"There were few people better placed to know why notions of race-based differences in intelligence have no scientific foundation; to sustain his beliefs in the face of that demanded not just ignorance but active denial." @philipcball.bsky.social in @thelancet.com

Alt text version. Thanks for sharing Harry.

How and for whom can genetics education reduce beliefs in genetic essentialism? pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41267401/ "We also find that the 3 intervention curricula are highly effective across sociodemographic group characteristics [...] we offer evidence-based strategies for curriculum development"

Feeling very old...

A health care industry rag featured a story on how hospitals want to use AI for nursing the day after the administration declares nursing degrees will no longer be considered professional degrees. So there’s the endgame folks. Same for public education.

New from me: I talked to CDC staffers about the new vaccines and autism page. They said things like: “The best way I can put it is it feels like we’re on a hijacked airplane.” “I think people are starting to see that we can’t fulfill our mission here.”

“History shows us that the right to literacy came at a heavy cost…those oppressed recognized that literacy is liberation. To my students & to anyone who might listen, I say: Don’t surrender to AI your ability to read, write & think when others once risked their lives & died for the freedom to do so”

I’ve recently finished writing a book, so negative book reviews elicit peak empathy from me at the moment. Except this one. This is a riot.

merely

Randall Munroe, welcome to The War on Cars.

Going against my personal rules to post this, but … Veep is telling us that he likes Grok bc it is most pseudoscientific. ANTHROPOLOGISTS! if you can hear me (and you don’t know this already), Grok will come at you with Phillipe Rushton papers to say you’re wrong about genetics and race.

I am trying to process a college professor saying she uses AI to figure out how to explain ("dumb down" in her words) complex concepts because she doesn't otherwise know how to teach them to her students "Does ChatGPT every give you a little like, 'Isn't that YOUR job?'" 😂

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...

MAGA or Evolutionist? need to feel special (no god? just make evolution one) need enemies (creationists) need simple answers to complex problems (evolution is one such) confuse being loud with being right (h-index or podcast) think that admitting uncertainty is weakness (then creationists win!)

"I'm gonna need you to post a link to a genetic study demonstrating that white people are *not* the superior race." Sums up how people are defending James Watson. They are living proof that what a geneticist believes about human nature is as powerful as their discoveries about molecules.

fucking hell do actual academics think we need evidence that a statistical probability model is a statistical probability model and not a sentient being who understands meaning? next research question: is my kettle powered by electricity or a tiny fire spewing dragon who lives in there?

Dr. Jane Goodall filmed an interview with Netflix in March 2025 that she understood would only be released after her death.

Update on "Who Goes Nazi" "MAGA appeals to people who need to feel special, who need enemies to blame, who need simple answers to complex problems. It attracts those who mistake confidence for competence, who confuse being loud with being right, who think that admitting uncertainty is weakness."

—His body is vigorous. His mind is childish. His soul has been almost completely neglected.—

Trump's higher ed ransom note is here - everyone would have to acquiesce to their unprecedented demands or not be "given priority for grants," plus they can demand "reimbursement" for "violations" www.wsj.com/us-news/educ... A mechanism to enforce fealty. An attack on academic freedom and democracy

What a life. What a loss. 💔 I'm just lucky I got to provision her, once. Yes, with bananas, but also chocolate.

In your field, if you wrote a sole-author paper that argued something. Would you expect to be asked to peer review a paper that argues against your paper? I ask bc this paper /n onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1...

Standing up for science is one way to push back against political attacks on the university sector 👇 Experts in biology and anthropology have put together this statement to counter misinformation about race. Please consider signing and sharing

In reporting this piece on the new trial for a Huntington's treatment, I was struck by one thing in particular: The joy. One of my sources wept for joy. He has spent his entire career studying this disease, he said it was the happiest day. www.sciencenews.org/article/hunt...

The influence of the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program really cannot be overstated. The fact that there is still no solicitation for this year is unfair to students and risks damaging the future of American science. Please take 30 seconds to sign the open letter to US STEM Leadership 🧪🌎

Please share with anyone who cares about NSF support for graduate students and take 30 seconds to sign and leave a comment. The deadline for the 2025 Graduate Research Fellowship Program is about one month away and literally no one can apply. #NSFGRFP jasonjwilliamsny.github.io/grfp2025/

Smallest man alive

2/ In 2001, Borsook said tech "libertarianism" reflected an adolescent mindset, with a craving for unchecked independence & resistance to constraint. She warned that tech libertarians wanted an anti-human world that worked more like a computer. From "Cyberselfish," a book based on her 90s writing:

So many women have been talking, writing and warning people of the dangerous ideologies and biases of tech in Silicon Valley, for decades, and it’s so infuriating that so many men (not OP here) just flat out ignore it and act surprised at the technofascists infecting it now

I get that the news cycle is packed right now, but I just heard from a colleague at the Smithsonian that this is fully a GIANT SQUID BEING EATEN BY A SPERM WHALE and it’s possibly the first ever confirmed video according to a friend at NOAA 10 YEAR OLD ME IS LOSING HER MIND (a thread 🧵)

Omg. This is why evolutionary science (including especially in its popular understanding) is so much “hallucination” too! www.computerworld.com/article/4059...

In Swedish, a word for what you eat to bridge the gap between meals (or while waiting for the main course to cook) is stödmacka. It means "support sandwich." A similar word in Norwegian is ventepølse, or "waiting sausage."

"In a landmark study, OpenAI researchers reveal that large language models will always produce plausible but false outputs, even with perfect data, due to fundamental statistical and computational limits." www.computerworld.com/article/4059...

fml

I don't think pointing out the fascists' 'hypocrisy' is a good use of time. It's not hypocrisy, it's hierarchy. They actually do believe that they have the right and obligation to dominate you because they are superior to you. They are using their power not being hypocritical.

Aanthropologists are facing unprecedented obstacles. Join Danilyn Rutherford, the President of Wenner-Gren, along with Foundation Anthropologists Dr. Brendane Tynes and Michael Muse, for a discussion of how Wenner-Gren is responding. wennergren.org/workshop/pro...

"Yes, Yes, to Ta-Nehisi Coates, you listen."

--How can intellectuals chronicle such a shift — one that threatens their ability to chronicle anything at all?--

This is such a good, thoughtful and thought-provoking mini-thread response to the question of what is off about genAI writing and why!

Defend Democracy💙

“LIKE” If you stunt your growth via ChatGPT, then you won’t know the difference between conversing with AI or with your professor. That’s why it’s LIKE, not because it’s objectively LIKE. The LIKE is from the user’s pov.

I wrote my own Charlie Kirk obituary, and about valuing truth over manners: www.thenation.com/article/poli...

More great news for Big Diarrhea!

Oh, #Florida! To save her own dog, 70-year-old woman bites pit bull. www.wesh.com/article/woma... via @wesh2news.bsky.social

It literally always is. Faculty have to be ready for this, and I hate it for us. But these people have been playing this game for a long time, and have zero scruples. They have been at war, and we have tried to pretend that isn't what's happening.

Trump decreed that gender is the same as sex. Reducing a complex biosocial process for all, even the cis, to a religious belief, to protect masculinity+patriarchy at all costs. If Trump decrees that evolution isn’t true, then are whole departments getting fired? www.chronicle.com/article/a-cl...

If the goal was to keep everyone from sleeping Friday night, it worked on me.

The New Yorker asked me “how bad” today’s Supreme Court ruling was. I boiled it down to one paragraph: link.newyorker.com/view/5bda429...