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davesmaths.bsky.social
David Sloan
@davesmaths.bsky.social
110 followers 150 following 200 posts
Chief Scientific Officer of the Foundational Questions Institute. Reader in Physics at Lancaster University. Friend to dogs. (He/Him)

Trans rights are human rights, black lives matter, Palestinians are human beings. The unfollow button is up there ⬆
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davesmaths.bsky.social
David Sloan @davesmaths.bsky.social · Nov 30
Now I'm loose on the internet, and I've got some strong opinions about contact manifolds.
Reposted by David Sloan
fqxi.org
This Valentine's Day, we'll be talking about life, not love. The winners of our 'How Quantum is Life?' competition are revealed 14 February.

Who's going to share the $53,000 prize pot?
February 12, 2026 at 5:30 PM
davesmaths.bsky.social
Whatever it is you think your society should be, this cannot be part of it.
shannonheffernan.bsky.social Shannon Heffernan @shannonheffernan.bsky.social · 13d
A drawing by a 5-year-old girl detained at the Dilley Immigration Processing Center in Texas with her mother Hayam El-Gamal. “I am 5 years old” is written at the top of the page. Lower down, next to stick figures, are the words “let us go.” Courtesy of Eric Lee, Lee & Godshall-Bennett, LLP
a childlike drawing of stick figures behind bars
January 30, 2026 at 7:37 PM
davesmaths.bsky.social
As usual, @acollierastro.bsky.social nails this. I sometimes wonder what fraction of academia is now a closed loop of chatgpt setting assignments, completing them and then marking the results. Why not just close the loop entirely and we can all go home?
thelasttheorist.bsky.social Steve T PhD @thelasttheorist.bsky.social · 19d
@acollierastro.bsky.social says it better than I did. "Everyone can have maximum output while accomplishing nothing." www.youtube.com/watch?v=7pqF...
January 25, 2026 at 8:06 PM
davesmaths.bsky.social
I'm endlessly amused by conservatives who think Star Trek isn't essentially a rebuttal of everything they believe.
jessiegender.bsky.social Jessie Gender @jessiegender.bsky.social · 27d
Whelp, I was already making a video essay on it and was going to release it tomorrow, but because Stephen Miller had to open his fascist mouth about Star Trek, I added to it and released it today. So enjoy me clowning on conservative assholes terrible Star Trek opinions - youtu.be/3HOzBtDUlbo
Nazis Have the Dumbest Star Trek Opinions
YouTube video by Jessie Gender
youtu.be
January 17, 2026 at 7:44 PM
Reposted by David Sloan
profrachelgan.bsky.social
Following coverage over the weekend of Sir Paul Nurse's comments that suggested that the only reason that a Fellow should be expelled from @royalsociety.org is scientific misconduct, I have written to him to explain the risks such an attitude poses of increasing sexual harassment in STEM.
Dear Sir Paul, Re: Royal Society Code of Conduct I am sure that many scientists have written to you about the specific question of Elon Musk’s Fellowship and whether, under the Royal Society’s Code of Conduct, his retaining that Fellowship is appropriate. I will not rehash these issues. Instead, as a female scientist with extensive experience of activities aiming to increase equality, diversity and inclusion in the engineering and physical sciences sector, I am writing to you (in a personal capacity) to ask you to reconsider the statements you have recently made in this context to the UK press about the Royal Society’s Code of Conduct and how it is applied. A 2018 report from the joint National Academies of the United States of America, concluded that “sexual harassment is common in academic science, engineering, and medicine” and that “greater than 50 percent of women faculty and staff and 20–50 percent of women students encounter or experience sexually harassing conduct in academia”. This report described codes of conduct that make clear that sexual harassment is unethical and will not be tolerated as a “powerful incentive for change”. The authors also noted that sexual harassment can have significant and damaging effects on the integrity of research. In my own praxis, I have found that clear and consistently-implemented codes of conduct that address these issues make female scientists and engineers safer, and allow them to focus more effectively on their research. For codes of conduct to have such a positive effect, it is vital that sanctions for actions which transgress the code are meaningful and substantial. I was hence aghast to realise that in an interview with the Financial Times published on 9/1/26, you appear to have suggested that the Royal Society “should only expel fellows if their science proved “faulty or fraudulent or highly defective””. Moreover, in a further interview with the Guardian on 11/1/26 you suggested that the code “may need to be looked at again”, with the implication that your aim would be to remove the option of sanctions on Fellows for reasons not strictly related to faults or defects in their research. I suggest that changing the Royal Society’s code of conduct so that the likelihood of serious sanctions for sexual harassment is reduced, would directly endanger women who interact with the Royal Society at events or otherwise, and would provide a licence to harass to the already powerful people on whom the Society bestows fellowship. The implications of your words - that under your leadership the only infringements of the code which are likely to receive the sanction of the Fellowship being removed are those related to research misconduct - already risk empowering harassers. You stated, in the Financial Times interview, that “there’s many bad people around, but they have made scientific advances”. Given this awareness of the possibility of bad actors in our scientific community, it is wholly irresponsible to suggest that the Royal Society would not act to sanction these people if they harass more vulnerable scientists. I am hence writing to request that you retract any suggestion that the Society’s Code of Conduct should be changed so that the only reason a Fellow might be sanctioned by the removal of their Fellowship is “faulty or fraudulent or highly defective” research. This action is necessary to safeguard female scientists, a requirement placed on the Society by safeguarding legislation and UK statutory guidance. Yours sincerely, Professor Rachel A. Oliver.
January 12, 2026 at 8:59 AM
davesmaths.bsky.social
Due to diminishing returns on increasing efficiency, the time taken to cut wood up into n pieces is O(log n).
zachweinersmith.bsky.social Zach Weinersmith @zachweinersmith.bsky.social · Jan 12
This joke idea is too good to actually do, so I'm posting it here
January 12, 2026 at 5:39 PM
davesmaths.bsky.social
I guess it's post your favourite Popcorn cover time: www.youtube.com/watch?v=O775...
December 25, 2025 at 8:30 PM
davesmaths.bsky.social
Come on, Guardian, "McDonald's serves up slop" was right there...

