Zach Cofran
@dizachster.bsky.social
Associate professor of Anthropology, HEAD (Human Evolution and Development) Lab @ Vassar College. Bones & brains. lawnchairanthropology.com
Reposted by Zach Cofran
Evil men like Epstein are, in the simplest form, obsessed with eugenics because they believe that their ill-gotten gains are the product of some innate superiority.
Epstein couldn't stop emailing people about eugenics
In the latest files, the trafficker gives it a Silicon Valley–pilled name: "genetic altruism."
www.motherjones.com
February 10, 2026 at 11:00 PM
Evil men like Epstein are, in the simplest form, obsessed with eugenics because they believe that their ill-gotten gains are the product of some innate superiority.
Reposted by Zach Cofran
It is absolutely outrageous that Moderna’s flu vaccine was met with a “refusal-to-file” even after their approved their protocol with FDA and carried out the trial as agreed. This vaccine works better in older adults than the current flu vaccines.
apnews.com/article/mode...
apnews.com/article/mode...
Moderna says FDA refuses its application for new mRNA flu vaccine
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is refusing to consider Moderna’s application for a new flu vaccine made with mRNA technology.
apnews.com
February 11, 2026 at 12:13 AM
It is absolutely outrageous that Moderna’s flu vaccine was met with a “refusal-to-file” even after their approved their protocol with FDA and carried out the trial as agreed. This vaccine works better in older adults than the current flu vaccines.
apnews.com/article/mode...
apnews.com/article/mode...
Reposted by Zach Cofran
people born in america probably don’t realize how cool america used to be. the death of US soft power is going to have long term consequences we are only beginning to see
February 10, 2026 at 3:23 PM
people born in america probably don’t realize how cool america used to be. the death of US soft power is going to have long term consequences we are only beginning to see
Reposted by Zach Cofran
ICE has now spent over half a BILLION dollars just on purchasing warehouses around the country to convert into detention camps.
If these mega-camps are utilized to the full capacity ICE intends, they'll be the largest prisons in the country, with little real oversight. www.ajc.com/politics/202...
If these mega-camps are utilized to the full capacity ICE intends, they'll be the largest prisons in the country, with little real oversight. www.ajc.com/politics/202...
ICE to begin detaining immigrants inside Social Circle warehouse in April
Homeland Security plans to build warehouse detention facilities in other cities being met with opposition.
www.ajc.com
February 9, 2026 at 5:56 PM
ICE has now spent over half a BILLION dollars just on purchasing warehouses around the country to convert into detention camps.
If these mega-camps are utilized to the full capacity ICE intends, they'll be the largest prisons in the country, with little real oversight. www.ajc.com/politics/202...
If these mega-camps are utilized to the full capacity ICE intends, they'll be the largest prisons in the country, with little real oversight. www.ajc.com/politics/202...
Reposted by Zach Cofran
𝗪𝗵𝘆 𝘁𝗮𝗹𝗸 𝗮𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗰𝗼𝗿𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹 𝗲𝘃𝗼𝗹𝘂𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗻𝗼𝘄?
Because many of the biggest open questions in neuroscience still revolve around the cerebral cortex — how it emerged, expanded, diversified, and why it differs so much across species.
#CorticalEvolution2026
Because many of the biggest open questions in neuroscience still revolve around the cerebral cortex — how it emerged, expanded, diversified, and why it differs so much across species.
#CorticalEvolution2026
February 9, 2026 at 9:26 AM
𝗪𝗵𝘆 𝘁𝗮𝗹𝗸 𝗮𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗰𝗼𝗿𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹 𝗲𝘃𝗼𝗹𝘂𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗻𝗼𝘄?
Because many of the biggest open questions in neuroscience still revolve around the cerebral cortex — how it emerged, expanded, diversified, and why it differs so much across species.
#CorticalEvolution2026
Because many of the biggest open questions in neuroscience still revolve around the cerebral cortex — how it emerged, expanded, diversified, and why it differs so much across species.
#CorticalEvolution2026
Reposted by Zach Cofran
Crockett: "The US is falling apart, partially bc he's allowing for killings in the street, but also bc we have a 34 count convicted felon being shielded from any type of accountability as it relates to a child sex trafficking ring. I don't understand why we're pretending any of this is normal."
February 9, 2026 at 3:55 PM
Crockett: "The US is falling apart, partially bc he's allowing for killings in the street, but also bc we have a 34 count convicted felon being shielded from any type of accountability as it relates to a child sex trafficking ring. I don't understand why we're pretending any of this is normal."
Reposted by Zach Cofran
"Whiteness" isn't really about sunlight or skin, it is the category that was created to constitute a legally and socially privileged group of European immigrants in contrast to enslaved Africans and indentured Asians.
The strangest thing about North Americans ( both conservative & liberal ) is the non-ironic use of the term “white” as a meaningful descriptor of identity.
