Gareth Hollands

A preserved carved turnip jack o'lantern from the 19th century

A preserved carved turnip jack o'lantern from the 19th century

A reminder that the original Hallowe'en jack o' lanterns date back to 18th century Ireland if not earlier, were based on a shady boozy blacksmith called Stingy Jack who cheated the devil & was trapped between 2 worlds, were carved from turnips and looked like this:

Abstract of the article 'Comparing the impact and mechanistic pathways of micro-environmental interventions targeting healthier vs. more environmentally sustainable food options: an overview of reviews'. The article concludes that "There is more evidence for health-focused interventions than sustainability-focused interventions. Size and position interventions seem most promising, but evidence for sustainability is scarce. There is currently no evidence of differential responding to health vs. sustainability interventions, although we were unable to comprehensively assess this. More comparable evidence, and evidence on underlying mechanisms, is needed, prioritising the most effective interventions."

NEW in @bmc.springernature.com Medicine

- Overview of reviews comparing micro-environmental interventions (e.g. product size, labelling or positioning) for healthier or more sustainable food choices
- Led by a great team @oxprimarycare.bsky.social

bmcmedicine.biomedcentral.com/articles/10....

Abstract of the article 'Comparing the impact and mechanistic pathways of micro-environmental interventions targeting healthier vs. more environmentally sustainable food options: an overview of reviews'. The article concludes that "There is more evidence for health-focused interventions than sustainability-focused interventions. Size and position interventions seem most promising, but evidence for sustainability is scarce. There is currently no evidence of differential responding to health vs. sustainability interventions, although we were unable to comprehensively assess this. More comparable evidence, and evidence on underlying mechanisms, is needed, prioritising the most effective interventions."

NEW in @bmc.springernature.com Medicine

- Overview of reviews comparing micro-environmental interventions (e.g. product size, labelling or positioning) for healthier or more sustainable food choices
- Led by a great team @oxprimarycare.bsky.social

bmcmedicine.biomedcentral.com/articles/10....

⭐ After quite some time in the making, I’m excited to share our new paper!🌿⭐

We examined people's climate-relevant behaviors (driving, air travel, public transport use, and meat consumption) and their perceptions of how feasible it would be to change them (+ expected wellbeing impacts).

🧵(1/4)

🚨 Killer Tactics 2: Business as Usual 🚨

Our latest report with Action on Smoking and Health and Alcohol Health Alliance reveals how powerful industries are undermining public health policy under the current Labour Government.

Read the report here ➡️ obesityhealthalliance.org.uk/2025/10/23/k...

Have you already considered Open Science Framework? My perception is that it's getting increasing acceptance/awareness across a range of topics and types of research. I'm also presuming it's primary research

YouTube video by SoftCellVEVO Soft Cell - Say Hello, Wave Goodbye

One of the best songs of the 1980s (or any decade). RIP Dave Ball youtu.be/y9KgEs3Zksg?...

Flyer advertising debate on 15 Dec 2025 at 5:30pm at Punnet Hall, 20 Bedford Way, IOE, London, entitled 'Is AI the future of health and social science?'

DEBATE: "Is AI the future of health and social science?"

For those in London on 15 Dec 2025, don't miss this fun in person debate between me and David Bann sponsored by @ncrm.ac.uk!

Will the arguments change anyone's mind? 🤔

Sign up to attend IN PERSON: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/is-ai-the-...

#myofficefortoday

I mean I know this will never happen, because she's a crank and she's not getting anywhere near power, but this is still a profoundly depressing world view. What are we without the arts, without creativity, without imagination?

I know people are submitting AI-generated papers and some are AI-assisted, but…

There were 26,646 new submissions to arXiv in September 2025.

Cover of the 2025 EAT–Lancet report, featuring an image of a person scooping up green vegetables in their hands from a large plate. The report quote: “The targets of the EAT–Lancet Commission for healthy people on a healthy planet with just food systems can only be met through concerted global action and unprecedented levels of transformative change.”

The world produces enough food, yet billions lack access to healthy & sustainable diets. A new EAT–Lancet report presents a science-based approach to improve health, safeguard our environment & provide for a projected 9.6 billion people by 2050.

