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Reposted by Sesh Nadathur

Corey S. Powell @coreyspowell.bsky.social · 16h

The Nobel Prize, widely considered the ultimate indicator of important science, has often gone off in weird directions due to politics & personalities.

Like that year when an obsolete form of color photography beat out quantum physics for the physics Nobel. 🧪

physicsworld.com/a/nobel-priz...

A still life taken by Lippmann using his method between 1890 and 1910. By the latter part of this period, the method had fallen out of favour, superseded by the simpler Autochrome process. (Photo in public domain)

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Sesh Nadathur @seshnadathur.bsky.social · 2d

By the way, although it is a bit late, if you know a cosmologist who would like to use our cosmology chains and other data, they can now get them following the instructions here: www.desi.lbl.gov/2025/10/06/d...

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Sesh Nadathur @seshnadathur.bsky.social · 2d

A special issue splash in Physical Review today on our DESI results:
promo.aps.org/desi_dr2
Which also contains a Featured in Physics viewpoint on the status of cosmology following DESI, by Matteo Viel: physics.aps.org/articles/v18...

DESI Collection

promo.aps.org

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Sesh Nadathur @seshnadathur.bsky.social · 16d

Oh, apologies! You were asking a serious question, whereäs I treated it as an opportunity for humour. I must reënter this conversation afresh, with a more coöperative mindset.

I suggest naive.

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Sesh Nadathur @seshnadathur.bsky.social · 16d

You need to reëxamine your prejudices against the New Yorker

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Reposted by Sesh Nadathur

Ben Ansell @benansell.bsky.social · 19d

An actual quote from the Secretary of State for Business and Trade

Too often people go to university to ‘explore research and knowledge’

Look forward to Wes S saying 'too often people go to hospital to have operations' or Heidi Alexander saying 'too often people go to the station to catch a train'

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Sesh Nadathur @seshnadathur.bsky.social · 21d

Lecturer A had amazingly found a way to use AI that would take even longer and be more work than just doing things without it.

Ernesto Priego @ernestopriego.com · 21d

Simply astonishing. Maybe Lecturer A should not have to mark over 100 essays in a two-week window in the first place? Invest in qualified staff and reduce impossible workloads FFS www.kcl.ac.uk/about/strate...

Screenshot. King's College London page. Examples of effective practice

The following scenarios follow the above guidelines and offer insights into ways that academic staff can use AI transparently and in an assistive capacity, always ensuring human oversight and judgment remain central.
Scenario A – Scaling feedback while maintaining quality

Lecturer A is responsible for marking over 100 essays within a two-week window.

Conscious of the limitations this workload places on the depth of individual feedback, they adopt a hybrid approach using their university’s approved or supported LLM tool, Copilot.

Without ever uploading student work directly, Lecturer A composes an anonymised summary for each student, noting which marking criteria were met and the approximate percentage achieved for each. They input this summary alongside the official rubric into Copilot, prompting it to generate supportive, criterion-referenced feedback. This feedback is then carefully reviewed, adapted, and personalised before being uploaded to the marking platform.

Students are made aware of this process in advance and shown a demonstration, reinforcing transparency and trust.

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Sesh Nadathur @seshnadathur.bsky.social · 22d

Today would have been the 100th birthday of the great BB King. I was reminded of this and so also remembered this lovely short film of him in London in 1972 (which you can watch on the iPlayer if you're in the UK: www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m0023jmg)

B.B. King - Sounding Out - London 1972 [HD 720p]

YouTube video by Yesterdays Today

youtu.be

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Reposted by Sesh Nadathur

Lev Parikian @levparikian.bsky.social · 24d

Regardless of everything else, Oblique Seville is one of the very best names. #TheAthletics

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Sesh Nadathur @seshnadathur.bsky.social · 26d

(Everything else in the world is awful and depressing, so it is such a joy to have an hour of pure pleasure like this.)

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Sesh Nadathur @seshnadathur.bsky.social · 26d

My wife is out with friends, so I'm watching season 3 of The Test - and my word that episode about the first Ashes test in 2023 is just amazing TV. Absolutely brilliant.

