Neutrino: the particle that shouldn’t exist
A Gresham College lecture as Visiting Professor of Cosmology, part of the series “The Unexpected Universe“. In 1930, the great physicist Wolfgang Pauli did something that “no theorist should ever do”: he invented a new particle that he thought nobody could ever detect in order to save the principle of energy conservation in certain radioactive […]
The COVID diaries: Diary of an astrophysicist
We thought we could help. We thought we’d waltz in with a little machine learning magic. We thought we could save the day.
Inaugural lecture: From the Big Bang to AI
My inaugural lecture as Professor of Astrostatistics at Imperial College London on Jan 15th 2020. A truly unique opportunity for me to sum up what I’ve learnt, from dark matter to Bayes, to the the audience to taste dark matter and feel the dark matter wind (!) and to share the journey. An unforgettable, emotional […]
Weighing the Universe
A public lecture given on Nov 4th 2019 as Visiting Professor of Cosmology at Gresham College, London. Part of a three lecture series in 2019-2020 on “The Nature of Reality”. Surely you can’t “weigh” the Universe?! Let us begin by clarifying the title of this lecture: “weighing” is not quite the right word. In fact, […]
Why Society Needs Astronomy and Cosmology
A public lecture given as Guest Professor at Gresham College London on March 15th 2016. “One day, Sir, you may tax it!” In 1850 the Chancellor of the Exchequer, William Gladstone, reportedly visited Michael Faraday’s laboratory at the Royal Institution of Great Britain. Faraday’s reputation as one of the greatest scientists of his time was […]
Publish all data and models underlying the Government’s COVID-19 strategy
Please use the text below to pressure your MP into raising this urgent question in Parliament and to the UK Government (posted March 12th 2020; an official e-Petition is underway but it will take up to a week to be approved — and time is of the essence). The Government claims that their COVID-19 strategy […]
Cosmic Cocktails: Explaining Cosmology with Drinks in the Outer Hebrides
I had the great pleasure of taking the g-Astronomy project to Scotland, on the kind invitation of the Hebridean Dark Skies Festival. One of the events was held at the An Lanntair arts centre, where in collaboration with Kirsty MacKinnon Lease and her team we devised a series of three cocktails to talk about cosmology in a fun, engaging and hopefully entertaining way.
Celebrating 70 years of Humanities at Imperial College London
Imperial College London is world-renowned for its research and education in science, technology, engineering, maths, medicine and business. It is perhaps less well known that the humanities have a long and fascinating history at Imperial: for 70 years, the arts, humanities and social sciences have enriched the cultural and intellectual life of Imperial’s staff and […]
Dining with Copernicus
In Sept 2018, I had the pleasure to be invited to take part to an “immersive dinner experience” organised by the Polish Cultural Institute in London. Combining theatre, history, astronomy and cuisine, the evening celebrated in an entertaining manner Polish history and the discoveries of Nicolaus Copernicus. I gave the “Astronomer’s Speech”, on the life […]
Uncertain Ruins – From The Big Bang to AI
I was invited to contribute a piece responding from the perspective of astrostatistics to the timely and exciting show “Uncertain Ruins”, a “a site-responsive collaboration by artist Julie F Hill and Gauld Architecture that draws on the social, material and historical context of the Swiss Cottage Library in which the gallery is located”, part of the Passen-gers site-specific exhibition […]
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