Romain Tartese
@romiche29.bsky.social
Planetary geology and geochemistry - Working on volatiles in the Solar System and early life on the Earth. 2021 international SpOOns champion 🏆
In what country do hospitals have to raise money through charity?!
Great to see how much got raised for the Stepping Hill charity at the fab gala they held last week. Well done to everyone who made this happen.
stockport.nub.news/news/loca...
stockport.nub.news/news/loca...
£25,000 raised for Stockport NHS Charity at glamorous Pyramid gala
Stockport Royal Nawaab Pyramid hosted a fundraising gala on 27 November in aid of the Stockport NHS Charity
stockport.nub.news
December 5, 2025 at 7:40 PM
In what country do hospitals have to raise money through charity?!
Reposted by Romain Tartese
This article suggests the possibility of training AI on pre-existing proposals and their review reports, scores and related decisions. I.e. training them on a system which is known to preferentially award larger amounts of money to white men. What could possibly go wrong?
UKRI exploring use of AI in grant review - this will prompt debate but interested to know if people think it’d encourage novelty or the opposite? www.chemistryworld.com/news/ukri-op...
UKRI opens up grant proposal data to explore using AI to smooth peer review
Surging applications has led the UK's main funder to look at ways to reduce the burden on reviewers
www.chemistryworld.com
December 4, 2025 at 10:49 PM
This article suggests the possibility of training AI on pre-existing proposals and their review reports, scores and related decisions. I.e. training them on a system which is known to preferentially award larger amounts of money to white men. What could possibly go wrong?
Reposted by Romain Tartese
I think there is no better first bsky post than sharing the awesome outback adventure our PhD students went on. They found a space rock using a drone! 1/X
gfo.rocks/blog/2025/12...
gfo.rocks/blog/2025/12...
December 5, 2025 at 3:34 AM
I think there is no better first bsky post than sharing the awesome outback adventure our PhD students went on. They found a space rock using a drone! 1/X
gfo.rocks/blog/2025/12...
gfo.rocks/blog/2025/12...
Reposted by Romain Tartese
Horrible idea. AI will regress all grants towards the mean since AI is trained to produce the average output.
Grants require expertise that ignores bad literature and rejects author assertions if false. no AI review I've seen has ever challenged the author's assertions as fundamentally flawed.
Grants require expertise that ignores bad literature and rejects author assertions if false. no AI review I've seen has ever challenged the author's assertions as fundamentally flawed.
UKRI exploring use of AI in grant review - this will prompt debate but interested to know if people think it’d encourage novelty or the opposite? www.chemistryworld.com/news/ukri-op...
UKRI opens up grant proposal data to explore using AI to smooth peer review
Surging applications has led the UK's main funder to look at ways to reduce the burden on reviewers
www.chemistryworld.com
December 4, 2025 at 2:30 PM
Horrible idea. AI will regress all grants towards the mean since AI is trained to produce the average output.
Grants require expertise that ignores bad literature and rejects author assertions if false. no AI review I've seen has ever challenged the author's assertions as fundamentally flawed.
Grants require expertise that ignores bad literature and rejects author assertions if false. no AI review I've seen has ever challenged the author's assertions as fundamentally flawed.
Reposted by Romain Tartese
It's almost like every single reputable expert who has been saying this exact thing for years was right.
Home Office recognised this fact 15 years ago. Successive governments, globally, continue to ignore it, and continue to push harmful "tougher" policies. 1/
www.theguardian.com/world/2025/d...
Home Office recognised this fact 15 years ago. Successive governments, globally, continue to ignore it, and continue to push harmful "tougher" policies. 1/
www.theguardian.com/world/2025/d...
Hardline migration policies are fuelling people smuggling, report finds
As leaders try to break smugglers’ business model, research suggests strategy so far has had opposite effect
www.theguardian.com
December 4, 2025 at 10:16 AM
It's almost like every single reputable expert who has been saying this exact thing for years was right.
Home Office recognised this fact 15 years ago. Successive governments, globally, continue to ignore it, and continue to push harmful "tougher" policies. 1/
www.theguardian.com/world/2025/d...
