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Dr Buki Fatona

@bukifatona.bsky.social

6.3K followers 130 following 160 posts

@University of Oxford, research in Philosophy of Cognitive Neuroscience & Religion: memory; imagination; action. ❤️classics, mathematics, & art❤️ https://theology.web.ox.ac.uk/people/dr-buki-fatona

theology.web.ox.ac.uk

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Reposted by Dr Buki Fatona

University of Oxford @ox.ac.uk · 1d

#OnThisDay in 1920, the first women received their Oxford degrees 🎓

📷 | St Anne's College Oxford

Black and white image of the first degree day for women, 14th October 1920.

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Dr Buki Fatona @bukifatona.bsky.social · 5d

The Nobel Peace Prize for 2025 has been awarded to Maria Corina Machado

"...for her tireless work promoting democratic rights for the people of Venezuela and for her struggle to achieve a just and peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy."

BBC webpage of the Nobel Peace Prize announcement with a picture of Ms Maria Corina Machado.

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Dr Buki Fatona @bukifatona.bsky.social · 6d

This week seems apt to remember Dorothy Hodgkin (1910-1994).

The first British woman to receive a Nobel Prize in chemistry.

❤️ Maggi Hambling's painting of Hodgkin with multiple hands working at her desk. In the corner is a structurally accurate model of insulin which she solved.

#WomenInSTEM

"The first British woman to win the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1964, Hodgkin was able to define the structures of penicillin (1949), Vitamin B12 (1955) and insulin (1969) using x-ray crystallography, transforming their therapeutic potential. A Royal Society Fellowship scheme was established in her name, to help women who wish to be both career scientists and to raise children. Commissioned by the Gallery, and painted in Hodgkin’s study, Maggi Hambling depicts the chemist with a structural model of insulin in the foreground. Two pairs of hands convey energy and activity, which also refers to the subject’s acute arthritis, contracted when she was 28."

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Dr Buki Fatona @bukifatona.bsky.social · 8d

Good morning to coffee and coffee only

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Reposted by Dr Buki Fatona

Alisa Bokulich @alisabokulich.bsky.social · 11d

A clear pastel sunset sky and a wide empty sandy beach with sea and islands in the distance.

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Dr Buki Fatona @bukifatona.bsky.social · 12d

I was ordained by +Sarah and hold her in high regard indeed.

+Sarah laying hands on me at an ordination service in St Paul's Cathedral London.

Dr Buki Fatona @bukifatona.bsky.social · 12d

First Woman appointed to be the next Archbishop of Canterbury..

The Bishop of London, the Rt Revd Sarah Mullally, has been announced as the next Primate of All England

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Reposted by Dr Buki Fatona

Dinah Rose KC @dinahrose.bsky.social · 12d

For anyone who's wondering about this, particularly in the UK: yes, do email or message your Jewish friends with a word of support. It makes a huge amount of difference.

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Dr Buki Fatona @bukifatona.bsky.social · 13d

In celebration of Black History month, here is:

'Portrait of an African Woman holding a clock' (circa 1583/5).

attributed to Annibale Carracci.

A realistic depiction of a Black sitter, possibly a seamstress, who is dressed in a fine but sensible black day dress with touches of Italian luxury. She is holding a gold ornate clock in her hand.

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Dr Buki Fatona @bukifatona.bsky.social · 14d

Now live! The website for the next conference of @esssat.bsky.social - the 21st European Conference on Science & Theology (ECST XXI).

The title of the conference is 'Lost in Translation? Celebrating Language Diversity in Science and Religion'.

Leeds, UK; 19-22 August 2026

👉🏾 esssatconference.org

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Dr Buki Fatona @bukifatona.bsky.social · 16d

I appreciate you saying this! The trim was *so* hard to do, but the finished product makes it worth it!

Dr Buki Fatona @bukifatona.bsky.social · 17d

Untitled, 2009

by Kerry James Marshall

A painting of a sitting woman with elaborately coiffured hair holding a paint brush and a paint-splattered palette which matches her dress.

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Reposted by Dr Buki Fatona

Nicole Rust @nicolecrust.bsky.social · 17d

The most universally agreed upon property that sets emotion/affect apart from everything else is valence: approach/avoid; pleasant/unpleasant. Here they target its computation in flies, where you can really figure out the biology. We know so little about how valence is computed by brains. Exciting!

