Rebekah Higgitt
@rhiggitt.bsky.social
Historian of science; Principal Curator of Science at National Museums Scotland & Hon Fellow, STIS, Uni of Edinburgh. VP British Society for the History of Science #histSTM. Views own.
Formerly known as @beckyfh
https://teleskopos.wordpress.com/profile
Formerly known as @beckyfh
https://teleskopos.wordpress.com/profile
Good episode of IOT on the Mariana Trench (great to hear mention of the commercial/communications drivers behind HMS Challenger's oceanographic circumnavigation) www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...
In Our Time - The Mariana Trench - BBC Sounds
Misha Glenny and guests discuss the exploration of the world's deepest ocean trench.
www.bbc.co.uk
January 22, 2026 at 9:47 AM
Good episode of IOT on the Mariana Trench (great to hear mention of the commercial/communications drivers behind HMS Challenger's oceanographic circumnavigation) www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...
Great thread on a fascinating bit of science. (I'm also pleased to see that parts of the key specimen have been accessioned by @ntlmuseumsscot.bsky.social)
Our paper on the mysterious Devonian organism Prototaxites has now finally been published! See the paper here (www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...) and our explainer thread below!
Prototaxites reconstruction by Matt Humpage
Prototaxites reconstruction by Matt Humpage
January 22, 2026 at 8:28 AM
Great thread on a fascinating bit of science. (I'm also pleased to see that parts of the key specimen have been accessioned by @ntlmuseumsscot.bsky.social)
Reposted by Rebekah Higgitt
Our friend @pavementgeology.bsky.social also featured in a similar BBC article before Xmas
www.bbc.co.uk/future/artic...
www.bbc.co.uk/future/artic...
'Urban geology': How to find fossils (and other discoveries) in your city's buildings
If you look closer at the building stones, tiles and pavements of the big city, you can find a hidden world of geology and history, from fascinating fossils to unusual rocks.
www.bbc.co.uk
January 21, 2026 at 8:44 AM
Our friend @pavementgeology.bsky.social also featured in a similar BBC article before Xmas
www.bbc.co.uk/future/artic...
www.bbc.co.uk/future/artic...
An oasis of a read amid the rest of the news - a story about a walk and an app highlighting urban geology www.theguardian.com/travel/2026/...
Rock up to London: discovering stones and fossils from around the world on an urban geology tour
The city’s architecture travels through time and continents, incorporating everything from slabs of the Italian Alps to meteorites that hit southern Africa 2bn years ago
www.theguardian.com
January 21, 2026 at 8:25 AM
An oasis of a read amid the rest of the news - a story about a walk and an app highlighting urban geology www.theguardian.com/travel/2026/...
Reposted by Rebekah Higgitt
Sheffield merely the latest university to claim that legally withdrawing your labour should actually be postponing your labour, and punishing people further. Here’s how strikes work:
1. You legally stop working for a period of time. You don’t get paid.
2. Win or lose you go back to work.
1. You legally stop working for a period of time. You don’t get paid.
2. Win or lose you go back to work.
Well that’s me locked out. No pay for the foreseeable future, all because I refuse to reschedule lost teaching, for which I have already lost pay as part of the strike. Please donate to support @sheffielducu.bsky.social members like me at www.gofundme.com/f/heubvb-sup...
January 19, 2026 at 6:08 PM
Sheffield merely the latest university to claim that legally withdrawing your labour should actually be postponing your labour, and punishing people further. Here’s how strikes work:
1. You legally stop working for a period of time. You don’t get paid.
2. Win or lose you go back to work.
1. You legally stop working for a period of time. You don’t get paid.
2. Win or lose you go back to work.
Reposted by Rebekah Higgitt
And there it is.
A museum piece of toddler-king illiterate petulance… for eternity.
A museum piece of toddler-king illiterate petulance… for eternity.
January 19, 2026 at 6:45 PM
And there it is.
A museum piece of toddler-king illiterate petulance… for eternity.
A museum piece of toddler-king illiterate petulance… for eternity.
Lovely sunny day in Edinburgh, but sadly any aurora out there is now clouded out. Take a look if your skies are clear
January 19, 2026 at 10:10 PM
Lovely sunny day in Edinburgh, but sadly any aurora out there is now clouded out. Take a look if your skies are clear
Sunday sofa working. My assistant is keeping things relaxed
January 18, 2026 at 4:31 PM
Sunday sofa working. My assistant is keeping things relaxed
Reposted by Rebekah Higgitt
The deadline for the Society for Study of Measurement conference has been extended to January 31st! 👇
#philsci #histsci
#philsci #histsci
Deadline today!! Society for the Study of Measurement, June 22-25, 2026, University of Edinburgh. 500-word abstract. #histsci #philsci #PhilSky #MLSky #psycsci #PsychSciSky #dataethics 🧪https://measurementsociety.org/2026-second-biennial-conference/
2026 – Second Biennial Conference – The Society for the Study of Measurement
measurementsociety.org
January 16, 2026 at 2:16 PM
Reposted by Rebekah Higgitt
🚨 Reminder 🚨
Tonight our third annual John Brown Memorial Lecture will take place, this time at @glasgow.ac.uk.