www.theguardian.com/business/202...
‘Ruined my Christmas spirit’: McDonald’s removes AI-generated ad after backlash
Commercial in Netherlands depicting festival-season chaos at ‘most terrible time of year’ prompted flurry of criticism online
www.theguardian.com
December 18, 2025 at 12:22 AM
Reposted by David Sloan
fqxi.org
Your brain uses 20 watts of power constantly. This is a massive reproductive fitness cost. Why can natural selection not reduce that cost?
December 15, 2025 at 4:01 PM
Reposted by David Sloan
rjme.bsky.social
I'm hiring a postdoc -- come and do awesome cosmology with great people in one of the nicest cities in the world (not that I'm biased or anything) 🔭 🧪
cosmology.blogs.auckland.ac.nz/2025/12/12/p...
Post-doc @ Auckland
Looking for a cosmology post-doc at the University of Auckland
cosmology.blogs.auckland.ac.nz
December 12, 2025 at 10:12 AM
davesmaths.bsky.social
Last cosmology lecture today, so we had open questions. A student asked a question about quantum gravity...
Image of Charlie from It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia in front of a crazy wall of papers with lines drawn between them in a conspiracy theory way.
December 11, 2025 at 11:47 AM
davesmaths.bsky.social
Inverse challenge for the @zachweinersmith.bsky.social books: Divide by a hundred.

A year of solitude
danielbolnick.bsky.social Daniel Bolnick @danielbolnick.bsky.social · Dec 5
@zachweinersmith.bsky.social poses a fun activity: add “hundred” to a book title.

