!

Durham's motte & bailey castle, much embellished up to the 19th century

Column capital from the Norman chapel, including a man in an attitude of praising the heavens

Misericord from the Tunstall Chapel, featuring pigs playing the bagpipes

Best toilet interior: a part of a Norman (12th-century) archway with chevron design

0192

Seb Falk @sebfalk.com · 19/07/2025

An actual (excellent) book

060

Seb Falk @sebfalk.com · 18/07/2025

FWIW, here's Sabra's article in the DSB. Of course even if we assume he was a loyal husband & father, lots of things could have happened that meant he didn't have a wife/daughter by his later life...

110

Seb Falk @sebfalk.com · 18/07/2025

Where do you get the son-in-law info from? I have to admit I've not heard that before. Since I was passing my departmental library with a few mins to spare, here are some pages from Sabra's 1989 edition of the Optics

130

Seb Falk @sebfalk.com · 17/07/2025

Nice to see the Song of Wade featured in the newspapers! I'm happy to be an "academic sleuth" – but I'm not a "scientist". *Humanities scholars can make discoveries too!*

Brief article in Daily Telegraph - "Chaucer's elvish mystery was 900-year-old typo

1313

Seb Falk @sebfalk.com · 16/07/2025

I'm so thrilled to have this published! Starting from a chat over lunch at @girtoncollege.bsky.social, James Wade & I chipped away at this & have made some fascinating discoveries. The actual article should be published later today. In the meantime, more here: www.cam.ac.uk/stories/song...

Girton Fellows solve a 130-year-old Chaucerian literary mystery

1321050

Seb Falk @sebfalk.com · 13/07/2025

Another decent day in NW8. A lot of nerves & edges on the way to 42-2. Anyone else here? #ENGvIND

020

Seb Falk @sebfalk.com · 12/07/2025

Lovely day to be at the cricket. Any other Skystorians here? #ENGvIND

031

Seb Falk @sebfalk.com · 26/06/2025

My review of two new books about early flight is now out in @thetls.bsky.social! As you can tell, I liked one of them more than the other... Online version via tinyurl.com/falk-TLS-flight

Photo of printed newspaper. Article can be read online via https://tinyurl.com/falk-TLS-flight

1277

Seb Falk @sebfalk.com · 20/06/2025

A few photos from my plenary lecture at #AAS246 in Anchorage, & the presentation of the Osterbrock Prize for #TheLightAges. That's surely the biggest screen I've ever used – there were 3 of them! Great to see John Westwyk's work at super-scale 🤩 Why didn't I just stand behind the podium though 🙈

Seb standing in front of a blown up manuscript page with numbers on it

Seb standing in front of a PowerPoint slide with the cover of The Light Ages

Seb receiving the Osterbrock Prize certificate from Kevin Krisciunas of the Historical Astronomy Division of the American Astronomical Society

3150

Seb Falk @sebfalk.com · 15/06/2025

Passed Wenhaston today, & for once we weren't in a rush. Plus it was Fathers' Day so my family couldn't deny me the chance to finally see the Doom. Isn't it spectacular! Painted around 1500, it was whitewashed during the Reformation and only rediscovered in 1892. How many demons can you spot?

Scene of the Last Judgement painted on oak, in a church

3412

Seb Falk @sebfalk.com · 12/06/2025

About this big, IIRC?

130

Seb Falk @sebfalk.com · 11/06/2025

Met a cheeky moose in the Matanuska valley

2223

Seb Falk @sebfalk.com · 09/06/2025

This sounds like a great plenary! I'm looking forward to hearing it (& hopeful I might even understand some of it 😀)

App screenshot with text of session abstract about Active Galactic Nuclei

App screenshot:
Plenary Speaker
K.E. Saavik Ford is a Professor in the Department of Science at City University of New York (CUNY) Borough of Manhattan Community College, and a Professor of Physics at the CUNY Graduate Center. She is also a Research Associate at the American Museum of Natural History and; a Visiting Scientist at the Center for Computational Astrophysics at the Flatiron Institute. Her main research interests are focused on Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN), time-domain astronomy, gravitational waves, and the AGN Channel for stellar mass binary black hole mergers. She is a leader in efforts to broadly characterize 'things in AGN disks' including AGN-TDE, BBH mergers, EMRIs. She also leads development of the Monte carlo For AGN Channel Testing and Simulations (McFACTS), the first publicly available population synthesis code for the full AGN Channel. She is a founder of AstroCom NYC, an initiative to improve recruitment and retention of underrepresented minorities in astronomy and astrophysics through education, research, and mentoring. Prof. Ford is dedicated to continuously improving the environment in the profession of astronomy, to support the excellence of the whole persons who choose to become astronomers, and to encourage other astronomers to do the same.

