"Don’t miss it for the world... this is the sort of show the BBC used to be famous for. Even a decade ago, something like [this] would have found a very comfortable home on BBC Four, and yet it is telling that it has ended up on YouTube."
www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio...

For the Record: An Incomplete ...

If the genome is not a blueprint, what is it? My attempt to unravel this particularly knotty question, in @quantamagazine.bsky.social@bsky.brid.gy www.quantamagazine.org/why-the-huma...

Why the Human Genome’s Tangled...

Say what you will about Anish Kapoor appropriating sole use of Vanta black, but my god it is amazing stuff. Photos can't capture it, but his pieces using it at the latest show at the Hayward are mesmerizing. You really are gazing into nothingness, and the mind is deeply confused.

We'll just, like, find out everything about the brain and then, like, fucking BUILD IT!

I mean, this is dialogue straight out of a satire, right?

RE: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:fnlnkjkaepdaxomf7u5jiaxm/post/3modp456gds2h

Please someone, can you tell Nobel laureate Geoff Hinton how LLMs work? I think he's forgotten. www.youtube.com/watch?v=uN6t...

Geoffrey Hinton Just Said AI I...

I'm coming belatedly to this piece by Carlo Rovelli on last year's quantum centenary, and I totally agree with him that the central contributions of Max Born don't get the acclaim they deserve. Born's probabilistic interpretation of the wave function was crucial. www.newscientist.com/article/mg26...

Carlo Rovelli on what we get w...

I've often suspected that folks who present as "hyper-rationalists" often have a world view that only glancingly intersects with reality. It seems AI-related delusions are starting to reveal this to be so.

Some further thoughts on this re. Heisenberg. At one point Bohr argues that Heisenberg can't be the enemy because wasn't he accused of being a "White Jew" in Germany? Well yes, but his response was to appeal to Himmler to restore his honour.

Last night I saw the new production of Michael Frayn's Copenhagen in London. Inevitably, I have some thoughts. In short, however, it remains one of the classic works of "science in theatre". homunculusmusic.wordpress.com/2026/04/29/m...

Michael Frayn’s Copenhagen

"Strangely". The lack of interest would seem a little odd in a strategic leader, even in someone like Putin. But we all know what Trump is like. We see it all the time now, like in yesterday's press conference. To pretend we can apply the normal expectations to Trump is absurd. /2

Here in a nutshell is all the failures of the "serious" media (here The Economist) regarding Trump. They have commissioned a serious grown-up commentator to write this. And look at the result. Look in particular at that "strangely lacking interest"... /1

While on the topic of sexism and the Nobels, let us recall how the rightwing British newspapers reported Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin's 1964 prize. Daily Telegraph: "£18,750 Award to Mother of Three" Daily Mail: Hold my beer - "Oxford Housewife Wins Nobel."

There is of course more to be discussed about Schrodinger's cat - this is just a nugget of text. My point is 1. It's not "alive and dead at the same time", and 2. Don't draw those silly cat bra-kets please.

I just did a little post about Schrödinger's cat. I get why it is culturally iconic, but in terms of quantum physics it isn't very meaningful. philipball86.substack.com/p/enough-abo...

Enough about the cat

This is, of course excellent.

RE: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:6e2vxzucjzwsdk2qoyoey43q/post/3m5qvj2ribs2x

I stared and stared at this question in my daughter's GCSE revision and thought "Am I dumb, or is this question just wrong?" It's not me, right?

Now I've had a chance to read Andrea Sella's article in @chemistryworld.com on why he returned his Royal Society Faraday Medal. I recommend that you read it too. It's inspiring, though inevitably also disturbing, in these troubled times. www.chemistryworld.com/opinion/why-...

Why I returned the Faraday pri...