Katrin Vogt @katrinvogt.bsky.social · 18d

How is valence computed in the brain? Check out our new preprint about a single cell that integrates excitatory and inhibitory input across modalities according to valence and impacts behavioral decisions. An exciting collaboration across many labs. Enjoy reading!
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

A multisensory, bidirectional, valence encoder guides behavioral decisions

A key function of the brain is to categorize sensory cues as repulsive or attractive and respond accordingly. While we have some understanding of how sensory information is processed in the sensory pe...

www.biorxiv.org

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Dr Buki Fatona @bukifatona.bsky.social · 20d

Huntington's disease successfully treated for first time.

"An emotional research team became tearful as they described how data shows the disease was slowed by 75% in patients."

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Dr Buki Fatona @bukifatona.bsky.social · 23d

I just got this gorgeous cake-stand only to find that it goes perfectly with an equally gorgeous tea set I discovered in a charity shop a while back.

Serendipitea (set) 😍

Handpainted gold and green cake-stand surrounded by blue and gold tea set

Dr Buki Fatona @bukifatona.bsky.social · 25d

Nigerian Modernism exhibition soon opening at Tate Modern 🙌🏾

Tate webpage of the exhibition featuring a painting, 'Black Culture' (1986) by Benedict Enwonwu. The painting is a surrealist-esque, S-shaped silhouette of a woman's torso against an ochre background.

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Dr Buki Fatona @bukifatona.bsky.social · 27d

...and Harry Belafonte (2023)

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Dr Buki Fatona @bukifatona.bsky.social · 28d

Happy Pythagorean Triple Square Day!

3² + 4² = 5² (9/16/25)

The next one is in one hundred years!

NPR @npr.org · 28d

Pythagorean Triple Square Day, as one man affectionately calls 9/16/25, is a day like no other this century.

On 9/16/25, celebrate a date of mathematical beauty

Pythagorean Triple Square Day, as one man affectionately calls 9/16/25, is a day like no other this century.

n.pr

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Dr Buki Fatona @bukifatona.bsky.social · Sep 9

Hope it all settles down soon and/or you can take some downtime if you need to.

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Dr Buki Fatona @bukifatona.bsky.social · Sep 8

emails finding me after the Summer vacation

Black and white drawing of two cats hiding under their bedclothes from the many owls looming over them.

Dr Buki Fatona @bukifatona.bsky.social · Sep 6

I am a big tea drinker on every day of the week.

On Saturdays, though, I am a tea *worshipper*. There's a liturgy and everything 🙏🏽

Picture of a teapot, milk jug, and teacup with saucer.

Reposted by Dr Buki Fatona

Clare Moriarty @quiteclare.bsky.social · Sep 4

OKAY, I'm lecturing Descartes next wk.

Do you have a favourite fun fact/tidbit about Descartes?

If I get a few nice ones, I might make a quiz about it.

(mine is how much he slept, and that he didn't like waking before midday--no wonder he's always meditating in a dressing gown etc)

#philosophy

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Dr Buki Fatona @bukifatona.bsky.social · Sep 4

A poignant excerpt of a letter by Voltaire to friends of Émilie du Châtelet's composed on this day, 4 September (1749)

du Châtelet died 6 days later

Her translation & commentary on Newton's 'Principia' is still regarded as one of her outstanding achievements.

Mme du Châtelet informs you that this night, being at her desk working on Newton, she felt a little call. The little call was a daughter, who appeared in an instant. She was laid on a quarto book of geometry. The mother has gone to lie down and, if she were not asleep, she would be writing to you.

Reposted by Dr Buki Fatona

University of Oxford @ox.ac.uk · Sep 4

NEW: An Oxford report warns that misleading media coverage is shaping public debate on immigration and human rights.

The study finds the ECHR is frequently misreported in deportation cases, fueling misconceptions that erode trust in the legal system.

🧵 [1/8]

Silhouettes of three people in front of a weathered British flag, with the headline: Misrepresentations around human rights and immigration fuelling calls to quit ECHR, Oxford report finds

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Reposted by Dr Buki Fatona

Sean Carroll @seanmcarroll.bsky.social · Aug 26

First day of my Philosophy of Cosmology class! I'm interpreting "cosmology" pretty broadly. There will be three main topics: 1) Anthropics and the multiverse; 2) The arrow of time; 3) Quantum foundations, especially Many-Worlds. The idea of self-locating uncertainties will be a common thread.

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