mj
LightNews LightNews
banner
malthusjohn.bsky.social
mj
@malthusjohn.bsky.social
6.2K followers 2.1K following 1.6K posts
Philosophy & History of Science, Complex Systems, Knowledge Management. Networks, Harmony, Co-Evolution, Autopoiesis, Neurodiversity ♾️ AuDhD.
Ecology, Digital Revolution ~> Information Paradigm.
Theorist, .. wait!- come back, there's more..
🕺🎶🍞📸🤡
Posts Replies Media Videos
Reposted by mj
manlius.bsky.social
Network Medicine is entering a new phase: one that demands we rethink how we study, model and ultimately treat complex diseases.

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

#ComplexSystems #NetworkScience #Medicine #MedSky 🧪🧬🌐

🧵 1/
November 23, 2025 at 12:00 PM
Reposted by mj
eso.org
While the Magellanic Clouds shine upon the Chilean Desert, two VLTI Auxiliary Telescopes point up to the sky — all together reminding us of how small we are as humans compared to cosmic objects & the telescopes we observe them with.

https://www.eso.org/public/images/potw2545a/

🔭 🧪
📷 J. Looten/ESO
Two of ESO’s small Auxiliary Telescopes, accompanied by the Magellanic Clouds up in the night sky. A human silhouette is visible on the right side of the picture.
November 10, 2025 at 8:02 AM
Reposted by mj
plosbiology.org
Chronic exposure to environmental noise is associated with #neurodegenerative diseases. This study shows that #noise promotes the onset of #ParkinsonsDisease phenotypes in mouse; the IC-SNc circuit mediates this increased susceptibility @plosbiology.org 🧪 plos.io/43kc6KW
Inferior colliculus (IC) neurons respond to noise stimulation and project to substantia nigra compacta (SNc) dopaminergic neurons. Top: Experimental diagram for c-FOS staining activated by noise in IC. Bottom left: Representative images of c-FOS immunofluorescence in IC of Control and Noise-exposed mice. Bottom right: Statistics results of c-FOS+ cells in Control and Noise-exposed mice. n = 3 mice for each group.
November 10, 2025 at 8:59 AM
Reposted by mj
scienceinnovation.ec.europa.eu
Explore evidence and practice on co-creating nature-based solutions (NbS) with commonly excluded stakeholders.

Based on empirical insights, the report distils 8 guiding principles to advance inclusive and effective NbS research & implementation.

Read more 🧪 link.europa.eu/X6y9hh
The cover of the document with the text: co-creating nature-based solutions with commonly excluded stakeholders.
November 10, 2025 at 10:07 AM
Reposted by mj
darwinsbulldog.bsky.social
Historian of science Jim Endersby on "Darwin, Hooker, and Empire" (from 2009): www.youtube.com/watch?v=pzb9...

#HPS #histsci
Jim Endersby • Darwin, Hooker, and Empire
YouTube video by Wolf Humanities Center
www.youtube.com
October 31, 2025 at 3:21 AM
Reposted by mj
gabriellanonino.com
"humanity and the environment cannot be separated." There lots theories on what caused the collapse of the Roman Empire, but a recent study points to the environmental shift that took place around the 3rd century AD. as one of the main factors. Great read.🏺
Is this the real reason the Roman Empire collapsed?
Throughout antiquity, kingdoms and nations rose and fell but Rome stood strong—until its steep decline. The fall of this ancient superpower is so complex that historians are still debating it today, b...
www.nationalgeographic.com
November 1, 2025 at 10:20 PM
Reposted by mj
historians.org
From #AHAPerspectives in 2021: For his Witchcraft and Magic in American History class, Richard Tomczak developed "an optional public writing assignment...to connect contemporary crises with the psychological tensions that produced witch-hunting." 🗃️
Writing Histories of Witchcraft in a Pandemic – AHA
Students at Stony Brook University used a digital humanities project about times of crisis to connect their work on the Salem Witch Trials to the pandemic era.
www.historians.org
October 31, 2025 at 4:11 PM
Reposted by mj
laurennross.bsky.social
Enjoyed discussing "Why Science & Philosophy Need Each Other" w Megan Peters @meganakpeters.bsky.social

