Madeleine Shepherd
@studioknotunknot.bsky.social
Textile artist, mostly knitting, mostly inspired by mathematics, space exploration and science fiction. Lapsed science communicator. Also, occasional writer and photographer.
Trying not to shout into the void.
www.madeleineshepherd.co.uk
Trying not to shout into the void.
www.madeleineshepherd.co.uk
For the next three weekends, you can find my latest work in Coburg House Gallery Shop Spotlight display. The basis for this work is an agar pattern in Conway's Game of Life. It was the subject of new research in 2022. It's all knitted in Aran-weight lambswoolspun and dyed in Scotland.
November 8, 2025 at 12:14 AM
For the next three weekends, you can find my latest work in Coburg House Gallery Shop Spotlight display. The basis for this work is an agar pattern in Conway's Game of Life. It was the subject of new research in 2022. It's all knitted in Aran-weight lambswoolspun and dyed in Scotland.
Reposted by Madeleine Shepherd
Chatbots — LLMs — do not know facts and are not designed to be able to accurately answer factual questions. They are designed to find and mimic patterns of words, probabilistically. When they’re “right” it’s because correct things are often written down, so those patterns are frequent. That’s all.
June 19, 2025 at 11:21 AM
Chatbots — LLMs — do not know facts and are not designed to be able to accurately answer factual questions. They are designed to find and mimic patterns of words, probabilistically. When they’re “right” it’s because correct things are often written down, so those patterns are frequent. That’s all.
Reposted by Madeleine Shepherd
chats in squirrel are limited
to a sort of Roman salute
foreleg extended then folded
open paw on breast as if to say
Look I take you in my open paw
and hold you to my heart…
—William Bonar, “SQRL”
published in OFFERING (Red Squirrel Press, 2015)
www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk/poem/sqrl/
to a sort of Roman salute
foreleg extended then folded
open paw on breast as if to say
Look I take you in my open paw
and hold you to my heart…
—William Bonar, “SQRL”
published in OFFERING (Red Squirrel Press, 2015)
www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk/poem/sqrl/
October 28, 2025 at 4:13 PM
chats in squirrel are limited
to a sort of Roman salute
foreleg extended then folded
open paw on breast as if to say
Look I take you in my open paw
and hold you to my heart…
—William Bonar, “SQRL”
published in OFFERING (Red Squirrel Press, 2015)
www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk/poem/sqrl/
to a sort of Roman salute
foreleg extended then folded
open paw on breast as if to say
Look I take you in my open paw
and hold you to my heart…
—William Bonar, “SQRL”
published in OFFERING (Red Squirrel Press, 2015)
www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk/poem/sqrl/
Reposted by Madeleine Shepherd
BREAKING NEWS! - The final line up has been announced for the Maths Week England Launch event at MathsWorld, London on Saturday 15th November. An entire day of talks, stalls and mathsy activities - come and join in the fun, you won’t want to miss out. AND - be part of a world record breaking attempt
October 22, 2025 at 1:14 PM
BREAKING NEWS! - The final line up has been announced for the Maths Week England Launch event at MathsWorld, London on Saturday 15th November. An entire day of talks, stalls and mathsy activities - come and join in the fun, you won’t want to miss out. AND - be part of a world record breaking attempt
Reposted by Madeleine Shepherd
I wrote *Juicy Ghosts* in 2020, reacting to T's assault on the Capitol. In my novel, rebels bring down an insane, evil President who’s stolen a 3rd term. "Too radical" for the big houses. I pubbed it myself in 2021. And here we are in 2025. Time to read the book! rudyrucker.com/juicyghosts/
October 16, 2025 at 6:21 PM
I wrote *Juicy Ghosts* in 2020, reacting to T's assault on the Capitol. In my novel, rebels bring down an insane, evil President who’s stolen a 3rd term. "Too radical" for the big houses. I pubbed it myself in 2021. And here we are in 2025. Time to read the book! rudyrucker.com/juicyghosts/
A superb exhibition of and about Ursula K Le Guin's map making practice. Loved the use of cyanotype banners. If you're in central London before 6 December, check it out.
