UKRI: the Movie

The poster for the new movie, to feature John Kingman

Well, it's all become clear.

The secrecy, the spiralling budget. The recruitment of John Kingman. For a long time UKRI just didn't make any kind of sense.

But this evening, all has been revealed. 20th Century Fox has announced that it has been in talks with the UK government over the third in the Kingsman spy series, to be based around a shady and little understood but extremely powerful organisation that controls every element of society.

Dude, Who's Got My Twitter?

@NIHR, apparently. Or possibly a forgotten Britpop band

It's a fast moving world in the Twittersphere, and you have to be quick to bag the Twitter handle that is, well, your birthright. Some, such as @BBSRC, were super sharp and got theirs [shame they won't be around much longer - Ed], although that might be more down to the implausibility of any other person/organisation having that acronym. But what about others who were - um - a bit slower or have common arconyms? Dude, who's got my Twitter?

Trumping Science

Trump (photo: Wikipedia)

For the second time this year, I woke to news that winded me. As I left the house, the rain hammered against my face and coursed down the gutters. It felt that weather was a physical manifestation of the despair that many of us felt.

As the UK had done nearly five months before, the United States appeared to have voted for isolationism after a divisive, bullying, ill-informed campaign. Fear, anger and retreat had triumphed over hope, openness and inclusivity.

For the second time this year, I tried to imagine what this result may do for research and the funding that underpins it. The initial signs aren’t good.