Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Katy Duncan 🍉 @katysduncan.bsky.social · 6d

Not quite sure how I’ve been here nearly a week already?! @bodleian.ox.ac.uk’s Rad Cam looking lovely in the sun ☀️

The Bodliean’s Radcliffe Camera, a sandstone cylindrical building, behind a wrought iron fence.

Reposted by Katy Duncan 🍉

The Royal Society @royalsociety.org · 28d

To celebrate 200 years of Royal Institution Discourses, our friends at @rigb.org have released a newly-digitised version of a 1970 Discourse given by Kathleen Lonsdale FRS on 'Women in Science'. Listen to this fascinating lecture now:

#WomenInSTEM

www.youtube.com/watch?v=tzlA...

Women in Science - Kathleen Lonsdale's 1970 Discourse at the Royal Institution

YouTube video by The Royal Institution

www.youtube.com

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Katy Duncan 🍉 @katysduncan.bsky.social · Sep 1

Hopefully gone for good!🤞🏻

Text extra from cam gov website:
The observation wheel.
The council has a contract with City View Wheel Company for an observation wheel to be situated on Parker's Piece for up to 16 weeks each summer from 2021 to 2025.
The observation wheel is intended to help attract visitors to the city centre and provide a much-needed boost for city centre businesses, following a difficult couple of years which have seen many local businesses suffer during the pandemic.
It also offers a leisure opportunity for those visiting the city, using the open space, or wanting to see the city from a new perspective.
Measuring 36 metres in height, the observation wheel plus seating area and ticket office, which is operated by the City View Wheel Company., can carry up to 144 people in 24 gondolas at any one time - offering visitors and residents alike panoramic views over the historic city centre.

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Katy Duncan 🍉 @katysduncan.bsky.social · Aug 31

The wonderful @rigb.org Demo Team getting the recognition they deserve ✨ 🧪

The Royal Society @royalsociety.org · Aug 31

The Royal Institution Demonstration Team is awarded the Royal Society Hauksbee Award 2025 for being global leaders in spectacular science demonstrations, which are vital for effective education and communication of scientific concepts. https://royalsociety.org/medals-and-prizes/hauksbee-award/

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Reposted by Katy Duncan 🍉

Royal Institution @rigb.org · Aug 29

We are so proud of our amazing Demo Team for being recognised as "global leaders in spectacular science demonstrations" with the 2025 @royalsociety.org Hauksbee Award. 👏

We can't wait to show you what they have in store for the 200th anniversary of the Christmas Lectures!

Royal Institution Demonstration Team announced as winners of the Royal Society Hauksbee Award

The Demonstration Team at the Royal Institution (Ri) has been honoured with the 2025 Hauksbee Award for being ‘global leaders in spectacular science demonstrations’, it was announced by the Royal…

www.rigb.org

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Katy Duncan 🍉 @katysduncan.bsky.social · Aug 27

Well we all know Hasok is angelic, so it definitely tracks….

Picture of Hasok Chang. A reflection of a ceiling light in the window makes him look like he has a halo.

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Katy Duncan 🍉 @katysduncan.bsky.social · Aug 27

Preaching from the pragmatic pulpit I presume

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Reposted by Katy Duncan 🍉

Margot Finn @eicathomefinn.bsky.social · Aug 24

This is not only a serious issue for historians and not only a serious issue for academics (although it is that). It's a development that's also deleterious for the GLAM sector, for example, and part of a much larger trend nationally and internationally to restrict and dismantle access to archives.

Historians dismayed by ‘scandal’ of BBC cutting access to...

Critics say new limit to trove of information sounds knell for independent research

observer.co.uk

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Katy Duncan 🍉 @katysduncan.bsky.social · Aug 22

#science #academysky #histsci #hps #disinformation #sciencepolicy #scipol

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Katy Duncan 🍉 @katysduncan.bsky.social · Aug 21

@naomioreskes.bsky.social gave this *excellent* interview at @rigb.org back in May. A great primer on a lot of big problems in science - trust, disinformation, freedom - and why the onus is on scientists 🧪

Misinformation and distrust in science - with Naomi Oreskes

YouTube video by The Royal Institution

youtu.be

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Katy Duncan 🍉 @katysduncan.bsky.social · Aug 19

Taxonomic Collapse: A Study in Red (cardboard on wall, 2025)

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Katy Duncan 🍉 @katysduncan.bsky.social · Aug 19

Thanks for sharing!

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Katy Duncan 🍉 @katysduncan.bsky.social · Aug 14

Congrats to the two incoming Freer Fellows! 🥳

Royal Institution @rigb.org · Aug 14

Collaborative explorations of childhood by amateur scientists, and historical insights into climate change, sustainability, and disaster resilience are the focus of the latest research to be undertaken at the Ri. www.rigb.org/explore-scie...

Ri Freer Fellows set to engage audiences with historical insights into modern-day challenges

Find out more about the 2025 Freer Fellows at the Royal Institution.

www.rigb.org

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Katy Duncan 🍉 @katysduncan.bsky.social · Aug 13

@naomioreskes.bsky.social's brilliant @rigb.org lecture: how military secrecy delayed plate tectonic theory for 3 decades - a narrative that remains ever relevant to science today...

