My new essay on the role of runaway positive feedback in causing disease. 🧪 @evmed.bsky.social @tricem.bsky.social @umehap.bsky.social @umichmedicalschool.bsky.social www.nessays.com/p/runaway-po...

Evolution, Medicine and Public Health has just started its 14th year. All publications from 2025 are listed with links at the EvMedReview.com substack post. Interesting reading! 🧪 @evmed.bsky.social @evmedasu.bsky.social @tricem.bsky.social www.evmedreview.com/p/evolution-...

open.substack.com/pub/randynes...

Thanks, Daniela for helping people to realize that bad feelings can have meaning and provide useful motivations! But as your work shows, they can also be normal but useless. Or they can be products of a failing control system. Individualized assessment is essential.

Turns out all the Friend of Darwin award winners this year are experts in evolutionary medicine! I will be curious to hear what we all have to say at the Dec 4,6 PM ET event at us02web.zoom.us/webinar/regi...

The ClubEvMed on Dec 2 at Noon ET on this new book will be interesting! Laurence Hurst will kick it off, David Haig will comment, and I will MC a lively discussion. @evmed.bsky.social @umehap.bsky.social @tricem.bsky.social @evmedasu.bsky.social Register now! duke.zoom.us/meeting/regi...

Why can't we find specific genes and brain abnormalities that cause and define specific mood disorders? It is because, like heart and renal failure, mood disorders are failure modes of control systems that can have diverse causes. 🧪 @evmed.bsky.social www.nessays.com/p/mood-disor...

I will give 2 talks on evolutionary psychiatry in Tokyo on Sept 24 mentalhealth-unit.jp/plugin/blogs... and 1 in Kyoto on the 25th. ashbi.kyoto-u.ac.jp/ja/event/eve... I look forward to meeting Japanese colleagues. @evmed.bsky.social @humbehevosoc.bsky.social 🧪 @evolmtg.bsky.social @evol

Not perfectly clear about epistasis? The illustrations and formulas in my new Nessay should help. 🧪 @umehap.bsky.social @evmed.bsky.social @vscooper.micropopbio.org @ent3c.bsky.social @arvidagren.bsky.social @carlbergstrom.com @eikofried.bsky.social open.substack.com/pub/randynes...

How amazing and wonderful that all 3 winners of this year's @ncse.bsky.social Friend of Darwin Award ncse.ngo/friend-darwi... are evolutionary medicine researchers! Katie Hinde @mammalssuck.bsky.social was one of the first faculty I recruited for the @cemasu.bsky.social at ASU.

Here is my Substack essay commenting on an article that reports a research project on foraging theory and ADHD that I have long wanted to see...but whose conclusion–that ADHD is an adaptation–seems to me to be inconsistent with evolutionary theory. www.nessays.com/p/adhd-is-no...

The Body is not a Machine open.substack.com/pub/randynes...

300 characters is often only a good start. For longer essays on evolutionary medicine, psychiatry, and more, visit my new Substack at Nessays.com.

@awaisaftab.bsky.social is doing so much to help make psychiatry sensible. The questions he posed about #EvolutionaryPsychiatry helped me to get a better grasp of my own field! See the full version on his substack www.psychiatrymargins.com/p/why-did-ev...

The essay by @awaisaftab.bsky.social does a fine job of describing how cliff-edge fitness functions may explain vulnerability to some diseases. For an accessible Psychology Today article on the topic, see the link below. www.researchgate.net/publication/...

A recent article about autism cites experts who say that its high heritability means that environmental factors are unimportant. That is a fundamental mistake. Environmental changes that influence entire populations can make previously neutral alleles deleterious.🧪 www.medscape.com/viewarticle/...

An engineer, an educator, and an evolutionary biologist walk into a bar...(well, actually, we talked at @evmed.bsky.social meetings); today, 3 years later, our plans for a new bridge between engineering and medicine are published in @pnasnexus.org! academic.oup.com/pnasnexus/ar...

Here is an insightful essay by Rob Kurzban on the pressure to produce novel counterintuitive articles to get attention in academia. We need a name for false ones that spread fast. Perhaps "#MemeArticles" is catchy enough to spread fast.

The best 2024 article about evolution, medicine and public health will win the $5000 Omenn Prize. Nominate an article now. It is easy. And the winner-and all of us- will REALLY appreciate it! isemph.org/Omenn-Prize 🧪E. #EvMed @evmed.bsky.social @tricem.bsky.social @sse-evolution.bsky.social

#TacitCreationism is pervasive and problematic. Dan Stein and I explain why, and why it matters, in our just-published article. 1/3 @evmed.bsky.social @umehap.bsky.social ky.social @eikofried.bsky.social @carlbergstrom.com onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Really interesting ClubEvMed discussion with Dr. Paul Turke on Evolutionary Pediatrics on Wednesday at noon ET. Based on his new book Bringing Up Baby. All welcome. A great group! Free. Join us! @evmed.bsky.social 🧪 #evmed duke.zoom.us/meeting/regi...

