Musings from astrophysics to ecology

  • After the heat wave

    France and Western Europe have been plagued by a massive heat wave over the last ten days, already the second one of 2026 in the region. It is taking an unprecedented toll on people’s physical and mental health and is increasingly looking like a moment of truth, the moment we, a rich, developed group of countries are finally collectively coming to…

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  • On the use of AI: an update

    For those of you who found my earlier exhaustive technical and moral takedown of the use of AI in research and in astrophysics too long to read, and even more for those of my direct colleagues who may have stumbled on that post and found it excessive or subversive, good news, I have a much shorter blog entry for you today.…

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  • On AI in research and astrophysics

    Long time no post, very busy times. And although I would have dearly loved to talk about ecology, in the current flux of news and articles I’m reading I feel obliged to make a post about *drumrolls* AI *crash cymbal* in research, and astrophysics. Oh wait. So this IS inevitably going to be, to some extent, about ecology and research. Read…

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  • Giant steps

    This blog has been very quiet in 2025, and you readers are entitled to the question : is this thing still running ? How is the whole project going ? What are you up to ? I am here today to provide some good, important (at least for me) news : pending internal mobility procedures at CNRS, I will normally soon…

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  • Nuno

    One of my best friends and colleagues, Nuno Loureiro, who I had known for almost twenty years, was shot in his house in Boston on Monday, and tragically passed away shortly after that. He was a professor and researcher in plasma physics at MIT. It took me a few days to fathom the news and to digest the emotional shock. I…

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  • Reaffirming and defending an ethical and responsible science in service of a humanist and ecological society

    French version here. Preamble. I started writing this text almost a month ago while attending a conference in Spain and thinking about our chance to do research, and its necessity, right after the first federal research cuts of the new US government. I thought of publishing it as an op-ed in a newspaper but the “Stand up for Science” collective emerged…

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  • Réaffirmer et défendre une science éthique et responsable au service d’une société humaniste et écologique

    Edit 08/03: English version can now be found here. Avant-propos. Voilà un texte, exceptionnellement en français sur ce blog, que j’ai commencé à écrire il y a presque un mois alors que je me trouvais en conférence en Espagne et réfléchissais à notre chance de pouvoir encore pratiquer la recherche, et la nécessité de celle-ci, après les premières annonces du nouveau…

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  • Honest research is a chance and a necessity

    Two weeks ago, I crossed the Pyrénees with two colleagues from our ecology lab to attend a marine ecology/biology workshop in Barcelona — my first ecology conference, going through the mountains to learn about the ocean! More importantly, I learned a big lesson there, and it wasn’t a scientific one. The initial objective for me with this trip was to discover…

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  • Mas Que Nada

    With 2024 fading out, yesterday I thought I would make a hard-review of how I’ve spent my time and what I have achieved (or not) since March 2023, when I started this research transition. The exercice offers instructive insights into the challenges of attempting a major reorientation like this in the middle of an active academic career… As a brief reminder,…

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  • One year, and taking off

    This blog is turning one year old today, and I haven’t posted much in recent months. Not that the the whole project is falling apart, quite the opposite actually: I am really busy running things in parallel, and am prioritizing science developments ! But, after a perfect rejuvinating autumnal week-end in Pyrenean nature thinking about all of this in the background,…

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François
François
@Francois@lookingup.francois-rincon.org
30 posts
48 followers

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  1. @BrKloeckner @Francois Chaque discussion et affirmation des convictions compte dans notre milieu je pense. C'est un travail de longue haleine,…