Dr Heather Williams MBE

My current strategy!

Nearly 50% of researchers quit science within a decade, huge study reveals Twenty years of publishing data across many countries and disciplines show women are more likely than men to leave research.

Worrying to see the gender gap in people no longer publishing after 1st paper. In some ways unsurprised by this research. Academic life is not for all and needlessly rocky, However it doesn’t mean people leave science as science is not just academia & academic publishing.🧪👩‍🔬#academicsky

Badenoch or Jenrick then. The downward trajectory that began with Cameron continues...

I think I have a pretty good handle on that, it's just how to actually structure the thing. I have a few weeks to think it through.

Well, this sucks.

Ok, lovely BlueSky peeps...
Any pointers on writing a departmental strategy? I've been trying to do this for months now, I know what my objectives are but am really struggling to write the "making the case" bits. Pointers welcome!

Love this. It really pays to think about how our familiar phrases are used by the general public!

This, fundamentally, is the issue. You can't argue people out of positions they didn't argue themselves into.

Problem is, "doing my own research" for most people just involves watching increasingly extreme content on YouTube.

Here's a list of real nature photographers posting their own work, who make their images accessible with Alt Text. I love that Bluesky values actual people and not those image stealing accounts.

This is just to get you started, there are tons more great photographers here!

🌿 #birds 🧪

And now for some very very very good news -

Hope has holes in its pockets. It leaves little crumb trails so that we, when anxious, can follow it. Hope’s secret: it doesn’t know the destination– it knows only that all roads begin with one foot in front of the other. –Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer

Found this and it moved me, so I'm sharing.

This mentality is called "pulling the ladder up after you" and I've seen plenty of women in senior roles do it to try and protect their own hard-won position.
Rather perverse to apply this to all the people in a nation considering motherhood, though... and why would this help her leadership bid?!

The story of the pride flag made from NASA imagery: Bluesky’s most-liked image – Southern Fried Science Southern Fried Science

https://buff.ly/3Bmz5d6 This pride flag made out of NASA imagery was, until Brazil joined en masse, the most-shared post in the history of Bluesky. I spoke with @rachellense.bsky.social about how she made it, and what it's reception means for inclusion in science. 🧪

Actress Dame Maggie Smith dies at 89 She won two Oscars and starred in the Harry Potter films and Downton Abbey.

What a remarkable life. Take a bow, Dame Smith.
www.bbc.com/news/article...

The stuff of MR scanning nightmares...

What Johnson’s “let the bodies pile high” meant in reality. Devastating testimony from Professor Kevin Fong about situation in hospitals during the pandemic. Difficult to listen to, unimaginable trauma for the medical staff trying to deal with this.

Thankyou, Kevin - for giving voice to the experience of healthcare workers at the Covid19 frontline, in an overstretched NHS at the mercy of a spineless, self-serving government.
This is why I have absolutely zero time for anyone who calls the Covid19 pandemic a hoax.

I love this description of science as a messy and very human endeavour -

I told them to keep passing this stuff on - too many weeks many in senior management are surviving a barrage of unrelenting criticism, and it's a lovely counterpoint.

This week I have had three really encouraging pieces of feedback. Two colleagues have reported that others called me "a national treasure" and "lovely, great, really clever" in conversations, and a third told me I was "inspirational" to my face.
If this carries on I might need a little weep.

Completely agree we need to design online content for mobile phone access - for any many people, their smartphone is their main internet-connected device, for some it is their only such device.

It's like the beginning of Twitter here, isn't it? Nice and chatty and gentle, but I'm essentially following people I can find with no particular plan....
I'd very much welcome links to Bluesky starter packs for anything sciencey but particularly medical physics and clinical engineering. Thanks!

‘Drug-resistant typhoid is the final warning sign’: disease spreads in Pakistan as antibiotics fail As world leaders discuss the battle against superbugs in New York, Pakistan’s children are suffering on the frontline

Anti-microbial resistance to antibiotics (AMR) is one of our biggest threats now. This article highlights the risk + prevalence of contaminated water, the lack of adequate diagnostic testing risking inappropriate antibiotics being used and need for action globally 🧪

We have vacancies for two Medical Physicists specialising in Nuclear Medicine in our team at The Christie, Manchester, UK. Details here -
Band 7
www.christie.nhs.uk/work-with-us...
Band 8a
www.christie.nhs.uk/work-with-us...

Book, change, or cancel a COVID-19 vaccination appointment online Book, change or cancel a COVID-19 vaccination appointment online.

Booking for Covid vaccines is now open for those that are eligible

www.nhs.uk/nhs-services...

Hello Bluesky-ers! Please come and say hello if you know me from "the other place" :)