Nicholas A. Christakis
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nachristakis.bsky.social
Nicholas A. Christakis
@nachristakis.bsky.social
21K followers 580 following 960 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%
Posts Replies Media Videos

Reposted by Michael Wagner, Nicholas A. Christakis

michaeljstern.bsky.social
Michael J. Stern @michaeljstern.bsky.social · 1d
Trump wants to cancel TV licenses because he doesn't like what late night TV hosts are saying about him.

What happened to "stop cancel culture" and buck up "snowflakes?" And what happened to the First Amendment?

Reposted by Nicholas A. Christakis

jenlucpiquant.bsky.social
Jennifer Ouellette @jenlucpiquant.bsky.social · 2d
Proposed Magnetic Cloak Could Make Sensitive Tech Practically Invisible gizmodo.com/proposed-mag...
Proposed Magnetic Cloak Could Make Sensitive Tech Practically Invisible
The cloak can shield objects of any shape from unwanted noise, the researchers say.
gizmodo.com

Reposted by Stephen M. Walt, Anna O. Law, Nicholas A. Christakis , and 17 more

marklevinenyc.bsky.social
Mark D. Levine @marklevinenyc.bsky.social · 3d
Year 1 data on congestion pricing in Manhattan…

* Vehicle traffic: -11%
* Foot traffic: +3.4%
* Storefront vacancy: -0.9%
* Pollution: -22%
* Revenue for mass transit: $548M

So YES this has been a huge success.

Reposted by Lionel Page

nachristakis.bsky.social
Nicholas A. Christakis @nachristakis.bsky.social · 3d
Very much this energy : m.youtube.com/watch?v=0mUb...

nachristakis.bsky.social
Nicholas A. Christakis @nachristakis.bsky.social · 3d
“After years of war, no one could stand between my men and home. Not even me.”

Except none of Odysseus’ men made it home. Only he did.

arstechnica.com/culture/2025...
Odyssey trailer brings the myth to vivid life
After years of war, no one could stand between my men and home. Not even me."
arstechnica.com

nachristakis.bsky.social
Nicholas A. Christakis @nachristakis.bsky.social · 4d
Old joke told by hospice nurses:

“What is the function of nails in a coffin?”

“To keep the oncologists from administering more chemotherapy.”

nachristakis.bsky.social
Nicholas A. Christakis @nachristakis.bsky.social · 4d
When I was active as a practicing hospice doctor, we would often admit patients who were still on their cholesterol-lowering or antihypertensive medications.

nachristakis.bsky.social
Nicholas A. Christakis @nachristakis.bsky.social · 4d
Polypharmacy, especially in the aged, is a long-appreciated problem, made worse by wrong incentives.

Reposted by Nicholas A. Christakis

johnmullahy.bsky.social
John Mullahy @johnmullahy.bsky.social · 4d
"He's the best physician that knows the worthlessness of the
most medicines."
— Benjamin Franklin, Poor Richard's Almanack, 1733

www.wsj.com/health/healt...
America’s Seniors Are Overmedicated
One in six seniors enrolled in Medicare’s drug benefit were prescribed eight or more medications at the same time, an analysis of Medicare data found.
www.wsj.com

nachristakis.bsky.social
Nicholas A. Christakis @nachristakis.bsky.social · 4d
On the (worrisome) association between researcher ideological stance and their findings, given the same data and question (here, with respect to immigration): www.nber.org/papers/w33274
Ideological Bias in Estimates of the Impact of Immigration
Founded in 1920, the NBER is a private, non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to conducting economic research and to disseminating research findings among academics, public policy makers, an...
www.nber.org

nachristakis.bsky.social
Nicholas A. Christakis @nachristakis.bsky.social · 4d
This is silly: ‘Grades are major stressors for students... so instructors may … wish to consider alternatives to traditional grading, such as ungrading… in which students assign their own grades. [Such practices] 'may... foster psychological resilience' (2024)

jamesgmartin.center/2024/07/teac...
Teaching Sociology Is an Ideological Nightmare — The James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal
An empirical study of what is being taught and learned in university sociology courses around the country would be challenging to carry out. But American sociology provides a convenient site…
jamesgmartin.center