Speakers Dr David Mahon and BAFTA-winning artist and musician Lomond Campbell will showcase their Muonophone...
⤵️
Tonight our third annual John Brown Memorial Lecture will take place, this time at @glasgow.ac.uk.
Speakers Dr David Mahon and BAFTA-winning artist and musician Lomond Campbell will showcase their Muonophone...
⤵️
January 16, 2026 at 12:29 PM
🚨 Reminder 🚨
Tonight our third annual John Brown Memorial Lecture will take place, this time at @glasgow.ac.uk.
Speakers Dr David Mahon and BAFTA-winning artist and musician Lomond Campbell will showcase their Muonophone...
⤵️
Tonight our third annual John Brown Memorial Lecture will take place, this time at @glasgow.ac.uk.
Speakers Dr David Mahon and BAFTA-winning artist and musician Lomond Campbell will showcase their Muonophone...
⤵️
Reposted by Rebekah Higgitt
Holy hell. The description of death row in apartheid South Africa was one of the most harrowing things I've ever read.
Also.
This guy wasn't fucking around.
Also.
This guy wasn't fucking around.
January 15, 2026 at 5:43 PM
Holy hell. The description of death row in apartheid South Africa was one of the most harrowing things I've ever read.
Also.
This guy wasn't fucking around.
Also.
This guy wasn't fucking around.
Some incredible images
January 15, 2026 at 7:50 PM
Some incredible images
Re-reading Russell and @leev.bsky.social's 'After Innovation, Turn to Maintenance' and this line nearly made me weep, for my lost youth and Twitter's 2010s innocence: "We quickly reframed the joke to include all technologies... and began playing around with it online in blog posts and on Twitter."
January 15, 2026 at 6:20 PM
Re-reading Russell and @leev.bsky.social's 'After Innovation, Turn to Maintenance' and this line nearly made me weep, for my lost youth and Twitter's 2010s innocence: "We quickly reframed the joke to include all technologies... and began playing around with it online in blog posts and on Twitter."
Change (of presenter) In Our Time!
We’re back today, with JS Mill (and as we’ll hear Harriet Taylor Mill) on the case for personal liberty and the limits of state interference. The presenter is Misha Glenny www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...
BBC Radio 4 - In Our Time, On Liberty
John Stuart Mill's argument for the limits of power that society has over the individual.
www.bbc.co.uk
January 15, 2026 at 8:44 AM
Change (of presenter) In Our Time!
Reposted by Rebekah Higgitt
The politics of university job losses partly rely on an outdated understanding of who goes to university and where universities are importantly. The economic and social lives of industrial towns and cities across England, Scotland and Wales often heavily rely on universities.
January 15, 2026 at 8:12 AM
The politics of university job losses partly rely on an outdated understanding of who goes to university and where universities are importantly. The economic and social lives of industrial towns and cities across England, Scotland and Wales often heavily rely on universities.
I'm proud to have had a comment on the blurb of Roland's important Scientific Advice book
A sad loss for #histsci #scipol and #scicomm
A sad loss for #histsci #scipol and #scicomm
Sad to learn that fellow Tyndall correspondence editor Sir Roland Jackson (@rolandjackson.bsky.social), also Tyndall biographer and author of the recent Scientific Advice to the Nineteenth-Century British State, among MUCH else, has passed away.
upittpress.org/authors/rola...
#HPS #histsci
upittpress.org/authors/rola...
#HPS #histsci
January 14, 2026 at 9:50 PM
Reposted by Rebekah Higgitt
I knew about Jackson's work on 19th c. science--and Tyndall specifically--but was less familiar with his work @sciencemuseum.org.uk, @britsciassoc.bsky.social or @sciencewise.bsky.social until I read his @upittpress.bsky.social bio.
What an impressive career!
#histSTM #histsci #RIP 🗃️📜
What an impressive career!
#histSTM #histsci #RIP 🗃️📜
Sad to learn that fellow Tyndall correspondence editor Sir Roland Jackson (@rolandjackson.bsky.social), also Tyndall biographer and author of the recent Scientific Advice to the Nineteenth-Century British State, among MUCH else, has passed away.
upittpress.org/authors/rola...
