Nicholas A. Christakis
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nachristakis.bsky.social
Nicholas A. Christakis
@nachristakis.bsky.social
20K followers 570 following 910 posts

Sterling Professor of Social and Natural Science at Yale University. Sociologist. Network Scientist. Physician. Author of Apollo's Arrow; Blueprint; Connected; and Death Foretold. Director of the Human Nature Lab: https://humannaturelab.net .. more

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Nicholas A. Christakis is a Greek American sociologist and physician known for his research on social networks and on the social, economic, biological, and evolutionary determinants of human welfare. He is the Sterling Professor of Social and Natural Science at Yale University, where he directs the Human Nature Lab. He is also the co-director of the Yale Institute for Network Science. .. more

Public Health 23%
Physics 18%
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nachristakis.bsky.social
Nicholas A. Christakis @nachristakis.bsky.social · 11h
This letter, held at the British Museum, is one of the earliest known examples of writing in Latin by a woman.

Written by Claudia Severa in the north of Roman Britain between 97–103 AD, the letter invites Sulpicia Lepidina to a birthday party.

Reposted by Nicholas A. Christakis

huwgroucutt.bsky.social
Dr Huw Groucutt @huwgroucutt.bsky.social · 16h
The debate on when people first arrived in Australia continues! www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Genomic evidence supports the “long chronology” for the peopling of Sahul
Genome data provide support for the first settlement of Australia and New Guinea via at least two routes by 60,000 years ago.
www.science.org

Reposted by Nicholas A. Christakis, Mark D. White

azbutch.bsky.social
Butch McQueen @azbutch.bsky.social · 1d
My understanding is that, at the height of the "drone war on terror" that when the military officer thought the legality of a particular strike was legally dubious, they'd have a CIA guy actually "pull the trigger". I wonder if that is happening in our current "War on Fishing Boats"?

nachristakis.bsky.social
Nicholas A. Christakis @nachristakis.bsky.social · 1d
Meanwhile: Roman soldiers, serving far away, wrote letters home too. This letter from Julius Apollinarius to his father Sabinus complains that he has written numerous letters with no replies. No support from the home front. #grunts #dogsofwar

nachristakis.bsky.social
Nicholas A. Christakis @nachristakis.bsky.social · 1d
Must a great nation, let alone the civilization we aspire to be, act this way, or accept it?

Reposted by Nicholas A. Christakis

quantamagazine.bsky.social
Quanta Magazine @quantamagazine.bsky.social · 1d
Anticipating seasons may have emerged early in life’s evolution. It may have even predated the internal clocks that give an organism a sense of day and night.
Even a Single Bacterial Cell Can Sense the Seasons Changing | Quanta Magazine
Though they live only a few hours before dividing, bacteria can anticipate the approach of cold weather and prepare for it. The discovery suggests that seasonal tracking is fundamental to life.
www.quantamagazine.org

nachristakis.bsky.social
Nicholas A. Christakis @nachristakis.bsky.social · 1d
A 2500 year old letter from a soldier named Hananyahu, deciphered through super-modern multispectral imaging, begins with “If there is any wine, send” journals.plos.org/plosone/arti... #grunts #invinoveritas #dogsofwar #pluscachange

Reposted by Cas Mudde, Nicholas A. Christakis, Will Jennings , and 11 more

nycsouthpaw.bsky.social
southpaw @nycsouthpaw.bsky.social · 1d
This is murder. www.washingtonpost.com/national-sec...
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth gave a spoken directive, according to two people with direct knowledge of the operation. "The order was to kill everybody," one of them said. A missile screamed off the Trinidad coast, striking the vessel and igniting a blaze from bow to stern. For minutes, commanders watched the boat burning on a live drone feed. As the smoke cleared, they got a jolt: Two survivors were clinging to the smoldering wreck. The Special Operations commander overseeing the Sept. 2 attack - the opening salvo in the Trump administration's war on suspected drug traffickers in the Western Hemisphere — ordered a second strike to comply with Hegseth's instructions, two people familiar with the matter said. The two men were blown apart in the water.

