Am *I* experiencing Comprehension Deficiency? You're asking *me*? With my job I'd say it was an occupational hazard.

'The Decline & Fall of the Human Empire' - now in paperback. Also Kindle and audiobook. www.panmacmillan.com/authors/henr...

Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart welcomes improvements in UK defence capability

Interview with Telmo Pievani about the Italian edition of 'The Decline and Fall of the Human Empire' in LaLettura 26 April homsapext.blogspot.com/p/interview-... (in Italian)

Never a truer word.

Interview with Telmo Pievani about the Italian edition of 'The Decline and Fall of the Human Empire' in LaLettura 26 April homsapext.blogspot.com/p/interview-... (in Italian)

'The Decline & Fall of the Human Empire' - now in paperback. Also Kindle and audiobook. www.panmacmillan.com/authors/henr...

'A (Very) Short History of Life on Earth' - now, in Vietnamese

The 'The Decline and Fall of the Human Empire' is now out in Italian, from Einaudi. Here is a feature and and interview with Telmo Pievani in Corriere della Serra www.corriere.it/cultura/26_a...

Somewhere in the Book of Revelation there is probably a verse saying that Demons shall stalk the Waters of the Earth. It's the End Times.

We're looking for a junior specialist to work on a fun project exploring seagrass local adaptation across the whole state of California! It should be a good mix of field and molecular work. Please share with folks you think would be interested! recruit.ucdavis.edu/JPF07605

🧬 NEW JOB: @york-bioarch.bsky.social is hiring a Postdoc in Ancient DNA Work on the RoBMobS project to explore mobility and diversity in Roman Britain using genomic data. 💰 £37k - £39k ⏳ 34 months 📍 York, UK 📅 Apply by 24 March 2026 jobs.york.ac.uk/vacancy/post...

Not one but two yes two count 'em TWO friends quite independently, and unknown to each other, spotted 'The Decline & Fall of the Human Empire' on display at Booth's bookshop in Hay on Wye. Thank you, both.

The Italian edition of 'The Decline and Fall of the Human Empire' is out now, from Einaudi Editore www.einaudi.it/catalogo-lib...

Apparently my book 'The Decline & Fall of the Human Empire' is trending on TikTok (thanks @stevebrusatte.bsky.social for the picture). Who knew? @picadorbooks.bsky.social @jillgrinberglit.bsky.social

A study in Nature describes a modular tool for targeted transfer of mitochondria to different cell types 🧪 www.nature.com/articles/s41... and News & Views piece 👇https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-026-00910-4

Peak retired academic moment. 1. One of those emails: Are you the R Watt who wrote xxxxxx? 2. Nope, but it sounds vaguely interesting. Wonder what they found. 3. Google - read it and discover that I did write it.

Coastal groundwater is under growing threat. A paper in Nature Water reports an analysis of about 480,000 wells, which shows declining water levels in over 20% of coastal areas, increasing the risk of saltwater intrusion from rising seas. go.nature.com/4cwFIIE 🌊🌍🧪

Well, I can safely say that @trishughes21.bsky.social and I exploded the Cambrian #TheAncients #HistoryHit

Now I’m off to Bethnal Green to Explode the Cambrian with @trishughes21.bsky.social #HistoryHit

I remember reading this wonderful book in the last semester of my undergrad. For me, it was a quasi-personal way to link with WWI experience: and author I'd read deeply, including letters and biography, and now I was following his experience of hell.

Scientists have long pulled DNA from water and soil, but they have only just started to see the air as a source of genetic information go.nature.com/4suCiwd

We are recruiting 1-2 postdoctoral fellows to investigate the specificity of human anti-influenza virus antibodies, and to determine how these antibodies impact global antigenic drift of influenza viruses. Join our lab at Penn in Philly. Reach out if you are interested in applying! Please repost!

It's World Quantum Day, and physicists created the largest ever quantum state in which an object exists in a haze of possible locations at once go.nature.com/4tHfl9W

Nature research paper: The importance of competition and facilitation for global tree diversity go.nature.com/4ve0bul

Fish Worship - Is It Wrong? occamstypewriter.org/cromercrox/2...

Position of interest for plant evolutionary biologists: two assistant professorships are now open in the System Earth Science (SES) department at Maastricht University! Interested? See the details here, or visit the QR code: vacancies.maastrichtuniversity.nl/job/Venlo-As...

