Malcolm Fairbairn
@malcfairbairn.bsky.social
Physics Professor KCL - particle physics and cosmology theory. Views appear to be my own (free will?) either way are not those of King's College London
Reposted by Malcolm Fairbairn
This annoyed me so much I had to write a thing. www.physicsmatt.com/blog/2025/12...
December 12, 2025 at 1:57 AM
This annoyed me so much I had to write a thing. www.physicsmatt.com/blog/2025/12...
Reposted by Malcolm Fairbairn
My concise and heavily-referenced guide for #HigherEd #faculty on creating more #autistic -friendly #research groups is available here: arxiv.org/abs/2410.17929
Includes a downloadable printable poster.
#ActuallyAutistic #AutisticInSTEM #DisabledInSTEM #ScienceIsForEveryone #EDI
Includes a downloadable printable poster.
#ActuallyAutistic #AutisticInSTEM #DisabledInSTEM #ScienceIsForEveryone #EDI
November 29, 2024 at 9:59 PM
My concise and heavily-referenced guide for #HigherEd #faculty on creating more #autistic -friendly #research groups is available here: arxiv.org/abs/2410.17929
Includes a downloadable printable poster.
#ActuallyAutistic #AutisticInSTEM #DisabledInSTEM #ScienceIsForEveryone #EDI
Includes a downloadable printable poster.
#ActuallyAutistic #AutisticInSTEM #DisabledInSTEM #ScienceIsForEveryone #EDI
I have a lot of sympathy for this take but I can think of a few exceptions. Reminds me of how bad coffee requires sugar. If you make me a coffee, and I put sugar in it, then i think your coffee is pretty bad.
Beers of any kind only need to be served cold if they don't taste good. A mouthful of nutty brown is delicious when served body warm. If you find yourself looking for ice cold beer then your problem is bad beer not refrigeration.
December 12, 2025 at 7:49 AM
I have a lot of sympathy for this take but I can think of a few exceptions. Reminds me of how bad coffee requires sugar. If you make me a coffee, and I put sugar in it, then i think your coffee is pretty bad.
Reposted by Malcolm Fairbairn
After $300B in investment, we have finally created a machine that can reproduce the conscious and unconscious biases of the 6th form to physics tenure pipeline.
My colleague James Millen asked AI to make the picture of his group at their Christmas dinner look like distinguished scientists. It made all the brown people white and all but one of the women men...
December 12, 2025 at 7:33 AM
After $300B in investment, we have finally created a machine that can reproduce the conscious and unconscious biases of the 6th form to physics tenure pipeline.
My colleague James Millen asked AI to make the picture of his group at their Christmas dinner look like distinguished scientists. It made all the brown people white and all but one of the women men...
December 12, 2025 at 7:30 AM
My colleague James Millen asked AI to make the picture of his group at their Christmas dinner look like distinguished scientists. It made all the brown people white and all but one of the women men...
Reposted by Malcolm Fairbairn
I am now reading a white paper on data centers in space and oh my fucking god this is so dumb.
December 11, 2025 at 12:27 PM
I am now reading a white paper on data centers in space and oh my fucking god this is so dumb.
Reposted by Malcolm Fairbairn
If you ever feel as if we're living in the wrong timeline, just think about how the ones in the 1983 global nuclear war timeline feel.
December 5, 2025 at 11:55 PM
If you ever feel as if we're living in the wrong timeline, just think about how the ones in the 1983 global nuclear war timeline feel.
Reposted by Malcolm Fairbairn
Holy moly: The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope construction is completed! That's fantastic news — much needed right now — and I am very much looking forward to when this beast launches. It has 100X the field of view of Hubble.
One. Hundred. *At the same resolution*.
www.nasa.gov/image-articl...
One. Hundred. *At the same resolution*.
www.nasa.gov/image-articl...
NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope Completed - NASA
Two technicians look up at NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope after its inner and outer segments were connected at the agency’s Goddard Space Flight
www.nasa.gov
December 4, 2025 at 6:35 PM
Holy moly: The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope construction is completed! That's fantastic news — much needed right now — and I am very much looking forward to when this beast launches. It has 100X the field of view of Hubble.