Home Office recognised this fact 15 years ago. Successive governments, globally, continue to ignore it, and continue to push harmful "tougher" policies. 1/
www.theguardian.com/world/2025/d...
Reposted by Romain Tartese
This is a must read.
A point that resonates with me: the hubris of administrators to decide what is worthy of a degree.
You want to create a school where students can study climate change, yet you plan to fire all the geographers, paleontologists, climatologists, and sedimentologists??
A point that resonates with me: the hubris of administrators to decide what is worthy of a degree.
You want to create a school where students can study climate change, yet you plan to fire all the geographers, paleontologists, climatologists, and sedimentologists??
Cuts to geology programmes, departmental mergers and shrinking university support threaten the long-term health of the discipline. Now, Jan Zalasiewicz examines the developing situation at the University of Leicester: geoscientist.online/sections/vie...
#Geology #Geoscience #HigherEducation
#Geology #Geoscience #HigherEducation
Geology imperilled - GEOSCIENTIST
In recent years, universities across many western nations, including several in the UK, have closed Earth science courses and downsized their geology departments. The University of Leicester is the la...
geoscientist.online
December 4, 2025 at 8:42 AM
This is a must read.
A point that resonates with me: the hubris of administrators to decide what is worthy of a degree.
You want to create a school where students can study climate change, yet you plan to fire all the geographers, paleontologists, climatologists, and sedimentologists??
A point that resonates with me: the hubris of administrators to decide what is worthy of a degree.
You want to create a school where students can study climate change, yet you plan to fire all the geographers, paleontologists, climatologists, and sedimentologists??
Reposted by Romain Tartese
For non-Brits: nobody can afford to get sued by revved-up wingnuts and crackpots armed with JK Rowling’s money, and nobody wants to be the next organisation protested by the far right and monstered into the heart of the earth by the world’s most poisonous media outlets. So they are folding.
December 2, 2025 at 8:09 PM
For non-Brits: nobody can afford to get sued by revved-up wingnuts and crackpots armed with JK Rowling’s money, and nobody wants to be the next organisation protested by the far right and monstered into the heart of the earth by the world’s most poisonous media outlets. So they are folding.
I hate what this country is becoming. And I despise transphobes. And the supreme court.
December 3, 2025 at 12:27 PM
I hate what this country is becoming. And I despise transphobes. And the supreme court.
Reposted by Romain Tartese
Hard to read this and not feel a flare of righteous fury at the absolute cruelty that underpins the anti-trans movement.
Just diabolical to force a tiny number of girls and young women out because you've let your twitter algorithm convince you they're dangerous.
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...
Just diabolical to force a tiny number of girls and young women out because you've let your twitter algorithm convince you they're dangerous.
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...
Trans girls banned from joining Girlguiding
Girls’ adventure charity says it made decision after seeking legal advice in wake of supreme court ruling on gender
www.theguardian.com
December 2, 2025 at 6:54 PM
Hard to read this and not feel a flare of righteous fury at the absolute cruelty that underpins the anti-trans movement.
Just diabolical to force a tiny number of girls and young women out because you've let your twitter algorithm convince you they're dangerous.
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...
Just diabolical to force a tiny number of girls and young women out because you've let your twitter algorithm convince you they're dangerous.
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...
Reposted by Romain Tartese
Watched BBC 6 o clock news. Just a completely unserious broadcast. Chris Mason, acting like a children's entertainer, giving a prolonged impenetrable editorial. Not a whiff of informative content about the Budget or what it means for the country. Just playschool blah blah bollocks.
December 1, 2025 at 6:28 PM
Watched BBC 6 o clock news. Just a completely unserious broadcast. Chris Mason, acting like a children's entertainer, giving a prolonged impenetrable editorial. Not a whiff of informative content about the Budget or what it means for the country. Just playschool blah blah bollocks.
Reposted by Romain Tartese
CEO-to-worker pay ratio in 1965: 20-1
CEO-to-worker pay ratio in 1990: 75-1
CEO-to-worker pay ratio today: 280-to-1
Trickle-down economics was always a sham.