The Word for World: an exhibition presenting the maps of Ursula K. Le Guin is now open at the AA Gallery! It's free and on until 6 Dec. Here are some photos from opening evening 🌀 www.aaschool.ac.uk/publicprogra...
October 17, 2025 at 6:00 PM
A superb exhibition of and about Ursula K Le Guin's map making practice. Loved the use of cyanotype banners. If you're in central London before 6 December, check it out.
Guess which one I'm reposting this for!
Today is Sunday 12 October 2025.
It is World Arthritis Day 💜
also
🍔 Pulled Pork Day
🚜 Old Farmers Day
🟤 World Conker Championships 2025
French Republican Calendar: HEMP
Roman Festival: Augustalia
Begins today:
OCD Awareness Week 2025
Prisons Week 2025
It is World Arthritis Day 💜
also
🍔 Pulled Pork Day
🚜 Old Farmers Day
🟤 World Conker Championships 2025
French Republican Calendar: HEMP
Roman Festival: Augustalia
Begins today:
OCD Awareness Week 2025
Prisons Week 2025
October 12, 2025 at 8:51 AM
Guess which one I'm reposting this for!
Reposted by Madeleine Shepherd
Here's this week's link to the new titles at Transreal Fiction. Posted a bit early because I'll be closed on Saturday until noon on Thursday. transreal.wordpress.com/2025/10/09/t...
October 9, 2025 at 3:27 PM
Here's this week's link to the new titles at Transreal Fiction. Posted a bit early because I'll be closed on Saturday until noon on Thursday. transreal.wordpress.com/2025/10/09/t...
Reposted by Madeleine Shepherd
🧠 Alzheimer’s reversed in mice
A new study found that injecting nanoparticles can 'remind' the blood–brain barrier to function properly again, restoring normal brain activity in mice. Human trials could follow within years.
🔗 www.nature.com/articles/s41...
#SciComm #Alzheimers 🧪
A new study found that injecting nanoparticles can 'remind' the blood–brain barrier to function properly again, restoring normal brain activity in mice. Human trials could follow within years.
🔗 www.nature.com/articles/s41...
#SciComm #Alzheimers 🧪
Rapid amyloid-β clearance and cognitive recovery through multivalent modulation of blood–brain barrier transport - Signal Transduction and Targeted Therapy
Signal Transduction and Targeted Therapy - Rapid amyloid-β clearance and cognitive recovery through multivalent modulation of blood–brain barrier transport
www.nature.com
October 8, 2025 at 4:11 AM
🧠 Alzheimer’s reversed in mice
A new study found that injecting nanoparticles can 'remind' the blood–brain barrier to function properly again, restoring normal brain activity in mice. Human trials could follow within years.
🔗 www.nature.com/articles/s41...
#SciComm #Alzheimers 🧪
A new study found that injecting nanoparticles can 'remind' the blood–brain barrier to function properly again, restoring normal brain activity in mice. Human trials could follow within years.
🔗 www.nature.com/articles/s41...
#SciComm #Alzheimers 🧪
Reposted by Madeleine Shepherd
BREAKING: The Nobel Prize in Physics has been awarded to John Clarke, Michel H. Devoret, and John M. Martinis "for the discovery of macroscopic quantum mechanical tunnelling and energy quantisation in an electric circuit"
Stay tuned for more.
Stay tuned for more.
October 7, 2025 at 9:51 AM
BREAKING: The Nobel Prize in Physics has been awarded to John Clarke, Michel H. Devoret, and John M. Martinis "for the discovery of macroscopic quantum mechanical tunnelling and energy quantisation in an electric circuit"
Stay tuned for more.
Stay tuned for more.
Reposted by Madeleine Shepherd
*You look at "weird" science fiction people and, like, how many of them do any time in prisons and madhouses
*Not all that many, really. Surprisingly few.
*They might have a *day-job* as some orderly in one of those places
*Not all that many, really. Surprisingly few.