#HPS #histsci
upittpress.org/authors/rola...
#HPS #histsci
January 14, 2026 at 9:39 PM
I knew about Jackson's work on 19th c. science--and Tyndall specifically--but was less familiar with his work @sciencemuseum.org.uk, @britsciassoc.bsky.social or @sciencewise.bsky.social until I read his @upittpress.bsky.social bio.
What an impressive career!
#histSTM #histsci #RIP 🗃️📜
What an impressive career!
#histSTM #histsci #RIP 🗃️📜
Reposted by Rebekah Higgitt
Lovely theme! #histsci 📜
On January 14–15, the Musée d’Histoire des sciences in Geneva will host the international conference “Beyond Books: Instruments and Knowledge in Libraries”, which we are co-organizing with Rossella Baldi, Samuel Gessner, and Laurence-Isaline Stahl Gretsch. Join us if you're around! Full program 👇
AU DELA DU LIVRE web.pdf
sharedocs.huma-num.fr
January 12, 2026 at 11:36 PM
Lovely theme! #histsci 📜
I hate the title and tone of the Lucy Worsley 'Murder Club' series on BBC2. Brutal murders that actually happened narrated as amusingly salacious 'cosy crime'. Horrible.
January 12, 2026 at 9:16 PM
I hate the title and tone of the Lucy Worsley 'Murder Club' series on BBC2. Brutal murders that actually happened narrated as amusingly salacious 'cosy crime'. Horrible.
Reposted by Rebekah Higgitt
My first read of 2026: The Wake of HMS Challenger: How a Legendary Victorian Voyage Tells the Story of Our Oceans' Decline by Gillen D'Arcy Wood (@princetonupress.bsky.social, 2025): bit.ly/49sMNZh #HPS #histsci #environment #oceans #books #sciencebooks
January 9, 2026 at 11:26 PM
My first read of 2026: The Wake of HMS Challenger: How a Legendary Victorian Voyage Tells the Story of Our Oceans' Decline by Gillen D'Arcy Wood (@princetonupress.bsky.social, 2025): bit.ly/49sMNZh #HPS #histsci #environment #oceans #books #sciencebooks
Reposted by Rebekah Higgitt
My presentation that highlights a lengthy period of hybrid analog-digital photography in astronomy.Includes some interesting examples like JPL engineers colouring an image with crayons, and the first astronomical CCD image.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=vsXX...
#histsci #sts #astronomy #hps #photography
www.youtube.com/watch?v=vsXX...
#histsci #sts #astronomy #hps #photography
January 12, 2026 at 2:14 AM
My presentation that highlights a lengthy period of hybrid analog-digital photography in astronomy.Includes some interesting examples like JPL engineers colouring an image with crayons, and the first astronomical CCD image.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=vsXX...
#histsci #sts #astronomy #hps #photography
www.youtube.com/watch?v=vsXX...
#histsci #sts #astronomy #hps #photography
Useful article on the nature of Museum Studies as a discipline, and its relationship to History. 📜🗃️
I'm very happy to see this #openaccess paper out to start off 2026! It was mostly written almost two years ago, when I was reflecting on 20 years of research and teaching in Museum Studies in the UK, but also increasingly facing questions from academics...
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
The value of the ‘undisciplined’: Critical Museum Studies
This paper explores the discipline of Museum Studies considering its relationship to History. It addresses key differences between understandings of academic Museum Studies internationally, its dis...
www.tandfonline.com
January 12, 2026 at 8:33 AM
Useful article on the nature of Museum Studies as a discipline, and its relationship to History. 📜🗃️
Reposted by Rebekah Higgitt
my latest for Prospect.
Apparently the US government can kill people on the high seas, in other lands and on its own streets—and nothing will be done to stop it. The US is now a gangster state at home and a rogue state abroad, writes dag
Death in Minnesota
The significance of the reaction to the killing of Renee Nicole Good
www.prospectmagazine.co.uk
January 11, 2026 at 8:03 AM
my latest for Prospect.
Reposted by Rebekah Higgitt
In today's AIP History Weekly Edition, we look at recent articles by @rhiggitt.bsky.social and Yuto Ishibashi, which show how record-keeping, history, and institutional governance intertwined during the centuries-long evolution of the Royal Observatory at Greenwich.
History and the governance of the Royal Observatory
AIP History Weekly Edition: January 9, 2026
www.aip.org
January 9, 2026 at 3:29 PM
In today's AIP History Weekly Edition, we look at recent articles by @rhiggitt.bsky.social and Yuto Ishibashi, which show how record-keeping, history, and institutional governance intertwined during the centuries-long evolution of the Royal Observatory at Greenwich.