Kevin Bird
@stairwaytokevin.bsky.social
Postdoc in evolutionary genomics of polyploids at RBG Kew | science & society | opinions mine
Mizzou, Fulbright Belgium, and Michigan State alum. Here because of medicaid, public universities, and pell grants
https://kevinabird.github.io/
Mizzou, Fulbright Belgium, and Michigan State alum. Here because of medicaid, public universities, and pell grants
https://kevinabird.github.io/
Pinned
Kevin Bird
@stairwaytokevin.bsky.social
· Mar 28
Phylogenetic and genomic mechanisms shaping glucosinolate innovation
Plants have created an immense diversity of specialized metabolites to optimize fitness within a complex environment. Each plant lineage has created n…
www.sciencedirect.com
Really excited to share this new paper with Amanda Agosto-Ramos & @spicybotrytis.bsky.social! We use glucosinolates in the Brassicales as an illustrative model to demonstrate what the improvements in genome quality & phylogenetic coverage are teaching us about the evolution of metabolic innovation.
Reposted by Kevin Bird
Excited to share work from my postdoc with @docedge.bsky.social and collaborators Matt Pennell and @jgschraiber.bsky.social, newly out over the weekend: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... (1/6)
Observational epidemiological studies can mitigate genetic confounding with the genetic relatedness matrix
Observational studies are commonly used in psychology and epidemiology to identify risk factors correlated with health outcomes. However, these studies are vulnerable to confounding when shared geneti...
www.biorxiv.org
December 1, 2025 at 7:09 PM
Excited to share work from my postdoc with @docedge.bsky.social and collaborators Matt Pennell and @jgschraiber.bsky.social, newly out over the weekend: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... (1/6)
*laughs nervously in US -> UK immigrant*
i think it's funny how the US and UK are in a race to commit economic suicide
lmfao
December 1, 2025 at 9:22 PM
*laughs nervously in US -> UK immigrant*
Reposted by Kevin Bird
1. Over Thanksgiving, texts from Dem. Sen Ruben Gallego leaked where he repeats far-right talking points on masculinity, lamenting that Democratic women "look like men."
Using far-right gender-panic rhetoric will not ingratiate the Democratic Party towards men.
Subscribe to support our journalism.
Using far-right gender-panic rhetoric will not ingratiate the Democratic Party towards men.
Subscribe to support our journalism.
Dem. Senator Gallego's Leaked Texts Echo Far-Right Gender Panic And Misogyny
Last week, Democratic Senator Ruben Gallego's texts leaked, where he lamented that Democratic "women look like men and men look like women."
www.erininthemorning.com
December 1, 2025 at 5:00 PM
1. Over Thanksgiving, texts from Dem. Sen Ruben Gallego leaked where he repeats far-right talking points on masculinity, lamenting that Democratic women "look like men."
Using far-right gender-panic rhetoric will not ingratiate the Democratic Party towards men.
Subscribe to support our journalism.
Using far-right gender-panic rhetoric will not ingratiate the Democratic Party towards men.
Subscribe to support our journalism.
Thank god we stopped cancel culture
OU has put the professor here on administrative leave:
December 1, 2025 at 12:19 AM
Thank god we stopped cancel culture
I'm increasingly interested in race science as a form of cultivated, weaponized statistical illiteracy. Take this figure, one of the most common propaganda plots, plotting national IQ data against education polygenic scores. "The correlation is so high! Clearly IQ differences are genetic!"
Oops!
Oops!
November 28, 2025 at 11:31 PM
I'm increasingly interested in race science as a form of cultivated, weaponized statistical illiteracy. Take this figure, one of the most common propaganda plots, plotting national IQ data against education polygenic scores. "The correlation is so high! Clearly IQ differences are genetic!"
Oops!
Oops!
Reposted by Kevin Bird
This article provides more data showing how easy it is to manipulate humans on social media.
These researchers rerouted the algorithm on Twitter to push some users toward “antidemocratic attitudes and partisan animosity”.
It only took 1 week to elicit changes that used to take 3 years.
These researchers rerouted the algorithm on Twitter to push some users toward “antidemocratic attitudes and partisan animosity”.
It only took 1 week to elicit changes that used to take 3 years.
Reranking partisan animosity in algorithmic social media feeds alters affective polarization
Today, social media platforms hold the sole power to study the effects of feed-ranking algorithms. We developed a platform-independent method that reranks participants’ feeds in real time and used thi...
www.science.org
November 28, 2025 at 2:42 PM
This article provides more data showing how easy it is to manipulate humans on social media.
These researchers rerouted the algorithm on Twitter to push some users toward “antidemocratic attitudes and partisan animosity”.
