Tori Herridge
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toriherridge.bsky.social
Tori Herridge
@toriherridge.bsky.social
4.6K followers 740 following 1.2K posts
🏛Senior Lecturer, University of Sheffield 🎓PhD Evolutionary Biology🏝Islands 🐘Elephants🦣Mammoths🦷Teeth ⚒️1/4 of TrowelBlazers 📰EiC Open Quaternary 🎥🎙Presenter. Expcet typos.
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toriherridge.bsky.social
I am on strike this week, in support of colleagues placed at risk of compulsory redundancy.

www.ucu.org.uk/article/1423...

If you a student and want to know more/how to support the strike, see here: ucu.group.shef.ac.uk/industrial-a...

@sheffielducu.bsky.social
Screen shot of text reading: This Spring, the University Executive Board (UEB) announced reviews of academic staffing in five work areas: Chemistry Civil Engineering The Management School Materials Science and Engineering The School of East Asian Studies In September, staff in five additional work areas were told they face targeted voluntary severance (VS): Medicine and Population Health School of History, Philosophy, and Digital Humanities School of English School of Sociological Studies, Politics and International Relations Research Partnerships and Innovation Restructures are anticipated to follow in some, perhaps all, of these areas. UEB aim to save at least £5m through cuts to staff costs across these areas, but have also been clear that they will potentially pursue cuts beyond this figure with a view to changing departments’ ‘size and shape’. The University is also undertaking restructures of IT Services, and language teaching staff in the School of East Asian Studies, and at the conclusion of the five Professional Services restructures in June, at least 20 staff still remained at risk of redundancy.
November 17, 2025 at 9:21 AM
toriherridge.bsky.social
the paper also identifies Yuka as an XY male, which is really interesting as the anatomy presented as female.

this is Yuka's genital region (from Maschenko et al 2019 link.springer.com/article/10.1...)
figure 4 from Maschenko et al 2019. LHS shows intact genital opening on the outer hide of Yuka (a 5 year old permafrost mammoth), RHS shows opening on the inner side
November 14, 2025 at 9:32 PM
toriherridge.bsky.social
Lunch time reading today very on point in reminding is that, just as genes alone do not make the man (or woman), one man (or woman) alone does not make a society do evil things…
Page 6 from Crooked Cross by Sally Cross. First published in 1934, this paragraph describes a happy and idyllic family Christmas in Bavaria, where the family will head to the mountains to gather fir twigs to decorate the family home…including the picture on the piano—of Adolf Hitler
November 13, 2025 at 12:48 PM
toriherridge.bsky.social
Exhibit B, Your Honour
A clipping from the Daily Mail (03 Aug 1932). Headlines read: Top: WOMEN WHO DIG BURIED CITIES sub: ALONE AMONG DESERT TRIBES Sub-2: THEIR ARMIES OF WORKMAN Sub-3: Finds by Mother of Five
October 25, 2025 at 9:43 AM
toriherridge.bsky.social
Same story, three different headlines…

🧪👩‍🔬🏺
Three newspaper clippings from 3rd August 1932 reporting on Gertrude Caton Thompson’s talk on her (and Elinor Gardner’s) work at Kharga Oasis, given at the International Congress for the Prehistoric and Protohistoric Sciences held at Bedford College, London. The headlines read as follows: Sheffield Independent: Women’s Desert Discoveries York Post Leeds: Intrepid Woman Explorer Daily Dispatch Manchester: Blushes During Talk
October 25, 2025 at 8:01 AM
toriherridge.bsky.social
It’s fabulous, you will love these too:
October 25, 2025 at 7:43 AM
toriherridge.bsky.social
What is the earliest use of the phrase “Women in Science”?

This is from 1931

#HistSci #HPS
October 22, 2025 at 9:56 PM
toriherridge.bsky.social
SMH
Screen grab from an article in The Guardian, sept 17 2025, based on Colossal Bioscience PR. Text reads: “These are dodos, and I’m sure there will be some people who say, ‘Oh, well, we don’t like them. We’re not going to call them dodos,’” Lamm said of the latest Colossal project. “Then don’t. We just don’t care, and the more you don’t call them a dodo, the more controversy you drive, the more my numbers go up. So that’s great. So whatever you want to call them, as long as you’re calling them something.”
September 17, 2025 at 8:36 PM
toriherridge.bsky.social
Fascinating read. Who is going to “assetise” your data (and your planet)? Are you paying attention?
A screen grab of a substack article by Helen Beetham on Imperfect Offerings The text reads: And in every field where ML is prioritised as a method, the values of ML (‘Performance, Quantity, Efficiency’) produce opportunities for commercial capture. Earth data, like that collected by Nvidia’s Earth-2, is sold for commercial advantage. Google DeepMind retains the right to assetise patents arising from the use of its AlphaFold database although the data involved was all derived from investigative science. Microsoft and Google are competing to assetize environmental data, and there are intense efforts to control genetic and epigenetic data, with big AI recently investingly heavily in genomics and pharmaceuticals so that discoveries based on the DNA of people and other species can be assetised in exactly the same way as the art of Studio Ghibli.
July 19, 2025 at 7:07 AM
toriherridge.bsky.social
Good to see Colossal Bioscience scientists recognising the need for regulation — these are the conversations we need to be having, and fast
July 18, 2025 at 10:50 AM
toriherridge.bsky.social
Tucked at the end is an interesting paragraph or two though, and something worth pondering (especially as the desire for designer babies really has gathered momentum in the intervening years)
A screen grab from a BBC article about 3-parent babies. The text reads: 'Only the UK could do this' The UK not only developed the science of three-person babies, but it also became the first country in the world to introduce laws to allow their creation after a vote in Parliament in 2015. There was controversy as mitochondria have DNA of their own, which controls how they function. It means the children have inherited DNA from their parents and around 0.1% from the donor woman. Any girls born through this technique would pass this onto their own children, so it is a permanent alteration of human genetic inheritance. This was a step too far for some when the technology was debated, raising fears it would open the doors to genetically-modified "designer" babies.
July 17, 2025 at 9:24 AM
toriherridge.bsky.social
Adding this to my teaching on the power & peril of storytelling.

