Researcher in applied category theory at Hertfordshire, UK, formerly at ELSI, Japan. Maths, science and random creative projects.https://bsky.app/profile/nathanielvirgo.bsky.socialhttps://bsky.app/profile/nathanielvirgo.bsky.social/post/3mfonnfzbec23Extremely niche academic UX complaint: why is it that every single journal have a login system that's incompatible with my browser's password manager?25 Feb 2026 12:11 +0000at://did:plc:xpl57er4zbahuoaqis6qatin/app.bsky.feed.post/3mfonnfzbec23https://bsky.app/profile/nathanielvirgo.bsky.social/post/3meeuz6c7m22oProving stuff in Lean is the most addictive game I've played in ages08 Feb 2026 21:31 +0000at://did:plc:xpl57er4zbahuoaqis6qatin/app.bsky.feed.post/3meeuz6c7m22ohttps://bsky.app/profile/nathanielvirgo.bsky.social/post/3mcstu3ra6k24The whole is less than the product of its parts19 Jan 2026 23:57 +0000at://did:plc:xpl57er4zbahuoaqis6qatin/app.bsky.feed.post/3mcstu3ra6k24https://bsky.app/profile/nathanielvirgo.bsky.social/post/3mcdx5yijdc2mIdle wondering: are there readily available light sources that are outside the RGB gamut? It might be kind of cool to have a lamp that's an orange or aquamarine or visible violet more intense than we're used to seeing on screens.14 Jan 2026 01:46 +0000at://did:plc:xpl57er4zbahuoaqis6qatin/app.bsky.feed.post/3mcdx5yijdc2mhttps://bsky.app/profile/nathanielvirgo.bsky.social/post/3m6rqugcqvs24In this thread I'll review every episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation. This will be going on for a while, feel free to mute it.29 Nov 2025 15:50 +0000at://did:plc:xpl57er4zbahuoaqis6qatin/app.bsky.feed.post/3m6rqugcqvs24https://bsky.app/profile/nathanielvirgo.bsky.social/post/3m3joitujuk2zIt's hard to remember the smell of a place when you're not there, but when you're in a place you love where you haven't been for a long time, it really hits you.19 Oct 2025 06:31 +0000at://did:plc:xpl57er4zbahuoaqis6qatin/app.bsky.feed.post/3m3joitujuk2zhttps://bsky.app/profile/nathanielvirgo.bsky.social/post/3ltywucykic2xDoes anyone know a good estimate of the total amount spent on open access fees / article processing charges by the UK government (or really any government)? I'm only interested in public funds, i.e. total cost to the taxpayer.15 Jul 2025 12:49 +0000at://did:plc:xpl57er4zbahuoaqis6qatin/app.bsky.feed.post/3ltywucykic2xhttps://bsky.app/profile/nathanielvirgo.bsky.social/post/3lsvjai6ees2xI wish there was a browser that just didn't have the concept of tabs at all, but instead just kept track of your history in an organised way, such that you can always restore the state of a page you visited previously but never actually have more than one process running at once.01 Jul 2025 10:42 +0000at://did:plc:xpl57er4zbahuoaqis6qatin/app.bsky.feed.post/3lsvjai6ees2xhttps://bsky.app/profile/nathanielvirgo.bsky.social/post/3lmmn4slnsk25Question for mathematicians: what do you do when your progress on a topic surpasses your ability to easily explain it to another person? It seems like sometimes there's a big gap between this point and the point where you're ready to present it - how do you keep your motivation going in this period?12 Apr 2025 13:26 +0000at://did:plc:xpl57er4zbahuoaqis6qatin/app.bsky.feed.post/3lmmn4slnsk25https://bsky.app/profile/nathanielvirgo.bsky.social/post/3lmmm5luv5c2mAn actually useful use for AI would be if my system spellchecker could figure out that "operadic" and "retrocoalgebra" and "submanifold" and "submanifolds" and "shipbound" are words and not bother me about them, while still alerting me if I mistype them.12 Apr 2025 13:09 +0000at://did:plc:xpl57er4zbahuoaqis6qatin/app.bsky.feed.post/3lmmm5luv5c2mhttps://bsky.app/profile/nathanielvirgo.bsky.social/post/3lkay5renak2yDumb question, but how do you find good music these days? Not music "for studying" etc. but music that has something to say. I feel like good new music used to just be everywhere but now I don't know how to access it at all. Is it just me getting old or is it genuinely harder to find?13 Mar 2025 11:21 +0000at://did:plc:xpl57er4zbahuoaqis6qatin/app.bsky.feed.post/3lkay5renak2yhttps://bsky.app/profile/nathanielvirgo.bsky.social/post/3lh5hy2vffk2uA thread for some attempts at generative art. I'm trying to keep it as naive as possible, just writing Python scripts that spit out RGB arrays.01 Feb 2025 21:38 +0000at://did:plc:xpl57er4zbahuoaqis6qatin/app.bsky.feed.post/3lh5hy2vffk2uhttps://bsky.app/profile/nathanielvirgo.bsky.social/post/3les3tsw3os2eI wrote an equation that I thought was great, so I drew a star next to it, but then I realised it was wrong, so I drew a sad face on the star, but then I realised it was right after all, and now I've got pages of notes about "the sad star equation".02 Jan 2025 22:12 +0000at://did:plc:xpl57er4zbahuoaqis6qatin/app.bsky.feed.post/3les3tsw3os2ehttps://bsky.app/profile/nathanielvirgo.bsky.social/post/3lerivdffwk2uIn this thread I'm going to write some science fiction. It's not going to have any characters or plot, it's just some wild speculation about what we'll find in the Universe in the coming decades. It's not meant to be a prediction, it's just a plausible story invented for fun.02 Jan 2025 16:32 +0000at://did:plc:xpl57er4zbahuoaqis6qatin/app.bsky.feed.post/3lerivdffwk2uhttps://bsky.app/profile/nathanielvirgo.bsky.social/post/3ldbkjjzdes2gThere's a Wikipedia app that you can install on your phone, which has a *map mode*. It's a really fun way to find obscure yet notable things nearby.14 Dec 2024 14:54 +0000at://did:plc:xpl57er4zbahuoaqis6qatin/app.bsky.feed.post/3ldbkjjzdes2ghttps://bsky.app/profile/nathanielvirgo.bsky.social/post/3ld46ndp2ps2wGo home mathematical typewriter, you're drunk12 Dec 2024 11:38 +0000at://did:plc:xpl57er4zbahuoaqis6qatin/app.bsky.feed.post/3ld46ndp2ps2whttps://bsky.app/profile/nathanielvirgo.bsky.social/post/3lawwbz666s2nPlease tell me a cool theorem or mathematical fact that you learned about recently14 Nov 2024 22:35 +0000at://did:plc:xpl57er4zbahuoaqis6qatin/app.bsky.feed.post/3lawwbz666s2nhttps://bsky.app/profile/nathanielvirgo.bsky.social/post/3latca2ub3t2xIt's long past time I gave this site a go. How do I find all the category theorists and other fun maths people?13 Nov 2024 11:58 +0000at://did:plc:xpl57er4zbahuoaqis6qatin/app.bsky.feed.post/3latca2ub3t2x