🔗 bit.ly/3W7rxlP

Hierarchy of Scientific Evidence Strongest to weakest top to bottom Meta-analyses & systematic reviews Randomized controlled trials Cohort studies Case-control studies Cross sectional studies Animal trials & in vitro studies Case reports, opinion papers, and letters

same pyramid but at the top is another pyramid that says 25+ scientists signed an opinion paper

same pyramid but at the top is mom’s advice

a shitpost pyramid with “the other shit” on the bottom and “Thoughtful, well-conducted studies of any design” at the top. probably the best version i’ve seen

from worst to best versions (off the top of my head)

We're are now accepting applications for an exciting DPhil at the @oxprimarycare.bsky.social, *FUNDED* by the THRIVING Food Futures research hub!
The project is about divisive policies, supervised by me, Dr Rachel Pechey @petescarbs.bsky.social @ashakaur.bsky.social
lnkd.in/eezGaZZ3
Pls share! ✨

Interesting blog from @kdeloyde.bsky.social @bristoltarg.bsky.social following up their trial from a few years ago of the effect of adding alcohol-free beer options in pubs (onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....).

So what's been happening with those pubs and their alcohol-free offerings since?

UCL – University College London UCL is consistently ranked as one of the top ten universities in the world (QS World University Rankings 2010-2022) and is No.2 in the UK for research power (Research Excellence Framework 2021).

🔊 Exciting research role available if you're interested in applying evidence synthesis to food policy and public health. Part of a @nihr.bsky.social study evaluating supermarket policies restricting the use of price promotions.

Closes 8th October. Further details 👇 www.ucl.ac.uk/work-at-ucl/...

🚨 NEW: Britain’s most powerful people are still 5x more likely to have been privately educated than the general population.

Our brand-new research reveals that jobs in the media, business, charity, creative and public sectors remain dominated by those from private schools ⤵️🧵

Even only working in adjacent fields this regularly causes issues, so I dread to think about how often it arises if you're actually working in public health. Probably needs one of those automated warnings on every email and document: "Are you sure you didn't mean to write "public"?"

SRI Inaugural Lectures Inaugural lectures hosted by the UCL Social Research Institute.

As part of the celebrations of our 10th anniversary as a UCL Department, we have launched an inaugural lecture series. You can watch the first here and there will be more to come this academic year! www.ucl.ac.uk/ioe/departme...

I seem to have been discussing pilot and feasibility studies a lot this week. One question often asked is how big should my pilot/feasibility study be? 1/6
#MethodologyMonday #124

INSPECT-SR: a tool for assessing trustworthiness of randomised controlled trials The integrity of evidence synthesis is threatened by problematic randomised controlled trials (RCTs). These are RCTs where there are serious concerns about the trustworthiness of the data or findings....

www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1...

INSPECT-SR: A tool for assessing trustworthiness of randomised controlled trials.

Our updated @jclinepi.bsky.social starters pack!

go.bsky.app/DNtLZWo

Doctoral Researcher (m,f,x)

🚨 We’re hiring! 🚨
The Social&Environmental Psychology Group @ruhr-uni-bochum.de is recruiting 2 PhDs and 1 Postdoc
as part of the ERC-funded SUSCON project on sustainable consumption.

Details here:

PhDs:👉 jobs.ruhr-uni-bochum.de/jobposting/7...

Postdoc:👉 jobs.ruhr-uni-bochum.de/jobposting/e...

Very good article and thread about open alternatives to google scholar, which clearly will go away when its founder retires. The @barcelonadori.bsky.social movement is getting a lot if attention and OpenAlex.org a lot of support. The Lens currently looking for new home about.lens.org/expressions-...

Stumbled across a map of tobacco retail licence distribution in England in 1634 (for those wondering, the distribution in 21stC would be a blank map as no licence is needed to sell tobacco until government passes Tobacco and Vapes Bill)

Hackney Peace Mural in 1985. Image Credit: Alan Denny

Hackney Peace Mural in 2025 Image Credit: Richard Blanshard

This September, Dalston’s beloved Hackney Peace Mural celebrates its 40th birthday. Commissioned by the GLC and designed by artist Ray Walker, it’s a key survivor of the Community Art Movement of the 1970s and 80s.

Click to back the anniversary party crowdfunder: crowdfunder.co.uk/p/hackney-peac…

Ha. I'd like to see the same with dice. I presume unless they're extremely expensive they're already quite unbalanced, but I'd very much like a technique for improving the odds of a six

Also "Future work may attempt to verify whether “wobbly tossers” show a more pronounced same-side bias than “stable tossers”" 🙂

I don't understand much of the stats here or probably all of the implications, but I love this! Great work @fbartos.bsky.social and all.

I also hope there are no triallists still clinging on to coin-flipping as a means of randomisation...

A true trailblazer in not just children's television in the UK, but television full stop. Richard Marson's biography of her is superb