Re-upping for #RemembranceDay

Hello from Chicago! There is no such thing as the “Miracle Mile Shopping Center.” That is a thing that exists only in this doddering old man’s imagination.

HISTORIAN OF THE LIFE SCIENCES position at CSHL! I’m thrilled to announce that the CSHL Center for Humanities and the History of Modern Biology is inviting applications for this position. This is a remarkable opportunity to join a unique, internationally recognized institution and the Center

💥New from me in @jacobinmagazin.bsky.social “Monuments, museums, and cultural institutions were often created in the image of “militarist realism”—presenting colonialism as eternal. Undoing this legacy is not erasing the past but combating a pernicious ideology” jacobin.com/2025/11/brit...

Good to see someone involved in the field describing the techbro fantasies as “bullshit”. But note the link between this nonsense and eugenicist ideas from Altman. These people are rich, stupid and influential, which = dangerous.

Assistant Prof job in history of science (related to water?) at Madison. Strong program, nice town (aside from winter) jobs.h-net.org/jobs/69456

The BBC has always been remarkable in reporting on itself, and this contains some remarkable accusations about the BBC Board (with other, 'balancing', viewpoints). I wonder if its journalists will be able to continue to do this king of thing www.bbc.com/news/article...

I'm delighted that Nell Greenfieldboyce used my quote about "Corn flakes Jim" in her obituary of James Watson on @npr.org. I got that from my interview with @ewanbirney.bsky.social. Birney nobly tried to persuade Watson that the science on race + IQ did not hold up. Sadly, Watson couldn't hear it.

It's NOT correct at all. It's ideology-driven & lazy virtue signaling. "When the legend become fact, print the legend" etc "Crick, Watson, Franklin & Wilkins" would be historically accurate, as @matthewcobb.bsky.social & @nccomfort.bsky.social set out in this article. www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Three children were killed by lawn darts in the 70’s and they were banned in the US. ChatGPT has caused how many deaths at this point? If corporations are people, why aren’t we holding them criminally liable?

Blimey 😦 www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cd...

We are also currently hiring a curatorial fellow to work with the papers of Rosalind Franklin and others in the History of Molecular Biology Collection! This is a 2-year staff position in the archive with a salary of $55k/year and full benefits: www.sciencehistory.org/research/fel...

Today's new #HoPWaG: the famous "Art of War" by Sunzi (or Sun Tzu, if you prefer), and its surprising links to Daoism! www.historyofphilosophy.net/sunzi-art-of... #artofwar #daoism #philsky #philosophy #podcast

Okay, here are some first reflections on Watson. Watson's life is a tragedy, really of Shakespearean proportions. He did not, as most bios will tell you, do one great thing when he was young and then collect laurels for it for the next 60 years. His career arc was unlike any in science.

Today we pause for Remembrance Sunday. This year our Then & Now displays include a small tribute to Anna Guérin, sometimes called the "Poppy Lady of France". After the First World War she championed an Inter Allied Poppy Day and helped set Britain’s first Poppy Day in 1921.

In case your loved ones are spending their afternoons arguing with racists defending James Watson on Twitter… Here’s a book they can and should link in their replies which is one of the best ways in to understanding what DNA is but especially what it is not! press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/bo...

James Watson made some tremendous contributions to science, and expressed many grotesque views, which were racist, sexist and ignorant. These are all well documented.

Halley’s map, “A new & Correct SEA CHART of the WHOLE WORLD Shewing the Variations of y’e COMPASS,” republished in my 1748 copy of ‘A System of Natural Philosophy’ by Thomas Rutherforth.

"Asked why people were not coming to the Kennedy Center as much anymore, Ms. Daravi, the head of communications, replied with two words. 'Liberal intolerance.'" It's the Trump model: wreck something, then blame the failure on your enemies. www.nytimes.com/2025/11/07/u...

This is going to be the perfect companion to @matthewcobb.bsky.social's Crick biog.

I’m enjoying the book and am thinking about how I can use it to de-indoctrinate first-year biologists.

It is possible to recognise that Watson's treatment of Franklin was despicable and at the same time to acknowledge that Matthew is right.

A superb piece of narrative history

Nicolaus Copernicus at Padova #sciencehistory Archivio di Stato di Padova / #Arqus / University of #Padova - University of #Wrocław

My ask of any science enthusiasts who tell the story of Rosalind Franklin: Don't make her life be about the DNA debacle. She died far too young, but she was a promising scientist in her own right, a mentor and scientific author. Not for Watson or Crick, but for her legacy.