One. Hundred. *At the same resolution*.
www.nasa.gov/image-articl...
One. Hundred. *At the same resolution*.
www.nasa.gov/image-articl...
Reposted by Malcolm Fairbairn
AR4294 & AR4296
2025-12-03 04:21 UTC (12:21 pm MYT)
Worsening sky in Kuala Lumpur. High clouds and hazy.
Both group is still massive.
My estimation the total length of both group spans at least 30 times Earth's diameter.
ShahGazer Observatory, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
2025-12-03 04:21 UTC (12:21 pm MYT)
Worsening sky in Kuala Lumpur. High clouds and hazy.
Both group is still massive.
My estimation the total length of both group spans at least 30 times Earth's diameter.
ShahGazer Observatory, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
December 3, 2025 at 7:01 AM
AR4294 & AR4296
2025-12-03 04:21 UTC (12:21 pm MYT)
Worsening sky in Kuala Lumpur. High clouds and hazy.
Both group is still massive.
My estimation the total length of both group spans at least 30 times Earth's diameter.
ShahGazer Observatory, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
2025-12-03 04:21 UTC (12:21 pm MYT)
Worsening sky in Kuala Lumpur. High clouds and hazy.
Both group is still massive.
My estimation the total length of both group spans at least 30 times Earth's diameter.
ShahGazer Observatory, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
I took the students from my stellar evolution class to see this today in our solar telescope.
December 3, 2025 at 3:51 PM
I took the students from my stellar evolution class to see this today in our solar telescope.
I'm looking at the back of a packet of chocolate hobnobs. I'm grown up enough to know it would probably be unhealthy to attempt to live off them but I think there should at least be a feasibility study. The numbers are not far off. I could volunteer...
December 2, 2025 at 10:59 PM
I'm looking at the back of a packet of chocolate hobnobs. I'm grown up enough to know it would probably be unhealthy to attempt to live off them but I think there should at least be a feasibility study. The numbers are not far off. I could volunteer...
Reposted by Malcolm Fairbairn
My doctor asked me if I smoke or drink coffee.
I told him I drink it.
I told him I drink it.
a man sitting in a chair with the words torpedoes written below him
Alt: Captain Archer from Star Trek asking for torpedos
media.tenor.com
November 3, 2025 at 3:28 AM
My doctor asked me if I smoke or drink coffee.
I told him I drink it.
I told him I drink it.
Reposted by Malcolm Fairbairn
Having just been through the desert carrying a guy with no name, it felt good to get out of the rain.
November 24, 2025 at 2:17 PM
Having just been through the desert carrying a guy with no name, it felt good to get out of the rain.
Reposted by Malcolm Fairbairn
Reposted by Malcolm Fairbairn
Students, apply for a CERN summer studentship. Greatest experience ever!
Deadline 26 January 2026. careers.cern/programmes/s...
(It's not just for physicists. Check it out.)
Deadline 26 January 2026. careers.cern/programmes/s...
(It's not just for physicists. Check it out.)
Summer Studentship
Programme overview Join the CERN Summer Student Programme and dive into cutting-edge research. You’ll work on advanced scientific and technical projects, contributing directly to CERN’s…
careers.cern
November 15, 2025 at 3:24 PM
Students, apply for a CERN summer studentship. Greatest experience ever!
Deadline 26 January 2026. careers.cern/programmes/s...
(It's not just for physicists. Check it out.)
Deadline 26 January 2026. careers.cern/programmes/s...
(It's not just for physicists. Check it out.)
Reposted by Malcolm Fairbairn
This paper was written with my great collaborators at King's College London @kingsnmes.bsky.social : Malcolm Fairbairn @malcfairbairn.bsky.social and María Olalla Olea-Romacho. You can download it here: arxiv.org/abs/2511.016...
Is $Λ$CDM on the run? Reconciling the CMB with the Lyman-$α$ Forest
We present new constraints on the scale dependence of the primordial power spectrum by combining Planck, ACT DR6, SPT-3G and eBOSS Lyman-$α$ forest data, extending sensitivity to smaller comoving scal...
arxiv.org
November 4, 2025 at 9:36 AM
This paper was written with my great collaborators at King's College London @kingsnmes.bsky.social : Malcolm Fairbairn @malcfairbairn.bsky.social and María Olalla Olea-Romacho. You can download it here: arxiv.org/abs/2511.016...