It only took 1 week to elicit changes that used to take 3 years.
These researchers rerouted the algorithm on Twitter to push some users toward “antidemocratic attitudes and partisan animosity”.
It only took 1 week to elicit changes that used to take 3 years.
Reposted by Kevin Bird
This is so deeply at odds with the vision and history of America. Take pretty much any ethnic or racial group that are part of the American mosaic America today - they have all faced the same accusation. The moment these accusations are turned into policy are some of the most shameful in US history
Stephen Miller is now arguing that assimilation is fundamentally impossible and that certain cultures are not compatible with Western civilization
November 28, 2025 at 1:58 PM
This is so deeply at odds with the vision and history of America. Take pretty much any ethnic or racial group that are part of the American mosaic America today - they have all faced the same accusation. The moment these accusations are turned into policy are some of the most shameful in US history
Kudos to Rebecca for leading this charge! Lynn's data is an embarrassment to the scientific enterprise. The skull measurers on Twitter are having a predictable response with the repeated claim that "other data replicate" Lynn's results.
Easy to see that's not true for the 2002, 2012, or "new" set
Easy to see that's not true for the 2002, 2012, or "new" set
November 28, 2025 at 1:37 PM
Kudos to Rebecca for leading this charge! Lynn's data is an embarrassment to the scientific enterprise. The skull measurers on Twitter are having a predictable response with the repeated claim that "other data replicate" Lynn's results.
Easy to see that's not true for the 2002, 2012, or "new" set
Easy to see that's not true for the 2002, 2012, or "new" set
Reposted by Kevin Bird
The pretend University of Austin teaches "Forbidden Courses" with zero pushback even as the real universities are forbidding courses due to political pressure
My friend Jake (that’s Dr. Beck to you!) on the crisis in Texas universities.
www.dallasnews.com/opinion/comm...
www.dallasnews.com/opinion/comm...
Professor: Texas used to have universities
Former Texas Tech professor takes issue with the actions of Texas universities to restrict what topics can be discussed. Doing so makes them something other...
www.dallasnews.com
November 27, 2025 at 8:04 PM
The pretend University of Austin teaches "Forbidden Courses" with zero pushback even as the real universities are forbidding courses due to political pressure
Reposted by Kevin Bird
The NSF Bio Anthro Program DDRIG, Cultural Anthrpology DDRIG, and Archaeology DDRIG have all been archived (as of yesterday afternoon). Please speak with your grad students and plan accordingly. To say I am angry and depressed about this is an understatement.
November 26, 2025 at 3:25 PM
The NSF Bio Anthro Program DDRIG, Cultural Anthrpology DDRIG, and Archaeology DDRIG have all been archived (as of yesterday afternoon). Please speak with your grad students and plan accordingly. To say I am angry and depressed about this is an understatement.
Reposted by Kevin Bird
Retraction Watch has covered the problem of the “national IQ” database. Should be noted I’m far from alone in working to remove these publications. The spreadsheet of pubs which use NIQ - linked to in the article - was started by @kohngregory.bsky.social; a project also worked on by Cathryn Townsend
. @rebeccasear.bsky.social is on a mission to get all studies using a database linking #IQ and race retracted. I spoke to her for @retractionwatch.com to find out more: retractionwatch.com/2025/11/25/m...
Meet the researcher aiming to halt use of ‘fundamentally flawed’ database linking IQ and nationality
Rebecca Sear Rebecca Sear is on a mission to convince publishers to retract articles that use a database that purports to rank countries based on intelligence. To maintain the integrity of scientif…
retractionwatch.com
November 26, 2025 at 3:33 PM
Retraction Watch has covered the problem of the “national IQ” database. Should be noted I’m far from alone in working to remove these publications. The spreadsheet of pubs which use NIQ - linked to in the article - was started by @kohngregory.bsky.social; a project also worked on by Cathryn Townsend
Reposted by Kevin Bird
Blog post: A Missing Heritability Update. Three legs and other problems. I follow up on the recent excellent post on the subject by @sashagusevposts.bsky.social. ericturkheimer.substack.com/p/missing-he...
Missing Heritability Revisited
Following up on Sasha
ericturkheimer.substack.com
November 25, 2025 at 3:04 PM
Blog post: A Missing Heritability Update. Three legs and other problems. I follow up on the recent excellent post on the subject by @sashagusevposts.bsky.social. ericturkheimer.substack.com/p/missing-he...
Reposted by Kevin Bird
Findings support the hypothesis that gene duplications, particularly in reproduction and development, contributed to termite eusociality academic.oup.com/mbe/article/...
