Dr. Jens Foell
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Dr. Jens Foell
@jensfoell.de
11K followers 1.9K following 6.8K posts
I used to scan brains, now I talk about science for a living. Science editor, science podcaster, SPIEGEL-bestselling writer. Founder of @realscientists.de and trainer at @nawik.de. Looks even worse IRL. He/him.

NEW BOOK IN MAY 2026

🔗 https://jensfoell.de
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Dr. Jens Foell @jensfoell.de · Dec 7
I guess my pinned post should probably be about my next book, so…

On May 4th (Star Wars Day, no less), how you think about your brain will CHANGE FOREVER!*

*actual change in thinking not guaranteed. offer of new perspectives void where prohibited.

www.droemer-knaur.de/buch/jens-fo...
Mein Gehirn, das Denken und ich - Jens Foell | Droemer Knaur
Das Gehirn: Das komplexeste Werkzeug des Universums – eine Gebrauchsanweisung von Hirnforscher und Bestseller-Autor Dr. Jens Foell Man nutzt es jeden Tag, jede...
www.droemer-knaur.de
jensfoell.de
Hypothesis: Public perception of the military and the people serving in it would be entirely different if we called it “costume” instead of “uniform”
January 29, 2026 at 7:36 AM
Reposted by Dr. Jens Foell
clickgate.bsky.social
The domino meme as described in the quoted bleet. The small domino is captioned: “Andrew Wakefield authors a fraudulent research paper to sell testing kits for a non-existent medical condition” The big domino is captioned with the headline: “UK loses WHO status as measles-free after rise in deaths and fall in jab uptake UN health body says Britain is one of six countries in Europe and central Asia where disease has become re-established”
January 28, 2026 at 10:43 PM
Reposted by Dr. Jens Foell
zeotherm.bsky.social
Again with the quote I saw here and fell in love with: “you don’t have to force someone to use good technology”
January 28, 2026 at 9:19 PM
jensfoell.de
OMG THATS THE PERFECT ANALOGY! AI is like motion smoothing on smart TVs: nobody is asking for it, they only put it in because they figured out how to do it and think it sounds cool, and it’s extremely hard to explain the problem with it to those who just don’t see it
athenakugblenu.bsky.social Athena Kugblenu @athenakugblenu.bsky.social · 2d
I want AI to improve my life in ways I don't notice or think about. Like satellites or MSG. It would make traffic lights more intelligent. it would diagnose illness more effectively. It shouldnt be forced on me like that stupid feature that no one likes that makes everything look shit on smart TVs
January 28, 2026 at 9:09 PM
jensfoell.de
This is the large domino, with the small domino being some random quack in the UK in 1998 trying to undermine the existing MMR vaccine so his business partner can swoop in with his own. Instead he lost his work credentials and now kids are dying needlessly all over the world, so great job everyone.
aberlejudith.bsky.social Aberle Judith @aberlejudith.bsky.social · 3d
Austria loses its WHO status as measles-free, too, together with Armenia, Azerbaijan Uzbekistan and Spain. This comes as no surprise, considering the rise in numbers in recent years and the decline in MMR vaccine coverage
#VaccineHesitancy #PublicHealthImpact #AllChildrenNeedProtection
ariskatzourakis.bsky.social Aris Katzourakis @ariskatzourakis.bsky.social · 3d
UK loses WHO status as measles-free after rise in deaths and fall in jab uptake

