"Someone, somewhere, has taken the decision to defund astrophysics research in the UK, but no-one seems quite sure who that was, or why."
The latest on the impact of the catastrophic funding cuts to UK astrophysics, by me, in @natastron.nature.com 👩🔬🧪🔭
✒️ www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Measuring the gravitational constant, BIG G, is one of the hardest experiments ever. And it's still driving physicists bananas, hundreds of years after the first attempts 🧪⚛
www.youtube.com/shorts/vksqp...
The @erc.europa.eu has rolled back a controversial policy that would have extended how long researchers have to wait to re-apply after a failed application.
Good to see the ERC listening 💪 But it's far from clear how the council will now deal with the grant deluge 🧪
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
First science publisher sues an AI firm as a named plaintiff.
There seems to be little doubt now that scientific papers, like books and webpages, were used to train LLMs. But whether this counts as copyright infringement is for the courts to decide
www.nature.com/articles/d41... 🧪
CFS published 5 papers last week outlining their "early 2030s" fusion power plant & physics
Researchers say it's great they're publishing & plans are promising. But the papers far from "confirm" the plant will deliver net electricity
Lots of engineering Qs remain ⚛️🧪
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Have grants become more competitive lately? 🧪
At least some of the uptick in submissions (that we've reported on @nature.com) seems driven by AI-assisted proposal writing -- funders, like journals, are flooded
Great comment piece by @jameswilsdon.bsky.social
& co: www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Also includes findings from a new preprint surveying the views of AI researchers from @jackstilgoe.bsky.social & co at @ucl.ac.uk
Anomalies in physics are an endangered species. But an exciting one is growing in data from @lhcb.bsky.social🧪⚛️
It's a discrepancy in the angles that particles fly out of B meson 'penguin' decays & at 4 sigma🤞
What's a penguin decay & how could new physics affect it? www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Should you worry about AI killing us all? I looked at the evidence so you don't have to 🧪
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
@nature.com Ft. @garymarcus.bsky.social @sashamtl.bsky.social @gleave.me @andreamiotti.bsky.social @anthonyaguirre.bsky.social @ghadfield.bsky.social among others!