Genomic Features Underlying the Origin of Sociality and the Diversification of Caste Systems in Termites
Abstract. Termite colonies consist of distinct castes whose developmental pathways fall into 2 types and vary among lineages. Understanding caste evolution
academic.oup.com
November 25, 2025 at 2:18 PM
Findings support the hypothesis that gene duplications, particularly in reproduction and development, contributed to termite eusociality academic.oup.com/mbe/article/...
Egregious stuff, even given that the entire area of DTC genetics and embryo screening eugenics is scams and snake oil
If you want to read something completely nuts from the unregulated world of direct to consumer genomics, look no further.
And when I say completely nuts, I’m being restrained and polite. Criminal is another word that springs to mind.
And when I say completely nuts, I’m being restrained and polite. Criminal is another word that springs to mind.
"Concerns about the legitimacy and integrity of Nucleus Genomics", by X account @sichuan_mala
totalhealthoptimization.com/2025/11/21/c...
totalhealthoptimization.com/2025/11/21/c...
November 25, 2025 at 1:15 PM
Egregious stuff, even given that the entire area of DTC genetics and embryo screening eugenics is scams and snake oil
Reposted by Kevin Bird
If you want to read something completely nuts from the unregulated world of direct to consumer genomics, look no further.
And when I say completely nuts, I’m being restrained and polite. Criminal is another word that springs to mind.
And when I say completely nuts, I’m being restrained and polite. Criminal is another word that springs to mind.
"Concerns about the legitimacy and integrity of Nucleus Genomics", by X account @sichuan_mala
totalhealthoptimization.com/2025/11/21/c...
totalhealthoptimization.com/2025/11/21/c...
Concerns about the legitimacy and integrity of Nucleus Genomics – Total Health Optimization
totalhealthoptimization.com
November 25, 2025 at 2:13 AM
If you want to read something completely nuts from the unregulated world of direct to consumer genomics, look no further.
And when I say completely nuts, I’m being restrained and polite. Criminal is another word that springs to mind.
And when I say completely nuts, I’m being restrained and polite. Criminal is another word that springs to mind.
this but Guy Who Thinks Dance Yrself Clean is Mid After the First 3 Minutes
Man Who Thought Fleetwood Mac’s ‘The Chain’ Was Over In For Thrill Of His Fucking Life https://theonion.com/man-who-thought-fleetwood-macs-the-chain-was-over-in-for-thrill-of-his-fucking-life/
November 24, 2025 at 9:37 PM
this but Guy Who Thinks Dance Yrself Clean is Mid After the First 3 Minutes
Stellar work from @robbeewedow.bsky.social, Brian Donovan, & company continuing the work on how changing genetics can reduce genetic essentialism in students.
This is the kind of work under attack by the current administration. Several grants on humane genetics literacy were targeted this year
This is the kind of work under attack by the current administration. Several grants on humane genetics literacy were targeted this year
www.cell.com
November 24, 2025 at 7:17 PM
Stellar work from @robbeewedow.bsky.social, Brian Donovan, & company continuing the work on how changing genetics can reduce genetic essentialism in students.
This is the kind of work under attack by the current administration. Several grants on humane genetics literacy were targeted this year
This is the kind of work under attack by the current administration. Several grants on humane genetics literacy were targeted this year
Reposted by Kevin Bird
How and for whom can genetics education reduce beliefs in genetic essentialism? pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41267401/
"We also find that the 3 intervention curricula are highly effective across sociodemographic group characteristics [...] we offer evidence-based strategies for curriculum development"
"We also find that the 3 intervention curricula are highly effective across sociodemographic group characteristics [...] we offer evidence-based strategies for curriculum development"
November 24, 2025 at 2:57 PM
How and for whom can genetics education reduce beliefs in genetic essentialism? pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41267401/
"We also find that the 3 intervention curricula are highly effective across sociodemographic group characteristics [...] we offer evidence-based strategies for curriculum development"
"We also find that the 3 intervention curricula are highly effective across sociodemographic group characteristics [...] we offer evidence-based strategies for curriculum development"
Reposted by Kevin Bird
Excited to share a preprint of my PhD project looking at interactions between SNPs and polygenic scores in the UK Biobank!
A thread... 🧵
www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1...
A thread... 🧵
www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1...
Interactions with polygenic background impact quantitative traits in the UK Biobank
Association studies have linked many genetic variants to a variety of phenotypes but under-standing the biological mechanisms underlying these signals remains a major challenge. Since genes operate wi...
www.medrxiv.org
November 24, 2025 at 5:13 PM
Excited to share a preprint of my PhD project looking at interactions between SNPs and polygenic scores in the UK Biobank!
