Carsten Timmermann
@ctimmermann.bsky.social
Historian of Biology and Medicine. Science is culture, and long live the Humanities. Director of @manchstm.bsky.social. Lapsed biochemist. Migrant. Rheinländer in 🇩🇪. Northerner in 🇬🇧. Lived in 🇺🇸. Owned by dog. Here privately. He/him.
Pinned
Not now, please, excruciatingly painful tropical disease called chikungunya!
www.theguardian.com/science/2026...
www.theguardian.com/science/2026...
Excruciating tropical disease can now be transmitted in most of Europe, study finds
‘Shocking’ data shows the climate crisis and invasive mosquitos mean chikungunya could spread in 29 countries
www.theguardian.com
February 18, 2026 at 6:37 AM
Not now, please, excruciatingly painful tropical disease called chikungunya!
www.theguardian.com/science/2026...
www.theguardian.com/science/2026...
Karneval 🤷♂️
Meanwhile, in Germany, the public weighs in on what they think of the Epstein Administration.
#BrutalButAccurate
#BrutalButAccurate
February 17, 2026 at 9:36 PM
Karneval 🤷♂️
Reposted by Carsten Timmermann
Historian of medicine here. Yes. Yes, they did.
before antibiotics did people just die all the time from everything?
February 17, 2026 at 5:47 PM
Historian of medicine here. Yes. Yes, they did.
dogs win
From one of my most favorite ever scientist//journalist (@grrlscientist.bsky.social), review of an important scientific question that continues to unfold. grrlscientist.medium.com/modern-cats-...
#scicomm
#scicomm
Modern Cats Were Domesticated Only 2,000 Years Ago
Ancient DNA reveals the origin and global spread of the domestic cat out of its ancestral home in Africa.
grrlscientist.medium.com
February 17, 2026 at 6:52 PM
dogs win
Reposted by Carsten Timmermann
Jesse Jackson adapted his “I am Somebody” speech many times, never more memorably than this moving 1971 Sesame Street appearance. RIP. youtu.be/iTB1h18bHlY
Sesame Street - I Am Somebody
YouTube video by LittleJerryFan92 *RETIRED CHANNEL*
youtu.be
February 17, 2026 at 10:12 AM
Jesse Jackson adapted his “I am Somebody” speech many times, never more memorably than this moving 1971 Sesame Street appearance. RIP. youtu.be/iTB1h18bHlY
Reposted by Carsten Timmermann
Reposted by Carsten Timmermann
This was not quite the last collection I catalogued before my retirement from Wellcome: wellcomecollection.org/works/hrsyzq94 He began his research in the 1970s.
February 17, 2026 at 11:43 AM
This was not quite the last collection I catalogued before my retirement from Wellcome: wellcomecollection.org/works/hrsyzq94 He began his research in the 1970s.
Fwiw, I'm convinced that in terms of content provision and personalised pastoral care we provided a better "service" in 2020-21 than ever before or after. The problem is that the "product" we're selling is "the university experience", and that includes going to the pub, meeting friends etc.
This is emblematic of the consumer culture that fees have engendered.
What the hell did the students expect? It was a ONCE IN A CENTURY PANDEMIC. There were LAWS against congregating in public. Staff worked themselves to the bone to get online delivery working.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
What the hell did the students expect? It was a ONCE IN A CENTURY PANDEMIC. There were LAWS against congregating in public. Staff worked themselves to the bone to get online delivery working.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Students begin Covid compensation claim against 36 more universities
It comes after University College London settled a claim from students there over lost learning in the pandemic.
www.bbc.co.uk
February 17, 2026 at 9:43 AM
Fwiw, I'm convinced that in terms of content provision and personalised pastoral care we provided a better "service" in 2020-21 than ever before or after. The problem is that the "product" we're selling is "the university experience", and that includes going to the pub, meeting friends etc.
Reposted by Carsten Timmermann
During the pandemic, I rewrote my content for online delivery, learned a whole new set of skills for remote teaching, & paid for the tech to provide the best experience to students out of my own pocket, while struggling with caring for a family & suffering from Covid. So yeah, see below.
OK, I take it back. Maybe instead of doing everything we could and working our fingers to the fucking bone for two years to give our students an education while protecting them from the killer virus we should just have let them all die. Happy now?