*They might have a *day-job* as some orderly in one of those places
October 5, 2025 at 5:37 PM
*You look at "weird" science fiction people and, like, how many of them do any time in prisons and madhouses
*Not all that many, really. Surprisingly few.
*They might have a *day-job* as some orderly in one of those places
*Not all that many, really. Surprisingly few.
*They might have a *day-job* as some orderly in one of those places
Reposted by Madeleine Shepherd
Of my various interest groups over the years mathematicians are the most peculiar. More than acid heads, punks, computer hackers, artists, mystics, and SF writers. There's even a name for what we use. Instead of "logic" we have "mathematical logic". Which I got my PhD in. What---ME mad?
October 6, 2025 at 4:52 AM
Of my various interest groups over the years mathematicians are the most peculiar. More than acid heads, punks, computer hackers, artists, mystics, and SF writers. There's even a name for what we use. Instead of "logic" we have "mathematical logic". Which I got my PhD in. What---ME mad?
Reposted by Madeleine Shepherd
October 4, 2025 at 8:47 AM
Reposted by Madeleine Shepherd
Why do I keep all these clothes I don't wear. (No need to answer that. It's a commentary rather than a question, like I'm standing in front of the clothes rail shaking my head at my own weirdness & you haven't anything you can add so you shake your head too & go downstairs & make a cup of tea.)
October 2, 2025 at 2:28 PM
Why do I keep all these clothes I don't wear. (No need to answer that. It's a commentary rather than a question, like I'm standing in front of the clothes rail shaking my head at my own weirdness & you haven't anything you can add so you shake your head too & go downstairs & make a cup of tea.)
Reposted by Madeleine Shepherd
Reposted by Madeleine Shepherd
Create crochet granny squares for a community math/art project! Our Granny Life motif-generating app can now export printable pattern pages ❤️
www.mathgrrl.com/granny-life @geek @crochet 🧶
www.mathgrrl.com/granny-life @geek @crochet 🧶
September 14, 2025 at 6:54 PM
Create crochet granny squares for a community math/art project! Our Granny Life motif-generating app can now export printable pattern pages ❤️
www.mathgrrl.com/granny-life @geek @crochet 🧶
www.mathgrrl.com/granny-life @geek @crochet 🧶
In a gap between the showers everyone ran out to forage for some dinner!
September 11, 2025 at 4:33 PM
It's Gala Day today on Calton Hill and I'll be there with some space knitting!
www.collective-edinburgh.art/programme/ga...
www.collective-edinburgh.art/programme/ga...
Gala
Collective brings people together to look at, think about and produce contemporary art in a new kind of city observatory
www.collective-edinburgh.art
September 7, 2025 at 8:54 AM
It's Gala Day today on Calton Hill and I'll be there with some space knitting!
www.collective-edinburgh.art/programme/ga...
www.collective-edinburgh.art/programme/ga...
Reposted by Madeleine Shepherd
What’s the story behind those dodgy gift shops on Princes Street in Edinburgh? Jim Waterson of @londoncentric.media investigates in bonus edition of the Minute: edinburghminute.substack.com/p/tax-evadin...
September 6, 2025 at 8:13 AM
What’s the story behind those dodgy gift shops on Princes Street in Edinburgh? Jim Waterson of @londoncentric.media investigates in bonus edition of the Minute: edinburghminute.substack.com/p/tax-evadin...
Reposted by Madeleine Shepherd
"Amid the chaos of revolutionary France, one man’s mathematical obsession gave way to a calculation, called the Fourier transform, that decomposes any function into its parts"
Reposting mainly for the wool graphic (but also - Fourier transforms are cool)
Reposting mainly for the wool graphic (but also - Fourier transforms are cool)
What Is the Fourier Transform? | Quanta Magazine
Amid the chaos of revolutionary France, one man’s mathematical obsession gave way to a calculation that now underpins much of mathematics and physics. The calculation, called the Fourier transform, decomposes any function into its parts.
www.quantamagazine.org
September 4, 2025 at 7:00 AM
"Amid the chaos of revolutionary France, one man’s mathematical obsession gave way to a calculation, called the Fourier transform, that decomposes any function into its parts"
Reposting mainly for the wool graphic (but also - Fourier transforms are cool)
Reposting mainly for the wool graphic (but also - Fourier transforms are cool)
Thread!
