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Fintan Burke

@fintanburke.com

Irish science journalist in Hamburg | Outreach for @esci.eu | Board member @eusja.org Sé/é. Big fan of the en-dash. Signal: fintanburke.01

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Latest posts by Fintan Burke @fintanburke.com

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Censorship and safety concerns cloud China’s plans to host science journalism conference Organizers of the 2029 World Conference of Science Journalists defend Beijing meeting as opportunity to connect with Chinese scientists

Many science journalists are concerned about plans to hold the profession's flagship international conference in China - a country that ranks 178th on the World Press Freedom Index
www.science.org/content/arti...

27.02.2026 13:01 👍 13 🔁 5 💬 1 📌 1

Looking for sources for a Nature.com story about dealing with predatory 'pay-to-publish' magazines.

They try to convince PhDs/academics to write for their high-impact magazine (read by business people, politicians etc), charging them thousands to do so.

DMs open! #academicsky 🧪

20.02.2026 15:39 👍 6 🔁 7 💬 2 📌 1
Article with headline ‘Businesses hiring storytellers to 'cut through the AI slop’

Article with headline ‘Businesses hiring storytellers to 'cut through the AI slop’

Time is a flat circle

14.02.2026 10:53 👍 2 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0
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Regional universities seek new ways to attract researchers Universities and research programmes in many rural regions in Europe are being adversely affected by declining population numbers and brain drain. The...

Big shock - top universities in Europe's big cities & regions have no problem attracting students. But what about the universities in fringe areas with dwindling populations?

I spoke with the researchers in some of those regions to see how they adapt. 🧪 #AcademicSky

09.02.2026 12:49 👍 6 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
Google maps telling me to get to Dublin Airport by leaving Dublin airport and walking back an hour and a half to it. #Spéirgorm

Google maps telling me to get to Dublin Airport by leaving Dublin airport and walking back an hour and a half to it. #Spéirgorm

Google must have finally incorporated AI into Google Maps. How do I know?
It just told me I needed to leave now to be at Dublin Airport by 13:30 now to catch 9am Citylink that arrives in Dublin Airport at 11am. Then I should take the 11:45 Kells bus to Ballymun and walk back one hour to the airport

09.02.2026 08:23 👍 194 🔁 47 💬 11 📌 15

Yes, I know the Tips and Tricks, but it still drives me nuts

04.02.2026 16:16 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
An image macro of Gordon Ramsay from his television show Kitchen Nightmares in which he says, "Delicious. Finally, some good fucking food." The subtitle has been altered to read "Delicious. Finally, some Open Access."

An image macro of Gordon Ramsay from his television show Kitchen Nightmares in which he says, "Delicious. Finally, some good fucking food." The subtitle has been altered to read "Delicious. Finally, some Open Access."

As a science journalist looking through papers and being asked to 'Sign in through your institution" for two hours 🧪

04.02.2026 16:16 👍 12 🔁 1 💬 2 📌 0
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The Economist’s science and technology internship We invite applications for the 2026 Richard Casement internship

Science-heads who are journalism-curious! This is one of the best internships imaginable. Many of its holders have gone on to great careers at The Economist.

Please help spread the word.

www.economist.com/science-and-...

04.02.2026 10:29 👍 14 🔁 23 💬 1 📌 1
A photo of Hamburg’s HafenCity district, with snow on the ground and patches of ice in the canal

A photo of Hamburg’s HafenCity district, with snow on the ground and patches of ice in the canal

A bit chilly in the Hansestadt

02.02.2026 08:19 👍 3 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Genuinely, the high cost of a subscription. You are paying for a quality product with high standards

31.01.2026 09:16 👍 21 🔁 3 💬 3 📌 0

So the opposite of journalists then.

29.01.2026 11:26 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0

Looking for sources for a @nature.com story about how researchers are coping in the midst of current events: If you're a PhD or other academic who's struggling to focus with everything that's happening in the world and would like to be interviewed for this story, please get in touch ASAP!

26.01.2026 16:25 👍 69 🔁 75 💬 5 📌 2
A tweet that says: NEW: Former UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson claims a listening device was found in his bathroom after it was used by Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu.

Johnson claims his security team found bugging devices in the toilets after they were used by Netanyahu.