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Sesh Nadathur @seshnadathur.bsky.social · 26d

I tried this experiment and I barely saw any "expressing either glee or satisfaction" 🤔 (I saw several disagreeing with things he said in life, which is hardly the same thing.)

Reposted by Sesh Nadathur

Olena Halushka @halushka.bsky.social · 28d

All illusions that russia wants only Ukraine — or that it would stop after getting the Donetsk region — should be gone after this blatant attack on Poland.

russia seeks to restore its borderless empire.

Ukraine's security is Europe's security.

Time to choose to defeat russia.

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Sesh Nadathur @seshnadathur.bsky.social · Sep 8

I will be on The Sky at Night on BBC4 tonight, talking about dark energy and the expanding universe.

Here's a little clip from the conversation: www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p...

BBC Four - The Sky at Night, The Expanding Universe, DESI Rewrites the Textbooks

Physics is different now?!

www.bbc.co.uk

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Reposted by Sesh Nadathur

Sophie E. Hill @sophieehill.bsky.social · Sep 5

"Sweeteners can harm cognitive health equivalent to 1.6 years of ageing, study finds"

Or does it? Let's take a look at this "study"...

www.theguardian.com/food/2025/se...

Sweeteners can harm cognitive health equivalent to 1.6 years of ageing, study finds

Researchers say low- and no-calorie sweeteners appear to affect thinking and memory in middle age

www.theguardian.com

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Sesh Nadathur @seshnadathur.bsky.social · Sep 3

Something more specific regarding research practices and threatening letters.

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Sesh Nadathur @seshnadathur.bsky.social · Sep 3

A little piece of free career advice for any astronomers: do not enter a scientific collaboration with anyone from the University of Florida astro department.

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Sesh Nadathur @seshnadathur.bsky.social · Aug 31

You don't know how many years I've been waiting to make that joke!

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Sesh Nadathur @seshnadathur.bsky.social · Aug 31

It's because you just can't make dad jokes before you have a child. If you do, that's a faux pa.

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Sesh Nadathur @seshnadathur.bsky.social · Aug 26

Great news that as a collaboration we in DESI have been awarded the Lancelot M. Berkeley-New York Community Trust prize for meritorious work in astronomy for 2026! The citation specifically references our two BAO cosmology papers, which are very close to my heart 💜

DESI Survey @desisurvey.bsky.social · Aug 26

🌟 We’re proud to share that the DESI Collaboration has been awarded the 2026 Lancelot M. Berkeley–New York Community Trust Prize by the American Astronomical Society (AAS) — read more on the AAS website aas.org/press/desi-c... 🎉

DESI Collaboration to Receive 2026 Berkeley Prize | American Astronomical Society

The Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) collaboration will receive the 2026 Lancelot M. Berkeley − New York Community Trust Prize for Meritorious Work in Astronomy for its work constraining po...

aas.org

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Sesh Nadathur @seshnadathur.bsky.social · Aug 20

What I'm hearing is hope that being part of a larger department means access to resources that can smooth budgets across different time periods. Whereas currently the UKSA budget has no surplus at all, hence the abrupt cutoffs and short horizons.

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Sesh Nadathur @seshnadathur.bsky.social · Aug 20

If it helps them to change the ridiculous situation where they can only budget funding for one year at a time (or shorter when there is a spending review - our current grant is getting extended in 6-month chunks) that can only be a good thing.

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Sesh Nadathur @seshnadathur.bsky.social · Aug 18

What a great little documentary, that I was totally unaware of until today

Rosamundi @rosamundi.bsky.social · Aug 18

"Race and Pace", about the West Indies cricketers in the Lancashire League is excellent as well.
m.youtube.com/watch?v=XPzx...

Race And Pace-West Indies Cricketers in the Lancashire Leagues

YouTube video by The Mix-Up

m.youtube.com

Sesh Nadathur @seshnadathur.bsky.social · Aug 18

This is excellent, thank you!

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Sesh Nadathur @seshnadathur.bsky.social · Aug 18

That city exists in a country.

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