130

Seb Falk @sebfalk.com · 07/06/2025

Glad I picked a window seat – fabulous views of Greenland & the Canadian Rockies

View out of aeroplane window – snowy mountains of Greenland

View out of aeroplane window – mountains and lake

1100

Seb Falk @sebfalk.com · 07/06/2025

Just landed on the first leg of my trip to deliver a keynote lecture at the @aas.org summer meeting. Brought along my own geocentric instrument for the flight – maybe not as colourful as BA's, but just as interactive 🌎

Seb in Heathrow departures, with a British Airways plane visible out the window behind

A replica late medieval equatorium-astrolabe, on a tray table in front of an inflight route map

4401

Seb Falk @sebfalk.com · 26/05/2025

I've just stumbled across this 2023 review of #TheLightAges in "Speculum", one of the foremost medieval journals. Thanks to Dominic Dold for his careful reading & generous assessment. doi.org/10.1086/722949

Book review screenshot:
In The Light Ages, Seb Falk weaves a richly textured tapestry of medieval science, and a surprising one to boot, revealing the efforts of John Westwyk (d. before 1401), a Benedictine monk. With narrative brio, the author pulls together diverse threads, covering topics from
simple arithmetic to spherical trigonometry; from astronomy and medicine to astrology, magic, and bestiaries; from transcultural knowledge production to the Crusades; from English
monastic life to the vibrant university culture of Oxford and the buzzing streets of London.
The story starts with a Middle English treatise, the Equatorie of the Planetis, which
describes the construction and use of an astronomical instrument called the equatorium. Falk
sees in its author, John Westwyk, “the perfect guide to the story of medieval science” (11),
and so we ﬁrst follow this monk from his presumed birthplace of Westwick (also known
as Gorham) to the nearby abbey of St. Albans. He took his vows in the 1370s and may have
attended the University of Oxford—at least, his advanced astronomical learning suggests as
much. The ﬁrst deﬁnitive record of his life is from about 1379, when Westwyk copied and
annotated two astronomical treatises by Richard of Wallingford. By 1380, Westwyk had left
the abbey for Tynemouth Priory, and he joined Henry Despenser’s crusade in Flanders in
1383. We have no further records until 1393, when he wrote the Equatorie in London. Falk
impressively masters the feat of reconstructing a captivating story from very few sources and
using it as a vehicle to transport us into the world of medieval science.

As we follow Westwyk through his life, Falk explains mathematical, scientiﬁc, and techni-
cal details of medieval science and instrument-making—be it the “Russian peasant method”
of multiplication, astronomical trajectories on a sphere, or the mechanical details of the
equatorium—with admirable clarity and always in their context, enlivening his account with
historical anecdotes. At the same time, we are asked to reﬂect on our own presuppositions
about “science,” and the subtitle of the North American edition, “The Surprising Story of
Medieval Science,” immediately reveals the book’s framing: medieval science is “surprising”
against the widespread belief that the Middle Ages were “dark ages” as far as scientiﬁc
knowledge is concerned. The author hopes his readers will come to recognize “the family
resemblances between the activities described in this book and their descendants in modern
science” even though “much has changed in motivations, methods and language” (9).
Falk elicits this recognition by attending throughout to the sequence in which he introduces
medieval science and to the reader’s probable reactions. At the beginning of the book, we see
that the medieval astronomical treatises and instruments dealt very satisfactorily with problems
of the period, whether in agriculture at the Westwick manor or monastic life at St. Albans; later,

we learn that a network of scholars from all over Europe and the Mediterranean had contrib-
uted to these theories and practices from antiquity through to Westwyk’s times. From both their
empirical content and their theoretical sophistication, therefore, readers can conclude for them-
selves that astronomy and astronomical instrument-making were plausibly “scientiﬁc”—
without needing the author to spell out necessary and sufﬁcient conditions of “scientiﬁc”
or “science.” This allows Falk to make his case convincingly through ﬁrst-order descriptions,
without having to introduce complicated second-order reﬂections about the analytic concepts
employed.
Yet there are some limitations to this strategy. For example, what about the “scientiﬁc”
status of astrology, magic, and bestiaries? Perhaps Falk believes that his readers will have
shed enough of their prejudices by the time they encounter such borderline cases to be more
generous about these sciences as well. However, such an approach risks neglecting the epis-
temological dimension of calling a historical theory or practice “scientiﬁc,” which after all is

