Prof Nichola Raihani

Open Call for Expressions of Interest in Max Planck Directorships: Expressions of interest can be submitted until 31 October 2025.

Director at Max Planck - a unique position! The Open Call for Expressions of Interest in Max Planck Directorships is open now and can be submitted by the 31st of October 2025. ➡️ mpg.de/directors - Please share the Open Call among potential candidates.

Statement by Prime Minister Carney on Canada’s recognition of a Palestinian state.

Canada has long been committed to a two-state solution — an independent, viable, and sovereign Palestinian state living side by side with the State of Israel in peace and security.
 
My statement on Canada’s recognition of a Palestinian state:

How Women Shaped Human Evolution Through Food Processing An anthropologist highlights the revolutionary role of food processing—a practice often led by women—that was crucial to human survival.

Nice piece highlighting the importance of food processing in human evolution: “Next time you sit down for a meal, appreciate the food-processing revolution—pounding, cooking, mashing done by women—that opened humans to a diversity of foods that allowed us to thrive in all the world’s environments”

An unbearably sad statement from the Editorial Committee (SDJ) of the AFP news agency, please read:

"Without immediate intervention, the last reporters in Gaza will die.
AFP has been working with 1 writer, 3 photographers and 6 videographers, all freelance, in the Gaza Strip… /1

A white and gray dog touches a yellow dot hanging on the wall with his nose. Text says ManyDogs 2 - Join the Team!

🚨 Calling all dog behavior & cognition researchers - ManyDogs Project is launching ManyDogs 2!

🔍🐕‍🦺We're studying overimitation: Do dogs copy irrelevant actions just b/c their favorite human does them?

Email manydogsproject2@gmail.com to collaborate globally and contribute to reproducible science!

A statement by Doctors Against Genocide which reads: To all international humanitarian organizations, The situation in Gaza is spiraling beyond any medical or moral threshold. The limited stock of intravenous fluids in our hospitals is no longer sufficient to treat the waves of starving individuals arriving at emergency units — from infants to the elderly, they are collapsing from pure exhaustion and hunger. This is no longer just a humanitarian crisis. It is a deliberate, systematic starvation of an entire population. We urge you — Speak. Act. Intervene. Nasser Medical Complex

“a deliberate, systematic starvation of an entire population”

A statement by Doctors Against Genocide.

#Gaza

Brilliant. Can’t wait! Lmk if you want any travel tips (based on my limited experience!)

Wow! Thats great. Would love to meet up. Maybe we can get you to give a talk (?) I will be around - Q will be on sabbatical in Oxford tho

@carlbergstrom.com I think you might enjoy this - draws on your book in parts.

Read it! It's not short but it's important. It's about why running our universities like corporations is killing them. Quentin goes beyond the usual complaints and really lays out the institutional dynamics that make universities and corporate managerialism incompatible.

This is alarming. A major function of a university is to assess & report student quality (via grades) - info that is helpful for future employers. LLMs (and the transactional nature of higher ed) both make that increasingly difficult. And now Canvas may supplant us anyway.

Doubtful…. Unless he’s also a kiwi?!

How not to run a university | Quentin’s Substack | Quentin Atkinson | Substack A case study of one university’s managerial misadventures, why it is happening and what we can do about it. Click to read Quentin’s Substack, by Quentin Atkinson, a Substack publication. Launched a mo...

My colleague Quentin Atkinson wrote this piece - How Not To Run a University. It is an insanely good read about how managerialism is destroying universities.

Make time for it. Talk about it. Share it.

quentinatkinson.substack.com/s/how-not-to...

The Em Dash Responds to the AI Allegations “In recent months, a curious fixation has emerged in corners of academia: the em dash. More specifically, the apparent moral panic around how it is...

"Writers have been using me long before the advent of AI. I am the punctuation equivalent of a cardigan—beloved by MFA grads, used by editors when it’s actually cold, and worn year-round by screenwriters. I am not new here."

To Raise Children, We Must First Raise Parents An anthropologist compares her early motherhood in London with child care experiences in a hunter-gatherer community of Central Africa.

“Parenting is never perfect. Cultures raise children differently, shaping adults valued by their own standards. But one truth emerges: Learning to care for others should start long before having a baby”

www.sapiens.org/biology/to-r...

Shaping the oral microbiota through intimate kissing - Microbiome Background The variation of microbial communities associated with the human body can be the cause of many factors, including the human genetic makeup, diet, age, surroundings, and sexual behavior. In ...

TIL that the average romantic kiss transfers approximately 80 million (!) bacteria. You're welcome. 😗

link.springer.com/article/10.1...

My award, engraved on a glass box

Receiving the award

I'm very proud to have won the Royal Statistical Society's award for best statistical commentary by a non-journalist this year 🥹

Using time series graphs to make causal claims be like

Seven Decades An anthropologist uncovers new evidence for the evolutionary origins of human longevity—and explains why growing old is an opportunity, not a burden

Your next Fall read, my new book: SEVEN DECADES: HOW WE EVOLVED TO LIVE LONGER

Longevity is shaped by our evolutionary past—imagine aging as opportunity rather than burden.

Out Sept 16, preorder w/ code PUP30 for 30% discount: press.princeton.edu/books/hardco...

@princetonupress.bsky.social

A recently proposed «pseudosocial cognition approach» aims at our previous work on the social dimension of paranoia.

The shortcomings of their article raise important questions on how we all connect behavioural models to neural data.

Our letter of response: osf.io/preprints/ps...

summary 🧵👇

This is figure 2, which shows Bogong moth navigation under natural night skies.

A paper in Nature suggests that the Australian Bogong moth may be the first invertebrate known to be able to use the stars to navigate. Experiments in flight simulators indicate that the insects use stellar cues to help them fly in the right direction. go.nature.com/3ZEaDgG 🧪

Treemap chart showing the fragmented landscape of psychological measures.

Want to make nice graphs with me, starting this summer? I am hiring for two PhD positions at the University of Witten/Herdecke.

Congrats!

What an extraordinary, beautiful thing. Sometimes the only sensible response to scientific discovery is wonderment and awe.

Here you go: an absolute beast of a starter pack, with many of the UK's most prominent humanists on it. Includes scientists, historians, philosophers, public figures, the New Humanist editorial team and Humanists UK staff. A network for reason and decency.

go.bsky.app/PTC4j2d

congrats Manvir! I'm looking fwd to reading it

Honored that SHAMANISM is one of @newyorker.com's Best Books We Read This Week!!

😍 The nicest compliments of all come from the people you most admire.

Life goal unlocked. Spotted in Gower st Waterstones. Thanks to my UCL spies for keeping tabs on things 🕵️