Reposted by Scott A. Imberman

nachristakis.bsky.social
Nicholas A. Christakis @nachristakis.bsky.social · 4d
Not a joke, apparently. Who knew? Heavy rains in Washington State this month prompted officials to warn about flooded roadways, water damage to homes and one rare potential consequence: toilet rats.

www.nytimes.com/2025/12/21/u...

nachristakis.bsky.social
Nicholas A. Christakis @nachristakis.bsky.social · 5d
We are very unusual as a species insofar as we often adopt and raise children who are not genetically related to us. It’s a key feature of our sociality and it is very widely observed.
moudhy.bsky.social Moudhy Al-Rashid (she/her) @moudhy.bsky.social · 5d
This cracked clay tablet from the 1800s BCE preserves the moment a baby named Ili-awīli was adopted from his mother Ayartum and her husband by another couple.

People adopted for many reasons in ancient Mesopotamia — desire for a baby, need for an heir, adopting child from a previous marriage, etc.
Photo of a rectangular clay tablet with cuneiform signs that has several cracks and breaks over it

Reposted by Nicholas A. Christakis

moudhy.bsky.social
Moudhy Al-Rashid (she/her) @moudhy.bsky.social · 5d
This cracked clay tablet from the 1800s BCE preserves the moment a baby named Ili-awīli was adopted from his mother Ayartum and her husband by another couple.

People adopted for many reasons in ancient Mesopotamia — desire for a baby, need for an heir, adopting child from a previous marriage, etc.
Photo of a rectangular clay tablet with cuneiform signs that has several cracks and breaks over it

Reposted by Nicholas A. Christakis

mylovanov.bsky.social
Tymofiy Mylovanov @mylovanov.bsky.social · 5d
Kyiv School of Economics in Ukraine is raising $4m to fund 800 full scholarships for students hit by Russia’s war ($5k each: tuition + accommodation).

I meet them every day—studying between air-raid alerts and power cuts.

Please donate: foundation.kse.ua/en/donate-to...
1/

Reposted by Nicholas A. Christakis

scifri.bsky.social
Science Friday @scifri.bsky.social · 6d
"In Lord of the Rings, when Gollum falls into the lava in the film and gets almost like he’s falling into a pool of hot water, I think that’s not very realistic." Volcanologist Tamsin Mather answers audience questions about volcanoes—and debunks some myths while she's at it.
Can We Just Throw Our Plastic Garbage Into A Volcano?
A volcanologist answers your questions about glass-shard hairballs, cooking breakfast over lava, Gollum's end on Mount Doom, and more.
buff.ly

Reposted by Nicholas A. Christakis, Miranda J. Lubbers

sfiscience.bsky.social
Santa Fe Institute @sfiscience.bsky.social · 6d
The simulation hypothesis has long captured our imagination, yet most arguments rely on intuition over clear definitions.

A new paper by SFI Professor David Wolpert introduces the first precise mathematical framework for defining simulation — and shows many common assumptions don’t hold up.
New mathematical framework reshapes debate over simulation hypothesis
The simulation hypothesis — the idea that our universe might be an artificial construct running on some advanced alien computer — has long captured the public imagination. Yet most arguments about it ...
www.santafe.edu

nachristakis.bsky.social
Nicholas A. Christakis @nachristakis.bsky.social · 6d
The group will share 1913/1928/1938/1946 models, each with "time-locked" historical texts only in the training data. What can they do? Chat with the past. Here is a flavor (via
@jvoth.bsky.social)

nachristakis.bsky.social
Nicholas A. Christakis @nachristakis.bsky.social · 6d
How did people in 1913 see the world? Scientists trained LLMs exclusively on pre-1913 texts—no Wikipedia, no 20/20. The model literally doesn't know of WWI. And it reflects spirit of the times without guardrails reflecting modern-day sensitivities.