A Tale of Two Hundred Cities
Lord of the Hundred Flies
The Hundred Brothers Karamazov
A Hundred Hundred Years of Solitude

www.smbc-comics.com
Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal - Hundred
Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal - Hundred
www.smbc-comics.com
December 5, 2025 at 8:56 PM
davesmaths.bsky.social
Can't wait to see who's gonna win the Nobel prize for football.
atrupar.com Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · Dec 5
this shit is just beyond parody, man
December 5, 2025 at 7:08 PM
davesmaths.bsky.social
Finishing 2025 with a bang: arxiv.org/abs/2512.03645

Scaling symmetries can even reduce singular theories, like the standard model.

Next stop: General Relativity!
Gauge Symmetries, Contact Reduction, and Singular Field Theories
The reduction of dynamical systems which are invariant under changes of global scale is well-understood, for classical theories of particles, and fields. The excision of the superfluous degree of free...
arxiv.org
December 5, 2025 at 9:56 AM
Reposted by David Sloan
fqxi.org
1/4
How do you escape the "parallel universe of fake papers?"
@nicolakimjones.bsky.social spoke with Ilka Agricola, chair of the IMU's committee on publishing and a physicist and mathematician at the University of Marburg, in Germany.

Full story: qspace.fqxi.org/articles/281...
December 3, 2025 at 5:15 PM
davesmaths.bsky.social
I'll be in New York at a Simons workshop from Feb 20th until March 11th. If anyone on the east coast wants a physics talk around those dates (or just to meet up) let me know.
December 2, 2025 at 4:23 PM
davesmaths.bsky.social
Masterclasses with Julian Barbour, courtesy of @fqxi.org !
fqxi.org FQxI @fqxi.org · Nov 26
Join Julian’s new three-part FQxI masterclass, “Complexity in the Cosmos”, on QAcademy – where he radically rethinks gravity, the Big Bang and time.

Limited-time offer. Free access for three weeks. Offer ends 17th December 2025.

GET FREE ACCESS: qacademy.fqxi.org/offers/fkEBq...
November 26, 2025 at 10:37 PM
davesmaths.bsky.social
Marking time

www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXFS...
Carl Orff - O Fortuna ~ Carmina Burana
YouTube video by Beatriz
www.youtube.com
November 24, 2025 at 6:07 PM
Reposted by David Sloan
vrooje.net
It is time for universities — not just staff and student unions, but the senior management too — to admit out loud that this government is actively trying to make universities fail. We *all* need to come together and collectively try to fight their attempts to loot and pillage.
sgfmann.bsky.social George Mann @sgfmann.bsky.social · Nov 23
i: Reeves to unveil £600m raid on foreign student
university fees #TomorrowsPapersToday
November 24, 2025 at 10:25 AM
davesmaths.bsky.social
The past was erased, the erasure was forgotten, the lie became the truth. George Orwell, 1984

www.msn.com/en-us/health...
MSN
www.msn.com
November 20, 2025 at 8:04 PM
davesmaths.bsky.social
Are Labour MPs having a competition to see who can come up with the most disgusting policy proposal?

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

This isn't about economics, it's about being fucking horrible to people.
Asylum seekers’ jewellery could be seized to pay for processing costs, says Home Office minister
Idea borrowed from Denmark is latest attempt to reduce number of people seeking asylum in UK
www.theguardian.com
November 17, 2025 at 8:35 PM
Reposted by David Sloan
fqxi.org
The science journals Critical Care Medicine and Biology Open and the science platform Research Hub have been testing how paying reviewers affects the science publishing process. Reporter Geoff Marsh found out more.
Full podcast: qspace.fqxi.org/podcasts/125
November 12, 2025 at 5:15 PM
davesmaths.bsky.social
Life imitates art...
Sign from the game World of Goo. A computer screen has green text reading "you appear to be incompatible with: THE WORLD".
November 11, 2025 at 10:51 PM
Reposted by David Sloan
mattfarr.bsky.social
Another not-at-all dated reference from today's lecture.
Venn diagram showing overlap of Run DMC and Humeans about laws of nature (why is the world the way it is? Don't ask me because I don't know why but it's like that and that's the way it is. And it was already like that before Jason Nevins added a further drum beat).
November 6, 2025 at 3:11 PM