In case anyone is wondering if Watson was really THAT bad, @lpachter.bsky.social compiled a list of quotes that are absolutely not for the faint of heart. liorpachter.wordpress.com/2018/05/18/j...

The Bodleian Library opened to the public #OTD in 1602. Duke Humfrey’s Library: oldest reading room in the Bodleian, named after Humphrey Lancaster, 1st Duke of Gloucester who bequeathed 281 books after his death in 1447. @bodleian.ox.ac.uk

Edmond Halley, English astronomer, mathematician, geophysicist, meteorologist, born #OTD 1656, sponsor of Newton’s Principia, computed orbit and periodicity of eponymous comet, mapped solar eclipse of 1715. National Portrait Gallery | Royal Society

Look out for this later #histSTM (And on Franklin, about whom lots of myths are circulating today, read this: www.nature.com/articles/d41...)

Happy 423 years of us! 🎉 📚 The Bodleian Libraries opened for the first time on 8 November 1602... This means, we're older than the refracting telescope (1608), the publication of Shakespeare's Hamlet (1623) and Sir Isaac Newton's apple (1666)! 😅

Among his many achievements Edmond Halley, who was born 8 November 1656, was the first to map the magnetic variation in the Atlantic #histsci thonyc.wordpress.com/2024/06/26/m...

James D. Watson is dead. Stay tuned for some thoughts, based on my research on his biography, to be published soon. While I write that up, y'all can throw tomatoes at this if you like. But I will offer a more nuanced take. www.nytimes.com/2025/11/07/s...

Reposting this for #Frankenstein.

JOB

“Why Bill Gates’ climate memo is being celebrated by skeptics while frustrating scientists" | Article by @ryankatzrosene.bsky.social for @us.theconversation.com: theconversation.com/why-bill-gat...

Marie Curie, Polish-French physicist, chemist, pioneer in radioactivity, first woman Nobel laureate & only winner of two Nobel prizes in different sciences (Physics & Chemistry); born #OTD 1867, buried in the Panthéon, Paris. Nobel Prize | 5th Solvay Conference 1927 (colourised)

Absolutely fascinating, excellent contextual history

We're hiring in history of science at UW Madison! TT Assistant Professorship with a focus on water. Joint appointment between the History and Integrated Liberal Studies depts, and part of a university-wide hiring cluster on earth/sustainability science. jobs.wisc.edu/jobs/profess... #STS #HSMT

My favorite comment on the FT story

S-U-Z-A... Still playing with my new favorite hand-colored 16th c. book at #NewberryLibrary! (Kirchen Postilla, 1553.) Was trying to spell out my name in its wacky initials, as one does, and noticed something... 1/?

A 400-Year-Old Ring that Unfolds to Track the Movements of the Heavens www.openculture.com/2025/11/a-40...

I'll be doing this tomorrow!

UK publication day for this wrist-spraining beauty! Appropriately, I’m travelling to Cambridge, where I’m doing a book launch talk at the LMB tomorrow afternoon.

The Autumn 2025 issue of The Recipes Project is live! This issue, GLOBALIZING EARLY MODERN RECIPES, was co-edited by Lavinia Gambini, Lucy Havard, & Amanda Herbert. recipes.hypotheses.org

Ever the details man, Boris Johnson evokes a non-existent 'massacre of Jews in London in 1066' while speaking at Auschwitz. www.thejc.com/news/politic...

This book proposal webinar with @cathfletcher.bsky.social and me, hosted by @rsaorg.bsky.social, is tomorrow, Nov 6th, folks! #renaissance #earlymodern #histsci #writingcommunity 💙📚 🗃

Well, quite. Coincidentally, Darwin's son George worked with Maxwell for a while. So, of course, Darwin pumped him for information… www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter?docId...

Nigel Farage's favoured Mayoral candidate for Doncaster said black people cannot be English. Reform councillor Alexander Jones claimed being English requires Anglo-Saxon ‘lineage’. The messages were deleted after questions were raised by Byline Times bylinetimes.com/2025/11/05/n...

I assumed the hard elbow he gave Cuomo in the victory speech came because Cuomo was too much of an ass to call and concede

What do pirates in Madagascar, a red knitted jumper, the sunken warship Vasa, captivity and colonialism, and the Prize Papers have in common? They're all part of our new online lecture series "Ships & Seafaring 1500–1800". Join us weekly on Mondays, 1pm CET, on Zoom #earlymodern #maritimehistory 🗃️