A tweet that says: NEW: Former UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson claims a listening device was found in his bathroom after it was used by Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu. Johnson claims his security team found bugging devices in the toilets after they were used by Netanyahu.

The scene in Grizzly Man where Werner Herzog listens to the audio of Timothy Treadwell being eaten alive by bears, causing him to tell the grieving friend of the doomed naturalist: You must never listen to this. I think you should not keep it. You should destroy it.

The scene in Grizzly Man where Werner Herzog listens to the audio of Timothy Treadwell being eaten alive by bears, causing him to tell the grieving friend of the doomed naturalist: You must never listen to this. I think you should not keep it. You should destroy it.

03.10.2024 21:23 👍 308 🔁 53 💬 3 📌 6

unbelievably, incredibly pleased to share with you that one of my oldest friends managed, with a straight face, to convince her partner that Jon Hamm was married to an Italian woman called Ana Mortadella

23.01.2026 20:52 👍 606 🔁 33 💬 22 📌 3

My hot take on Sinners: getting those 16 nominations is deserved because of the excellent work in each of those categories.

Even if the film does not equal the whole sum of that work, it remains one of the year’s best. It deserved to break the nomination record.

23.01.2026 12:50 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
Sheet of information on the locating loss project which aims to explore histories of infertility through landscapes and spaces. Please Dm me for more info if needed!

Sheet of information on the locating loss project which aims to explore histories of infertility through landscapes and spaces. Please Dm me for more info if needed!

Hello! I am sharing information about my @researchireland.ie project Locating Loss: histories of infertility in landscapes and spaces. I would love to connect with researchers/ practitioners from a wide range of backgrounds and disciplines, so please share widely! Sharing again for morning Bluesky!

15.01.2026 07:47 👍 24 🔁 26 💬 4 📌 0
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AI chatbots are 'alarmingly' biased against dialect speakers – DW – 12/29/2025 Don't speak perfect Oxford English? You may face "shocking" levels of discrimination when using large language models, researchers have found. New customized AI models could be the answer.

Looks like the LLMs powering AI chatbots have a bias against users who have a dialect. A study of German dialect speakers judged them as uneducated, angry farm workers.

Similar studies exist for English dialects from places India, Ireland (😐) and Nigeria.

My piece for Deutsche Welle 🧪

09.01.2026 13:54 👍 9 🔁 5 💬 1 📌 0
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Hi there Blue Sky folks! I'm new here, Here's some Bach Cello Suits in the west of Ireland winter sun. Is what you're into? Would you like to hear more? I'm finding it too upsetting to open up Twitter these days...

28.01.2025 08:47 👍 780 🔁 165 💬 87 📌 17

Seems appropriate.

02.01.2026 10:00 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

I've finally discovered how to bond hydrogen and oxygen in a chain: HO-HO-HO.
It's a Christmas molecule.

19.12.2025 09:53 👍 115 🔁 25 💬 3 📌 3

First fogged-up glasses of the season.

05.12.2025 08:02 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

right I'm calling it, the old age thing on Spotify Wrapped was bait, tons of people got 70+ even though none of their top 5 featured songs/albums from before even the 2010's, we got played

03.12.2025 20:56 👍 128 🔁 5 💬 36 📌 3

Those Martello towers had one job...

01.12.2025 12:48 👍 7 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0
Sad Pablo Escobar mem - a series of three-panel image macros featuring the character Pablo Escobar (played by Wagner Moura) from the Netflix series Narcos staring blankly in three different screen-captures from the series.

Sad Pablo Escobar mem - a series of three-panel image macros featuring the character Pablo Escobar (played by Wagner Moura) from the Netflix series Narcos staring blankly in three different screen-captures from the series.

"Otter is down, but will be back online shortly"

Every journalist:

13.11.2025 16:07 👍 3 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0
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Ireland officially joins CERN as associate member state Ireland has officially joined the European Organisation for Nuclear Research as an associate member state.

I'll take some good news about #IrishResearch any time I can get it 🧪

22.10.2025 14:17 👍 19 🔁 5 💬 0 📌 0
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two men are arm wrestling each other in a gym . ALT: two men are arm wrestling each other in a gym .

All those countries + Ireland

15.10.2025 18:14 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

A useful article that also applies to scientists and science journalists www.gamedeveloper.com/marketing/de...

09.10.2025 07:20 👍 2 🔁 2 💬 0 📌 0