Reposted by Nicholas A. Christakis, Will Jennings, Guy Grossman , and 4 more

drewharwell.com
Drew Harwell @drewharwell.com · 1d
If the U.S. was at war, Pete Hegseth's order would be a war crime, a military lawyer said. Instead, it might just be murder. wapo.st/49KbUJ1
Hegseth order on first Caribbean boat strike, officials say: Kill them all
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth issued a verbal order to kill all crew members in the Sept. 2 strike on a suspected drug boat. Navy SEALs fired a second missile.
www.washingtonpost.com

Reposted by Nicholas A. Christakis, Rebecca Tushnet

btarrington.bsky.social
Dr. Todd Arrington @btarrington.bsky.social · 1d
"I had always hoped that this land might become a safe and agreeable Asylum to the virtuous and persecuted part of mankind, to whatever nation they might belong."

~George Washington to Francis Adrian van der Kemp, May 28, 1788.

Image: Gilbert Stuart portrait of Washington, 1804. Public domain.

Reposted by Nicholas A. Christakis, Scott L. Greer, Caroline Krafft , and 5 more

yonahfreemark.com
Yonah Freemark @yonahfreemark.com · 1d
Interesting new working paper that studies chains of movers after the construction of a new apartment building in Honolulu.

Paper finds that the project resulted in the opening up other, lower cost, housing on the island, benefiting the housing market overall.
uhero.hawaii.edu

Reposted by Nicholas A. Christakis, Christina Pagel

ourworldindata.org
Our World in Data @ourworldindata.org · 2d
China’s fertility rate has fallen to one, continuing a long decline that began before and continued after the one-child policy—

The 1970s were a decade shaped by fears about overpopulation. As the world’s most populous country, China was never far from the debate.
China’s fertility rate has fallen to one, continuing a long decline that began before and continued after the one-child policy. Line chart of China’s total fertility rate from 1950 to 2023, vertical axis labeled 0 to 7 births per woman. The chart shows a peak near 7 births per woman in the mid-1960s, followed by a sharp decline through the 1970s. The one-child policy is annotated as being rolled out in 1980 when the rate was already around 3 births per woman. After 1980 the rate continues downward, falling below 2 births per woman around the 1990s and staying at or below replacement level thereafter. Data sources in the footer: Human Fertility Database; UN WPP (2024).

nachristakis.bsky.social
Nicholas A. Christakis @nachristakis.bsky.social · 3d
FIRE is suing the people who violated Mr. Bushart’s first amendment rights so outrageously and I hope it sues the pants off them.

Reposted by Nicholas A. Christakis

pnasnexus.org
PNAS Nexus @pnasnexus.org · 3d
An online game shows that when extreme wealth is visible in social networks, lower-income players support higher taxes—and feel less satisfied with their own situation. Making wealth more visible could boost support for redistribution. In PNAS Nexus: https://ow.ly/1ItG50Xyijf
A group of friends toasting on a boat. Stock photo.

nachristakis.bsky.social
Nicholas A. Christakis @nachristakis.bsky.social · 3d
Larry Bushart, a retired police officer, went to jail for 36 days for posting a meme after the murder of Charlie Kirk! It was a picture of Donald Trump along with his comment in response to a school shooting in 2024: “We have to get over it.” The meme had the caption, “This seems relevant today.”
Opinion | Nobody Should Go to Jail for a Harmless Meme
www.nytimes.com

Reposted by Nicholas A. Christakis, Robert N. Stavins, Michael A. Clemens , and 2 more

samwang.bsky.social
Sam Wang @samwang.bsky.social · 4d
West Point plaque: "Our code of military obedience requires that, should orders and the law ever conflict, our officers must obey the law."

nachristakis.bsky.social
Nicholas A. Christakis @nachristakis.bsky.social · 4d
Tattoo ink induces inflammation in the draining lymph node and alters the immune response to vaccination (in mice). www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Reposted by Nicholas A. Christakis

audacityofdespair.bsky.social
David Simon @audacityofdespair.bsky.social · 5d
In the end, when I walked from my X account, the waves of racists and bots that were always invoking the same phrases and talking points made it clear that the thing was just a hall of mirrors, that it had been crudely rigged for political fraud. Never thought Musk would admit it all in a self-own.

nachristakis.bsky.social
Nicholas A. Christakis @nachristakis.bsky.social · 5d
But many social goods — cooperation, friendship, teaching — are not only positive, but also innate.