Read the whole thread.
Read the whole thread.
It's seven years since we posted on Twitter about how kids kept coming into the library asking if we had any books about FORTNITE. We didn't back then, and we'd never heard of it so we tried asking what it was.
September 3, 2025 at 12:57 PM
Thread!
Read the whole thread.
Read the whole thread.
7th September is Gala Day at the Collective Gallery in the City Observatory on Edinburgh's Calton Hill.
Check it out her
www.collective-edinburgh.art/programme/ga...
I'll be there with the latest pieces in my Saturn's Rings knitting collection, and a few bargains too.
Check it out her
www.collective-edinburgh.art/programme/ga...
I'll be there with the latest pieces in my Saturn's Rings knitting collection, and a few bargains too.
Gala
Collective brings people together to look at, think about and produce contemporary art in a new kind of city observatory
www.collective-edinburgh.art
September 2, 2025 at 9:02 AM
7th September is Gala Day at the Collective Gallery in the City Observatory on Edinburgh's Calton Hill.
Check it out her
www.collective-edinburgh.art/programme/ga...
I'll be there with the latest pieces in my Saturn's Rings knitting collection, and a few bargains too.
Check it out her
www.collective-edinburgh.art/programme/ga...
I'll be there with the latest pieces in my Saturn's Rings knitting collection, and a few bargains too.
Pretty much me, but I have such a busy week coming up!
September 1, 2025 at 8:31 AM
Pretty much me, but I have such a busy week coming up!
Reposted by Madeleine Shepherd
#OTD 𝗶𝗻 𝘀𝗽𝗮𝗰𝗲 𝗲𝘅𝗽𝗹𝗼𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻:
50 yrs ago, #Viking1 launched.
48 yrs ago, #Voyager2 followed.
One searched for #life on #Mars.
The other carries our voices into #interstellar #space.
These anniversaries remind us what we once dreamed — and what we may now be giving up.🔭🧪
👉 medium.com/@shanil.vira...
50 yrs ago, #Viking1 launched.
48 yrs ago, #Voyager2 followed.
One searched for #life on #Mars.
The other carries our voices into #interstellar #space.
These anniversaries remind us what we once dreamed — and what we may now be giving up.🔭🧪
👉 medium.com/@shanil.vira...
Viking and Voyager at 50: What We Might Be Giving Up
Two iconic spacecraft launched on this day. One searched for life. The other now sails among the stars. But the US may walk away from it…
medium.com
August 20, 2025 at 9:21 PM
#OTD 𝗶𝗻 𝘀𝗽𝗮𝗰𝗲 𝗲𝘅𝗽𝗹𝗼𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻:
50 yrs ago, #Viking1 launched.
48 yrs ago, #Voyager2 followed.
One searched for #life on #Mars.
The other carries our voices into #interstellar #space.
These anniversaries remind us what we once dreamed — and what we may now be giving up.🔭🧪
👉 medium.com/@shanil.vira...
50 yrs ago, #Viking1 launched.
48 yrs ago, #Voyager2 followed.
One searched for #life on #Mars.
The other carries our voices into #interstellar #space.
These anniversaries remind us what we once dreamed — and what we may now be giving up.🔭🧪
👉 medium.com/@shanil.vira...
Reposted by Madeleine Shepherd
We’re at the Edinburgh International Book Festival again today, and look forward to welcoming local schools for some maths drawing games in the Discovery Zone!
#MathsWeekScot #UKMathsChat #MathsToday
#MathsWeekScot #UKMathsChat #MathsToday
August 20, 2025 at 10:48 AM
We’re at the Edinburgh International Book Festival again today, and look forward to welcoming local schools for some maths drawing games in the Discovery Zone!
#MathsWeekScot #UKMathsChat #MathsToday
#MathsWeekScot #UKMathsChat #MathsToday