Some questions resist resolution. -Mind vs. body -Nature vs. nurture -Free will vs. determinism -Group selection vs. gene level selection. Why? I think it is because they get entangled in the cognitive and emotional hooks of our evolved minds. 1/5

Gems from pages 28-29 in Richard Lewontin’s 1974 book “The Genetic Basis of Evolutionary Change” It is a common myth of science that scientists collect evidence about some issue and then by logic and "intuition" form what seems to them the most reasonable interpretation of the facts. /4

The chaos from Washington in the last week has made travel planning impossible for many scientists, so the International Society for Evolution, Medicine, and Public Health meeting is allowing submission of talk abstracts until Feb 28. 🧪 #EvMed @evmed.bsky.social @evmed.bsky.social evmed.org

This is the cutting edge for cancer research. It transcends the simplistic view that cancer cells just have bad genes. The surrounding tissues have strong effects on progression. #Evned #Cancer #ecology @jappliedecology.bsky.social @evmed.bsky.social

It is fascinating and frustrating to see so many sophisticated Op-Ed authors trying to makes sense of Trump’s policies. But most of his actions arise not from any considered strategy but from wishful thinking, and, much worse, #WishfulActing. @ezrakleinbot.bsky.social @nytimesoped.bsky.social

Looking forward to seeing everyone in Nashville! And to hearing some talks that look super. And the food. And I hear they have music there. isemph.org Our Tenth Annual Meeting! #evmed @evmed.bsky.social

So timely and welcome!

Nominations are open for the $5000 Omenn Prize for the best 2024 article in the area of evolution, medicine and public health. Nominate an article that you think deserves the prize. Including yours! @evmed.bsky.social isemph.org/Omenn-Prize @sse-evolution.bsky.social @eseb.bsky.social #EvMed

The Abstract deadline is Feb 3 for the 10th annual meeting of the International Society for Evolution, Medicine, and Public Health in Nashville. All welcome, esp. students and clinicians. Full info at iemph.org Please repost #EvMed 🧪 @evmed.bsky.social @sse-evolution.bsky.social @eseb.bsky.social

What a great honor and responsibility, Vaughn! I learned a lot from you when you were a TA in #EvMed classes I taught at U Mich! Vaughn has also just become the Editor of Evolution, Medicine, and Public Health. Good combo! @sse-evolution.bsky.social @evmed.bsky.social @paulturnerlab.bsky.social

Paul Turke's book on Evolutionary Pediatrics is just out. With a PhD, research on aging, and decades of treating kids in the clinic, only he could write this. Part autobiography, part biology, part clinical advice, lots of stories & engaging humor. Recommended. #evmed www.amazon.com/Bringing-Up-...

A remarkable coincidence: On the same day I got a request to renew the Russian rights for my book on evolutionary psychiatry I also got a request for a Ukrainian translation! Lots of Good Reasons for Bad Feelings there, but we can hope the war will end soon. www.amazon.com/Good-Reasons... #evmed

Here is a new #EvMed take on liver pathology. Dezső, K., Paku, S., Juhász, M., Kóbori, L., & Nagy, P. (2024). Evolutionary View of Liver Pathology. Evolutionary Applications, 17(12), e70059. doi.org/10.1111/eva.... 🧪

Today's visitor leaving a message for all other predators.

I gave up on a leading geneticist when he gave a lecture attributing most disease to genetic drift.

EMPH is the best place to get your work noticed by the #EvMed community. Better yet, it provides reviews that are fast and even…gasp…helpful! @micropopbio.org has creative plans for it. #isemph #Evolution #Medicine

Ending the year the same way we end every day...watching the light on the tank glow gold, then fade as the mountains go purple.

Steady progress in prime number theory! www.quantamagazine.org/mathematicia...

On Dec 12, Sarah Hrdy will do a "Legacy Interview" live on zoom. Sponsored by a mental health organization with commentators. There is a fee. Her work is foundational for understanding relationships. I look forward to this event. mindinmind.org.uk/event/sarah-...

Nice essay by Josh Slatkus @LivingFossilsSS on how doing things that are hard or painful is worth it to maintain meaning and our social identities. Social selection shapes motives that are otherwise inexplicable. open.substack.com/pub/thelivin...

@nabt

Myopia is a classic example of a disorder caused by mismatch with modern environments. The genes that make it more likely are not defects, they are genetic quirks that cause harm only in modern environments. #evolutionarymedicine #isemph 1/4

The lurid leaves are down, the subtle ones persist. #beauty #nature

So many pundits are now suddenly certain about what the Democrats could have done to win.

Moonset over the lake.

Bittersweet in the Michigan treetops.

Why is this lilac blooming in November in Michigan?

My most disturbing insight ever: tendencies for objectivity in social situations are selected against.

New podcast on evolutionary psychiatry just released! a good conversation with @joshzlaket.bsky.social that convinced me that I am no more of a living fossil than the rest of us, and that ideas about evolution and mental illness are very much alive. thelivingfossils.substack.com/p/talk-with-...