OPPORTUNITY: The Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, MD, is searching for a Software Development Project Manager to support the Data Management Division: https://bit.ly/4tCw3qW

While jellies are quite scary during stinger season, fishes that feed on these planktonic jellies contribute a whopping ~25% to the productivity of coral reef fishes 🪼🐟 Check out our new OA paper in @natecoevo.nature.com, led by PhD student James Gahan, here: www.nature.com/articles/s41... 🌐 🦑🧪

Want to switch countries for a postdoc? Specifically, are you European, or are you non-European wanting to come to Europe? Now's the time to reach out to potential host labs! (It's very normal to cold-email a PI about potentially hosting -- don't be shy!)

Roll up, roll up! Looking for a postdoc? Want somewhere that's academia adjacent? Interested in seabirds, plastics, and conservation? Come work with me and @adriftlab.bsky.social! If you want to help develop an application, get in touch! #ornithology #seabirds #PhDjobs #PostdocJobs

‘Why don’t you go into Angel Aquatics and get some more Angel Fish?’ Mrs Gee- be careful what you wish for. I saw this Senegal bichir (Polypterus) and fell in love - the perfect pet for lovers of fossil fish. Which I am. The bichir is now called Steve.

After so many serious discussions about this paradox with physicists, mathematicians, and philosophers, I can’t help but find this cartoon absolutely hilarious.

A possibly threatening line from a rambling letter of appeal addressed to an editor from disgruntled serial submitter of unpublishable papers, in which the correspondent also compares themselves favorably with Galileo.

THE WONDER OF LIFE ON EARTH - a book for inquiring minds of very all ages www.panmacmillan.com/authors/henr...

#Artemis2 went off perfectly except for the Space Toilet, which was blocked. All they needed was a Space Plunger. Where is a Dalek when you need one?

A 500-million-year-old fossil of a very early relative of spiders, scorpions, and mites offers insights into how this group of arthropods, called chelicerates, evolved. The fossil, found in Utah in the US, has clear claws, according to a paper in Nature. go.nature.com/3NB3Npy #Paleosky 🧪

Our April issue is out now featuring... 🔬the impact of foundational, discovery-based microbiology 🪱a nematode-trapping fungus Arthrobotrys oligospora 🏥climate change driving antibiotic resistance 👁️human eye disease linked to aquatic virus transmission and more! 👇 www.nature.com/nmicrobiol/

Here's an awesome natural history humanities PhD opportunity, working with Cambridge University Library & our insect & archive collections here at @zoologymuseum.bsky.social, exploring the links between entomology, life writing & environmental change. Please share! www.ccc.cam.ac.uk/initiatives/...

People don’t learn from history. Philip II of Macedonia told Sparta ‘If I conquer Sparta, I’ll destroy it completely &c.’ Sparta replied in one word - ‘if’. His son Alexander conquered the known world- but left Sparta alone.

✅ #Artemis II update: 'Earthset', 6 April 2026, and 'totality', 7 April, seen from lunar orbit, the Moon eclipses the Sun, a view few humans have ever witnessed (pics: NASA) 🔗 www.nasa.gov/gallery/jour... @exploration.esa.int l

Things That Infuriate Journal Editors no.14: superfluous adverbial grandstanding (remarkably, strikingly, paradoxically, &c). Good results should stand on their own. Dressing them up makes editors suspect that the results are not as important as authors want them to think.

On the far side of the Moon the #Artemis2 crew have discovered a crater full to the brim with odd socks and orphaned lids from Tupperware containers.

Nature research paper: Flexible ensheathment of axons enables myelination of complex CNS networks go.nature.com/3QcuTUy

‘Where’s the monster? Behind the Rabbit?’

A nice review of ‘the Decline & Fall of the Human Empire’ - lmwalsh.substack.com/p/rethinking...

Repeated cloning cannot be sustained indefinitely in mammals, according to a 20-year study in mice published in Nature Communications. The results suggest that sexual reproduction is necessary to eliminate large-scale genetic mutations that can accumulate in mammalian clones. 🧬 🧪

Calling all archaeologists with expertise in British stone tools! These two just turned up among my father-in-law’s house contents. Unfortunately no provenance data. The narrow one is quite thick, diamond-shaped in cross-section, and the flat end appears to be broken.