Nothing has ever trickled down.
CEO-to-worker pay ratio in 1990: 75-1
CEO-to-worker pay ratio today: 280-to-1
Trickle-down economics was always a sham.
Nothing has ever trickled down.
November 29, 2025 at 11:01 PM
CEO-to-worker pay ratio in 1965: 20-1
CEO-to-worker pay ratio in 1990: 75-1
CEO-to-worker pay ratio today: 280-to-1
Trickle-down economics was always a sham.
Nothing has ever trickled down.
CEO-to-worker pay ratio in 1990: 75-1
CEO-to-worker pay ratio today: 280-to-1
Trickle-down economics was always a sham.
Nothing has ever trickled down.
Reposted by Romain Tartese
The natural state of capitalism is "trickle-up". The only way to counter the "trickle-up" is taxes.
CEO-to-worker pay ratio in 1965: 20-1
CEO-to-worker pay ratio in 1990: 75-1
CEO-to-worker pay ratio today: 280-to-1
Trickle-down economics was always a sham.
Nothing has ever trickled down.
CEO-to-worker pay ratio in 1990: 75-1
CEO-to-worker pay ratio today: 280-to-1
Trickle-down economics was always a sham.
Nothing has ever trickled down.
December 1, 2025 at 7:21 AM
The natural state of capitalism is "trickle-up". The only way to counter the "trickle-up" is taxes.
Reposted by Romain Tartese
This is why OpenAI is selling so aggressively to education at all levels—they want to create entire generations of users incapable of reading, writing and thinking without ChatGPT to hold their hands
And teachers and professors should call this out for what it actually is
And teachers and professors should call this out for what it actually is
To bear out this rosy projection, HSBC assumes that OpenAI will become "as ubiquitous [...] as Microsoft 365" (345mm users worldwide) while bringing in 10x the number of users (3bn).
November 25, 2025 at 11:11 PM
This is why OpenAI is selling so aggressively to education at all levels—they want to create entire generations of users incapable of reading, writing and thinking without ChatGPT to hold their hands
And teachers and professors should call this out for what it actually is
And teachers and professors should call this out for what it actually is
Reposted by Romain Tartese
Remember when Brexiters were reduced to pretending that pint bottles of champagne represented a major win?
November 27, 2025 at 8:53 AM
Remember when Brexiters were reduced to pretending that pint bottles of champagne represented a major win?
Reposted by Romain Tartese
I found a piece of toast that looks like it has a smile on it. Scientists say we should make it our king.
November 25, 2025 at 9:04 PM
I found a piece of toast that looks like it has a smile on it. Scientists say we should make it our king.
Reposted by Romain Tartese
I really wish we'd stop calling them climate "skeptics" or "vaccine skeptics", if you jump off a cliff we don't call you a "gravity skeptic"
November 25, 2025 at 8:18 PM
I really wish we'd stop calling them climate "skeptics" or "vaccine skeptics", if you jump off a cliff we don't call you a "gravity skeptic"
Reposted by Romain Tartese
one of the coolest things about ChatGPT is how you can actually just never use it. you can fill your whole entire life with simply not once using it. it's incredible.
November 25, 2025 at 4:15 PM
one of the coolest things about ChatGPT is how you can actually just never use it. you can fill your whole entire life with simply not once using it. it's incredible.
Reposted by Romain Tartese
Excellent essay. Should you use AI (as a student, or later) if you could "get away with it"? What might the long-term consequences be, for you - and society?
Why We’re Not Using AI in This Course, Despite Its Obvious Benefits
A reading for your students
emergingethics.substack.com
November 24, 2025 at 9:07 PM
Excellent essay. Should you use AI (as a student, or later) if you could "get away with it"? What might the long-term consequences be, for you - and society?
Reposted by Romain Tartese
Still can't quite believe that "I only said 'gas the Jews' in a non-hurtful way" was the strategy Nigel Farage opted to go for
November 24, 2025 at 9:41 PM
Still can't quite believe that "I only said 'gas the Jews' in a non-hurtful way" was the strategy Nigel Farage opted to go for
Reposted by Romain Tartese
Nice to see Betty a bit Sweaty.
