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The howling Universe

Before I moved from IFT to IPhT, I filmed a video all about what standard sirens are and why they’re useful for cosmology. The video is now on Youtube, in English with Spanish subtitles. Take a look!
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Implicit none

The first programming language I ever learned was Fortran. And before you ask, no, I’m not seventy years old. It just so happened that during my undergraduate degree, I took two courses on numerical methods for physics which were taught in Fortran, and for good reason: Fortran is still one of the best languages to…
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My first N months as a postdoc (where 0 < N < 12)

How long have I been a postdoc? It’s a little difficult to quantify. I finished my PhD thesis in December 2020, and submitted it in January 2021. I passed my viva in February 2021. I spent a few months climbing the walls waiting for my Spanish visa, and trying to do research at the same…
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The road (back) to Madrid

On Friday last week I signed my contract and started my job as a postdoctoral researcher at the IFT in Madrid. It feels extremely good to type that. I have also been waiting a very long time to write this post. I was offered this job on the 12th of April 2020 — when the…
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Britgrav21

It turns out my goal of writing a post every day for thirty days was indeed too ambitious! I’m both time- and content-poor at the moment, so I’ve revised the five posts I did make into a new “daily” category, to which I’ll add short updates on my work and what I’m doing on those…
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Visa application

I am starting to regret this resolution of writing a blog post every day for thirty days. I’ve already missed a few days so the thirty will no longer be consecutive and perhaps my days are not as interesting as I anticipated. I suppose that’s mainly because this week has been a week of admin…
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A manifesto, rugby tickets and a haircut

Today was a positive day in terms of research — a sad rarity in recent times! I firstly had a short meeting with my new postdoc bosses and we discussed a kind of manifesto they have put together, in which they have explained their expectations for me in the role and presented their individual working…
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Running, paper revisions, talk writing

I started this morning in unusually energetic fashion, by going for a run before starting work. It was a bit chilly but the sky was clear blue and the sun was shining. The birds were singing and the blackthorn blossom has topped the newly green trees and hedges with a creamy white glaze. The daffodils…