A thread... 🧵
www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1...
A thread... 🧵
www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1...
Reposted by Kevin Bird
Origins of language, one of humanity’s most distinctive traits, may be best explained as a unique convergence of multiple capacities each with its own evolutionary history, involving intertwined roles of biology & culture. This framing can expand research horizons. A 🧵 on our @science.org paper.🧪1/n
What enables human language? A biocultural framework
Explaining the origins of language is a key challenge in understanding ourselves as a species. We present an empirical framework that draws on synergies across fields to facilitate robust studies of l...
www.science.org
November 23, 2025 at 11:54 AM
Origins of language, one of humanity’s most distinctive traits, may be best explained as a unique convergence of multiple capacities each with its own evolutionary history, involving intertwined roles of biology & culture. This framing can expand research horizons. A 🧵 on our @science.org paper.🧪1/n
Reposted by Kevin Bird
you can frame the European-American differences in a lot of ways but 'Europeans are poorer than Americans but also more secure' is probably the fairest one. American life is richer in many, many ways, and also far more dependent on your job *and your family* than European life.
November 24, 2025 at 3:54 PM
you can frame the European-American differences in a lot of ways but 'Europeans are poorer than Americans but also more secure' is probably the fairest one. American life is richer in many, many ways, and also far more dependent on your job *and your family* than European life.
Fell down a literature rabbit hole all day about the debate over protein degree/connectivity and evolutionary rate. Then, for fun, asked an LLM about it to see its answer. Wow, things predictably don't bode well for grad students who rely on those tools to do the reading and thinking for them
November 24, 2025 at 3:18 PM
Fell down a literature rabbit hole all day about the debate over protein degree/connectivity and evolutionary rate. Then, for fun, asked an LLM about it to see its answer. Wow, things predictably don't bode well for grad students who rely on those tools to do the reading and thinking for them
Reposted by Kevin Bird
Latest work out today in @currentbiology.bsky.social
We find the fly development gene bicoid is much older than previously thought (~20 million yrs older!) 🪰🧬
To pinpoint its origins we tackled the Diptera phylogeny, providing some resolution (many open questions remain).
🔗 tinyurl.com/2vyuevpy
We find the fly development gene bicoid is much older than previously thought (~20 million yrs older!) 🪰🧬
To pinpoint its origins we tackled the Diptera phylogeny, providing some resolution (many open questions remain).
🔗 tinyurl.com/2vyuevpy
Revised evolutionary relationships within Brachycera and the early origin of bicoid in flies
Mulhair et al. uncover a functional bicoid in non-cyclorrhaphan flies, pushing the
gene's origin back by ∼20 million years. Reassessing the Diptera phylogeny using the
largest dataset to date permits ...
www.cell.com
October 17, 2025 at 3:14 PM
Latest work out today in @currentbiology.bsky.social
We find the fly development gene bicoid is much older than previously thought (~20 million yrs older!) 🪰🧬
To pinpoint its origins we tackled the Diptera phylogeny, providing some resolution (many open questions remain).
🔗 tinyurl.com/2vyuevpy
We find the fly development gene bicoid is much older than previously thought (~20 million yrs older!) 🪰🧬
To pinpoint its origins we tackled the Diptera phylogeny, providing some resolution (many open questions remain).
🔗 tinyurl.com/2vyuevpy
Reposted by Kevin Bird
This is the kind of thing you would do if you had no idea how to achieve economic growth. It's a stunningly stupid move but only one of many that the government has been making over the last 10 months or so. All those years in opposition and they have no idea what to do while in office. Shameful
i: Reeves to unveil £600m raid on foreign student
university fees #TomorrowsPapersToday
university fees #TomorrowsPapersToday
November 23, 2025 at 11:10 PM
This is the kind of thing you would do if you had no idea how to achieve economic growth. It's a stunningly stupid move but only one of many that the government has been making over the last 10 months or so. All those years in opposition and they have no idea what to do while in office. Shameful
It only took us several decades and dozens Nature/Nature Genetics papers but we finally got to the conclusion that plant and animal breeders (and Lewontin) arrived at from the start: twin studies suck!
I wrote a little bit about the "missing heritability" question and several recent studies that have brought it to a close. A short 🧵
The missing heritability question is now (mostly) answered
Not with a bang but with a whimper
theinfinitesimal.substack.com
November 21, 2025 at 11:40 PM
It only took us several decades and dozens Nature/Nature Genetics papers but we finally got to the conclusion that plant and animal breeders (and Lewontin) arrived at from the start: twin studies suck!