Happy Halloween 🎃 👻 😁

“everything was relative — there was no absolute standard of how things worked: "The key is not necessarily feeling completely comfortable, but understanding why these differences exist." www.japantimes.co.jp/business/202...

Kicking off London Universities Population Seminars for the new academic year! Join us Oct 28 in person (LSE, KSW.G.01) or online to hear from Prof Karen Glaser (KCL) on mental & physical health changes among adults aged 50-69 in England. Full schedule & sign up: sites.google.com/view/londonp...

“Records will always fall—but when they fall too fast, it’s a warning sign. In sport, it’s exciting. In climate, it’s alarming.”

Latest special issue from Studies in Family planning onlinelibrary.wiley.com/toc/17284465...

In a personal blog, Professor Francesco Checchi discusses the pressing situation in #Gaza amidst increased levels of starvation, and what this may mean for the future 👇 www.lshtm.ac.uk/research/cen...

Great example of where AI gets all the credit but the ACTUAL contribution (in this case, sperm for fertilisation) was from the human. AI helped. It helped a lot. But without the human, AI would be impotent. Good allegory here. edition.cnn.com/2025/07/03/h...

1 in 32 babies now born after IVF in the UK - roughly one child in every classroom. This year's HFEA report has more demographic perspectives: See more findings 👇 tinyurl.com/47bmjm8k tinyurl.com/5cr2tnay

“If it can seem at times that seagulls are taking over British towns, the fact is that their numbers aren’t rising at all – they are falling sharply. In some traditional coastal nesting sites, the most recent national seabird census found, the populations have all but collapsed”

The temperature change in tokyo. showyourstripes.info/c/asia/japan...

Menopause in low and middle-income countries: “The prevalences of vasomotor symptoms, joint pain and sexual concerns were comparable with high-income countries. However, data on the severity and burden of symptoms were scarce” doi.org/10.1080/1369...

Indeed another excellent and timely piece to unpack the discourse behind it. “The lesson from abroad is clear: lasting change requires transforming the conditions that make parenthood feel untenable, not just offering token incentives.”

Another excellent piece from a demographer, this time Stuart Gietel-Basten, on how "pronatalism is a dead end" "Without addressing the root causes of low fertility—inequality, instability, and the incompatibility of work and family life—top-down efforts to “encourage” childbearing will fail"

👶 #Farage wants a UK baby boom — will it work? 🍼 Our Director @melindacmills.bsky.social says: “Throwing money at it doesn’t work.” Tax breaks ≠ baby boom. Work hours, #housing, #childcare — it takes an ecosystem. 📎 Telegraph article: tinyurl.com/m6b9kbxm #fertility #demography

Over the weekend, BBC Radio 4’s Any Questions programme - not typically a bastion of far-right values - included uncontested claims of how “low birthrates are the biggest problem the UK faces”. Worrying how quickly this view, rejected by experts in demography, is becoming mainstream

🌟 Join us for our latest free webinar on Thursday, 12 June 2025. Discover new harmonised asthma and diabetes measures, find out how you could use these data to compare 5 generations, and learn about other future health data releases. 👉 Register here: buff.ly/1TF4P00

Looking forward to connecting repro people this Friday! More information and free tickets from👇

1 in 5 Births in Seoul Results from Infertility Procedure in august 2024! The Seoul Metropolitan Govt will support 25 treatments per couple. The relative contribution of ART and the support is highest i have ever seen. ART babies are about 10% in Japan and Denmark world.seoul.go.kr/seoul-expand...

Do you have expertise in: AI/big data OR robotics and automation in heallthcare/biological research OR Biostatistics and reviewing the quality of fertility research? HFEA, UK national regulator of embryo research&fertility treatment, is looking to appoint one new external advisor w the expertise.

Die with zero. Great news that the foundation is stepping in further. www.gatesfoundation.org/ideas/articl...

“These findings demonstrate that ICSI does not improve cumulative birth rates compared to conventional IVF and support conventional IVF as the preferred first-line treatment for patients with normal or nonseverely decreased sperm quality.” www.nature.com/articles/s41...

In this article the korean professor says this. So well said. www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/0...

Yes! An entire article which challenges the “population collapse” narrative! 👏👏 “reproductive freedom is often treated as an obstacle to government ambitions” www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/0...

This ❤️👇🏼

One in four women in England have serious reproductive health issue, survey finds www.theguardian.com/society/2025...

Insane - what happen to the fulbright phd student www.reuters.com/world/us/tuf...

Video of the international student at Tufts being arrested by "federal authorities" in Massachusetts has been released and it's terrifying. They're not even uniformed officers. Just secret police thugs in hoodies and masks. From WCVB: youtu.be/PuFIs7OkzYY

"We observed no clear socioeconomic pattern in breastfeeding [in sub-Saharan Africa], contrasting with patterns observed in high-income countries" bmjpublichealth.bmj.com/content/3/1/...

There are days in life that shake you. I’m shattered 💔 to share that I just found out that the US Government terminated my 2024 NIH Director’s Early Independence Award (~$2 million), threatening my long-promised assistant professor job at Columbia University & academic career... 1/🧵

🔍 Get involved! Ever struggled with contraception choices? Your voice matters! We're looking for UK-based volunteers (18-35, AFAB) to co-produce research with @rh-pru.bsky.social 📅 Apply by 31st March 2025! #ReproductiveHealth #ContraceptionResearch

🎓 Congrats to Dr Ursula Gazeley who won the Cicely Williams Prize during her graduation ceremony at @lshtm.bsky.social 🥳 buff.ly/U1ndPD3 The prize is awarded to an exceptional doctoral student whose research advances the health of vulnerable populations. @leverhulme.bsky.social @oxpop.bsky.social

I wonder who will take over NHS England DARS (Data access request service) and other former nhs digital functions? This will affect research.

📢 Funding opportunity 📢 We’re accepting applications for the Basia Zaba Scholarship for the MSc in Demography & Health @lshtm.bsky.social 🎓 The scholarship covers full tuition fees for a UK home student for the 2025-26 academic year. Deadline 26 March. For more information 👉 tinyurl.com/3j7esk22

Join us THIS THURSDAY for our next #CPCCGWebinar 👇

💻Join online! 🎧 Süßmilch Lecture @mpidr.bsky.social Eugenics, demography and academia: an ongoing relationship 🗣️ @rebeccasear.bsky.social, @brunelcce.bsky.social & @ehbea.bsky.social 📅March 25, 2025 🕒3 pm CET ✏️Sign up now: www.demogr.mpg.de/en/news_even...

I remember, decades ago, a young Liam Smeeth running into my office saying “we’ve got the results of the analysis: MMR vaccine doesn’t cause autism”. I gave him a high five and told him to get writing that paper.

🚨I promised I'd say more on the Royal Society and Elon Musk, so here it is. 🚨 I've resigned my position as Associate Editor at Royal Society's journal Open Science in protest at their lack of action over Elon Musk. My op-ed in @theguardian.com www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

The programme of the upcoming pronatal conference in Texas is remarkably light on demographers, which suggests there’s not going to be much science discussed there. Why don’t you listen to experts in the field talk about the issue instead 👇

Our two papers on abortion bans and fertility/infant mortality are now out. In 14 states w/ abortion bans, fertility increased 1.7% and infant mortality increased 6%. Key takeaway is that these impacts were disproportionately felt among those w/ greatest structural disadvantages. Links below.

An influential program that gave detailed public health information to about half of the world’s nations has folded as a result of the Trump administration’s freeze on foreign aid. www.nytimes.com/2025/02/26/h...