www.theguardian.com/society/2026...
January 28, 2026 at 8:58 PM
Reposted by Dr. Jens Foell
stephanieseul.bsky.social
AI is killing the arts, academia, literature, music, photography, film and the internet. I wholeheartedly detest it.
3dfrost.bsky.social Frost || 3D Models & Reviews @3dfrost.bsky.social · Dec 16
I don't want gen AI in my browser
I don't want gen AI in my pc
I don't want gen AI in my art
I don't want gen AI in my games
I don't want gen AI in my music
I don't want gen AI in my movies
I don't want gen AI in my books
I don't want gen AI in my cart
I don't want gen AI in my life
January 27, 2026 at 10:21 PM
Reposted by Dr. Jens Foell
adamserwer.bsky.social
IDK why right-wingers keep bringing up Obama's record deportations, it just shows that if you wanted to have a conservative immigration policy without partisan militias occupying cities and gunning people down in the streets you could do it and a lot of americans would be fine with it
January 28, 2026 at 12:43 PM
Reposted by Dr. Jens Foell
diervilla.bsky.social
Exactly this. And sometimes convenience is important and a few errors are ok - but not in science!
jensfoell.de Dr. Jens Foell @jensfoell.de · 2d
Using gen AI means sacrificing accuracy for convenience. Its purpose is to cut corners. If that’s how you roll, science has no need for you.
chrislintott.bsky.social Chris Lintott @chrislintott.bsky.social · 2d
We’re getting so many journal submissions from people who think ‘it kinda works’ is the standard to aim for.
January 28, 2026 at 6:53 AM
Reposted by Dr. Jens Foell
raccoonologist.bsky.social
What’s depressing is that it seems to me more and more that those who cut corners are those promoted and rewarded in science… Why number of papers is a main metric of success is mind boggling
jensfoell.de Dr. Jens Foell @jensfoell.de · 2d
Using gen AI means sacrificing accuracy for convenience. Its purpose is to cut corners. If that’s how you roll, science has no need for you.
chrislintott.bsky.social Chris Lintott @chrislintott.bsky.social · 2d
We’re getting so many journal submissions from people who think ‘it kinda works’ is the standard to aim for.
January 28, 2026 at 7:08 AM
jensfoell.de
Using gen AI means sacrificing accuracy for convenience. Its purpose is to cut corners. If that’s how you roll, science has no need for you.
chrislintott.bsky.social Chris Lintott @chrislintott.bsky.social · 2d
We’re getting so many journal submissions from people who think ‘it kinda works’ is the standard to aim for.
carlbergstrom.com Carl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · 2d
1. The thing about science that these jokers don't understand is that science cannot be vibe-coded.

Whatever its flaws, the point with vibe coding is that you're trying to quickly make something that sorta works, where you can immediately sorta see if it sorta works and then sorta use it.
January 28, 2026 at 6:50 AM
jensfoell.de
Spineless. There is no reason to provide ICE with any funding at all. Any politician truly representing the people would rather bring everything to a stop than sending even a single dollar their way.
gregsargent.bsky.social Greg Sargent @gregsargent.bsky.social · 3d
Dems coalescing around 5 restrictions on ICE, I'm told:

DHS required to cooperate with state probes (big)
CBP stays at border
warrants for arrests
IDs, bodycams
ICE out of churches, schools

"That package unites a lot of Dems," Sen Chris Murphy tells me on the pod:
newrepublic.com/article/2057...
A Dem Senator’s Harsh Takedown of Trump Hits Home: “Breaking Point”
As Trump scrambles to contain the damage from the latest ICE horrors, Senator Chris Murphy offers a sharp indictment of Trump-ICE lawlessness—and explains how Dems can meet the urgency of the moment.
newrepublic.com
January 27, 2026 at 10:11 PM
jensfoell.de
The 5-year-old drew Darth Vader (including sound effects)
A hand-drawn black-and-white illustration resembling Darth Vader, surrounded by several instances of the words KOO and KHH
January 27, 2026 at 6:00 PM
jensfoell.de
Hrmpf, I don't think I can file a claim in the Anthropic class action, even though they've ripped off my books for their shitty AI. But so far they've only stolen things that I either don't profit off anyway or that haven't been published in the US.

German class action when?
January 27, 2026 at 4:47 PM
jensfoell.de
Ooooh looking forward to seeing this one
January 27, 2026 at 2:18 PM
Reposted by Dr. Jens Foell
scientits.bsky.social
I went to see that in the cinema when it was released and those last 5 minutes rendered me unable to speak for a good 15 minutes when I came out of the cinema
January 27, 2026 at 12:40 PM
Reposted by Dr. Jens Foell
rami.spaceaustralia.com
I had this exact same response when I last watched it too. It's very strong and confronting, esp. in these times.
January 27, 2026 at 12:38 PM
jensfoell.de
I rewatched BlacKkKlansman a while back and once again the last 5 minutes of the film have been stuck in my mind for weeks on end
January 27, 2026 at 12:31 PM
jensfoell.de
Heartless and cruel. Nobody who is involved with this should ever be allowed to make decisions that affect other people.
magaziner.house.gov Representative Seth Magaziner @magaziner.house.gov · 3d
Reminder that, as of the latest reports, Liam Ramos is still in prison in Texas - now for 5 days.

