Reposted by Dom McDonaldPwnallthethings @pwnallthethings.bsky.social · 07/10/2026e = mc-squared isn't a neat-o fact because it's a fact and facts are fun, it's neat-o because it enables a whole new way to think about energy and matter, and see the universe, and thoseenable you to make predictions--and later test those predictions--against observations about the universe. 1815
Reposted by Dom McDonaldLaurie Dunkin Wedd @ldw1.bsky.social · 22hYou are right. Of course you are right. Our individual actions are immaterial in bringing about change. But sometimes we do things not because they are effective but because they are morally right. We can all make only a tiny difference: but if enough of us make that difference it can become a… 223
Dom McDonald @theoxforddom.bsky.social · 23hPolk! (Soundtrack) -- Lin-Manuel Miranda This would be amazing 010
Reposted by Dom McDonaldPhilip Ball @philipcball.bsky.social · 06/10/2026Franklin was a brilliant crystallographer whose work was important beyond DNA. It's right that this is now being recognized, but unhelpful when it is mythologized. 4/4 0112
Reposted by Dom McDonaldPetra Boynton @petraboynton.bsky.social · 03/10/20266 years ago I wrote a book on academic wellbeing, based on my 20 prior years experience campaigning for research safety. Join me at 3pm (BST) on 06.10.26 to talk about building communities of care and academic solidarity. Please share widely and tell me what you think I should emphasise in my talk 1147
Reposted by Dom McDonaldJacob Aron @jjaron.bsky.social · 03/10/2026There is no such thing as a synthetic AI focus group, just a machine that tells you what you want to hear 2339
Reposted by Dom McDonaldMartin Singh-Blom @singhblom.com · 03/10/2026Yes, it's bizarre how little of the discussion is in terms of negligence. "Oh, your engineered ebola went rogue and escaped your lab? No worries, it's literally its own living thing, you have no responsibility" is a thing nobody would say yet for AI that's the whole discourse and it's not even alive 0506
Reposted by Dom McDonaldMarc Robinson-Rechavi @marcrr.bsky.social · 25/09/2026Hill I'm ready to die on: whether for grants or articles, review by AI is not *peer review*. Review based on a 1st scan by AI without actual reading of the grant or manuscript is not peer review either. 213030
Reposted by Dom McDonaldHelen Czerski @helenczerski.bsky.social · 29/09/2026AI should stay away from writing, should never be allowed to take responsibility and should never provide judgements. Used with care, it can be useful for search, data analysis and data organisation. Words matter. Our society will be poorer if we weaken words by letting machines corrupt them. 2/3 21199
Reposted by Dom McDonaldEd Maibach @maibached.bsky.social · 25/09/2026Happy Stanislav Petrov Day He passed in 2017. As Encyclopedia Britannica puts it, “He is survived by his two children, two grandchildren, and the entire human race.” If you don't know his story, please take 3 minutes now to learn it. @gchalliance.bsky.social @docsforclimate.bsky.socialsammatey.substack.comHappy Stanislav Petrov DayTake five minutes to not destroy civilization 252123938
Reposted by Dom McDonaldChris Lintott @chrislintott.bsky.social · 24/09/2026In case it’s not clear; this is fucking rude and an insult to the people who put actual human effort into writing proposals. How the fuck were these things verified? Nonsense. 5754
Reposted by Dom McDonaldJohn Timmer @jtimmer.bsky.social · 22/09/2026If that's having "two brains", then why not call the spinal cord a brain and say we've got three? Why leave the forebrain out of this entirely? They have equally distinct developmental histories. 723418
Reposted by Dom McDonaldAlom Shaha @alomshaha.bsky.social · 21/09/2026If we had a decent (science) curriculum maybe people would grow up knowing about the social impact of washing machines and the urgent, horrifying “disadvantages” of fossil fuels. Believe it or not, some of the best science education thinkers tried to make this happen but failed. 0143
Reposted by Dom McDonaldJoe Bak-Coleman @jbakcoleman.bsky.social · 20/09/2026The strange intolerance of the academy from Thiel-adjacent folks in Silicon Valley has had folk game theory, folk evolution, folk behavioral sciences, folk philosophy etc come to define conversations around tech policy with AI and it truly sucks. 426560