not merely a matter of recognizing a family resemblance with today’s sciences, but also connotes what “scientiﬁc knowledge” is, or could have been. Indeed, when Falk says that “understanding the history of scientiﬁc ideas in their proper context” makes us “appreciate that science
does not progress in a constant straight line” (9), he himself seems to assume a much tighter connection between science simpliciter and medieval science than a mere family resemblance.
Drawing connections based on a historicized epistemological concept of scientiﬁc knowledge would have strengthened the author’s point, and thirteenth- and fourteenth-century philosophical discussions about scientia, which could have ﬁtted neatly into Falk’s portrayal of uni-
versity learning in chapter 3, would have offered an excellent path in. Medieval philosophers explored epistemological problems in great depth (for example in their commentaries on Aristotle’s works), and historians of medieval philosophy have reconstructed some such medieval theories of knowledge. This might have made the “story of medieval science” even more “surprising,” ﬁrst, because our recognition of medieval science as such could be based on more robust epistemological criteria, and second, because the resulting story could further historicize our existing intuitions on science and scientiﬁc knowledge. Nevertheless, Falk’s study is itself already a powerful contribution to rehabilitating a neglected episode in the history of science. Although the book primarily addresses a nonspecialist audience, it can certainly be recommended to medievalists and historians of science as well. Medievalists outside the history of science will ﬁnd it an excellent introduction to the science of the period, while historians of science—especially those interested in medieval astronomy—will beneﬁt greatly from Falk’s fascinating story, which also invites us to explore the Equatorie and its context in much more detail.

1202

Seb Falk @sebfalk.com · 23/05/2025

When all the news is grim, my baby avocado cheers me up. What a difference one month makes! 🌱

Collage image of growing avocado plant, with an astrolabe behind

2340

Seb Falk @sebfalk.com · 22/05/2025

Amusing to read this in the week before the CP Snow Lecture on "Revisioning the Two Cultures" I'm no geneticist, but I'm fairly sure that's not how DNA (or "genius") works 🙈

Article in The Times: "Leonardo da Vinci's DNA may hide the code for genius."
Available online here: https://www.thetimes.com/uk/science/article/leonardo-da-vinci-dna-tests-explained-8rcm8kwh7

5316

Seb Falk @sebfalk.com · 12/05/2025

WFH on a lovely early-summery evening: Dr G snuck this pic. Book review hopefully out in @thetls.bsky.social sometime next month!

Seb in a hammock with a book and pencil. Roses growing in the background.

0100

Seb Falk @sebfalk.com · 10/05/2025

My first time volunteering at (Coldhams Common) #parkrun. Lovely day for it! ☀️

Lots of people running, with pitches in the foreground and trees behind

1100

Seb Falk @sebfalk.com · 09/05/2025

One of my favourite @parkerlibcccc.bsky.social images! MP's elephants got a lot more lifelike – but less cute 🥺 – after he actually saw one for himself

Manuscript ink painting of an elephant, from London, British Library Cotton MS Nero D.I f. 169v

260

Seb Falk @sebfalk.com · 09/05/2025

On your BBC World Service TONIGHT! Me (& some actual experts) talking about Red Sky at Night. Where does it come from and how reliable is it? Tune in at 8:30pm (UK time) or listen to the podcast later

Web screengrab:

Is red sky at night really sailor’s delight?
CrowdScience

You may have grown up hearing the saying “red sky at night, sailor’s delight, red sky in morning, sailor’s warning” - or maybe a variation of it. CrowdScience listener Alison, who sees many dazzling red skies from her home in the Yukon, Canada, certainly did. And now she wonders if the saying is a sensible prediction of coming weather or just another old wives’ tale.

Alison and presenter Anand Jagatia run a little experiment, getting up at the crack of dawn and staying up until dusk for 5 days to record if the sunset and sunrise can predict their local weather.

While we wait for the results, we track this weather proverb back to its ancient roots to find out how important it may have been to the people without satellites or even thermometers to guide them.

We also tap into the expertise of modern-day weather predictors, meteorologists. What are the atmospheric pressure systems that cause red skies, and how do they influence the weather globally? And what exceptions to the rules might turn a trusty old proverb on its head?

094

Seb Falk @sebfalk.com · 04/05/2025

The same manuscript contains this marvellous image of the great Richard of Wallingford, abbot of St Albans 1327-36, with his incredible astronomical clock (& leprosy-marked face)

Medieval manuscript painting of an abbot in a black habit with crozier and mitre, pointing at a clock in an elaborate housing, with another dial-like circle below. Some words are visible to the right, including "horologia" (Latin for clocks)

1495

Seb Falk @sebfalk.com · 28/04/2025

My lovely wife kindly put an avocado stone in a bit of soggy kitchen towel in the cupboard for a few weeks and it's just now starting to sprout in a pot in my office

Grey plant pot with a single stem and bud about 4cm long, with a telephone and replica astrolabe in the background

100

Seb Falk @sebfalk.com · 26/04/2025

Thinking of everyone loading carbs & settling down to an early night ahead of tomorrow's #LondonMarathon. 10 years since I last did it & 11 since this was my outfit... maybe time for another go?

Seb, dressed as the London Gherkin building, standing in front of Kings College Chapel

0220