A metro station of brutal concrete blocks and jagged black obelisks.
“You finished those DC metro stations?”
“Sure thing boss, beautiful, moodily lit and oddly unsettling, just like you asked.”
“What?”
I had to go and check this was real, and…wowzers… Doing that in the 8th when you’re already winning by eight is, essentially, a war crime
Sir Martyn Poliakoff and Sir Richard Catlow at the AAAS Awards Celebration
And as a special treat - the session features Sir Richard Catlow, former Foreign Secretary of the @royalsociety.org who is the joint winner of this years @aaas.org Betty and David Hamburg Prize for Science Diplomacy along side fellow former Foreign Secretary Sir Martyn Poliakoff
Front cover of the RS-AAAS Science Diplomacy report
session details: DISCUSSION PANELS 11:30 AM - 12:30 PM 11:30 AM - 12:30 PM Discussion Panels Rethinking Science Diplomacy in a Fractured World West 102 - C (Phoenix Conventi)
Details of panelists: Panelists + A European Framework for Science Diplomacy Florent Bernard, Delegation of the European Union to the United States, Washington • West 102 - C (Phoenix Convention Center) + The Evolution of Science Diplomacy in a Fractured World Richard Catlow, The Royal Society, London, United Kingdom • West 102 - C (Phoenix Convention Center) + Science Diplomacy in an Era of Disruption Kimberly Montgomery, Center for Science Diplomacy, AAAS, Washington, DC • West 102 - C (Phoenix Convention Center)
Coming up later today at #AAASmtg - Rethinking Science Diplomacy in a Fractured World. Join me for a fantastic panel with experts from the US, EU and U.K. - West 102 C at 11:30am
“If you don’t know who the Bear Grylls is, it’s you”
I did a bit of time in our Embassy in DC and I think there’s also a good case for having the appointments roughly align to the Presidential cycles too (albeit Kim being forced out and Karen extending have made that tricker now)
I love the idea that there are currently some people who were on a short list somewhere reading this and going “wait, was *I* the Bear Grylls on this list…?”
Well this is just the update you want to see as you board a flight to the US…
Session details here:
Rethinking Science Diplomacy in a Fractured World @ 2026 Annual Meeting aaas.confex.com/aaas/2026/me...
Delighted to see our former Foreign Secretaries win this award. And if you’re at #AAASmtg this week do join our session on Science Diplomacy 11:30 AM local time on Friday!
There's a risk UK participation rates in Horizon Pillar II becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy - the more we create fresh uncertainty about future participation because of low success, the more we disrupt potential collaboration.
So maybe... let's not do that?
If “that that” is good enough for Lincoln in the Gettysburg Address then I think we can all be okay with it
That’s fair - I think I just didn’t take it that seriously! Agree the Neom comparison is unhelpful (on which, did you see the FT bit from the end of last year on that ‘project’?)
…so can’t we have some weekend idealism about what might be? As I said, high speed rail from Leeds to Liverpool at the very least should be a no brainer
…so I welcome something that at least shows some kind of vision even if it’s entirely unrealistic.
The last time I was in China I got a train from Beijing to Shanghai in just over four hours. That’s John o’ Groats to Land’s End in the time it would take you to go Hull to Liverpool…
Oh I know it’s bonkers. But it’s a concept. It’s meant to get people talking, just like a car concept that’ll never get made but might inspire some aspects of the next model.
There’s nothing out there setting an inspirational vision for infrastructure in the U.K. …
Look, I’m just saying I’ve never seen Jason Mantzoukas and the Great Gonzo in the same room together…
Unironically very pro this whole idea! Connecting these cities with high speed rail is a sensible and good thing to do!
(But please let’s start with the Leeds - Manchester - Liverpool corridor which in any sensible country would already be a major and connected metro area)
The Entente Cordial
(I’m sorry)
Also the corruption / special interests which lead to the construction of a bridge which appears to save no time vs the coastal road in what is a very small town…
Really excellent thread this - well worth reading all the way through
A picture of the book “Motherland” by Julia Ioffe. The background to the book is a black and whole picture of St Basils on Red Square cut out like a Matryoshka, behind that as a bigger Matryoshka is a red and white design. The subtitle on the inner doll is “A feminist history of modern Russia, from revolution to autocracy”
Got this, by @juliaioffe.bsky.social, for Christmas and just finished it. Fantastic read, albeit tragic (like so much of anything about Russia). Made me both nostalgic for the Moscow I left in 2012, and deeply sad for the Russia we might have seen.
It’s actually just statistical error. average person has watched 0 Avatar sequels. Avatar Georg, who lives in cave & watches them constantly, is an outlier and should not have been counted
Fun to think that 150 odd years ago and running international at the RS would have also included actual ships…
Found it! It’s a thing of beauty
A screenshot from tumblr. Picturing Les Mis with the words “Red, the blood of angry men” and then a picture of the sound of music with the caption “Tea, a drink with Jam and bread” Rest of the text reads. heLP 1 DON'T KNOW WHICH TUNE TO SING IT IN SO LONG, FAREWELL, AUF WEIDERSENG GOOD BYE LOOK DOWN, LOOK DOWN, YOU'RE HERE UNTIL YOU DIE DAMN IT
I both hate and love that this works. See also the brilliant video of Empty Chairs at Empty Tables sung to the tune of The Muppet Show…
There's a hole in my bucket, dear Patrick, dear Patrick, There's a hole in my bucket, dear Patrick, a hole. dear Sector, mend it. Then mend it, dear Sector, dear Sector, Then mend it, dear Sector, dear Sector, With what shall I mend it, dear Patrick, dear Patrick? With what shall I mend it, dear Patrick, with what? dear Sector, with metrics. With metrics, dear Sector, dear Sector, With metrics, dear Sector, dear Sector,
Posted without comment - an ode from the sector to the Science Minister
Putting them somewhere between cobalt-56 and scandium-46 in radioactivity terms
“That’s not an FT corespondent, they’re three different opinions in a trench coat”
Isn’t this also this year’s John Lewis Xmas ad?