We discuss the importance of engagement between science & philosophy, our experience w this & simplified conceptions of science & philosophy 🧠📕
Thanks Tev Naidu! #philsky #philsci #sciencesky
Why Science and Philosophy Need Each Other | Lauren Ross & Megan Peters
YouTube video by Mind-Body Solution
www.youtube.com
October 25, 2025 at 3:52 PM
Reposted by mj
smellosopher.bsky.social
Philosophy & neuroscience of smell, some of my key refs

(1) Smellosophy (book) www.hup.harvard.edu/books/978067...
(2) Smell is spatial link.springer.com/article/10.1...
(3) No odor objects www.frontiersin.org/journals/psy...
(4) No neural map/representation onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
Smellosophy — Harvard University Press
An NRC Handelsblad Book of the Year“Offers rich discussions of olfactory perception, the conscious and subconscious impacts of smell on behavior and emotion.”—ScienceDecades of cognition research have...
www.hup.harvard.edu
October 26, 2025 at 11:20 AM
Reposted by mj
plosbiology.org
How are auditory features represented across the #AuditoryPathway? @bathellierlab.bsky.social show that #auditory feature tuning emerges through a mix of gradual & stepwise changes, with early representation of simple features & later refinement of complex ones @plosbiology.org 🧪 plos.io/4oi0XCY
Gosselin et al. observed that sound information is profoundly transformed from the ear to the central brain. This artwork by Wei Li (Institut de l’Audition, Paris) illustrates the complexity of processes underlying these transformations.
October 27, 2025 at 10:15 AM
Reposted by mj
leilabelkora.bsky.social
Good explanation here of why even some carmakers and oil and gas businesses are opposed to EPA potentially removing the finding that greenhouse gases endanger public health. 🧪

www.nytimes.com/2025/10/25/c...
An E.P.A. Plan to Kill a Major Climate Rule Is Worrying Business Leaders
www.nytimes.com
October 25, 2025 at 1:19 PM
Reposted by mj
manlius.bsky.social
“we might add “natural cooperation” as a third fundamental principle of evolution beside mutation and natural selection”

🧪 #ComplexSystems #Evolution
www.science.org/doi/pdf/10.1...
October 23, 2025 at 4:45 PM
Reposted by mj
annaalexandrova.bsky.social
Latest by my colleague Tim Lewens. Most envious of people who manage to pack in arguments into 3000 words, especially such meaty arguments as this one #philsci #philsky
Values as Evidence in the Sciences
Abstract. Ethical statements can sometimes serve as legitimate evidence for purely descriptive hypotheses. This role for ethical statements need involve ne
academic.oup.com
October 16, 2025 at 8:51 PM
Reposted by mj
thismanyyearsago.bsky.social
1335 years ago, on the 16th of October 690, Wu Zetian became empress of the Zhou dynasty. She had held de facto power previously during the reigns of her late husband and two of her sons. She is the only female sovereign in the history of China who is widely regarded as legitimate. #otd #history 🗃️
Tang Empress' Travel painting in detail, depicting Wu Zetian and her attendants
October 16, 2025 at 6:20 AM
Reposted by mj
antiquity.ac.uk
Pre-Inca civilisations in the Andes, the earliest occupations of Uruguay, and how textiles reveal invisible cultural identities. Explore all this and more in our South American #archaeology collection 🏺 www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
Machu Picchu with text overlaid reading 'South American Archaeology: Antiquity'.
October 15, 2025 at 4:35 PM
Reposted by mj
jfwinters.bsky.social
Join us on 20 November for the Annual Digital Lecture, a partnership between The National Archives, UK and the School of Advanced Study. The wonderful @nannathylstrup.bsky.social will be speaking about ‘When saving becomes loss: archival memory in the digital age’. Free to register!
When saving becomes loss: Archival memory in the digital age
Explore archival memory, data loss, and attempts to preserve the past in the digital age at this year’s Annual Digital Lecture.
www.eventbrite.co.uk
September 30, 2025 at 6:33 PM
Reposted by mj
ricardsole.bsky.social
What is agency? How did it emerge through evolution? Why is it key to understanding complexity? Check out this brilliant Open Access book by my dear colleagues Alvaro Moreno & @julipereto.bsky.social. A deep exploration of a crucial concept. Highly recommended! link.springer.com/chapter/10.1...
October 1, 2025 at 10:16 AM
Reposted by mj
markrubin.bsky.social
The Epistemology of Logic

"The generalisation ‘All swans are white’ does not explain *why* swans are white; for that, we require a genetic or evolutionary model."

