Philip Nolan
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philipnolanmu.bsky.social
Philip Nolan
@philipnolanmu.bsky.social
Research Professor @MaynoothUni | Scientist (physiologist), teacher, higher education leader, cyclist | philip.nolan@mu.ie | Personal account
David Byrne’s ‘One Fine Day’ is keeping me (relatively) sane right now.
October 23, 2025 at 5:31 PM
Simultaneously a good thing and not a good thing to be reading when planning a programme of fundamental research.
August 29, 2025 at 12:47 PM
Leigh Bowery! at the Tate Modern. Artist, fashion designer, performer, provocateur. The full retrospective really makes you stop, think, reflect. Triptych of Bowery in “looks”; portrait by Lucien Freud; still from Charles Atlas’s “Hail the New Puritan” featuring Bowery, with music by The Fall.
August 9, 2025 at 11:51 AM
Bucket list (and proud to be Irish) day at the start of Stage 14 in Pau. @cyclingireland.bsky.social @efprocycling.com
July 19, 2025 at 4:46 PM
Absolutely buzzing seeing Ben Healy in yellow, and enjoying it so much. @cyclingireland.bsky.social @ciarancannon.bsky.social @efprocycling.com
July 17, 2025 at 10:05 AM
France 2025 Day 10 last day: 140km from Dax to Oloron-Sainte-Maire. A day of riverside riding, from Dax along the north bank of the Adour to the bridge at Urt, the Pyrenees coming into view.
July 7, 2025 at 4:18 PM
France 2025 Day 9: 148km from Arcachon to Dax. Out, along the southern shore of Le Bassin d’Arcachon, and a short climb past the Dune du Pilat, the highest sand dune in Europe…
July 6, 2025 at 8:48 AM
When cycling through France, I always bring one book to be with in the evening; this year it’s Roland Barthes’ “Mythologies”. The essay “Toys” is so resonant; though published almost 70 years ago, it is disturbingly timely.
July 5, 2025 at 7:11 PM
France 2025 Day 8: 158km from Royan to Arcachon. The e day began with a ferry crossing from Royan to Le Verdon-sur-Mer, and down the western side of the Medoc on greenways, from the old rail lines that crossed the region.
July 4, 2025 at 9:28 PM
France 2025 Day 7: 179km from La Roche-sur-Yon to Royan. The weather gods sent a cooling northwesterly tailwind, so today was easier than recent days. First, through the vastness of the Vendée to Lucon.
July 3, 2025 at 8:57 PM
France 2025 Day 6: 172km from Redon to La Roche-sur-Yon. Grateful for a cool morning and a sprinkle of rain, cycling along the canal from Redon to Blain
July 2, 2025 at 7:01 PM
France 2025 Day 5: 164km from Rostrenen to Redon, along the Nantes-Brest canal. Given that I ‘climbed’ yesterday to the summit level near Carhaix, this was ‘downhill’ losing 1 metre per kilometre, but you can feel that and you just cruise along by the water.
July 2, 2025 at 5:58 AM
France 2025 Day 4: 193km from Le Conquet to Rostenen in the searing heat. The first half was hilly and scenic, with temperatures peaking at 36C in the afternoon.
July 1, 2025 at 6:15 AM
France 2025 Day 3: Roscoff to Le Conquet, 140 km. A cool and misty start from Roscoff, along the granite northern coast of Brittany.
June 29, 2025 at 3:55 PM
France 2025 Day 2: Cullen, Co. Tipperary to Ringaskiddy. Head down into the headwind again. The Galtee mountains looking alternately mysterious and beautiful.
June 28, 2025 at 4:15 PM
France 2025 Day 1: Kilcock to Cullen, Co. Tipperary. 174km head down into the teeth of a strong southerly wind; lovely dinner with my uncle and aunt.
June 27, 2025 at 11:04 PM
The out-of-office is on after a busy and productive year back at @MaynoothUni. I’m really grateful to colleagues for their support in re-establishing my research programme. We’ve laid the groundwork for an exciting and collaborative year to come.
June 27, 2025 at 11:21 AM
One to watch: there’ll be lots of really interesting fundamental research and scholarship here, with surprising and unpredictable applications and impacts. A great way to celebrate an institutional birthday.
On this day 85 years ago - 19 June 1940 - the 'Institute for Advanced Studies Act' was signed into law by President Dubhglas de hÍde, officially establishing DIAS.

Over the next 12 months, we’ll be celebrating 85 years of world-class research! Join us on this journey!

#DIAS85 #DIASdiscovers
June 19, 2025 at 11:21 AM
Reposted by Philip Nolan
Don't forget Brexit taught European trade officials how to deal with an intransigent, irrational country intent on sabotaging its own economy to make a far-right political point.

This is not our first ride on the clown-car rodeo.
April 7, 2025 at 2:17 PM
A really stimulating afternoon at the first HypoxEU Connect event at the UCD Conway Institute: great talks from Cormac Taylor and Eoin Cummins on the cellular effects of hypoxia and hypercapnia, and from Dmitri Papkovsky on optical sensors for oxygen. Read more here: www.linkedin.com/posts/philip...
A stimulating afternoon in the UCD Conway Institute for the first HypoxEU… | Philip Nolan
A stimulating afternoon in the UCD Conway Institute for the first HypoxEU Connect event, sponsored by The Baker Company. Great talks. Cormac Taylor brought us…
www.linkedin.com
March 27, 2025 at 4:59 PM
The attack on science and reason perpetrated by la Maison Blanche is front page news in France …. making obscurantism topical again!
March 7, 2025 at 12:59 PM
I dropped into the wonderful CAPC (Musée d’art contemporain) in Bordeaux, to find an exhibition that felt especially mounted for me! “Air de repos - Breathwork”. It was … well … inspiring!
March 7, 2025 at 12:37 PM
Finding strange solace in Barthes’s 1957 introduction to “Mythologies”; it certainly feels like a moment to “live to the full the contradiction of [our] time” which may well indeed “make sarcasm the condition of truth” (though not, perhaps, of effective diplomacy)
March 6, 2025 at 7:22 PM
Spéir gorm, Domhnach Deá, Cill Dara.
February 28, 2025 at 1:17 PM
Museo Galileo, to see his telescope. The next displays showed how Renaissance physics was then applied in navigation, artillery and surveying. Fundamental research quickly applied to war and colonisation. A reminder that every research decision (what to do, what to fund) has deep ethical dimensions
February 25, 2025 at 9:54 AM