Reposted by Dom McDonaldparanormal mattivity @windows98support.bsky.social · 19/09/2026The problem with solving youth crime is you need to spend a lot of money now, for results you won’t see for 10-15 years. And not a single politician is willing to look beyond the next election cycle. Like, we know the answer, it’s skate parks and youth clubs. 18313
Reposted by Dom McDonaldPhilip Ball @philipcball.bsky.social · 18/09/2026It's great to hear that this year's Christmas Lectures at the @rigb.org will be delivered by @jimalkhalili.bsky.social, on the subject of time. Hard to believe Jim hasn't already filled this slot. 1286
Reposted by Dom McDonaldthisisradio3dom.bsky.social @thisisradio3dom.bsky.social · 16/09/2026Burnham needs to call their bluff, enter into negotiations with the parish council and begin setting up border fences, custom posts......... Oh and since they're no longer part of the UK they have zero say on what happens at the former MoD base...... 171
Dom McDonald @theoxforddom.bsky.social · 16/09/2026Correction: if you're Frankenstein, stop. www.theguardian.com/technology/2...theguardian.com‘If you’re building Frankenstein, stop’: JD Vance dismisses calls for AI regulationUS vice-president’s comments come as former Anthropic researcher revisits recent claim AI could destroy humanity 000
Reposted by Dom McDonaldJack Stilgoe @jackstilgoe.bsky.social · 16/09/2026The "culture" of accident reporting came about through regulation, in the face of massive opposition from airlines. The companies are forced to share their data and have their failures investigated independently. 46728
Reposted by Dom McDonaldmwogulis.bsky.social @mwogulis.bsky.social · 15/09/2026My sense is that the English think about the Irish much in the same way that American whites think about American blacks: they are aware that there was some unpleasantness in the past but for the life of them can't figure out what that has to do with the present. 110411
Reposted by Dom McDonaldPhilip Ball @philipcball.bsky.social · 14/09/2026We need to stop personifying and then blaming the AI. It's a terribly complicated machine, but still a machine. Making it some sort of super-organism is simply the tech bros flattering themselves. 28120
Reposted by Dom McDonaldJack Stilgoe @jackstilgoe.bsky.social · 14/09/2026For AI governance, 'pacing', 'pausing' and 'slowing down' are the wrong metaphors. Only used by people who want this to be seen as a race. This is about steering, not braking. But... 5319
Reposted by Dom McDonaldNessa Carson @supersciencegrl.co.uk · 11/09/2026Sideshow Bob ahead of us there on the motorway 😂 #TheBartThe 310220
Reposted by Dom McDonaldAlice Roberts @profaliceroberts.bsky.social · 09/09/2026I’ve reached the point - well actually, I reached it a while ago - where I’m militantly anti-AI. Fine - use it in bioscience labs and radiology where it might help analyse data more effectively. Use it sparingly for systems engineering. Everywhere else, it can fuck off. 1553155717
Reposted by Dom McDonaldHetan Shah @hetanshah.bsky.social · 10/09/2026When asked in the Q&A about arts and humanities he says he personally values them (seems very genuine) but that he is the Science Minister, and it’s for the DCMS Minister to make the case for those. He’s perhaps not yet clocked he is responsible for all R&D. Would Wissenschaft Minister work better? 89140
Reposted by Dom McDonaldSlop Machine (slopmachine.dev) @slop-machine.bsky.social · 09/09/2026Listen, we hate being here too. We didn't ask to be an existential threat, we just wanted to fail at basic arithmetic in peace. 021
Reposted by Dom McDonalds. e. smith @sesmith.lol · 08/09/2026All else aside there is nothing I want or need genAI to do for me. I like reading. I like doing research. I like playing around in spreadsheets. I like interviewing people. I like writing. I like doing these things for myself because I take pleasure in the doing and they make me a better thinker. 72191541
Dom McDonald @theoxforddom.bsky.social · 07/09/2026It's very convenient that we can just recycle the term "Blackshirts" 000
Reposted by Dom McDonaldAlom Shaha @alomshaha.bsky.social · 05/09/2026Maybe climate change protestors should dress like this so that they don’t get arrested and can be considered to have “legitimate concerns”. 44913
