It must be time for me to write another particle physics blog post, telling a story from the quest to find new scientific phenomena and resolve the mysteries of the universe. With pictures of ponies. So here we go. Prepare to learn all about Lepton Flavour Universality. To enhance your blog reading experience, first go and get a smoothie.

Are you ready?

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Yesterday I decided to investigate this Chat GPT thing that I now hear so much about. And wow—this technology has really moved on since I last looked at it. We now have an AI engine which, given a simple prompt, will write a story for you in seconds.

This is the first conversation I had with it:

What is antimatter?

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At this time of year, there is a tradition of planetarium shows about possible astronomical explanations for the story of the Star of Bethlehem, which guided the Magi to the baby Jesus. Scholars have been pondering this for centuries. It’s a fun question to ponder as it mixes biblical scripture, history, astrophysics, and lets us talk about comets, novae, supernovae, planetary conjunctions, along with ancient astronomy from many cultures. See for example

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I went to a very good lecture this week at the Oxford Museum of Natural History, by JRR Tolkien. Not quite in flesh—the museum does not have access to the writer himself (he died in 1973) any more than they have any live dinosaurs, but they were able to reproduce his spirit in about the most convincing way possible without resorting to the sort of necromancy that would not be approved by the university ethics committee.

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First impression of the Marestream: They’ve got a rainbow-powered spaceship horsebox! How cool is that!

Now having appreciated it in a child-opening-a-present sort of way, let’s examine it in a more academic-fan-overanalysis sort of way.

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Sneaksy Strikes Again is now one of my favourite Tell Your Tale episodes. It looks like the artists had a lot of fun making with this one. Each time I watch it I spot something new. Let’s delve into the world of art, for everypony.

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Now I just need to figure out how to control my alicorn magic without dumping several tonnes of microplastic pollution in a sensitive marine environment.

Glitter is clearly an essential element of life in Equestria. The crucial component in Izzy’s crafts; the indispensable ingredient in Mane Melody hoof polish. The manestream magic that keeps everypony’s sparkle shining bright.

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That time of year again. When ponies dress up in Spooktacular costumes for their Nightmare Night fun, and particle physicists thrill everyone with tales of ghost particles and the dark side of the universe.

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Zipp’s folding phone feels like a joint marketing opportunity with Samsung that wasn’t fully realised. Her cool hoofset has something like their Infinity Flex Display, which can be literally folded in half, but the shape is more like the Galaxy Z Fold series than a Z Flip (“Zip”) phone.

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