"A cutting-edge gene-editing trial in China went disastrously wrong. A family wants accountability" https://www.science.org/content/article/exclusive-death-girl-chinese-gene-editing-trial-was-never-made-public

Gladstone et al (2026): "biographies of female scientists disproportionately emphasized effort even after adjusting for the obstacles they faced, consistent with stereotypes attributing women’s success to hard work over talent." 🧪 #psychscisky

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences@pnas.org · 6d ago

One of the most-viewed PNAS articles in the last week is ”Children’s books about scientists convey demotivating messages.” Explore the article here: https://ow.ly/oTon50ZuLj3 For more trending articles, visit https://ow.ly/TsjY50ZuLj2.

Papers with open peer-review reports are less likely to be retracted. In @nature.com by @dalmeet.bsky.social www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Papers with open peer-review reports are less likely to be retracted

Researchers say that transparent publishing practices could be associated with research quality, but more evidence is needed.

nature.com

A new resource with funding opportunities for evolutionary biologists https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1-m88lOiv1VVX89Twmjan6qIdy4NBamCg/edit?gid=1459587946#gid=1459587946 put together by Prothama(“Pro”) Manna from the SSE Grad Student Advisory Council […]

A very cool, useful discussion of the question of violence or 'war' in prehistory, concluding, for nomadic HG ancestors, not anything like war, yes, some interpersonal violence. But it probably goes further than that -- doing violence likely did not help the perpetrator's fitness, no selection […]

A resource from Jérôme Guélat for anyone working with spatial data in R. *Spatial Data Processing with R* combines GIS fundamentals with practical, reusable workflows for analysis and map making. 🗺️ https://jgrun.github.io/spatial/ #rspatial #rstats #SpatialAnalysis #OpenSource

"This declaration calls for action to address the challenges posed by the use of artificial intelligence within mathematics research" https://leidendeclaration.ai Useful recommendations to consider across academia

Leiden Declaration on Artificial Intelligence and Mathematics

This declaration calls for action to address the challenges posed by the use of artificial intelligence within mathematics research.

leidendeclaration.ai

A new paper illustrates how bird song "reflects a balance between environmental constraints on sound transmission and biological pressures for effective communication" News report: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cwy4eg5dpyzo Press release & link to paper […]

“efforts to improve research culture can make harmful systems easier to endure and harder to reform” wonkhe.com/blogs/some-r...

Some research culture work may be sustaining the practices it seeks to change

Hanna Groothuizen explains the paradox of compensatory culture work, arguing that efforts to improve research culture can make harmful systems easier to endure and harder to reform Hanna Groothuizen e...

wonkhe.com

16-Jul-2026 What animals do before going to war Social #animals (such as #meerkats) use a suite of preemptive behaviors in anticipation of #conflict, including staying quiet, monitoring their surroundings, conducting raids, and bonding through play. researchers describe how environmental cues […]

"B!SON, a recommender for open access journals" based on info from your article https://blog.doaj.org/2026/07/08/bson-a-recommender-for-open-access-journals-grazing-on-doaj-data/ Here is the Max Planck version https://service.tib.eu/bison/extension/?extensionId=31 it's publicly available, and […]

Mathematics and astronomy inscribed on Mayan temple site of Xultun in Guatemala: 'The chamber’s walls are painted with human figures and hieroglyphic texts. These include mathematical calculations based on astronomical calendars, which were used by the Maya people to decide the timing of events […]

UK non-academic researchers! UK Research and Innovation have one research funding programme - 'Future Leaders Fellowships' - which allow and support applications from non-academic researchers, i.e. those hosted by business including non-profits. It's well funded, over 4 years, extendable to 7 […]

I compiled a list of 350 #funding opportunities for #postdoctoral research #fellowships: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1J2M_tQgoqV4ivpfEClh9qs9f2KQN2O1G3Jpda2aoHfQ/edit?usp=sharing I realized I should share this again after mentioning it to some folks at the #EFP2026

Better than blackboard: a thought and action provoking series on mathematics education by Nelly Litvak (Many lessons also apply to other subjects.) https://nellylitvak.com/better-than-blackboard/

Better than Blackboard

Teaching mathematics to human students by a human professor.

nellylitvak.com

If the genome is not a blueprint, what is it? My attempt to unravel this particularly knotty question, in @quantamagazine.bsky.social www.quantamagazine.org/why-the-huma...

