Alice Roberts

In early 2020, a pandemic was spreading. The UK’s PM went on a 10 day half-term holiday during which he was uncontactable and the government went into panic mode, focusing, as Hancock related to the COVID enquiry, on buying enough body bags. 1/8

Happy Birthday David Attenborough! From the earliest days of television, to controller of BBC2, to bringing the wonders, beauty and fragility of the natural world to our eyes & attention - you’re a legend!
www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio...

2000 years ago: the Romans would let an aqueduct destroy the Gardon Valley. We need clean water, but at what cost?

The Guardian @theguardian.com

Ed Miliband would let a turbine farm destroy Brontë country. We need net zero, but at what cost? | Simon Jenkins

Ed Miliband would let a turbine farm destroy Brontë country. We need net zero, but at what cost? | Simon Jenkins

Of course the climate crisis must be confronted, but history, tranquility and beauty must also count for something, says Guardian columnist Simon Jenkins

I’ve spent the last 18 months writing about the Roman Empire. In some ways, we’ve progressed immeasurably far in the last 1500 years. But there are still too many things about contemporary politics that I think would have felt all too familiar to them. I persist in my optimism that we can do better.

It seems PubMed has disappeared. This is the digital equivalent of burning a library.

Um. There’s a woman presenting this too.

@ok.co.uk

Rylan Clark is set to delve into the eerie world of witchcraft in his new show, The Witches Of Essex.

Rylan Clark slams 'misogyny' in British witch hunt as he fronts new Sky show

Rylan Clark shares the spotlight with professor Alice Roberts in The Witches Of Essex, where the pair delve into the dark history of witch hunts - and one discovery rattled Rylan.

I still think represents the most shocking void in the UK’s COVID response - when the largest biomedical facility offered to undertake testing (many universities did the same) the government didn’t even answer. The cost would have been minimal. But no profit for private companies… is that it?

Covid-19 Bereaved Families For Justice UK @cbffjuk.bsky.social

Astonishing evidence at the Covid Inquiry. The Government repeatedly ignored offers from the Crick Institute to provide mass testing on a national scale. Instead, the Government paid Deloitte consultants to project manage, not yet established, privately run labs. 1/2

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An important paper about protecting science from political interference. Europe needs to defend its science against the kind of attacks unfurling in the US.
By Martin McKee, Christina Pagel & Tiago Correia in the European Journal of Public Health:
academic.oup.com/eurpub/artic...

Europe must learn from America’s assault on science

In June 2026, several prominent diabetes researchers, including Steven Kahn, editor-in-chief of Diabetes Care, were removed by police from the annual meeti

I’m finding it very hard to understand the stance of the Royal Society here. Science is part of society, not separate from it, existing in some strange metaphysical bubble. I look across the Atlantic, aghast at the damage being done to science and scientists.
www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

Royal Society decides not to take disciplinary action against Elon Musk

Exclusive: Fellows argue Musk has violated code of conduct but council believes investigation ‘could do more harm than good’

Absolutely, definitely, not “the Establishment”…

This is now what passes for “science” from the BBC. Hackneyed cliches, faux mystery, factually incorrect statements.
1. Archaeologists are, once again, “baffled”

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Mystery of Welsh medieval cemetery deepens

Skeletons and artefacts unearthed from the site near Cardiff Airport are baffling archaeologists.

A lovely Neolithic knife - with its wooden handle - from a site with houses built on stilts on marshy land in Germany. Usually, the wooden part rots away and we just have the blade. This makes so much more sense!
OP - David Connolly on FB:
www.facebook.com/share/p/1EaR...

Hard-hitting truth-telling from UCL Prof Anthony Costello….

“The Covid Public Inquiry is a devastating critique of medical advisers, civil servants and politicians who led the UK to the worst public health disaster in a century. More than 230,000 deaths.”

www.bylinesupplement.com/p/230000-dea...

230,000 Deaths and the ‘Calculated Silence’ of the Medical Establishment About the COVID Inquiry

The Covid Inquiry Report is a devastating critique of the medical establishment which led the UK to the worst public health disaster in a century, argues Anthony Costello

I’m sure they didn’t mean to eliminate the woman in this image.

New sunlight beats old sunlight!
www.theguardian.com/world/2025/j...

Hilarious. Some guy claiming because his family history extends back to the Crusades, he should be involved in governing the rest of us. And claims that we’ll forget history if we oust him. ALL our family histories go back that far…
www.channel4.com/news/the-end...

The end of history? Hereditary peers set to be removed from House of Lords

From the Duke of Wellington to the Earl of Caithness, they’ve been sitting on the famous red benches of the House of Lords for centuries.

The ITV exposé on COVID now turns its sights on testing. I was stunned in 2020 when Sir Paul Nurse - Director of the Francis Crick Institute - told me he’d written to the government to offer the services of the Crick (the biggest biomeolecular lab in the country) - and never got a reply…

I’m not sure why we still have a monarch. It seems like a medieval anachronism to me; a demonstration of inherited status and the the pinnacle of an entrenched aristocracy. And I’m really not sure why our monarch has gone to the US to stand next to another man with too much power, land and money.

“Have they given up? Are they just deciding to build up herd immunity by watching us die? The government has given up, hasn’t it? They are throwing us into the slaughterhouse.”
It’s not hindsight - we knew this at the time @drrachelclarke.com writes:
observer.co.uk/news/nationa...

I’ll never forget the horror of the Covid wards | The Observer

Yesterday I witnessed something extraordinary: the author Sarah Wynn-Williams sitting silent on a stage at @hayfestival.bsky.social. And she got a standing ovation.
I hope the attempt to censor her backfires magnificently. I have just ordered her book.
www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

Meta legal action forces Facebook whistleblower to sit in silence at Hay festival

Sarah Wynn-Williams did not speak during event after lawyers warned of possible sanctions from tech firm

I’ve been reading a lot about the end of the Roman republic recently, and the slide of that empire into imperial monarchy. The stamping of the leader’s face on coins, colossal statues and a reworking of the forum. But even Augustus didn’t build himself a ballroom-fortress.

Why are we standing by and watching this happen?

“Israel continues to commit genocide by deliberately targeting Palestinian children in Gaza, an ⁠independent UN inquiry has found…. about 30% of the people killed by Israeli forces have been children.”

www.theguardian.com/world/2026/j...

Israel continues to commit genocide by targeting children in Gaza, UN inquiry finds

Independent report says by aiming at children Israel is undermining capacity of Palestinian people to exist

Thanks google AI but I meant to type “shut”…

I’m sad to hear the news that the wonderful Jane Goodall is no longer in the world. Her work with chimpanzees at Gombe in Tanzania taught us to look at other apes - and ourselves - differently. I was privileged to meet her later in life and tell her what an inspiration she was to me.