There's a playful show about ancient DNA at the Francis Crick Institute to July '27: buttons, bright colours, audio, video & flashing lights. Behind the British Library & St Pancras station, London. Recommended for inspiring the future scientist in curious 10-year-olds (my launch photos)

So the lesson from Fable 5 is to advise my kids to instead of plumbers become... virologists? Any job that will be considered too dangerous to be inside advanced AI guardrails.

Tickets are available for live recordings of our chart‑topping podcast, A Question of Science. Join Professor Brian Cox and expert panels as they explore your questions on addiction, the teenage brain, saving our oceans and more. Book tickets and send in your questions: lostintv.com/tv-show?id=1...

4-year-old just learned about the human fossil record: "We will be olden-days-people soon, and other scientists will discover US! And then it will keep going."

Our preprint is now out, looking at genomic history and selection in Britain, with a focus on the Roman and early medieval periods. Comments welcome! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... @boothicus.bsky.social @leospeidel.bsky.social @pontus-skoglund.bsky.social

New preprint led by Hrushikesh Loya, me, and Simon Myers where we introduce GhostBuster! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... The idea is to find all the different ways a target individual relates to reference groups in genealogies, to "bust the ghosts" in our ancestry.

🏺🧪 More Question of Science podcast Tom-Boothelry on ancient DNA with @profbriancox.bsky.social and @pontus-skoglund.bsky.social youtu.be/RmvmLH44NCQ?...

Ancient Egyptian DNA, Cheddar Man and Wolves as Pets – More Questions of Science

YouTube video by The Francis Crick Institute

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Don’t miss out on More Questions of Science. We’ve recorded six bonus episodes, revisiting some of the biggest themes from previous episodes of A Question of Science Listen to all six brand-new episodes on your favourite podcast platform: www.lnk.to/AQuestionOfScienceBB

We now know that dog domestication happened more than 14,000 years ago, thanks to new research from the Crick, @uniofeastanglia.bsky.social and @mpi-eva-leipzig.bsky.social, shedding light on how the first farmers adopted hunter-gatherer dogs. www.crick.ac.uk/news/2026-03...

Canine companions: revealing the genetic history of our first friends

The largest study of canid remains to date sheds light on how the first farmers adopted hunter-gatherer dogs and highlights that dog domestication happened before 14,000 years ago.

crick.ac.uk

Out today is our paper 'Genomic history of early dogs in Europe', in which we uncover the identity of the dogs that lived in Europe before agriculture—during the Paleolithic & Mesolithic periods: doi.org/10.1038/s415.... A thread ⬇️ (10) @biouea.bsky.social @crick.ac.uk @mpi-eva-leipzig.bsky.social

“Science describes accurately from outside, poetry describes accurately from inside. Both celebrate what they describe. We need the languages of both science & poetry to save us from merely stockpiling endless ‘information’ that fails to inform our ignorance or irresponsibility.” Ursula Le Guin 2014

New video feature on our work by the Blavatnik Foundation. www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCNo...

Pontus Skoglund, PhD 2026 Blavatnik Awards in the UK Finalist in Life Sciences

YouTube video by The New York Academy of Sciences

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Applications welcome to be a PhD-student in my ancient DNA research programme at @crick.ac.uk: 🏰 Ancient human history in Europe and beyond. ⚕️ Statistical genetics to understand human biology with ancient genomes. 🦠 Pathogen genomics of past infections. Apply at www.crick.ac.uk/careers-and-...

Very interesting perspective article by @caina89.bsky.social et al on genetic studies in psychiatry. The authors argue that studies increasingly rely on "shallow" phenotyping (self-reported), leading to biases in estimation of genetic relationships between disorders. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

The predicament of heritable confounders - Nature Genetics

This Perspective argues that diagnoses derived from self-reports, electronic health records and self-administered questionnaires introduce heritable bias that confounds the interpretation of data from...

nature.com

At least we know the rest of the year will be uneventful...? 🙃

Marc Morris@marcmorris.bsky.social · 7mo ago

So far in 1066: • Edward the Confessor has died. • Harold Godwineson has been named king instead of Edgar Ætheling. • Edward has been buried. • Harold has been crowned. It's still only 6 January.

Researchers discovered early signs of domestication by analysing the remains of two wolves who lived in modern-day Sweden 3-5,000 years ago. www.crick.ac.uk/news/2025-11...

Ancient wolves on remote Baltic Sea island reveal link to prehistoric humans

Cave discovery of wolf remains tells a tale of an unexpected relationship with humans.

crick.ac.uk

🐺 Wolves in dog's clothing 🐺 Our latest in @pnas.org uncovers a surprise three to five thousand years ago: 2 canids in human contexts on a tiny island in the middle of the Baltic Sea, that ate marine food—but had 100% gray wolf ancestry. Where they tame wolves, or even an incipient domestication?

