Andy Lawrence

oh! good luck!

lasair.lsst.ac.uk Rubin alerts are now flooding in ! Millions of them. Get them here #astronomy

Éliane Radigue, French composer and musique concrète legend, dies aged 94 The Paris-born artist reinvented the synthesizer through meditative and feedback-drenched sonic explorations

Another giant passed. I will line up some calming droney music for my day www.theguardian.com/music/2026/f...

SpaceX rocket fireball linked to plume of lithium A SpaceX Falcon 9 crashed to Earth last year. Now scientists have measured the pollution it caused.

Atmospheric pollution from falling SpaceX debris. Nice write up, with quote from yours truly squeezed in at end www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

keep pushing

Annoyingly LLMs etc are called "generative AI" because they make apparently new sentences or pictures. But all they do is re-assemble the world's online content. You could have done that given more time. It is trad machine learning that has the prospect of genuine novelty and insight

Claims that AI can help fix climate dismissed as greenwashing Industry using ‘diversionary’ tactics, says analyst, as energy-hungry complex functions such as video generation and deep research proliferate

We urgently need public friendly terms that separate Machine Learning from LLMs etc, which these days all just get called "AI". The AI industry is conflating the two for greenwashing purposes www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

shop window with sign saying “get off the internet, destroy the right wing”. Sign above the door says “Queer Books. All Welcome”.

excellent shop window, Glasgow Southside.

Looks like a gravity dominated cosmological simulation. Find myself wondering what the power spectrum of initial fluctuations was.

spot on Professor Rice

UK government proposes 30% budget cut to astronomy and physics research: 'It's pretty disastrous' "You can't have a cut of that scale and not expect to see a massive impact."

More on catastrophic cuts to UK astronomy & particle physics. Costs of facilities & international subscriptions go up so grants line and individual projects are cut. If the Government is serious about backing science & technology, they need to fix this. www.space.com/astronomy/uk...

this letter is very well written, with all the right points... pure research is not just a diversion, it is an enabling infrastructure

Understood. Which makes Chapman's answers at the Parliamentary committee ("there are no cuts, just STFC coping with its increased costs") a little disingenuous

good advice John. And “political pressure” should involve *both* public awareness and behind the scenes information gathering and manoeuvring

That is worrying. So maybe more of a cunning strategy than a daft cockup.

The STFC Funding Crisis – Guest Post by George Efstathiou The following guest post by George Efstathiou is a response to the current STFC funding crisis I blogged about here, and specifically to a letter by the Executive Chair of STFC, Professor Michele D…

Excellent guest post on Telescoper's blog about the UK astronomy funding crisis, by George Efstathiou. I added a comment. The core problem is "STFC governance structure" - we are being squeezed by being in bed with the national labs #astronomy telescoper.blog/2026/02/06/t...

Bad. I used to consult this everytime I travelled somewhere new… Maybe MI6 can step up :(

sigh

Open letter from Ian Chapman to research and innovation community UKRI Chief Executive outlines changes to UKRI investment approach, addressing concerns about research funding and the financial position of STFC.

#astronomy UK funding panic: reading Chapman UKRI open letter its clear what we have is the classic stuff "overheating" problem. So the issue is where the course-correction hits: facilities, projects or grants? Where has the problem been *caused*? www.ukri.org/news/open-le...

My sea rower wife @emmalawrence.bsky.social has pointed out that spring tide lags the full moon by a day or two. I feel like I should know why… basic #astronomy

Crazier than ever! The Royal Astronomical Society has a “satellite constellation working group” and we will certainly be looking at this @royalastrosoc.bsky.social @robertmassey.bsky.social

Hamnet. Now the film is doing it all again

Just realised you can daisy chain XLR cables. Made my day. Don’t mock me. I’m new at the recording game

eek

The Jolly is great but stop telling people. Busy enough as it is

New Board of Peace shaping up nicely

Ethan Siegel (@startswithabang.bsky.social) Cosmologist, science communicator, author, speaker, and longtime writer of Starts With A Bang. Not the next Carl Sagan; the first Ethan Siegel.

An excellent summary by @startswithabang.bsky.social about the horror that is Reflect Orbital #astronomy Been out for a while but only just spotted it! bigthink.com/starts-with-...

Wait what you were an ionospheric physicist in them days? Many years ago I must have read your CV but don't remember this

Good luck Jonathan. One day in the distant future archaeologists will treasure the few remaining Smithsonian timesheets, desperately interpreting their smudged marks (or digital equivalent)

Coo. What were you doing there?