Narrative works, and so there are increasing calls for it to be used in science to effect the change that data alone cannot. But of course if you rake that route, do you even need data?

It seems the audience don’t… until the exposé
A screen grab of a Financial Times article by Emma Jacobs. The text read: “ Please use the sharing tools found via the share button at the top or side of articles. Copying articles to share with others is a breach of FT.com T&Cs and Copyright Policy. Email licensing@ft.com to buy additional rights. Subscribers may share up to 10 or 20 articles per month using the gift article service. More information can be found at https://www.ft.com/tour. https://www.ft.com/content/a849a83e-e817-4137-b945-b0a831f0a81d?accessToken=zwAAAZgC4MrDkdOoSag-6BdBN9O5RbCoMfCoHQ.MEYCIQCLMNaCNvAGISk2WwuI-4NniWX9gJmPFY4HJPFACtQ2DQIhAPARj5nCnUyZaO8SVIVkorAZDthCGDVYh_x9evnGkFn3&segmentId=e95a9ae7-622c-6235-5f87-51e412b47e97&shareType=enterprise&shareId=097efbc8-68b3-46d8-a778-96a7b33fb38b I suspect the trend in storytelling for business, which requires entrepreneurs, leaders and brands to have a narrative, encourages embellishments, imposing a simplistic arc with a successful ending. It can lead people to exaggerate their humble origins to showcase their accomplishments through their own skill and talent. Like Kemi Badenoch, leader of Britain’s Conservative party, saying working in McDonald’s for three months made her “working class”. Or entrepreneurs in the fake-it-till-you-make-it, start-up culture, telling a tall tale for investors about their future profits, the scale of business and even whether a product works (Elizabeth Holmes). This is a peculiar moment in history. It has never been easier to scam — fraudulent emails can be dispatched in large numbers and deepfake experts generated quickly. It is also easier to expose falsehoods, after all, anyone can play armchair detective, piecing together personal details from social media and online databases.”
July 13, 2025 at 8:25 AM
toriherridge.bsky.social
I spoke with Patrick Greenfield at the Guardian about de-extinction following the Moa announcement.

Nothing new but still needs repeating

www.theguardian.com/environment/...
A screen grab from an article in The Guardian, by Patrick Greenfield. The text reads: ““Is de-extinction possible? No, it is not possible. What you could potentially do – we’ll see – is create a genetically modified organism that may contain some appearance traits that are linked to a previously extinct species based on what we think they were like. Using the term “de-extinction” allows us to skip over the hard questions. This is not bringing back the mammoth or the moa or the dodo, this is creating something new to create a change in an ecosystem,” she says. Herridge questions the deterministic view of genetics – highlighting that learned culture is a crucial part of a wild species. “I don’t think you’re going to be able to create a something that is behaviourally a woolly mammoth just based on its genome. A lot of elephant behaviour is learned. We know there are problems with elephant behaviour once you remove a matriarch from a group,” she says.” At the bottom there is a photo of two white wolves in the snow.
July 12, 2025 at 9:51 AM
toriherridge.bsky.social
And once again, I recommend Elizabeth Jone's (@drdinodna.bsky.social) Ancient DNA: Making of a Celebrity Science on how ancient DNA, de-extinction, & media hype have been interwoven from the outset:

yalebooks.co.uk/book/9780300...

