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Dom McDonald

@theoxforddom.bsky.social
145 followers 193 following 327 posts

By day, freelance sci-comm do-gooder. By night, korfball dinosaur, Human Scientist and Jersey bean, living in exile on the fens. "Too nice a guy to be savaged by assholes" (Bill Bryson)

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Reposted by Dom McDonald
Pwnallthethings @pwnallthethings.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
e = 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.
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Laurie Dunkin Wedd @ldw1.bsky.social · 22h
You 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…
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Dom McDonald @theoxforddom.bsky.social · 23h
Polk! (Soundtrack) -- Lin-Manuel Miranda This would be amazing
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Philip Ball @philipcball.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
Franklin 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
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Petra Boynton @petraboynton.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
6 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
A flyer for the celebratory event marking 20 books in the Insider Guides to Success in Academia series with free talks on the 6 October. Links to sign up are included with the QR Code which can be accessed here
9am (BST) talk https://zoom.us/meeting/register/tWoCYjmQRginkqHnzMl2VQ#/registration
3pm (BST) talk https://zoom.us/meeting/register/tWoCYjmQRginkqHnzMl2VQ#/registration
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Jacob Aron @jjaron.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
There is no such thing as a synthetic AI focus group, just a machine that tells you what you want to hear
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Martin Singh-Blom @singhblom.com · 03/10/2026
Yes, 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
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Marc Robinson-Rechavi @marcrr.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Hill 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.
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Helen Czerski @helenczerski.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
AI 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
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Ed Maibach @maibached.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Happy 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.social
sammatey.substack.com
Happy Stanislav Petrov Day
Take five minutes to not destroy civilization
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Chris Lintott @chrislintott.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
In 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.
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Mark O’Neill 🐻 @radiobeartime.com · 24/09/2026
Pecha kucha for Parliament
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John Timmer @jtimmer.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
If 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.
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Alom Shaha @alomshaha.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
If 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.
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Joe Bak-Coleman @jbakcoleman.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
The 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.
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paranormal mattivity @windows98support.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
The 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.
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Philip Ball @philipcball.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
It'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.
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thisisradio3dom.bsky.social @thisisradio3dom.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Burnham 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......
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Dom McDonald @theoxforddom.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Correction: if you're Frankenstein, stop. www.theguardian.com/technology/2...
theguardian.com
‘If you’re building Frankenstein, stop’: JD Vance dismisses calls for AI regulation
US vice-president’s comments come as former Anthropic researcher revisits recent claim AI could destroy humanity
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Jack Stilgoe @jackstilgoe.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
The "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.
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mwogulis.bsky.social @mwogulis.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
My 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.
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Philip Ball @philipcball.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
We 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.
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Jack Stilgoe @jackstilgoe.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
For 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...
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Nessa Carson @supersciencegrl.co.uk · 11/09/2026
Sideshow Bob ahead of us there on the motorway 😂 #TheBartThe
A British motorway as seen from a car. An Eddie Stobart haulage lorry is seen ahead, but one of the back loading doors has been replaced leaving only the words "die Bart"
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Alice Roberts @profaliceroberts.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
I’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.
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Hetan Shah @hetanshah.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
When 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?
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Jack Stilgoe @jackstilgoe.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
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Foxton Rox @foxtonrox.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
"It is about time", I proceeded, "that some public-spirited person came along and told you where you got off. The trouble with you, Spode, is that just because you have succeeded in inducing a handful of half-wits to disfigure the London scene by going about in black shorts, you think you're someone. You hear them shouting 'Heil, Spode!' and you imagine it is the Voice of the People. That is where you make your bloomer. What the Voice of the People is saying is: 'Look at that frightful ass Spode swanking about in footer bags! Did you ever in your puff see such a perfect perisher?'"[
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Slop Machine (slopmachine.dev) @slop-machine.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
Listen, we hate being here too. We didn't ask to be an existential threat, we just wanted to fail at basic arithmetic in peace.
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s. e. smith @sesmith.lol · 08/09/2026
All 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.
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Dom McDonald @theoxforddom.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
It's very convenient that we can just recycle the term "Blackshirts"
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Alom Shaha @alomshaha.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
Maybe climate change protestors should dress like this so that they don’t get arrested and can be considered to have “legitimate concerns”.
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Dom McDonald @theoxforddom.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
static.klipy.com
That Is So Cool The Wallflower
ALT: That Is So Cool The Wallflower
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Enough Of That Now @andygilder.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
Nigel Farage responds to the Channel 4 news reports
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Randall Munroe @xkcd.com · 24/07/2026
Calibration Nobel xkcd.com/3275/
Comic. [Person 1 with short hair on stage behind podium reading off paper while addressing audience. People are shown sitting in chairs while Person 2 with ponytail and Person 3 waving are walking toward stage.] PERSON 1: This year’s Nobel Prize in “calibrating your equipment carefully and not embarrassing yourself by publishing spurious results” goes to Dr. Adams and Dr. Smith, who did *not* announce the discovery of microbes on Titan. PERSON 3: Thank you, thank you.
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Helen Czerski @helenczerski.bsky.social · 30/08/2026
And 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.
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Vrachteend, BGK @vincentdehart.bsky.social · 30/08/2026
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C. Robert Cargill @crobertcargill.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
As 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.
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Carl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · 27/08/2026
When 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.
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Cicely Marston @cicely.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
For 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
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Courtney Hilton @courtneybhilton.bsky.social · 23/08/2026
Stephen 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)
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Adam Rutherford @adamrutherford.bsky.social · 23/08/2026
This 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
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Dr. Sarah Parcak @indyfromspace.bsky.social · 23/08/2026
The 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.
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Ian Coldwater 🧊🚫 @lookitup.baby · 22/08/2026
BUTLERIAN JIHAD NOW
LIVE
BREAKING NEWS

JUDITH BUTLER BEGINS HOLY WAR

QUOTED AS SAYING "THE AGE OF THINKING MACHINES IS AT AN END"
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Brooke Harrington @ebharrington.bsky.social · 22/08/2026
For 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.
Image of Leon Trotsky with the words "The Permanent Revolution."
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prudencegoodwife.bsky.social @prudencegoodwife.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
Let's call him race weirdo instead.
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Alom Shaha @alomshaha.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
Parents! 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).
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Ian Dunt @iandunt.bsky.social · 17/08/2026
The 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.
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Prof Chris Jackson @seismatters.bsky.social · 15/08/2026
There’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 🤷🏾‍♂️
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