Dr Sam Morrell

@smorrell
1.4K Followers
67 Following
289 Posts

Devonian #astrophysicist, #astronomer, #ecologist at @uoe_astro / University of Exeter Environment and Sustainability Institute. Researcher of #lightpollution, #ALAN, #stars, and #exoplanets.

Aspiring science educator. Crafter of code. Musician and music lover. Ex astris, scientia. (he/him).

Websitehttps://sammorrell.co.uk/
LinkedInhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/sammorrell/
Dr Sam Morrell4d ago
Peter Coles 🏳️‍🌈 🏳️‍⚧️5d ago

Hopeful news about the STFC Crisis

I've just got time this evening to pass on news that the Chair of the Parliamentary Select Committee looking at he current STFC debacle (see this account), Chi Onwurah, has responded to the events in extremely frank terms. Here is an excerpt: The full response - which is definitely well worth reading - can be found here: documents…

http://telescoper.blog/2026/03/12/hopeful-news-about-the-stfc-crisis/

Hopeful news about the STFC Crisis

I’ve just got time this evening to pass on news that the Chair of the Parliamentary Select Committee looking at he current STFC debacle (see this account), Chi Onwurah, has responded to the e…

In the Dark
Dr Sam MorrellMar 3
j_bertolottiMar 3

After years almost unable to move due to long Covid, Dianna Cowern is back!
https://youtu.be/B3m3AMRlYfc

#ScienceCommunication

My first science video in 3 years

YouTube
Dr Sam MorrellFeb 8
Casey LissFeb 8

This is perhaps a bit overly dramatic, but it rings very, very true to me.

https://nolanlawson.com/2026/02/07/we-mourn-our-craft/

We mourn our craft

I didn’t ask for this and neither did you. I didn’t ask for a robot to consume every blog post and piece of code I ever wrote and parrot it back so that some hack could make money off o…

Read the Tea Leaves
Dr Sam MorrellJan 26
AbieJan 26
MDPI gets bashed (and rightly so)
https://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2026-01-22/thousands-of-scientists-inflate-their-cvs-with-self-published-studies-that-cost-millions-of-dollars-of-public-money.html
Thousands of scientists inflate their CVs with self-published studies that cost millions of dollars of public money

An analysis of 100,000 special issues of academic journals reveals that one in eight is filled with articles written by the editor, particularly at the publisher MDPI

EL PAÍS English
Dr Sam MorrellDec 19
mhoyeDec 18
To spell this out clearly, the reason RAM has quadrupled in price is that a huge quantity of RAM that hasn't been produced yet has been bought with money that doesn't exist to populate GPUs that also haven't been produced to go in datacenters that haven't been built powered by infrastructure that may never exist to meet a demand that doesn't exist at all to make profit margins that mathematically can't exist while economists talk about this thing they call the "rational markets hypothesis".
Dr Sam MorrellDec 18
j_bertolottiDec 18
As someone working in #imaging and #optics, I have no notes.
https://xkcd.com/3182/
Telescope Types

xkcd
Show threadDr Sam MorrellDec 10
It's been a pleasure working with the council, and applying our modelling techniques, developed in-house at University of Exeter, and expertise to contribute a piece of the puzzle for this. I'm looking forward to sharing a recently accepted journal paper that we did alongside this work soon.
Dr Sam MorrellDec 10

Sharing some good news from #Devon. Devon County Council have been proactive in implementing part-night lighting and dimming in their #streetlighting installation. This has come with sizeable monetary and carbon savings, but also reduces the temporal and spatial extent of #ALAN across Devon, likely reducing ecological pressure on organisms at nighttime.

News article: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cpvdnzvzljlo

Council to make decision over future of Devon street light trial

Devon County Council says a decision over whether to make the trial permanent will be made in 2026.

BBC News
Dr Sam MorrellDec 4

Anyone looking for an #astrophysics #PhD? Particularly in the #SouthWest of the #UK? My colleagues in the Astrophysics Group at University of Exeter (@uoe_astro) are advertising funded PhD opportunities now. They are listed, along with other information about applying, the page below. Please reach out to them if you're interested and would like to know more.

https://www.exeter.ac.uk/research/groups/physics/astrophysics/phd-opportunities/currentopportunities/

Current opportunities | Astrophysics | University of Exeter

University of Exeter
Dr Sam MorrellDec 3
Mark McCaughreanDec 3

Another canary in the collapsing coalmine.

A paper today in Nature by Borlaff et al. on the impact of ever-increasing numbers of satellites in low-Earth orbit on space telescopes like Hubble, SPHEREx, & CHEOPS today, & Xuntian & ARRAKIHS in the future.

The number of proposed satellites is eye-watering, & the effects on astronomy horrendous – there are wider effects on pollution of the upper atmosphere & safety of key orbital assets as well.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-09759-5

#Science #SpaceScience

Satellite megaconstellations will threaten space-based astronomy - Nature

Rapidly growing satellite constellations pose a substantial threat to astronomical observations, with projections indicating that future space telescopes will have more than 96% of their exposures affected by satellite trails, necessitating urgent mitigation strategies.

Nature