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 · 8h
"We've been looking for the enemy for some time now. We've finally found him. We're surrounded. That simplifies things."

nachristakis.bsky.social
Nicholas A. Christakis @nachristakis.bsky.social · 1d
The human auditory system is apparently not just tuned for human voices but also remains quietly responsive to the vocal signatures of our primate cousins. elifesciences.org/reviewed-pre...
Sensitivity of the human temporal voice areas to nonhuman primate vocalizations
elifesciences.org

Reposted by Archon Fung, Richard S.J. Tol, Nicholas A. Christakis , and 22 more

jakemgrumbach.bsky.social
Jake Grumbach @jakemgrumbach.bsky.social · 1d
After becoming a congressional leader, a politician’s stock portfolio beats out those of peers by 47 (!!!) percentage points a year through trades timed around bills and firms that later get government contracts

www.nber.org/papers/w34524

via @florianederer.bsky.social
"Captain Gains" on Capitol Hill Shang-Jin Wei & Yifan Zhou WORKING PAPER 34524 DOI 10.3386/w34524 ISSUE DATE November 2025 Using transaction-level data on US congressional stock trades, we find that lawmakers who later ascend to leadership positions perform similarly to matched peers beforehand but outperform them by 47 percentage points annually after ascension. Leaders' superior performance arises through two mechanisms. The political influence channel is reflected in higher returns when their party controls the chamber, sales of stocks preceding regulatory actions, and purchase of stocks whose firms receiving more government contracts and favorable party support on bills. The corporate access channel is reflected in stock trades that predict subsequent corporate news and greater returns on donor-owned or home-state firms. 令 1 1 -9 -8 -7 -6 -5 -4 -3 -2 -1 1 2 3 4 5 7 8 9 Year Figure 2: Estimated dynamic quasi-difference-in-differences coefficient, di, of equation(3), with vertical dashed lines representing 90 percent confidence intervals. The point estimate of the year in which the lawmaker became a congressional leader (Year 0) is normalized to zero. BHAR over the 250 days following each trade is the dependent variable and calculated using the Fama-French five-factor plus momentum as the benchmark model.

nachristakis.bsky.social
Nicholas A. Christakis @nachristakis.bsky.social · 1d
Same. Uber + Shazam = iTunes
lisafdavis.bsky.social Lisa Fagin Davis @lisafdavis.bsky.social · 1d
One of the things I love about Uber and Lyft is when drivers introduce me to new music. Today I heard Dimash Qudaibergen for the first time and my life will never be the same. Damn, that man can sing.

Reposted by Nicholas A. Christakis

lisafdavis.bsky.social
Lisa Fagin Davis @lisafdavis.bsky.social · 1d
One of the things I love about Uber and Lyft is when drivers introduce me to new music. Today I heard Dimash Qudaibergen for the first time and my life will never be the same. Damn, that man can sing.

nachristakis.bsky.social
Nicholas A. Christakis @nachristakis.bsky.social · 1d
I agree: there’s a public health imperative to quickly expand the adoption of autonomous vehicles, which will save many lives. More than 39,000 Americans died in motor vehicle crashes yearly. www.nytimes.com/2025/12/02/o...

Reposted by Nicholas A. Christakis, Guy Grossman, Daniel W. Drezner , and 1 more

radiofreetom.bsky.social
Tom Nichols @radiofreetom.bsky.social · 2d
Posting stupid memes after being accused of murder is the response of a sneering, spoiled punk who has been caught doing wrong and is now daring the local fuzz to take him in and risk the anger of his rich dad—a role fulfilled by Donald Trump, in this case.

www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...
Pete Hegseth Needs to Go—Now
A man with such contempt for the military should not run the Pentagon.
www.theatlantic.com

nachristakis.bsky.social
Nicholas A. Christakis @nachristakis.bsky.social · 2d
I found this exchange, which I had forgotten. It was so odd. @benryanwriter.bsky.social

Reposted by Guntram B. Wolff, Matthew Bunn, Nicholas A. Christakis , and 19 more

rgoodlaw.bsky.social
Ryan Goodman @rgoodlaw.bsky.social · 3d
Senator Kelly is correct.

Plus a Public Service Announcement:

KEY section of Department of Defense's Law of War Manual is 18.3.2.1.

The VERY rule on the "requirement" to refuse illegal orders gives as its paradigmatic example of what is "clearly illegal:
"orders to fire upon the shipwrecked."

Reposted by Nicholas A. Christakis

prchovanec.bsky.social
Patrick Chovanec @prchovanec.bsky.social · 3d
At least three Imperial Japanese Navy captains were charged with killing survivors of Allied ships that had been sunk. Two were convicted and executed; a third committed suicide.

Reposted by Nicholas A. Christakis, Ashish Arora

nature.com
Nature @nature.com · 3d
Five years ago, researchers at Google DeepMind unveiled AlphaFold2

go.nature.com/44rM1di
AlphaFold is five years old — these charts show how it revolutionized science
Nature - Since it was unveiled in 2020, Google DeepMind's game-changing AI tool has helped researchers all over the world to predict the 3D structures of hundreds of millions of proteins.
go.nature.com

nachristakis.bsky.social
Nicholas A. Christakis @nachristakis.bsky.social · 4d
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 · 5d
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 · 5d
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 · 5d
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 · 5d
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 · 5d
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 · 5d
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 · 5d
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 · 5d
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 · 5d
"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 · 5d
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 · 6d
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 · 7d
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 · 7d
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 · 7d
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 · 8d
West Point plaque: "Our code of military obedience requires that, should orders and the law ever conflict, our officers must obey the law."