Rebekah Higgitt

I'm off on holiday to Nîmes soon, in a week that looks to be nice, post-storm autumn sunshine in Edinburgh and rain, rain, rain after days of 20⁰ and sunshine there. Boo!

Nice thread of #histsci, shame about white supremacist Elon Musk still being a fellow.

Dull wet day in Edinburgh, but still a little magic at dusk.

University of Nottingham, right now, is cutting 560 jobs. Do we need to rebrand universities as very large, very clean, land-based oil rigs to get government support?

Bristol-based We The Curious science centre worked with a PhD researcher in post colonial linguistics to produce a guide for astronomy, and STEM more broadly, engagement: Decolonising Your Planetarium www.wethecurious.org/news-blog/de... (link to the full PDF guide at the bottom) #scicomm📜🔭

I got one of these. Although based on the blurb and possibly reviews, a shorter email would have been more convincing. Fortunately, I'll never fall for the claim that a book group is crying out to discuss Maskelyne: Astronomer Royal (though it is a nice book)!

"We can push back against their grandiosity, their evasions and fantasies, and demand that their products be safety-tested, regulated and evaluated" (I missed this at the time, see also @jackstilgoe.bsky.social article referred to estsjournal.org/index.php/es...)

But that is not what the report said? www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Nice article by Michelle Bastian on this, making clear that time and standards are human-made and could - can - be otherwise theconversation.com/experts-have... #histSTM

This is properly weird - Arthur's Seat in Edinburgh seems to attract such things! blog.historicenvironment.scot/2026/10/the-...

#histSTM 🗃️

NB Details on systems that were disrupted by the last leap second (2012), especially those who think that Y2K was not an issue, but instead of a success, where the necessary measures were taken. Go #maintainers!

Given that the Bureau international des poids et mesures is in France, it seems a bit of a cheek to illustrate this piece with a picture of the Greenwich gate clock www.theguardian.com/science/2026...

Some of you may be wondering why these incredible #histSTM & #BookHistory videos were taken down in the first place. I can't speak to that, but I'm glad they're back. (Jason's chats with Nick Wilding, Adrian Johns & @prossian.bsky.social are personal favorites.) #histsci #histastro #astronomy 🗃️📜🔭

I'm tuning into this today - looking forward to it! (I'm developing a paper on Aberdonian mathematician and longitudinarian Andrew Mackay) 🗃️

I am absolutely delighted to announce that the open access version of "In Referees We Trust? How Peer Review Became a Mark of Scientific Legitimacy" is now live! Want to know more about how scholars' lives came to be ruled by Reviewer 2? Download the book FREE at: direct.mit.edu/books/monogr...

My (and Jean's) take on the Physics Nobel announcement last week: #histsci #envhist #envhum #STS #Antarctica theconversation.com/physics-nobe...

On the geographies of higher education by @dougspecht.bsky.social: national pressures can reduce local opportunity. I'd add it's not just 'where' that matters. Different unis provide very different environments, which enable different students to thrive. geographical.co.uk/opinion/how-...

Tories overstate net zero cost by nearly £500bn in apparent spreadsheet error. Same error amplified by right-wing think-tanks, press It suited their ideological leanings. Future historians might say - planet earth and human life was shattered by a spreadsheet error.

Exciting new historical work on Rosalind Franklin continues to appear. This is a neat bit of sleuthing by historian @alistairsponsel.bsky.social and crystallographer Brian Sutton. Here's the DOI to the actual article (it's OA): 10.1007/s10739-026-09866-7 The main finding is an x-ray image of exactly

Edinburgh book launch! I’m going to be having an Edinburgh book launch for An Injury to All: The Unmaking of the British Working Class on the evening of Tuesday 27 October. Venue and time will be confirmed soon. Save the date! Get your tickets 🔽

Gwen John's cat studies ❤️ At NGS's Modern Two. She named her (female) tortoiseshell Edgar Quinet, after the street she was living in.

Good to see a #histSTM book winning. It featured in this episode of Start the Week, if you want to know more www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

Wonderful filmmaking. Daphne Oram gets a credit for Music Effects.

Edinburgh #histmed #histSTM

TIL! This is a lovely, clear explanation of the difference between Equinox and Equilux.

In Our Time on BBC Radio 4 this morning (or this evening, or online) is on Particle Accelerators, with @harrycliff.bsky.social @mamaphysikerin.bsky.social and @randomjetship.bsky.social #histSTM

Wow good call

For Edinburgh folk - free this Wednesday 1pm. Guided tour of the exhibition 'For the Safety of All: Scotland's Lighthouses' followed by Wikipedia edit-a-thon to improve articles on Scottish lighthouses www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/for-those-... #histSTM 🗃️ 📜

a) 'it is no bad thing' if universities close ❌ - think about who they employ and what they offer local area and people. b) Cap on fees should go ❌ - wrong cap: cap on numbers at each institution would help. c) Cost of student loans is often borne by public money ✅ - so get rid of fees altogether!

How Anglo-Saxon is the Bayeux Tapestry? Was it made, as is often suggested, by nuns around Canterbury in the decade after the Conquest? And if so what might the Tapestry, and especially its rarely seen reverse, tell us about their experiences? mathewlyons.substack.com/p/the-bayeux...

A rare feeling of success. A search for 'Longitude prize' on Wikipedia offers you the 2014 version or for the 18th-century redirects to 'Longitude rewards'. Hurrah! This may well have been changed years ago, but it's good to see it's (still) there. No, I'm not going to check what any LLM offers.

The theme of this year's Artefacts meeting is Trust and Objects. The programme looks excellent, addressing vitally important issues in the US's current circumstances. (I'm sorry not to be there, but cannot justify travel to the US at present.) #histSTM 📖 www.sciencehistory.org/visit/events...

The history of the proportional compass an early analogue calculator #histsci #histtech thonyc.wordpress.com/2026/09/16/t...

#histSTM

⏳ Two days left to apply The deadline for the BSHS Outreach & Engagement Project Grants is in two days. Grants of up to £500 are available to support creative public engagement with the history of science, technology, and medicine. Don't forget to submit your proposals! bshs.org.uk/oec/#project...

Good to know that the Minister is now aware that he is responsible for research across all disciplines, and that he is being responsive to discussion. 🧵 ⬇️

The American Institute of Physics history program now has a reorganized website. Whether you know nothing, a little, or a lot about our work, take a look around and see if you find anything new to you! www.aip.org/history

OMG! Talk about not being across your brief. I hope someone has put him right.

Are you an early career researcher with an interest in parliamentary history? We are inviting submissions of 10,000 words, including references, for our annual essay prize, worth £500. The deadline is 30 Nov. 2026. More details here: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/1750...

Meanwhile the new boss of the Panama Canal says the biggest issue they face is climate change and it may have to cut shipping transits due to declines in its water levels. Tell me again about how we can’t afford to tackle environmental issues as it will hit the economy www.ft.com/content/3ff1...

Here are a couple of slightly ‘quieter’ stories about how we are entering a more disordered world. First - the collapse of shipping law as civilian vessels are hit by Russia, Iran and the US, and we see the rise of an ungoverned and uninsured shadow fleet www.ft.com/content/c651...

Reminds me that I recently saw the 1707 Scilly Isles disaster still being presented as the direct cause of the 1714 Longitude Act. It's as if not everyone has been closely following the outputs of the AHRC Longitude Project! 😲

It seems to be a flawed kind of Baconianism (as people in the 17thC imagined machines might manage). As Philip says in the thread, it would be good if some historians and philosophers of science were brought into such initiatives and discussions. #hps #histSTM