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Students bring Covid compensation claim against 36 more universities
It comes after University College London settled a claim from students there over lost learning in the pandemic.
www.bbc.co.uk
February 16, 2026 at 1:47 PM
During the pandemic, I rewrote my content for online delivery, learned a whole new set of skills for remote teaching, & paid for the tech to provide the best experience to students out of my own pocket, while struggling with caring for a family & suffering from Covid. So yeah, see below.
Ah - Rosenmontag!
February 16, 2026 at 6:35 PM
Ah - Rosenmontag!
No-one does devastation and despair like Käthe Kollwitz
February 16, 2026 at 6:09 PM
No-one does devastation and despair like Käthe Kollwitz
Well said, Faiza Shaheen.
Faiza Shaheen and Zack Polanski on tax avoidance, inequality and where the far right intersect
February 16, 2026 at 6:01 PM
Well said, Faiza Shaheen.
Seeing this, I am now convinced that the era of US dominance is over and, indeed, we live in the Chinese century.
Just saw that Xing Zhilei, the Chinese DIY influencer, posted an update on his self-built cat town which went viral last year.
youtu.be/i1savUPr-yU
youtu.be/i1savUPr-yU
February 16, 2026 at 5:33 PM
Seeing this, I am now convinced that the era of US dominance is over and, indeed, we live in the Chinese century.
I am asked to come up with SMART objectives. I can't even think of DUMB ones.
February 16, 2026 at 4:35 PM
I am asked to come up with SMART objectives. I can't even think of DUMB ones.
Reposted by Carsten Timmermann
FWIW, after 2+ decades in 🇬🇧 diplomacy my settled view is that BBCWS is *the* (not *a*) vital element of British soft power and the continued attacks on its funding are nothing short of barbaric and self defeating.
February 15, 2026 at 8:51 PM
FWIW, after 2+ decades in 🇬🇧 diplomacy my settled view is that BBCWS is *the* (not *a*) vital element of British soft power and the continued attacks on its funding are nothing short of barbaric and self defeating.
Reposted by Carsten Timmermann
And another bites the dust?
The BBC World Service will run out of funding in just seven weeks. Its funding arrangement with the Foreign Office finishes at the end of March. There is no plan for what happens next.
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
The BBC World Service will run out of funding in just seven weeks. Its funding arrangement with the Foreign Office finishes at the end of March. There is no plan for what happens next.
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
The Guardian view on the BBC World Service: this is London calling | Editorial
Editorial: With just seven weeks before its funding runs out, the UK’s greatest cultural asset and most trusted international news organisation must be supported
www.theguardian.com
February 15, 2026 at 3:40 PM
And another bites the dust?
The BBC World Service will run out of funding in just seven weeks. Its funding arrangement with the Foreign Office finishes at the end of March. There is no plan for what happens next.
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
The BBC World Service will run out of funding in just seven weeks. Its funding arrangement with the Foreign Office finishes at the end of March. There is no plan for what happens next.
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
Reposted by Carsten Timmermann
Ashamed to say I hadn't kept up with this story when it funding problems first emerged towards the end of last year, but scrapping the World Service (or severely depleting its funding further than it already has) would be a fucking unforgivable account of self-harm.
And another bites the dust?
The BBC World Service will run out of funding in just seven weeks. Its funding arrangement with the Foreign Office finishes at the end of March. There is no plan for what happens next.
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
The BBC World Service will run out of funding in just seven weeks. Its funding arrangement with the Foreign Office finishes at the end of March. There is no plan for what happens next.
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
The Guardian view on the BBC World Service: this is London calling | Editorial
Editorial: With just seven weeks before its funding runs out, the UK’s greatest cultural asset and most trusted international news organisation must be supported
www.theguardian.com
February 15, 2026 at 8:22 PM
Ashamed to say I hadn't kept up with this story when it funding problems first emerged towards the end of last year, but scrapping the World Service (or severely depleting its funding further than it already has) would be a fucking unforgivable account of self-harm.
Is it ironic or deliberate that Rubio and the MAGA dudes keep harking on about "civilization", which in Oswald Spengler's early-20th-century vision of the decline of the west is the last, corrupt phase in the life cycle of a culture, marked by the end of democracy, caesarism and imperialism?
