-
The June bug
Just one year ago, around this late spring period, he would have been sitting around at an outside coffee table in the sun chatting with colleagues about the never-ending cuts in research budgets, hiring committees, a notable new paper on climate projections for the end of the decade, wealth inequality, or simply about a recent hike in the mountain made memorable…
-
The merits of doing something (else)
A few weeks ago, my musician friend Sknob released a song and video, “Do something”. It reminded me about sharing here how the manual and artistic activities I am doing not-for-a-living deeply improve my research process, my mental health, and how they ground me in reality too — which is, let’s be honest, quite essential in the times we are living…
-
An open letter to academic colleagues consuming genAI
We are living through unprecedented trying times for research, times that increasingly look like a crepuscule, a moment of high existential danger for research communities and academic freedoms. Now is the time for academics to take a stand or go to hell after making a Faustian pact. This is my public plea to tenured colleagues consuming genAI products, for whatever stated…
-
500 miles high
A few months ago, I wrote about becoming deputy-director of the SETE in Moulis next year, in a transient 2-years arrangement. Well, that situation escalated quickly ! After a few months acquainting myself more with the direction tasks, getting to know the nitty-gritty of the lab, and writing a detailed direction program, I received the green light from INEE last week…
-
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…
-
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.…
-
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…
-
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…
-
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…
-
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…
FEDI FOLLOW
ARCHIVES
- October 2026 (3)
- July 2026 (1)
- June 2026 (3)
- February 2026 (1)
- December 2025 (1)
- March 2025 (2)
- February 2025 (1)
- December 2024 (1)
- November 2024 (1)
- September 2024 (1)
- July 2024 (1)
- May 2024 (1)
- April 2024 (1)
- March 2024 (2)
- February 2024 (1)
- January 2024 (4)
- December 2023 (4)
- November 2023 (5)
LATEST COMMENTS
@Francois oué. Un Insecte
… liked this!
… liked this!
… reposted this!
@Francois oué. Un Insecte