This is a terrific research application of LLMs.
GitHub - DGoettlich/history-llms: Information hub for our project training the largest possible historical LLMs.
Information hub for our project training the largest possible historical LLMs. - DGoettlich/history-llms
github.com

Reposted by Nicholas A. Christakis

nasonline.org
National Academy of Sciences @nasonline.org · 7d
Harvard researchers, including #NASmember Naomi Pierce, discovered that plants can attract pollinators using infrared signals—an ancient signal that predates colorful flowers and led pollinators to evolve specialized infrared sensors. Read more: news.harvard.edu/gazette/stor...
Infrared radiation is an invitation to pollinating insects
A new study shows that infrared radiation is a pollination signal, one far older than the vivid colors that later became dominant among flowering plants.
news.harvard.edu

nachristakis.bsky.social
Nicholas A. Christakis @nachristakis.bsky.social · 7d
On evolutionary psychology:

www.amazon.com/Evolutionary...

And on envy and jealousy in particular: www.frontiersin.org/journals/psy...
Evolutionary Psychology: The New Science of the Mind
Amazon.com: Evolutionary Psychology: The New Science of the Mind: 9781032137919: Buss, David M.: Books
www.amazon.com

nachristakis.bsky.social
Nicholas A. Christakis @nachristakis.bsky.social · 7d
Anger, jealousy, and shame are powerful emotions that can motivate great violence, alas.

nachristakis.bsky.social
Nicholas A. Christakis @nachristakis.bsky.social · 7d
This is great science communication.

Reposted by Nicholas A. Christakis, Maarten Vink, Jens Rydgren , and 2 more

mclem.org
Michael Clemens @mclem.org · 7d
Out of 102 episodes globally in which a trend toward autocracy was reversed over the past century, the vast majority led to restored or even increased levels of democracy.

doi.org/10.1080/1351...

Reposted by Pedro Domingos, Nicholas A. Christakis, Lionel Page

Reposted by Dorothy Bishop, Nancy Kanwisher, Nicholas A. Christakis

profsimonfisher.bsky.social
Simon Fisher @profsimonfisher.bsky.social · 8d
While stories of singular DNA changes that drove evolution of human brain/behaviour remain seductive, advances across multiple fields of biology cast doubt on such simplistic narratives of our origins. A new paper from my lab shows how biobanks may speak to this fundamental question.🧪
Explainer🧵👇1/n
Evaluating the effects of archaic protein-altering variants in living human adults
Promise and pitfalls of using large biobanks to study impacts of archaic protein-coding variants in living humans.
www.science.org

Reposted by Juan Cole

nachristakis.bsky.social
Nicholas A. Christakis @nachristakis.bsky.social · 8d
Post-SCOTUS rule removing race/ethnicity as a factor in admissions, at Johns Hopkins:

first year enrollment for 2023-> 2025:

Asians 25.6 -> 45.1%
Blacks 9.8 -> 4%
Hispanics 20.8 -> 10.1%
Whites 18.3 -> 21%

www.baltimoresun.com/2025/12/16/j...
Johns Hopkins freshman class shows impact of Supreme Court admissions ruling
Two years after the Supreme Court effectively ended race-conscious college admissions nationwide, Johns Hopkins University has seen a significant change in the racial makeup of its freshman student…
www.baltimoresun.com

Reposted by Nicholas A. Christakis

gregorydavis.bsky.social
greg_j_davis @gregorydavis.bsky.social · 8d
🎉 Hoping somehow we’ll need real libraries back too….

Not info-latte-hubs, libraries….
erikangner.com Erik Angner @erikangner.com · 8d
Exam time! Technological innovation has destroyed the advances made by technological innovation, so students once again sit their exams using tools from the 18th century ('pencil') and the 2nd century ('paper') #analoglife
University structure with big room full of students