His parents are legal asylum seekers with no criminal record.
January 27, 2026 at 8:39 AM
Reposted by Dr. Jens Foell
nikitagill.bsky.social
This hit so fucking hard today.
CHARLES RAFFERTY The Problem with Early Warnings People don't like to leave a party unless the house is actually on fire. Even then, if the flames are far enough away to be pretty, they'll finish their drink, take one more pass at the hors d'oeuvres. How things happen has always been unclear. Hurricanes begin in a place where no one lives. Agents of the government start to wear masks. Fascism is a word my neighbors won't use yet. They are following the law, they say, and the sirens are coming for someone else.
January 26, 2026 at 8:52 PM
jensfoell.de
We shouldn’t take betting markets too seriously, but it’s a good time to watch for signs of instability in the Trump regime.

Remember the first term, with the constant firings, measuring time in Scaramuccis? Term 2 has been the opposite so far. Noem would be the 1st cabinet member to get the boot.
January 26, 2026 at 10:27 PM
Reposted by Dr. Jens Foell
janelleshane.com
AND they can be made into lasers! That's one of the soft lasers I was thinking of.

Add enough dye, pump the dye hard enough with another laser, and voila
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Random lasing in brain tissues
Brain is arguably the most complex organ in biology. It shows a heterogeneous structure, in which different areas are responsible for different functi…
www.sciencedirect.com
January 26, 2026 at 9:54 PM
Reposted by Dr. Jens Foell
hilaryagro.com
My country has a dirty little secret. It's time we talked about it

www.instagram.com/reel/DT-ZV8T...
January 26, 2026 at 1:24 PM
Reposted by Dr. Jens Foell
jenmercieca.bsky.social
Do y'all remember this from 2016? I think about this a lot. ❤️
Eli Bosnick updated his status. odtnospeSr8 p mta8 , u3h S 1cg80391 b 6 aa r e 0 t 8 0 0 21 1 e 2 2010 e 2 tua m t8 l · "If I gave you a bowl of skittles and three of them were poison would you still eat them?" "Are the other skittles human lives?" "What?" "Like. Is there a good chance. A really good chance. I would be saving someone from a war zone and probably their life if I ate a skittle?" "Well sure. But the point-" "I would eat the skittles." "Ok-well the point is-" "I would GORGE myself on skittles. I would eat every single fucking skittle I could find. I would STUFF myself with skittles. And when I found the poison skittle and died I would make sure to leave behind a legacy of children and of friends who also ate skittle after skittle until there were no skittles to be eaten. And each person who found the poison skittle we would weep for. We would weep for their loss, for their sacrifice, and for the fact that they did not let themselves succumb to fear but made the world a better place by eating skittles. Because your REAL question...the one you hid behind a shitty little inaccurate, insensitive, dehumanizing racist little candy metaphor is, IS MY LIFE MORE IMPORTANT THAN THOUSANDS UPON THOUSANDS OF MEN, WOMEN, AND TERRIFIED CHILDREN... ... and what kind of monster would think the answer to that question... is yes?"
September 21, 2025 at 1:11 PM
Reposted by Dr. Jens Foell
lemoustier.bsky.social
🧪🏺 See also gen- #AI for art, whether intended for media articles to go with your latest research paper, or for #scicomm content more broadly... it's NOT worth it
jensfoell.de Dr. Jens Foell @jensfoell.de · 4d
LinkedIn probably wasn’t the best channel to post this, but I stand by it
A LinkedIn post from my profile, reading: “It's a very simple equation, really: Science communication needs to be accurate, it needs to be authentic, and it needs to be transparent. If you're not doing it that way, you're not doing science communication at all. In addition, *good* science communication is inclusive, it's ethical, it's sustainable. If you're not heeding these things, you're not doing science communication right. Which is why I am profoundly shocked by ostensibly reasonable people promoting the use of chatbots for science communication. Their use decreases factual accuracy. It decreases transparency. It decreases authenticity. Those things are true regardless of *which* chatbot you're using and regardless of *how* you're using it. Plus, the tech is not sustainable, not inclusive, not ethical. The promotion and use of Al chatbots is already damaging science communication and, if taken to the extreme, will be capable of quickly destroying it. Not through the rise of evil Al, but through ignorance on part of the users, rapidly destroying the trust that science communicators have been able to build over decades. Everything I will ever publish will be written by humans, and by humans only. If science communication goes the way of the robots, it will go there without me.”
January 26, 2026 at 12:26 PM
Reposted by Dr. Jens Foell
trance.bsky.social
I swear to god, it's like these assholes just want to push my fucking buttons.

Your toaster does not 'think', does not want, does not have any agency.

NONE of these things have any more agency than a rock.

This is psychosis.
January 26, 2026 at 11:46 AM