Last week we had a great meeting on "Ancient genomes: perspectives on human biology and medicine" at the @royalsociety.org and the @crick.ac.uk. It was an amazing set of talks and posters. Thanks to the @gensocuk.bsky.social, co-host @janetk.bsky.social and all participants for a great day!

‼️📢 Neandertal as prey‼️ We demonstrated selective cannibalism behavior at the end of the Middle Palaeolithic in Northern Europe #Neandertal #Prehistory #Cannibalism #MiddlePaleolithic #Goyet

Quentin Cosnefroy@quentin-cosnefroy.bsky.social · 9mo ago

Did Neandertals choose their prey when practicing cannibalism?🍖 Check out our new study, just published in Scientific Reports - @natureportfolio.nature.com! We provide the strongest evidence to date for a highly selective cannibalism at the end of Neandertal lineage, 41-45.000 years ago. 1/7

Degraded DNA will be riddled with errors, mutations happening after death. Polygenic risk for the psychiatric conditions quoted in the media campaign is driven by rare variants of big effect. A potential problem could thus be uncorrected errors artefactually increasing the AH DNA risk estimate.

Graham Coop@gcbias.bsky.social · 9mo ago

In particular, the claims that “[Hitler’s polygenic] score for schizophrenia, autism and bipolar disorder was actually higher than 99% of the individuals.” and " It is also rare to have a high polygenic risk score for all three conditions" strike me as strange.

The 2026 EMBL symposium 'Reconstructing the human past using ancient and modern genomics' is live with a fantastic invited speaker lineup! Abstract deadline 9 June. If work is ongoing, plan for Heidelberg in September😉. Organised by Maanasa Raghavan, @matejahajdi.bsky.social, Choongwon Jeong & me.

A PhD project on historical genomics in the declining red squirrel in Britain is available in my group, through the @aries-dtp.bsky.social. Use historical genomes to track the effects of decline and genetic rescue in this charismatic species. aries-dtp.ac.uk/studentships...

Historical genomics of the declining red squirrel in Britain | Aries

Dr Anders Bergström, School of Biological Sciences, University of East Anglia Professor Cock van Oosterhout, School of Environmental Sciences, University of East Anglia Dr Selina Brace…

aries-dtp.ac.uk

I’m not an expert on polygenic scores for mental health, but a concern I would have is whether something has gone wrong with the genotyping, leading to misestimated polygenic scores that look extreme.

In particular, the claims that “[Hitler’s polygenic] score for schizophrenia, autism and bipolar disorder was actually higher than 99% of the individuals.” and " It is also rare to have a high polygenic risk score for all three conditions" strike me as strange.

I think we can say confidently that there is zero scientific value in such 'celebrity' genomes, notorious or otherwise, and probably little or no historical value either.

As I told the CNN, without details and data it is not possible to assess the claims. More importantly, the scientific value of this media campaign, balanced against the possible stigmatization of individuals with these real conditions today, is highly questionable. edition.cnn.com/2025/11/13/s...

Researchers say they have verified and sequenced Hitler’s DNA – and found a genetic disorder | CNN

Analysis of Adolf Hitler’s DNA reveals he may have had a rare genetic disorder that can delay puberty.

edition.cnn.com

Just a few weeks left to apply for our clinical PhD programme. We're looking for clinicians who are passionate about research to join the 3-year fully funded programme. Learn more and see what positions are available ⬇️ www.crick.ac.uk/careers-and-...

Doctoral clinical fellows

The Crick's clinical PhD programme.

crick.ac.uk

In case you missed it, catch the Question of Science podcast on ancient DNA on your favorite platform. We cover why ancient DNA studies can make a difference not only to understanding history, but also health and disease.

The Francis Crick Institute@crick.ac.uk · 10mo ago

NEW EPISODE: Who are our ancestors and why does it matter? Join our expert panellists as they answer audience questions about ancient DNA. Listen on your favourite podcast platform: lnk.to/AQOSAncientD...

Are you obsessed with archaeological or historical questions and easily get into coding? Or a computational scientist that want to understand biology and disease evolution, and curious about the ancient past? If you have these or other burning questions that fits into our programme, apply below!

Pontus Skoglund@pontus-skoglund.bsky.social · 10mo ago

PhD-opening in our ancient genomics lab this year, apply below! We work on: 📜 Genetic history integrated with archaeology and history 📈 Natural selection and trait genetics 🐺 Evolutionary genomics of dogs and wolves 🦠 Ancient pathogen genomics 💀 Hominin evolution and ancient proteomics

We have an exciting line-up of speakers already confirmed for our Ancient Genomes meeting in November. If you want to be one of the speakers or present a poster, submit your abstract by 31 July! genetics.org.uk/events/ancie...