Tom Collett

Astronomer and Cosmologist. Liberal. I love travelling, space and dogs.

[Tom Collett @TomCollettAstro]

@AstroRJS The gravitational wave party?

[Tom Collett @TomCollettAstro]

@AlkistisPou We’re doing a Euclid strong lensing conference in Crete in September. I’m looking forward to it!

[Tom Collett @TomCollettAstro]

I've declined to do an unpaid review 3 times this week as I'm currently on parental leave. Their response: 'we can extend the deadline' :(

[Tom Collett @TomCollettAstro]

@cplberry @LIGOLA @LIGOWA Have you been replaced with a Twitter bot? It’s impressive how frequently these events are coming out

[Dr Jen Gupta @jen_gupta]

I guess we won a thing?

[Tom Collett @TomCollettAstro]

Measuring babies is a lot like measuring cosmological distances. Challenging, inaccurate and typically reported to greater precision than the systematics would suggest.

[Tom Collett @TomCollettAstro]

@AstroRJS Change your name to Aaron A Aardvark? I bet you'll be unique on ADS and you'll be first on any alphabetical author list!

[Tom Collett @TomCollettAstro]

@jcolinhill @nu_phases That's perfectly fair, as long as we treat all probes with equal levels of conservatism. What we mustn't do is give some probes an easier ride for agreeing with a prefered H0 value.

[Tom Collett @TomCollettAstro]

@AddisonGraeme @jcolinhill @nu_phases Thanks Graeme, this is definitely the right approach. I'm pretty confident the H0licow result will be proven right, but I'm certain the Birrer result isn't wrong.

[Tom Collett @TomCollettAstro]

@jcolinhill @nu_phases Definitely not analogous to BICEP. The H0licow results are not demonstrably wrong and many TDCOSMO members still think they will be proven right

[Tom Collett @TomCollettAstro]

@jcolinhill @nu_phases Hi Colin, Whilst the Birrer errors are the most conservative choices, I do object to the view that the H0licow errors are definitely underestimated. They are based on our best knowledge of elliptical galaxies and so far we see no evidence that those assumptions are wrong.

[Tom Collett @TomCollettAstro]

@SeshNadathur It's outrageous how the indirect fractions have gone up in the last 10 years, yet staff salaries don't even keep up with inflation

[Tom Collett @TomCollettAstro]

@astro_hedgehog If you put the senders and academic reviewers together would they annihilate?

[Tom Collett @TomCollettAstro]

Nooooo. Why did Google have to die 23 hours before the 4MOST proposal deadline and my whole justification is on google docs! #google

[Dr Jen Gupta @jen_gupta]

Delighted to be attending the virtual @portsmouthuni Vice-Chancellor's Awards for Excellence ceremony to see @coffee_samurai be recognised for his fantastic contributions to the university through his @TactileUniverse work! #VCAwards2020

[Tom Collett @TomCollettAstro]

@KarenLMasters @WadhamAlumni I thought this was Wadham at first glance too, but the chapel is rotated 90 degrees. #fakenews?

[Tom Collett @TomCollettAstro]

@AstroRJS Fellowships are like buses - you spend years getting rejected and then suddenly everyone throws money at you. Sadly you can't hold an FLF alongside anything else so this is getting handed back.

[Tom Collett @TomCollettAstro]

@philipbull @SeshNadathur @ChrisDPattison @AcademicChatter @AcademicDilemma @AcademicsSay Indeed, but they are hard to get. There should be vastly more of them. In my ideal world we have twice as many faculty, half of whom are doing research at any given time.

[Tom Collett @TomCollettAstro]

@SeshNadathur @philipbull @ChrisDPattison @AcademicChatter @AcademicDilemma @AcademicsSay That's a good point. I guess we also need something like a synergy grant for several faculty and junior fellows to apply together (at one or multiple institutes).

[Tom Collett @TomCollettAstro]

@ClareBurrage @ChrisDPattison @AcademicChatter @AcademicDilemma @AcademicsSay Oh to be allowed to start again with a blank sheet of paper.