Today marks the official launch of opencausal.org! Hüseyin (@epi.ist) is introducing the platform on two events today. 08.30 CET - European Public Health Conference #EPH2025 (Session 5.Y.2) 13.00 CET - Causal Data Science Meeting #CSDM2025 @ephconference.bsky.social @causalscience.org

opencausal.org is online! Open Causal is an open platform to share, discuss and reuse causal graphs. Join now as a beta user, help shaping the future of causal graphs!

Don't miss @epi.ist's presentation this Thursday during the online #CDSM2025. - Open Causal: a FAIR Platform for Causal Graphs I'm very excited about this project, where we aim to promote transparent sharing, discussion, and reuse of causal assumptions through graphs.

Oops. Ooooooooooooops. I do hope that nobody has been given or denied a job/promotion based on their SpringerNature citation counts in the past 15 years. arxiv.org/pdf/2511.01675 h/t @nathlarigaldie.bsky.social

What might seem like a small announcement—it’s just one institution—actually carries substantial weight and has a strong symbolic meaning. @utrechtuniversity.bsky.social, has taken another bold step: it won't renew its Web of Science license. www.uu.nl/en/news/acce...

We’ll present our research on #advertising of unhealthy products and #publichealth at #EvidenceWeek @senseaboutsci.bsky.social on 4th Nov: senseaboutscience.org/evidence-wee... We "invented" a game for it! @danaldridgemp.bsky.social @sadikal-hassanmp.bsky.social @kennethstevenson.bsky.social

Presenting our ontology proposal for geospatial exposome data at the Int'l Society of Exposure Science workshop in Lisbon. Nice to see that it already attracts great interest from other groups, highlighting the need for metadata standards in the exposome field. Feedback is welcome. osf.io/sy256

Against Publishing: universonline.nl/nieuws/2025/... Preprints are read, shared, and cited, yet still dismissed as incomplete until blessed by a publisher. I argue that the true measure of scholarship lies in open exchange, not in the industry’s gatekeeping of what counts as published.

Why I gave the world wide web away for free | Tim Berners-Lee

In an essay for the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, SFI External Professor Allison Stanger examines how AI firms are reshaping infrastructure, governance, and power. Her piece draws historical parallels and raises pressing questions about the role of private technology in public life.

The British establishment have all ready covered this new Banksy up. Can we get it Reposted 10,000 times to show that they can never cover up their complicity in war crimes?? Protect the right to protest! Repost!

This message has been spreading online. It is indeed unprecedented to see Utrecht University use the word 'boycott'. Let's see if it entails any changes to current policies. If action can meet discourse, this would be a great step for UU in taking moral responsibility, and an example for others.

The world's largest academic association of genocide scholars - the 500-member International Association of Genocide Scholars - has passed a resolution saying that the legal criteria have been met to establish Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. genocidescholars.org/wp-content/u...

Last week, I attended a course on Target Trial Emulation by @miguelhernan.org at @cemfi.es in Madrid. www.linkedin.com/feed/update/...

I dug into the Israeli entities that have received EU funding. Here’s what I found - www.irishtimes.com/world/middle...

Very happy to see a big paper from my PhD *OUT TODAY* We explored if there were inequalities in the attendance & effectiveness of behavioural weight management interventions in an individual participant data meta-analysis. See the thread for findings 👇 bmjpublichealth.bmj.com/content/3/2/...

"...thousands and thousands of people queueing every day at the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation distribution site, even though it is almost certain on any given day that they will be fired upon. The fact they are going there anyway, even though they may not return..." www.lshtm.ac.uk/newsevents/n...

"but the impact on children is worse. The developmental damage is irreversible" "The process of development stops, the process of building a brain, of creating neurons that will establish cognitive ability, will stop" www.abc.net.au/news/2025-08...

Photo of the Day. Israel threatened reprisals if the press filmed Gaza from above during airdrops. This is why. A scene of destroyed & burnt out buildings in what is left of Gaza City, the pre-war home to 800,000 people. Credit to Post photographer Heidi Levine who defied the ban & took this.

For thousands of years, we have been parasitised, exploited and destroyed by elites. Our survival depends on overthrowing them. Fascinating article by @dpcarrington.bsky.social www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Palestinian children have been killed at a rate of more than one child per hour during Israel's war in Gaza. “A whole classroom of children killed every day for nearly two years,” UNICEF’s executive director said. Here are some of their stories: wapo.st/3UCiAjn

“The worst-case scenario of famine is currently playing out in the Gaza Strip,” the world’s leading hunger monitor said in its strongest warning yet on the rapidly growing starvation crisis.