[here's my review for @nature.com

doi.org/10.1038/d415...
July 9, 2025 at 1:29 PM
toriherridge.bsky.social
This from @nicrawlencenz.bsky.social is pertinent here:
A screengrab of a part of a quote by Nic Rawlence given to the Science Media Centre NZ. The text reads: There are also [longstanding] major concerns with tangata whenua around the country around not being involved in discussions around genetic engineering, not being Māori led, but also around samples: bone samples, DNA going offshore. Who owns that DNA? [There are] concerns around intellectual property rights, monetary IP, and this not being another example of colonialism. There are all of those concerns that have been floating around, such that whenever we have done engagement – and I can say I’m involved in a project that is sequencing the genomes of moa in New Zealand – that in our conversations, there has been no support for de-extinction. And tangata whenua want the DNA to stay in New Zealand, and all the sequence data to stay in New Zealand, and don’t want de-extinction. “So, with this announcement, it’s encouraging to see that the Ngāi Tahu Research Centre is front and centre with these discussions. And if you actually look at the really big, long press release, it’s encouraging to see that there are discussions around the need to restore the habitat, what used to be there, because you can’t bring something back if you don’t have the habitat. “But one of the concerns I’ve got is de-extinction has always been talked about for conservation purposes, and you read the press releases, and you watch what’s on the media this morning, and the moa will be brought back and put in a game reserve for ecotourism purposes, and not released in the wild. I see no point in that at all. It’s undeniable that this technology will and could have real benefits to conservation of New Zealand’s endangered species. Let’s say, for example, we know we can genetically engineer a kākāpō so it’s resistant to a disease, but we shouldn’t be bringing back species to undo, as Ben Lamm said on Breakfast TV this morning, ‘the sins of the past.’ That means we’re not learning from extinction.
July 9, 2025 at 11:31 AM
toriherridge.bsky.social
Putting aside whether 'bringing back the Moa is possible, here is what Colossal Bioscience is saying they will do in Aotearoa/New Zealand.

I would like to see the conservation assessment etc done by independent parties, and for participatory democracy to be built in to decision making.
A screen grab from the business wire article " The Ngāi Tahu Research Centre Has Entered Into a Strategic Partnership With De-Extinction Company, Colossal Biosciences, and Sir Peter Jackson, to Resurrect the South Island Giant Moa and Other Taonga Species"
July 9, 2025 at 10:50 AM
toriherridge.bsky.social
Various stories at the moment bringing me back to thoughts on stories, factual content and THE TRUTH*

For example this extract from that piece on The Salt Path authors, citing the muddling of fact and fable in people’s lives (especially their public lives).

Does it matter?
A screen grab from the observer article “The real Salt Path: how a blockbuster book and film were spun from lies, deceit and desperation” by Chloe Hadjimatheou. The text reads: “No one has argued that Raynor Winn and Moth didn’t go on a physical and spiritual journey. There’s truth in The Salt Path. But there’s truth outside it as well, as our reporting has found. How much does it matter if the interior and exterior don’t line up? For many fans, The Salt Path’s depiction of a generous England, whose coastline is filled with beauty and people who open their hearts to a couple in need, will continue to resonate even after the revelations in this article. For these fans, the meaning of Winn’s story will lie less in the details than in its message. And, they might say, fact and fable are often jumbled up to some degree in everyone’s life.”
July 7, 2025 at 1:12 PM
toriherridge.bsky.social
In honour of #ExcavatingGarrod I’m resurrecting a @trowelblazers.bsky.social post from 2014 and asking you all: What’s Your Garrod Number?

If we are being strict mine is actually 5:

Garrod>Bate>Mary Leakey>Maeve Leakey>Eleanor Weston>me!

Networks matter!

trowelblazers.com/2014/05/09/d...
A network diagram showing collaborations between pioneering women archaeologists. Dorothy Garrod is a central hub.
July 2, 2025 at 8:22 AM
toriherridge.bsky.social
Very proud of all my colleagues at @sheffielduni.bsky.social nominated for Knowledge Exchange and Impact Awards. Some really inspirational projects, making a real difference.

And I get the privilege of handing out the awards!
A white woman (the post author) stands in front of a stage, with a slide saying Knowledge Exchange & Impact Awards 2025 behind her
July 1, 2025 at 7:20 PM
toriherridge.bsky.social
Midday update: 4 degrees cooler inside!
June 19, 2025 at 11:12 AM
toriherridge.bsky.social
*Unsolicited Advice Klaxon*

Reminder to shut every window and close every door during the day time.

We have an indoor-outdoor thermometer & we close everything down when the two temps equalise (~9am atm)

We open everything again in the evening when outside drops back to equalisation point.
June 19, 2025 at 9:03 AM
toriherridge.bsky.social
Sorry darlings, it doesn’t work this way. You don’t get to go “We brought back the Dire Wolf” and then then pretend you aren’t responsible for the consequences.

www.newscientist.com/article/2481...
May 22, 2025 at 4:50 PM
toriherridge.bsky.social
Alderney
A view of the sea —teal blue with a few whitecaps — and a cloudless cornflower-blue sky, from a hillside covered with gorse
April 11, 2025 at 11:19 PM
toriherridge.bsky.social
Something pretty for you all on a Friday
A red sun setting behind the sea. An out of focus rocky islet sits to one side, mirroring the semicircle of the setting sun. In the foreground, sour fig (an invasive species).
April 11, 2025 at 11:01 PM
toriherridge.bsky.social
In an absolute state over the junk mail sent to my 77 year old Dad.

#TreatYourself🔥
An envelope with the logo Pure Cremation, and the slogan “This Spring, treat yourself in us”
April 3, 2025 at 12:24 PM