Reposted by Malcolm Fairbairn
CARTOON OF THE DAY
(From @mluckovichajc)
(From @mluckovichajc)
November 7, 2025 at 2:01 AM
CARTOON OF THE DAY
(From @mluckovichajc)
(From @mluckovichajc)
Reposted by Malcolm Fairbairn
Mathematical Physics MSci at UoN earmarked for closure as mgmt start the cuts. As the custodians of Einstein’s famous blackboard, this is especially worrying. Will we still teach his greatest ideas in years to come? @uonucu.bsky.social @ucu.org.uk
November 6, 2025 at 9:41 AM
Mathematical Physics MSci at UoN earmarked for closure as mgmt start the cuts. As the custodians of Einstein’s famous blackboard, this is especially worrying. Will we still teach his greatest ideas in years to come? @uonucu.bsky.social @ucu.org.uk
Reposted by Malcolm Fairbairn
The Spectator are confused.
It's not going to be cost free.
Billionaires are going to pay more.
Join.greenparty.org.uk
It's not going to be cost free.
Billionaires are going to pay more.
Join.greenparty.org.uk
November 6, 2025 at 8:57 AM
The Spectator are confused.
It's not going to be cost free.
Billionaires are going to pay more.
Join.greenparty.org.uk
It's not going to be cost free.
Billionaires are going to pay more.
Join.greenparty.org.uk
Frankie Says RELAX
October 25, 2025 at 12:12 AM
Frankie Says RELAX
Reposted by Malcolm Fairbairn
A complex solar halo with a full 360° parhelic circle was seen in Greenland on Oct 16, 2025.✨️✨️✨️
October 24, 2025 at 4:00 AM
A complex solar halo with a full 360° parhelic circle was seen in Greenland on Oct 16, 2025.✨️✨️✨️
Reposted by Malcolm Fairbairn
Let's unravel the mystery of Saturn's polar hexagon.
A jet stream speeds around the pole at 320 km/h (200 mph). That’s common among planets, but what's not is that it oscillates up and down *very* stably. Each low point of this sine wave becomes a corner of a hexagon, when projected onto a sphere:
A jet stream speeds around the pole at 320 km/h (200 mph). That’s common among planets, but what's not is that it oscillates up and down *very* stably. Each low point of this sine wave becomes a corner of a hexagon, when projected onto a sphere:
October 22, 2025 at 5:57 PM
Let's unravel the mystery of Saturn's polar hexagon.
A jet stream speeds around the pole at 320 km/h (200 mph). That’s common among planets, but what's not is that it oscillates up and down *very* stably. Each low point of this sine wave becomes a corner of a hexagon, when projected onto a sphere:
A jet stream speeds around the pole at 320 km/h (200 mph). That’s common among planets, but what's not is that it oscillates up and down *very* stably. Each low point of this sine wave becomes a corner of a hexagon, when projected onto a sphere:
Oh, hi, yeah by the way, US democratic party, Trump is getting the credit for this peace deal because you were so useless. Trump. Think about that.
October 13, 2025 at 11:32 PM
Oh, hi, yeah by the way, US democratic party, Trump is getting the credit for this peace deal because you were so useless. Trump. Think about that.
I've long thought Eric Clapton was a ****. AI algorithms pushing me towards the history of rock and roll indicate to me that he was bigger **** than I thought he was.
October 13, 2025 at 11:29 PM
I've long thought Eric Clapton was a ****. AI algorithms pushing me towards the history of rock and roll indicate to me that he was bigger **** than I thought he was.
I shared my journey home with my partner then I idly clicked on the link I'd sent her. 12 minutes, but my journey says 13 minutes. Now re-evaluating my interpretation of quantum mechanics.
October 13, 2025 at 7:37 PM
I shared my journey home with my partner then I idly clicked on the link I'd sent her. 12 minutes, but my journey says 13 minutes. Now re-evaluating my interpretation of quantum mechanics.