Steven Phelps

The process for either involves a book proposal and 1-3 sample chapters. Find colleagues to share theirs to use as models. I've seen friends have success by writing a crossover book aimed at both expert and broad audiences for an academic press, then get an agent and do a trade book after that.

Many academic presses are interested in reaching popular audiences. The advances from academic presses are small enough that agents may not be interested. You can also work directly with editors. A "trade book" however, it is almost impossible to do without an agent.

I do think the mechanical forces are very interesting though, and I do like (most of) this paper quite a lot. It's a huge amount of work and a very cool finding. I'll try to elaborate a bit later.

It's not very complicated: I mean nucleotide sequences that shape the likelihood of the phenotype. It doesn't matter if they are coding or noncoding, if the effect sizes are big or small, or if their effects depend on interaction with the environment.

Oof. This paper, with so much beautiful work, is written with a fundamentally mistaken view of evolutionary processes. Heartbreaking, but fixable. @r3rt0.bsky.social

#MartyMakary is a peddler of misinformation. A study came out on Monday saying: "In this nationwide cohort study, no increased risk of 29 adverse events was observed after vaccination with the updated COVID-19 mRNA vaccine [...] in approximately 1 million adults." Trust the data, not this fool. 1/

The one thing I would add is that the predominance of behavior or brain size over phylogenetics in prediction doesn't argue against genetics at all. It argues against neutral genetic forces, like drift. It is entirely consistent with a genetic cause that evolved convergently under selection.

🤯

I think the 40% cut is the actual problem, which in the case of NSF and NASA was averted at the last moment.

Of course the money spent now frees up funds in future years. Not sure this is the thing we should be getting worked up about compared to everything else going on tbh.

Meet the capuchin monkey: Curious, creative and vengeful UCLA’s Susan Perry has devoted decades to studying the fast-motion life of these New World primates and learning how the young acquire the skills they need to thrive

Like humans, capuchins are curious, manipulative, almost obsessively social and not to be messed with, and there is a lot we can learn from them on how culture, including our own, evolves.

Medical illustration of two organs. On the left is an organ with two "legs" at the bottom, a long body, and a shaft at the top, bent. On the right is an organ which is taller than the one on the left, with "legs" at the bottom, a longer body, and a longer shaft at the top, bent, with a prominent glans. From V Puppo and G Puppo, "Anatomy of Sex: Revision of the New Anatomical Terms Used for the Clitoris and the Female Orgasm by Sexologists", 2015.

Here's an illustration showing the anatomical similarities between structures of the clitoris (on the left) and penis (on the right), going for a little walk together.

Interested in love and mate preferences? Our dataset includes responses from 117,293 participants across 175 countries. You're welcome to use it for your own research! Paper and dataset linked below. @ with amazing collaborators from the large-scale cross-cultural consortium <3

A new peer-reviewed open access article by me, all about ritual last words in five major religions. "Ritual last words" are sacred sounds, prayers, songs, names of deities, etc., prescribed to be spoken at the very end of life, ideally at the moment of expiry.

www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Extremely excited to share the first effort of the Revived Genomics of Personality Consortium: A highly-powered, comprehensive GWAS of the Big Five personality traits in 1.14 million participants from 46 cohorts. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

FDA-NIH Workshop: Reducing Animal Testing The FDA is hosting a workshop on reducing animal testing. The workshop is open to current FDA and NIH employees.

It is now possible to submit public commentary on the proposed changes through the close of the business day (5 p.m. EST) next Monday, July 14th.
www.fda.gov/news-events/...

NIH announces end to funding for animal-only studies - Drug Discovery and Development Drug Discovery and Development covers strategies and technologies related to pharmaceutical research and development and drug formulation.

This link is making the rounds in my frantic network of biologists and it desperately needs context. NIH has NOT announced plans to eliminate animal research, but we have real and urgent concerns about the future of animal research.🧪
www.drugdiscoverytrends.com/nih-announce...

The bit about "God didn't put animals here to be tortured" made my head snap.

I dug into this a bit in the thread here.
bsky.app/profile/evol...

Screen grab of tweet from animal rights group juxtaposing Nicole Kleinstreuer with footage of caged macaque showing stereotypy. She is quoted: "We have no intention of just phasing out animal studies overnight. We know that animal studies are still very important and often scientifically justified."

Acknowledging a role for animal research is leading to pushback from animal rights activists. We need to articulate (again) the essential roles of animal research, welcome legitimate ways of reducing animal use, and remain vigilant about sources of misinformation online.🧪

NICOLE KLEINSTREUER: You know, we have no intention of just phasing out animal studies overnight. We know that animal studies are still very important and often scientifically justified. There are lots of areas where validated human-relevant models are not yet available. But we are seeing rapid progress and the more we invest in this space, the better those human biology-based integrated systems will become and the less we will have to rely on animal models moving forward.

In a June interview on NPR, Kleinstreuer acknowledged again that animal studies remain important.

www.wbur.org/onpoint/2025...

Looking at the publication itself, and where other sources are covering the story, I notice that first, they are unfamiliar sources. Second, they don't quote any contrary opinions. Third, they favorably quote PETA. All red flags.🧪

The motivation to reduce animal testing is mentioned in the NIH April announcement, and repeated in a July 4th announcement. Both acknowledge the ongoing necessity of animal models.🧪
nihrecord.nih.gov/2025/07/04/n...

Screen grab of Kleinstreuer X post emphasizing human-based models of drug testing, but acknowledging that animal research remains necessary.

Kleinstreuer has indeed made a career of identifying non-animal models, and wants to advance that work. The discussion in the workshop is really focused around animal toxicity testing, which tbh is not a terrible idea.🧪
www.youtube.com/watch?v=vz1u...

NIH did not announce an end to animal research. The piece quotes NIH official Nicole Kleinstreuer: "all new NIH funding opportunities moving forward should incorporate language on consideration of NAMS." Researchers in the US are already required to address non-animal models in our IACUC statements🧪

NIH announces end to funding for animal-only studies - Drug Discovery and Development Drug Discovery and Development covers strategies and technologies related to pharmaceutical research and development and drug formulation.

This link is making the rounds in my frantic network of biologists and it desperately needs context. NIH has NOT announced plans to eliminate animal research, but we have real and urgent concerns about the future of animal research.🧪
www.drugdiscoverytrends.com/nih-announce...

The made up links often go to some other paper, maybe related authors or topic. The imaginary references are often v credible, with authors who work on the topic and real journal names, etc.

💯 I find that the made up citations issue is real, but seems to vary with model and mode. "Deep research" doesn't usually make stuff up, but it does repeatedly cite the one not very good source - a Frontiers article, a Wikipedia page, etc - it happens to have access to on a given topic.

Mechanisms and control of a novel vocalization: The Alston singing mouse song is a whistle that depends on the inflation of the ventral pouch –an enlarged intralaryngeal air sac– laryngeal airflow, and cricothyroid muscle action
By ⁦ @evolbrain.bsky.social et al.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Let's catch up!