⚒️ 🧪 #histsci #skystorians #science #academicsky #STS #geoscience @miguelohn.bsky.social

Rethinking the origin of plate tectonics - with Naomi Oreskes

YouTube video by The Royal Institution

youtu.be

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Katy Duncan 🍉 @katysduncan.bsky.social · Aug 9

Toroid is love,
Toroid is life.
🧪

Royal Institution @rigb.org · Aug 7

Check out this floating plasma toroid, made with xenon gas within a custom-built globe, sitting on an oscillator that creates a strong magnetic field. 🍩

Find a more extended explanation here: youtube.com/watch?v=iXqbCmTt1Yg

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Reposted by Katy Duncan 🍉

Finnur Dellsén @dellsen.bsky.social · Aug 7

Very exciting workshop in Reykjavik in October, organized by @oscarw.bsky.social. Please spread the word and/or consider submitting an abstract. #philsci #philsky #hps

philevents.org/event/show/1...

Science, values, and society: themes from Helen Longino

On the occasion of Helen Longino’s talk at the University of Iceland on the 8th of October 2025, we are organising a mini-workshop on themes from Longino’s philosophical work on the 10th o...

philevents.org

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Katy Duncan 🍉 @katysduncan.bsky.social · Aug 7

Nothing quite like ordering up a mystery box of “glass slides” from the JJ Thomson collection at @trincolllibcam.bsky.social and finding this 🤩 Slides from Thomson’s 1921 discourse“chemical combination & the structure of the molecule” at @rigb.org in perfect condition 🧪 ⚛️ beats PowerPoint any day…

Top down view of a red glass slide box, with “R.I Lecture 1921” written in ink over the yellowing label on top (containing information about the plate, Imperial “process” plates). The box is slightly worn around the edges.

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Reposted by Katy Duncan 🍉

Michael D. Barton @darwinsbulldog.bsky.social · Aug 2

John Tyndall, Irish physicist, mountaineer & science popularizer, was born #OTD c. 1820. We've published 13 vols. of his letters thus far, 14 this fall & 15-21 in the works: bit.ly/4fluhVd

@upittpress.bsky.social @rolandjackson.bsky.social @ri-science.bsky.social @royalsociety.org

#HPS #histsci

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Reposted by Katy Duncan 🍉

Alisa Bokulich @alisabokulich.bsky.social · Aug 1

The next Society for Philosophy of Science in Practice (SPSP) conference will be held at the University of Cambridge, U.K, on 15-18 July 2026.
#philsci
philosophy-science-practice.org

About us

philosophy-science-practice.org

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Reposted by Katy Duncan 🍉

Royal Institution @rigb.org · Jul 25

Our autumn programme of science talks is available for booking! 🍂

We'll reopen the newly refurbished Ri building with a spectacular calendar of talks, packed with popular speakers and fascinating topics. www.rigb.org/whats-on?typ...

What's on

Discover science directly from the minds of the world’s leading scientists and thinkers with our talks, discussions and famil

www.rigb.org

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Reposted by Katy Duncan 🍉

Royal Institution @rigb.org · Jul 22

We know we're not supposed to have favourites, but COME ON youtube.com/shorts/-l9nB...

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Katy Duncan 🍉 @katysduncan.bsky.social · Jul 21

Taylor also gets the award for best Xmas lecture intro song… 🧪 🎵

Royal Institution @rigb.org · Jul 21

Sound needs a medium to travel — in this case, air. 🔊

Physicist Charles Taylor beautifully demonstrated this during his 1989 Christmas Lectures on the science of music.

Watch the full series here: rigb.org/explore-science/explore/video/exploring-music-what-music-1989

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Reposted by Katy Duncan 🍉

hannah @hannahkateboast.bsky.social · Jul 19

Shaimaa has a scholarship to do a PhD on Palestinian literature with me at @uoe-llc.bsky.social, but she's stuck in Gaza because the foreign office won't help. Please share. www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2...

I should be at Cambridge, but I’m trapped in Gaza

Home Office red tape strands dozens of Palestinian scholarship winners in war zone

www.telegraph.co.uk

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Katy Duncan 🍉 @katysduncan.bsky.social · Jul 17

I had so much fun at The Royal Society’s Summer Exhibition a few weeks ago! The quantum tech room was especially cool. Is the historian-equivalent of touching grass *actually talking* to living scientists? Maybe. Obviously stopped by Faraday’s colloids that @ri-science.bsky.social loaned too… 🧪

Katy is standing by a poster board that explains Faraday’s gold colloids, and talks about how he presented them at a Discourse (lecture) in 1856. They are possibly the oldest active colloids in existence.

Close up of the gold colloids made by Faraday, including a wooden box with a prism on top, and two small bottles. One is a third full of a pale pink colloidal solution, and the one in the background is half full with a deeper transparent pink solution. They remain optically active, but their exact composition is unknown.

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Reposted by Katy Duncan 🍉

Lydia Moland @lydiamoland.bsky.social · Jul 15

Weighing in at 827 pages and 2 1/4 inches, our Oxford Handbook of American and British Women Philosophers in the 19th Century is HERE! Huge thanks to @oupphilosophy.bsky.social and our 50+ authors. Restoring women to the philosophical canon is a matter of justice, but it is also better scholarship!

Oxford Handbook of American and British Women Philosophers in the Nineteenth Century cover

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