New book by Ben Martin

Open Access: www.cambridge.org/core/service...

#PhilSci #Epistemology #AcademicSky
Abstract: Compared to our appreciation of the epistemology of the empirical sciences and mathematics, we have a relatively poor understanding of the epistemology of logic. This Element highlights three causes of this lack of progress: (i) failure to distinguish between the epistemology of logical theorising and that of good (logical) reasoning; (ii) hesitancy to base our accounts of the epistemology of logic on how logicians actually justify their logics, rather than our own presumptions about logic; and (iii) a presumption that the epistemology of logic must be significantly different to other research areas, such as the recognised sciences. The Element ends by highlighting what can be achieved by avoiding these pitfalls, presenting an account of theory-choice in logic, logical predictivism, motivated by actual logical practice, which suggests that the mechanisms of theory-choice in logic are not that different to those in the recognised sciences. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.
September 30, 2025 at 7:35 AM
Reposted by mj
megt.bsky.social
New report shows where cancer-causing chemicals are polluting water for over 200 million Americans -- pretty much everywhere. 🌎🌿🧪

www.thenewlede.org/2025/09/new-...
Map showing chromium contaminants in drinking water -- pretty much throughout the US.
September 18, 2025 at 6:18 PM
Reposted by mj
diogoverissimo.bsky.social
🚨 New paper in PLOS Biology!

📉 Women publish up to 45% fewer papers than men
📉 Non-native English speakers: –35%
📉 Triple barrier (woman + non-native English + low-income): –70%

🌍 Language & equity matter in science!
👉 doi.org/10.1371/jour...

#EquityInScience #LanguageMatters #OpenScience
September 19, 2025 at 9:38 AM
Reposted by mj
barchart.com
The Top 1% of U.S. earners now have more wealth than the entire middle class
September 18, 2025 at 8:19 PM
Reposted by mj
andyantarctica.bsky.social
Retiring the only remaining ship in the US arsenal that was dedicated to research in the Southern Ocean....it hurts my soul to know how badly this will impact the science and all (scientists, students, crew, etc) who have worked so hard to advance our knowledge of all things #Antarctica 🧪🌎🦑🇦🇶🐧
The retiring RVIB NBP in 2023 in East Antarctica. research cruise NBP23-03
September 18, 2025 at 2:09 PM
Reposted by mj
mongabay.com
[COMMENTARY]

Conservation faces a storm of crises: ecological decline, weak institutions, disinformation & threats to defenders.

The path forward? Resilient finance, coalitions linking nature & livelihoods, and optimism as a method, says a new op-ed. 🌍💪

The views expressed are author's.
Navigating conservation’s crisis (commentary)
Call it a crossroads. Ecological decline is accelerating in too many places at once; institutions that once limited the damage are wobbling; the information channels we rely on to coordinate action…
news.mongabay.com
September 22, 2025 at 8:01 PM
Reposted by mj
oceana.bsky.social
🎉BREAKING: The High Seas Treaty has reached 60 ratifications — enough to enter into force!

This landmark agreement creates a pathway to help protect the high seas — waters beyond any one country’s authority that cover nearly half our planet. https://oceana.ly/3VqpI2Y
September 19, 2025 at 7:11 PM
malthusjohn.bsky.social
Some essential changes are in order.

Treating a nationstate as a business is as lame as treating politicians as corporate executives who've cemented their ride in the #power seat w/ #corrupt use of money & giving them carte blanche to do anything they want for as long as they possibly can.

#limits
malthusjohn.bsky.social mj @malthusjohn.bsky.social · Sep 20
Political parties are the Poster Children of #reductionism taken too far.

Yes, it's true that not everyone will be interested or knowledgeable enough, or simply not have the time to participate in governance, but this does not excuse grandiose, untestable claims & magical overtones
as a baseline.
September 21, 2025 at 3:20 PM