Nicholas A. Christakis

@nachristakis.bsky.social

20K followers 570 following 920 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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Nicholas A. Christakis @nachristakis.bsky.social · 7h

So we are talking about an "armed conflict" that does not involve "hostilities" yet somehow does involve enemy "combatants."

Reason Magazine @reason.com · 2d

Adm. Frank Murphy's defense of his second strike on a suspected drug boat is incomprehensible unless you accept the idea of "combatants" who are not engaged in combat.

Boat attack commander says he had to kill 2 survivors because they were still trying to smuggle cocaine

Adm. Frank M. Murphy reportedly told lawmakers a second strike was necessary because drugs on the burning vessel remained a threat.

reason.com

Nicholas A. Christakis @nachristakis.bsky.social · 17h

And I do agree that evaluations should emphasize mastery.

Nicholas A. Christakis @nachristakis.bsky.social · 17h

When I worked as a young doctor, we were not given extra time to fulfill our obligations. My sense is that the same is true for other professions. I think that the proliferation of extra time and related adjustments may be limited, given the reality of what happens when people turn 22 and graduate?

Nicholas A. Christakis @nachristakis.bsky.social · 20h

My sense is that if you cannot cope with a test in college, will your employer accommodate you in similar ways?

Nicholas A. Christakis @nachristakis.bsky.social · 20h

I did respond. Of course some students need accommodations (blind, deaf, paralyzed, and so on). The question is how large a fraction makes sense, and for what disabilities, no?

Nicholas A. Christakis @nachristakis.bsky.social · 21h

It’s a complicated topic, but it doesn’t seem realistic to have that high percentage of students receiving accommodations for being disabled. What will we do if the percentage rises to 50%? And much of this seems to be driven by bureaucrats who wish to have sinecures.

Nicholas A. Christakis @nachristakis.bsky.social · 21h

At elite universities, 1/5 of students are "disabled." This comports with my experience or is even too low. Many students seek extra time or special rooms for exams — which often makes little sense and is anyway not in keeping with being in the “real world.” www.theatlantic.com/magazine/202...

Accommodation Nation

America’s colleges have an extra-time-on-tests problem.

www.theatlantic.com

Reposted by Nicholas A. Christakis

Nature Portfolio @natureportfolio.nature.com · 1d

A study in Nature analyzes 154 genomes from 21 animal phyla and reconstructs ancestral adaptations to life on land across 11 distinct events, providing strong evidence of convergent genomic evolution and repeated terrestrial colonization in the animal kingdom. go.nature.com/4pHIwYF 🧪 #evolution

Fig. 1: Reconstruction of ancestral genomes and timescale across animal terrestrialization.

Reposted by Christian Odendahl, Nicholas A. Christakis, Peter Stegmaier

Auschwitz Memorial @auschwitzmemorial.bsky.social · 1d

6 December 1928 | Dutch Jewish girl, Betje Polak, was born in Rotterdam.

She was deported to #Auschwitz from #Westerbork in October 1942. She did not survive.
---

Children at Auschwitz

Lesson: https://lekcja.auschwitz.org/dzieci_EN/
Podcast: https://youtu.be/aYKx_zpLSqA

Black and white portrait of a young girl wearing a bow in her hair.

Reposted by Nicholas A. Christakis, David Lazer, Dean Eckles , and 2 more Nicholas A. Christakis, David Lazer, Dean Eckles, Brian Keegan, Nancy K. Baym

Dan Goldstein @dggoldst.bsky.social · 1d

Want to be an intern at Microsoft Research in the Computational Social Science group in NYC (Jake Hofman, David Rothschild, Dan Goldstein)

Follow this link and do your thing! Deadline approaching soonish!

apply.careers.microsoft.com/careers/job/...

Research Intern - Computational Social Science | Microsoft Careers

Research Interns put inquiry and theory into practice. Alongside fellow doctoral candidates and some of the world's best researchers, Research Interns learn, collaborate, and network for life. Researc...

apply.careers.microsoft.com

Reposted by Nicholas A. Christakis, W Grant

Reason Magazine @reason.com · 2d

Adm. Frank Murphy's defense of his second strike on a suspected drug boat is incomprehensible unless you accept the idea of "combatants" who are not engaged in combat.

Boat attack commander says he had to kill 2 survivors because they were still trying to smuggle cocaine

Adm. Frank M. Murphy reportedly told lawmakers a second strike was necessary because drugs on the burning vessel remained a threat.

reason.com

Reposted by Nicholas A. Christakis

The Economist @economist.com · 3d

A leaked video of his court-martial has suddenly appeared

The general who refused to crush Tiananmen’s protesters

A leaked video of his court-martial has suddenly appeared

econ.st

Reposted by Nicholas A. Christakis, Robert C. Richards, John Christman , and 1 more Nicholas A. Christakis, Robert C. Richards, John Christman, Stuart Shapiro

Jen Jennings @jenjennings.bsky.social · 3d

5% of People Detained By ICE Have Violent Convictions, 73% No Convictions

Chart showing only 5% detentions had criminal conviction

Nicholas A. Christakis @nachristakis.bsky.social · 3d

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

Reposted by Nicholas A. Christakis

Dan Goldstein @dggoldst.bsky.social · 3d

A classmate of my 11-year-old daughter said he'd give her a pack of Sour Patch Kids if she could get his pedometer to 67,000. Enter the reciprocating saw.

Nicholas A. Christakis @nachristakis.bsky.social · 4d

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 Archon Fung, Richard S.J. Tol, Nicholas A. Christakis, David Lazer, Will Jennings, Gordon Pennycook, Brendan Nyhan, Ken Caldeira, Stacie B. Dusetzina, Alistair Munro, Caroline Krafft, Jacob Montgomery, Benjamin Braun, Adam Bonica, Gerry Canavan, Daniel S. Goldberg, Karen Benjamin Guzzo, Paul Goldsmith-Pinkham, Brian Keegan, David C. Kimball, Andy Reisinger, Sam Kamin, Pepper D. Culpepper, Achim Kemmerling, Nathan P. Kalmoe

Jake Grumbach @jakemgrumbach.bsky.social · 4d

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.

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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.

Nicholas A. Christakis @nachristakis.bsky.social · 4d

Same. Uber + Shazam = iTunes

Lisa Fagin Davis @lisafdavis.bsky.social · 4d

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

Lisa Fagin Davis @lisafdavis.bsky.social · 4d

Nicholas A. Christakis @nachristakis.bsky.social · 5d

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 Nicholas A. Christakis, Guy Grossman, Daniel W. Drezner, David R. Miller

Tom Nichols @radiofreetom.bsky.social · 5d

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

Nicholas A. Christakis @nachristakis.bsky.social · 6d

I found this exchange, which I had forgotten. It was so odd. @benryanwriter.bsky.social

Ryan Goodman @rgoodlaw.bsky.social · 7d

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

Patrick Chovanec @prchovanec.bsky.social · 7d

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 @nature.com · 7d

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

Nicholas A. Christakis @nachristakis.bsky.social · 8d

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

Dr Huw Groucutt @huwgroucutt.bsky.social · 8d

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.

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