February 15, 2026 at 3:49 PM
Is it ironic or deliberate that Rubio and the MAGA dudes keep harking on about "civilization", which in Oswald Spengler's early-20th-century vision of the decline of the west is the last, corrupt phase in the life cycle of a culture, marked by the end of democracy, caesarism and imperialism?
Reposted by Carsten Timmermann
Interesting piece that struggles with a 'both sides' framing and sadly fails to recognise how medicalisation and commercialisation of everyday problems and sexual issues is not new. Missing the huge amount of evidence from the 00s and prior that could contextualise it
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Sex drive and the great debate over whether testosterone can help
Can boosting testosterone improve libido, or is much of the attention solely hype, profit, and placebo?
www.bbc.co.uk
February 15, 2026 at 12:25 PM
Interesting piece that struggles with a 'both sides' framing and sadly fails to recognise how medicalisation and commercialisation of everyday problems and sexual issues is not new. Missing the huge amount of evidence from the 00s and prior that could contextualise it
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Reposted by Carsten Timmermann
Am 15. Februar 1933 mussten Käthe Kollwitz und Heinrich Mann im Zuge der von Bernhard Rust forcierten "Säuberung politisch unzuverlässiger und jüdischer Elemente" aus der Preußischen Akademie der Künste austreten. Sie hatten zuvor zur Einheitsfront von SPD und KPD aufgerufen. 🧵
February 15, 2026 at 7:53 AM
Am 15. Februar 1933 mussten Käthe Kollwitz und Heinrich Mann im Zuge der von Bernhard Rust forcierten "Säuberung politisch unzuverlässiger und jüdischer Elemente" aus der Preußischen Akademie der Künste austreten. Sie hatten zuvor zur Einheitsfront von SPD und KPD aufgerufen. 🧵
Reading Lolita on Epstein Island
The Epstein emails are crawling with Humbert Humberts
magazine.newstatesman.com
February 15, 2026 at 10:59 AM
I want to be that bear.
Franzi Schimmer captured this Grizzly bear in Brooks Falls, Alaska just floating along, tippy-tapping down the river, browsing the salmon.
Prior to hibernation, up to 40% of a bear's body mass is fat, which is less dense than water (~0.9 g/cm^2), so the murder-monster is also a floaty-boaty.
Prior to hibernation, up to 40% of a bear's body mass is fat, which is less dense than water (~0.9 g/cm^2), so the murder-monster is also a floaty-boaty.
February 15, 2026 at 9:35 AM
I want to be that bear.
Reposted by Carsten Timmermann
Franzi Schimmer captured this Grizzly bear in Brooks Falls, Alaska just floating along, tippy-tapping down the river, browsing the salmon.
Prior to hibernation, up to 40% of a bear's body mass is fat, which is less dense than water (~0.9 g/cm^2), so the murder-monster is also a floaty-boaty.
Prior to hibernation, up to 40% of a bear's body mass is fat, which is less dense than water (~0.9 g/cm^2), so the murder-monster is also a floaty-boaty.
February 14, 2026 at 9:47 PM
Franzi Schimmer captured this Grizzly bear in Brooks Falls, Alaska just floating along, tippy-tapping down the river, browsing the salmon.
Prior to hibernation, up to 40% of a bear's body mass is fat, which is less dense than water (~0.9 g/cm^2), so the murder-monster is also a floaty-boaty.
Prior to hibernation, up to 40% of a bear's body mass is fat, which is less dense than water (~0.9 g/cm^2), so the murder-monster is also a floaty-boaty.
Reposted by Carsten Timmermann
Some incredible side-eye from this guy for #WorldHippoDay.
Hippopotamus amphibius from 'Dictionnaire Histoire Naturelle' (1837) by Charles d'Orbigny (1806-1876).
Hippopotamus amphibius from 'Dictionnaire Histoire Naturelle' (1837) by Charles d'Orbigny (1806-1876).
February 15, 2026 at 9:30 AM
Some incredible side-eye from this guy for #WorldHippoDay.
Hippopotamus amphibius from 'Dictionnaire Histoire Naturelle' (1837) by Charles d'Orbigny (1806-1876).
Hippopotamus amphibius from 'Dictionnaire Histoire Naturelle' (1837) by Charles d'Orbigny (1806-1876).