If you, like me, are the parent of a neuro-atypical child dreading this autism press conference, please remember: These are the people hurting our kids. Not us. They are the ones stigmatizing and pathologizing them. They are the ones peddling untested science. And we should be very, very angry.

🚨 Exciting new crab preprint! A Japanese team found that sideways walking only evolved once! Maybe carcinization itself is necessary but not sufficient to go sideways? When it's lost, the species that go forward have alternate anti predation behaviors. 🧪🦑🦀 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Robert Vaughn appeared on Junior Points of View - kids were invited to send questions. I loved Napoleon Solo and TMFU so, age 7, I wrote asking if he would marry my mum - my Dad had died in 1961. They read the letter out! Can’t remember RV’s response (kind, no doubt). My poor mum burst into tears.

Just begun this, written with verve and insight by Emily Callaci and well-reviewed in the current issues of @thetls.bsky.social and @nybooks.com

Nomenclature thread

© Ernst Hass

Some people think ChatGPT has a place writing things like news briefs, stuff written to a specific style and tone and, y'know, kinda boring. So Science did a study. ChatGPT failed. Why? It got stuff wrong. "Also, extensive editing for hyperbole was needed." www.science.org/content/blog...

So apparently it’s #MolluscMonday so here is one of our local star #Nudibranch in the UAE. Hypselodoris dollfusi is relatively common but no less spectacular. #Invertebrates #MarineLife #SeaSlugs

#MosaicMonday River #Nile scene, detail of Ducks, a Cobra snake and a Mongoose. The mosaic currently resides in Naples’ National Archaeological Museum, with inventory references connecting it to Pompeii and Casa del Fauno #Italy #romanarchaeology #Art #History #Roman #Archaeology

Spectacular octopus from the floor of the women’s changing room at the Central Baths in ancient Herculaneum. This magnificent #Roman monochrome mosaic makes quite an impact! 📷 by me #MosaicMonday #Archaeology

Happy September Equinox! Today the dividing line between day and night runs exactly from the North pole to the South pole, and the sun is directly over the equator. This is an actual image of the Earth today, taken from the Himawari-8 satellite.

For those who understand Arabic 😊 A podcast about @bassemh.bsky.social work and career. Thank you Haifa Alhadyian, PhD for this amazing initiative. www.linkedin.com/posts/activi...

Apparently, it's the rapture tomorrow, so you'd better get some new pants on!

🔭 Equinox at Saturn Image Credit & Copyright: Imran Sultan apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap25092...

The Economist is hiring a science and technology correspondent

An excellent night for #astrophotography The Rosette Nebula. 2 hours worth of 30 second exposures at gain 60. The Nebula has several catalogue designations due to different parts of it being recorded separately before its true nature was known. #astronomy @stormhour.com @photohour.bsky.social

Asking BlueSky for help: For a review, I am trying to accurately credit the first paper that measured pairwise 3D distances between 2 pieces of DNA on the same chromosome (or cosmid). Is Trask 1989 the first? I know of earlier single-locus papers (1982). www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

"You maniacs! You blew it up! God damn you all to hell!".

Genuine question for rabbis/OT Biblical/Talmud scholars: If God told the Jews not to breed mules ('You must not breed together two different kinds of your livestock' – Lev 19:19), how come Solomon rode on David's mule when he was anointed (1 Kings 1:45)? Pls RT

Hotel is appalling. We are all in the attic.

Striking vaulted #SundayCeiling of 12th C @carlislecathedral.bsky.social. Replaced c.1400 after devastating fire in 1292. Decorative scheme follows medieval original w detailed design and colour (angels and stars) the work of top artist Owen Jones in restoration of 1853-6.

The final version of our paper on how ants and possibly other insects use a crazy mechanism involving extensive transcriptional interference to regulate odorant receptor expression is now open access in my favorite journal, @currentbiology.bsky.social authors.elsevier.com/sd/article/S...

Tidepooling in Japan 🐚🦀

Symbiotic relationships gobiid fishes - Alpheus shrimp #gili #giliislands #lombok #diving #scuba #trawangan #diveandstay #giliair #symbiotic #ocean #sealife #marinelife #padi #fish #gobiid #shrimp

Major quest completed.

Ian Monk, poète, traducteur en anglais de Perec et de Pennac, est mort

A Titan Triggerfish is looking for food #gili #giliislands #lombok #diving #scuba #trawangan #diveandstay #giliair #pets #ocean #sealife #marinelife #padi #fish #triggerfish

Loki author @louiestowell.bsky.social presenting her Lokifesto about reading – this is brilliant!

Dog Day Afternoon is astonishing and Pacino is one of the greatest actors ever. (His doc Looking for Richard is extraordinary) Insightful interview here:

I know we live in the age of prestige television & I know this is just Keith Harris and fucking Orville, but it pains me that something is fundamentally lost now: The budget for this kind of thing. That is a full set, presumably original song, snazzy costumes, acrobats. All for a bit on a kids show

The 3,000-year-old gold Shropshire sun pendant was dicovered in 2018. Crafted with incredible skill and decorated with intricate geometric patterns, it symbolizes the importance of the sun in Bronze Age society. As scientific analysis has indicated, the pendant...🧵1/2 📷 me #archaeology 🏺

This is not just maths. It's a design choice, supported by benchmarks that reward false certainty. Good to see OpenAI do some of the research, but it's also a reminder that OpenAI shouldn't be relied upon to do all the research.

Beautiful #Ediacaran fossil light on the E surface at Mistaken Point 🤩

It's busy out there. We live in a shooting gallery, just lucky we are a small moving target. 🔭

Alien: Earth (N. Hawley and others, 2025)

Insane prices for reprints of the three DNA structure articles from 1953. This copy of the 3-paper reprint, signed by 6/7 authors (presumably signed long after Franklin’s death) is on sale for £95k.

I salvaged an original and treasured copy from a hospital library clear out in Dublin

MAKE IT MISTER MXYZPTLK, COWARDS!!!

academic sign of the day HT @phylogenomics.bsky.social

Anyhow I saw the best garden hedge in London today A+++ no regrets

Massive sibling regression study finds that human traits are largely environmentally driven (average heritability = 0.3)

During my first trip to Ecuador we visited an empty beach with a motherlode of Painted Ghost Crabs. With the skills I have now, this is a scene I'd love to shoot again. #crustmas (Ocypode gaudichaudii)

Advice needed! I have a chirpy 3000 word article about Crick's half-century relationship with Nature which needs to find a home. Nature turned it down (it went right to the top, but they decided it was too much insider baseball). Any suggestions for where could I place it?

LONELY WATER (1973): Legendary child-frightener, and one of the most influential and effective PIFs ever made. Donald Pleasence's voice helped lower the number of child deaths by drowning and opened the door to the scary, deadly PIFs of the 70s & 80s. A folk horror film condensed into 90 seconds.

Better get building that ark.

Delighted to be chairing the judging panel for the #UnwinAward @PublishersAssoc. It's a book award for non-fiction authors in earlier career stages, whose books have had an impact on the world (just that!). Only 10 days left for publishers to enter their authors tinyurl.com/UnwinAward.

Some video from I think? #falkor? of these two giant sea spiders, Colossendeis mating? huh. #seaspiderSaturday youtube.com/shorts/8M4I1...

Me: *checks news* Me, 20 minutes later: *transforms into tiny crab, floats way on jellyfish*

If you are from the US and interested in applying for a PhD with me (or anyone else @camzoology.bsky.social @cambridgebiosci.bsky.social), your deadline for the gates scholarship is October 15! (You’ll need to write a research proposal, so contact PIs now) www.gatescambridge.org/programme/th...