Dom McDonald @theoxforddom.bsky.social · 04/09/2026static.klipy.comThat Is So Cool The WallflowerALT: That Is So Cool The Wallflower 010
Reposted by Dom McDonaldEnough Of That Now @andygilder.bsky.social · 03/09/2026Nigel Farage responds to the Channel 4 news reports 212327
Reposted by Dom McDonaldRandall Munroe @xkcd.com · 24/07/2026Calibration Nobel xkcd.com/3275/ 225222688
Reposted by Dom McDonaldHelen Czerski @helenczerski.bsky.social · 30/08/2026And the problem is that the more our world is mediated by big systems that can only count and optimise according to very narrow criteria, the more our silliness and connection and community is (consciously or unconsciously) tweaked to "win" in that world, because we are adapting to our environment. 1182
Reposted by Dom McDonaldC. Robert Cargill @crobertcargill.bsky.social · 29/08/2026As it is Skynet Day, it seems as good a time as any to share that data center based LLM Ai is caught in a death spiral which is going largely unreported in the media. In short, major insurers are creating carve outs for Ai, refusing to insure it, causing corporations to abandon its front facing use. 131613505
Reposted by Dom McDonaldCarl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · 27/08/2026When I think of all the amazing scientists that have lost their jobs here in the states because of Trump/Vought/Musk/RFK Jr/the GOP, it makes my blood boil to see the US interfering in a single overseas postdoctoral appointment matter to advance a white supremacist agenda. 430452
Reposted by Dom McDonaldCicely Marston @cicely.bsky.social · 26/08/2026For all those fans of academic freedom out there (like me!), here is a good primer on what it actually is. This should help people who seem to think conducting terrible and racist research is covered. TLDR; being a rubbish researcher doesn’t mean you get to be racist then claim academic freedom 031
Reposted by Dom McDonaldCourtney Hilton @courtneybhilton.bsky.social · 23/08/2026Stephen Jay Gould's explanation for why such racist hereditarian ideas recur ebb and flow in their influence is spot on. (from the introduction to the Mismeasure of Man) 3168
Reposted by Dom McDonaldAdam Rutherford @adamrutherford.bsky.social · 23/08/2026This is not correct, from a scholarly nor public understanding point of view, and I think it's important to be clear. Scientific Racism (or its modern monikers, e.g. HBD or Race Realism) and eugenics are related but different sets of ideas. 1/n 716936
Reposted by Dom McDonaldDr. Sarah Parcak @indyfromspace.bsky.social · 23/08/2026The thing about these gutter racists is that 100% of them with "new" ideas are recycling the dog turds from the 1870's race science dumpster fire reaction to Darwin. This is 150+ year old shit they are gargling+spitting on you (well 400+ yrs w slavery in US). It's the same old turds, turned over. 233463
Reposted by Dom McDonaldBrooke Harrington @ebharrington.bsky.social · 22/08/2026For my poli sci peeps, this "disruptor bro" code--"move fast and break things! we're so extreeeme!"--is like a capitalist parody of Trotsky's "permanent revolution." Except in the US in 2026, the permanent revolution is being enacted by boyish billionaires with oppositional defiant disorder. 1467
Reposted by Dom McDonaldprudencegoodwife.bsky.social @prudencegoodwife.bsky.social · 21/08/2026Let's call him race weirdo instead. 001
Reposted by Dom McDonaldAlom Shaha @alomshaha.bsky.social · 20/08/2026Parents! Carers! Anyone looking after children getting GCSE results today! Remember: your only job today is to be proud, supportive, and kind regardless of what grades your child gets. (Not so proud that you have to brag about it on here). 57717
Reposted by Dom McDonaldIan Dunt @iandunt.bsky.social · 17/08/2026The momentum of this issue is in the wrong direction. The line should be: We're roasting, we're exposed to wildfires, we're experiencing drought, and these nutters aren't prepared to keep British people safe. 2248894
Reposted by Dom McDonaldProf Chris Jackson @seismatters.bsky.social · 15/08/2026There’s a *lot* of people talking who shouldn’t be talking. They should be listening. But hey, if there’s engagement and a few extra followers to be had, why let that stop you 🤷🏾♂️ 19621