Did you ever racially abuse fellow pupils?
It was years ago.
Did you ever racially abuse fellow pupils?
Not in a hurtful way.
Did you ever racially abuse fellow pupils?
Not with intent.
Did you ever racially abuse fellow pupils?
Not genuine abuse.
😮🫣😬😱 ~AA
It was years ago.
Did you ever racially abuse fellow pupils?
Not in a hurtful way.
Did you ever racially abuse fellow pupils?
Not with intent.
Did you ever racially abuse fellow pupils?
Not genuine abuse.
😮🫣😬😱 ~AA
November 24, 2025 at 8:08 PM
Nice to see Betty a bit Sweaty.
Reposted by Romain Tartese
Anyone who can look at the current underfunded state of UK universities and think there's half a billion quid you can take out of the sector without doing catastrophic damage is just not fit for office.
November 24, 2025 at 7:56 AM
Anyone who can look at the current underfunded state of UK universities and think there's half a billion quid you can take out of the sector without doing catastrophic damage is just not fit for office.
Reposted by Romain Tartese
For more than a decade now the government’s answer to how to fund universities has been to make money from overseas students.
The last lot then tried to discourage students from coming here.
This lot just want the money back.
But then how do we fund ourselves?
Crazy.
The last lot then tried to discourage students from coming here.
This lot just want the money back.
But then how do we fund ourselves?
Crazy.
i: Reeves to unveil £600m raid on foreign student
university fees #TomorrowsPapersToday
university fees #TomorrowsPapersToday
November 24, 2025 at 7:43 AM
For more than a decade now the government’s answer to how to fund universities has been to make money from overseas students.
The last lot then tried to discourage students from coming here.
This lot just want the money back.
But then how do we fund ourselves?
Crazy.
The last lot then tried to discourage students from coming here.
This lot just want the money back.
But then how do we fund ourselves?
Crazy.
Reposted by Romain Tartese
It’s widely known (and, I think, pretty uncontroversial) that learning requires effort — specifically, if you don’t have to work at getting the knowledge, it won’t stick.
Even if an LLM could be trusted to give you correct information 100% of the time, it would be an inferior method of learning it.
Even if an LLM could be trusted to give you correct information 100% of the time, it would be an inferior method of learning it.
Relying on ChatGPT to teach you about a topic leaves you with shallower knowledge than Googling and reading about it, according to new research that compared what more than 10,000 people knew after using one method or the other.
Shared by @gizmodo.com: buff.ly/yAAHtHq
Shared by @gizmodo.com: buff.ly/yAAHtHq
November 21, 2025 at 12:49 PM
It’s widely known (and, I think, pretty uncontroversial) that learning requires effort — specifically, if you don’t have to work at getting the knowledge, it won’t stick.
Even if an LLM could be trusted to give you correct information 100% of the time, it would be an inferior method of learning it.
Even if an LLM could be trusted to give you correct information 100% of the time, it would be an inferior method of learning it.
Lol. Got to keep these shareholders profits up...
November 21, 2025 at 7:24 AM
Lol. Got to keep these shareholders profits up...
Reposted by Romain Tartese
The organisers of the world's biggest planetary science conference are outlawing any DEI-related submissions because their lawyers are afraid they'll lose federal support.
They're losing the support of the planetary science community fucking fast.
www.science.org/content/arti...
They're losing the support of the planetary science community fucking fast.
www.science.org/content/arti...
‘This is censorship.’ Conference requires abstracts to comply with Trump anti-DEI order
NASA-funded planetary science institute previously scrubbed hundreds of records from its archive
www.science.org
November 21, 2025 at 12:30 AM
The organisers of the world's biggest planetary science conference are outlawing any DEI-related submissions because their lawyers are afraid they'll lose federal support.
They're losing the support of the planetary science community fucking fast.
www.science.org/content/arti...
They're losing the support of the planetary science community fucking fast.
www.science.org/content/arti...