Malnutrition is on a dangerous trajectory in the #Gaza Strip, marked by a spike in deaths in July. The crisis remains entirely preventable. Deliberate blocking and delay of large-scale food, health, and humanitarian aid has cost many lives. Statement from WHO. www.who.int/news/item/27...

Stillness and foul air Together, they dim the mind Data whispers faint Our new paper investigated the syndemic effects of air pollution and physical inactivity on cognitive decline. doi.org/10.1123/jpah...

Thought experiment: Submit a manuscript to a top journal. Meticulously address all reviewer requests. Once accepted, withdraw and submit it to the next-best journal. You may repeat the process infinitely and never receive a response like: “This is already good enough, I have no further comments."

I'd like to write about the scientific communication ecosystem I imagine. But first, let me list things that I don't want to see there 🧵

Some big names (in Euro foreign affairs bubble terms, of course) on this letter. The EU, like the UK and the US, is way out of step with the reality and gravity of the horrors perpetrated by the Israeli government.

"What if we stopped right now? As in REALLY! Right Now! This Minute!"

a couple of hours before my keynote, I went through an intense negotiation with the organisers (for over a hour) where we went through my slides and had to remove anything that mentions 'Palestine' 'Israel' and replace 'genocide' with 'war crimes' 1/

Fourth: play our funny guessing game #DiscoverOrMDPI. Can you outguess marketing operatives from publishers by telling apart MDPI from Discover journals? We wrote the game and the blog, and cannot win. pagoba.shinyapps.io/publi_guess/

“If the horrors unfolding in Gaza are not a red line for Australia to take stronger action then I don’t know what is” @davidpocock.bsky.social www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...

tl;dr — this EO co-opts the language of open science to implement a system of political control wherein presidential appointees are given broad latitude to designate any number of reasonable scientific activities and inferences as scientific misconduct, and to penalize those involved accordingly.

4. I've worried for years that by promoting a science-in-crisis narrative, the metascience / science reform movement runs the risk of playing useful idiot to those who would like to reduce the influence of science in policy and regulation. Just look at the funding pouring in from Koch, Arnold, etc.

Normalise writing a nice quick note to scholars literally every time you read and like their work. Our world is small and getting smaller. We need encouragement.

THREAD on the *desperate* medical situation in Gaza from a presentation by UNRWA director at the World Health Assembly. This thread was written by Prof Anthony Costello over on X - I think it's important to share as widely as possible, so I have transferred to here. Please read and share! 0/11

#UPDATE The head of the World Health Organization said Monday that two million people were starving in the Gaza Strip while tonnes of food was being blocked at the border.

"As we've been reporting, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said Israel will take control of all of Gaza." www.bbc.com/news/live/cq...

100+k people march against genocide in Gaza in the Hague. Biggest Dutch march in 20 years. Amazing.

I am unimpressed by NYU’s performative yawp. The student’s statement was brief and restrained. There is a long history of such statements in graduation speeches. The matter spoken of is historic and catastrophic. The crowd’s response was largely positive. /1

Netflix working hard to normalize gambling for young people.

Six Deadly Minutes: How Israeli Soldiers Killed 15 rescue Workers in Gaza www.nytimes.com/video/world/...

PhD Timeline xkcd.com/3081

Video of a student in my town who wrote a political op-ed being grabbed off the street by government agents bsky.app/profile/pale...

I hope everyone is doing what they can in their communities to pressurise the UK and US governments to stop supporting it. If they stopped supplying arms and withdrew support, this would stop.

Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur: "We have failed to prevent genocide"

The largest number of Palestinians displaced since 1967, with Israel demolishing hundreds of homes & destroying critical infrastructure (including roads, water & power lines) Hamdah Salhut on whats happening across the occupied West Bank

AA interviewed me about our research on detection of tobacco-promoting content on social media using large language models. 📰 Interview (Turkish): www.aa.com.tr/tr/bilim-tek... A short thread explaining the study is below 👇

Whenever I see these articles on 'publish or perish' culture being to blame, I always think of Tal Yarkoni's blog post: talyarkoni.org/blog/2018/10.... Yes, the pressures are there and they can force our hand, but that means we should work to improve the structures where we can (not abide by them).

I actually had a high prior belief about the probability of finding some help here😅 #EpiSky #StatsSky #Bayesian #PyMC