Why the Human Genome’s Tangled Physicality May Confound AI | Quanta Magazine

Our genetic heritage is not a blueprint or an algorithm, as many biologists have imagined, but something else entirely.

quantamagazine.org

Striking global similarities: New cross-cultural study reveals that the bond between #humans & #dogs remains remarkably consistent across societies. Study led by Juliane Bräuer @uni-jena.de & Russell Gray @mpi-eva-leipzig.bsky.social More: tinyurl.com/2hn2dt6b & doi.org/10.1038/s415...

Striking global similarities in interactions between dogs and humans

New cross-cultural study reveals that the bond between humans and dogs remains remarkably consistent across societies

tinyurl.com

"A Guerrilla Approach to Scientific Workflow" - talk by R. McElreath for @PeerCommunityIn https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kTy890wrAc about how we all scientists can consider our workflows as tools to fight for transparency and trust

Assoc editor of Frontiers in Systems #Neuro: > Over the last month I saw that human editors are now stripped of control. I could no longer stop the system from auto-inviting "reviewers" with zero relevant expertise. Even worse - the AI began actively revoking the invitations I manually sent out […]

Michael Okun@michael-okun.bsky.social · 2mo ago

I’ve officially resigned as Associate Editor for Frontiers in Systems Neuroscience. It used to be a reputable journal, but became a case study in how forced automation destroys academic integrity. 👇

Poppy's new paper finds vaccine outcomes differ according to which phase of the menstrual cycle women are vaccinated in 👇 Vaccination in the first half of the cycle, when immune responses are stronger, is associated w higher probability of reporting side effects & (possibly) longer time to infection

Poppy Cooper@poppycooper.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Does it matter which day of your #menstrualcycle you get #vaccinated? 💉 My first PhD paper, just published in #npj Women's Health, suggests it might. 🧵

Es gibt einen neuen Entwurf für das Wissenschaftszeitvertragsgesetz - wird wieder wahrscheinlich niemand wirklich glücklich machen: https://www.faz.net/aktuell/feuilleton/debatten/der-reformentwurf-zum-wissenschaftszeitvertragsgesetz-ist-da-accg-200879845.html Aber sowieso "Das Hauptproblem […]

"where are wild animals living and dying?" BBC report on the ICARUS project tracking animals from space https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20260521-tracking-animal-panic-from-space

We can now track animal panic from space. Here's why it matters

The new Icarus satellite is tracking signals hidden in animal behaviour – which could save the lives of cheetahs, rhinos and elephants.

bbc.com

Oft fährt man als Journalist für einen Tag zum Ort des Geschehens und ist dann wieder weg. Ich mache es seit einer Woche anders, um die Zukunft von Landschaften zu erkunden, die für Biodiversität und Klima enorm wichtig sind. Mit dem Fahrrad kann ich mich meinen Zielorten langsam nähern und sehe […]

"an important reminder that when using LLMs to analyse datasets, it’s worth checking you’re not getting familiar stereotypes in place of real signals" https://kucharski.substack.com/p/real-signals-or-artificial-stereotypes though I would think that this is just an amplification of the biases […]

Just stumbled across this great letter on #IQ by Ruth Mace. The notion that hunter-gatherers who painted in Lascaux Caves or medieval cathedral builders are more stupid than people today is total rubbish! But still the pseudoscience racists will cling to this.

Ist so. Egal wie qualifiziert Zu viele Männer verhalten sich so. Call it out. „Zusätzlich habe es Einladungen auf Hotelzimmer gegeben, über Berufspolitik sei eher mit den männlichen Kollegen gesprochen worden, nicht mit den Frauen aus der Delegation.“ www.aerzteblatt.de/news/deutsch...

Deutscher Ärztetag: Medizinstudentinnen berichten von Übergriffen – Deutsches Ärzteblatt

aerzteblatt.de

interesting new fellowship for people studying child development, available for early-career folk (10 years since PhD, US$300K over 3 years, worldwide eligibility)

The LEGO Foundation Fellowship: Application Details

The LEGO Foundation Fellowship is a global initiative supporting researchers working to deepen our understanding of how children thrive. Spanning disciplines from education and psychology to public he...

ssrc.org

I am trying my best not to be too pessimistic about the state of academia, but then there are mornings like today when I see that the Deutscher Hochschulverband [the German association of university professors] is offering a further training course entitled "Der Weg zum Forschungsantrag mit […]

This coming Wednesday (!) 13 May ReproducibiliTea in the HumaniTeas is delighted to welcome Andrey Anderson dos Santos to speak about Open Peer Review. After a short input talk, we will have plenty of time to discuss this rather controversial topic! Join us […] [Original post on fediscience.org]

Interesting essay on the new role of palaeogenetics in understanding the peopling of India, in relation to the history of linguistics. https://aeon.co/essays/ancient-india-was-shaped-by-waves-of-migration-and-mixing