Discussed in Blueprint: The Evolutionary Origins of a Good Society — the book I have written of which I am proudest.

www.amazon.com/Blueprint-Ev...
Blueprint: The Evolutionary Origins of a Good Society
Blueprint: The Evolutionary Origins of a Good Society [Christakis MD PhD, Nicholas A.] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Blueprint: The Evolutionary Origins of a Good Society
www.amazon.com

nachristakis.bsky.social
Nicholas A. Christakis @nachristakis.bsky.social · 5d
“The greatest political goods—peace, liberty, and justice—are in their essence negative, a protection against injury rather than positive gifts.”

— Friedrich Hayek

Reposted by Nicholas A. Christakis, Clark Gray

wrigleyfield.bsky.social
Elizabeth Wrigley-Field @wrigleyfield.bsky.social · 5d
The “malleability of students to what they study” seems exactly right to me but it’s so good to have empirical confirmation.

The riskiness of STEM focus feels like it doesn’t *need* to be true yet probably *is* true in most settings, whereas the political consequences probably vary across settings?
We examine the impacts of assignment to STEM vs. humanities-focused curricula in Romania’s high school system. We apply a regression discontinuity design to administrative and survey data to estimate effects on educational pathways, desired careers, and non-cognitive outcomes. An overarching theme of our findings is the malleability of students to what they study. Assignment to STEM increases STEM college enrollment and technology or engineering career intentions by 25 pp. Exploring mechanisms, we find that STEM assignment changes students’ self-perceived academic abilities and their preferences over academic subjects and job tasks. STEM assignment is risky for low-achieving students, reducing their chances of passing a high school exit exam and enrolling in college. A final finding is that STEM makes boys more conservative, while shifting some of girls' views to the left. Our results identify a strategy for promoting STEM higher education and careers, but also highlight potential tradeoffs.

Reposted by Nicholas A. Christakis

anthropology.net
Anthropology.net @anthropology.net · 6d
A mosaic patolli board embedded in a Classic Maya floor at Naachtun reveals deliberate design, elite gaming, and a rare architectural innovation. This fifth-century board reshapes how archaeologists understand Mesoamerican play. #Maya #Archaeology #Games #Anthropology
The Game Set Into Stone
A mosaic patolli board buried in a Classic Maya household floor forces archaeologists to rethink how games were built, used, and valued.
www.anthropology.net

nachristakis.bsky.social
Nicholas A. Christakis @nachristakis.bsky.social · 7d
Yes, they are both super smart and articulate, and I learned something.

nachristakis.bsky.social
Nicholas A. Christakis @nachristakis.bsky.social · 7d
Fabulous conversation about whether we have free will or not, by Robert Sapolsky and Peter Tse. I think that the constraint that time unfolds forward not backward is a crucial component of this debate, nicely illustrated by Tse.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=hSxe...
Free Will Debate: Sapolsky vs Tse مناظره اراده آزاد: پروفسور ساپولسکی و پروفسور تسه
YouTube video by پادکست هشیوار
www.youtube.com

nachristakis.bsky.social
Nicholas A. Christakis @nachristakis.bsky.social · 7d
I’m glad you liked it. :-)

nachristakis.bsky.social
Nicholas A. Christakis @nachristakis.bsky.social · 8d
Thanks for catching that. I’ll delete and update!

Reposted by Nicholas A. Christakis, Brigitte Nerlich

joshuabull.bsky.social
Joshua Bull @joshuabull.bsky.social · 8d
I reckon you can learn a lot about the atmosphere in various Oxford colleges by looking at what they choose to name their cats (courtesy of @oxfordclarion.bsky.social ). We should all aspire to the energy of a Teabag, Isambard Kitten Brunel, or an Admiral Flapjack

oxfordclarion.uk/college-cats...
Oxford Clarion's "Cat map" of Oxford cats

nachristakis.bsky.social
Nicholas A. Christakis @nachristakis.bsky.social · 8d
That wins the internet today.