People of the world do not define themselves by generational exposure to sunlight, but lineage/tradition/geography/language & religion.
People of the world do not define themselves by generational exposure to sunlight, but lineage/tradition/geography/language & religion.
Racist eugenicists from the 1920s: we are so back
February 9, 2026 at 3:47 PM
"Whiteness" isn't really about sunlight or skin, it is the category that was created to constitute a legally and socially privileged group of European immigrants in contrast to enslaved Africans and indentured Asians.
Reposted by Zach Cofran
New excavations at the Grotta Guattari, just south of Rome, have yielded beautiful new Neanderthal fossils. They may add a lot to our knowledge of how Neanderthals maintained their populations as they fled the advance of the ice sheets.
www.johnhawks.net/p/a-neandert...
www.johnhawks.net/p/a-neandert...
A Neanderthal time capsule from Grotta Guattari
Excavations of a new chamber reveal an ancient floor with more than a dozen new Neanderthal fossil remains.
www.johnhawks.net
February 9, 2026 at 2:22 PM
New excavations at the Grotta Guattari, just south of Rome, have yielded beautiful new Neanderthal fossils. They may add a lot to our knowledge of how Neanderthals maintained their populations as they fled the advance of the ice sheets.
www.johnhawks.net/p/a-neandert...
www.johnhawks.net/p/a-neandert...
Reposted by Zach Cofran
Keen on excavating some Neanderthal sites in Spain?
Well, today is your lucky day!
Call for participants at Roca dels Bous site just opened. Excavations on this unique Neanderthal site will run 1-20th August (both inclusive). For further information and details, contact me!
Well, today is your lucky day!
Call for participants at Roca dels Bous site just opened. Excavations on this unique Neanderthal site will run 1-20th August (both inclusive). For further information and details, contact me!
February 9, 2026 at 3:01 AM
Keen on excavating some Neanderthal sites in Spain?
Well, today is your lucky day!
Call for participants at Roca dels Bous site just opened. Excavations on this unique Neanderthal site will run 1-20th August (both inclusive). For further information and details, contact me!
Well, today is your lucky day!
Call for participants at Roca dels Bous site just opened. Excavations on this unique Neanderthal site will run 1-20th August (both inclusive). For further information and details, contact me!
Reposted by Zach Cofran
I put on my bio anth hat to co-write this piece with @nicolanese.bsky.social, our excellent health editor at Live Science. 🧪🏳️⚧️
'There's no reason to ban us from playing': Analysis debunks notion that transgender women have inherent physical advantages in sports
A meta-analysis of 52 studies that included over 5,000 transgender people suggests that transgender women's physical fitness after hormone therapy is comparable to that of cisgender women.
www.livescience.com
February 7, 2026 at 3:44 PM
I put on my bio anth hat to co-write this piece with @nicolanese.bsky.social, our excellent health editor at Live Science. 🧪🏳️⚧️
Reposted by Zach Cofran
Developmental roots of cortical bone distribution and mandibular robusticity in early hominins anatomypubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
Developmental roots of cortical bone distribution and mandibular robusticity in early hominins
Mandibular morphology in early hominins reflects both developmental processes and functional demands, yet the ontogenetic emergence of robust mandibular traits remains poorly understood. Here, we pre....
anatomypubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
February 7, 2026 at 2:11 PM
Developmental roots of cortical bone distribution and mandibular robusticity in early hominins anatomypubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
Reposted by Zach Cofran
Two posts in a day!!! Not usual for me. But, here is a short, fun piece I co-wrote with @leosapien.bsky.social for @us.theconversation.com on how the weather conditions at this year's Winter Olympics affect athletes' bodies and gear: theconversation.com/winter-olymp...
Winter Olympians often compete in freezing temperatures – physiology and advances in materials science help keep them warm
While physical exertion helps athletes stay warm, sweating can lead to dehydration.
theconversation.com
February 6, 2026 at 8:04 PM
Two posts in a day!!! Not usual for me. But, here is a short, fun piece I co-wrote with @leosapien.bsky.social for @us.theconversation.com on how the weather conditions at this year's Winter Olympics affect athletes' bodies and gear: theconversation.com/winter-olymp...
Reposted by Zach Cofran
Pour one out for every professional political pundit, writer, consultant whatever that has spent the last decade trying to pretend that the Trump phenomenon was about trade or opiates and not a big chunk of white america losing its mind over having a black president bsky.app/profile/kyle...
A screenshot from a video posted on Trump's Truth Social account: truthsocial.com/@realDonaldT...
February 6, 2026 at 9:28 AM
Pour one out for every professional political pundit, writer, consultant whatever that has spent the last decade trying to pretend that the Trump phenomenon was about trade or opiates and not a big chunk of white america losing its mind over having a black president bsky.app/profile/kyle...
Reposted by Zach Cofran
Charles Lyell's book Antiquity of Man was published #OnThisDay in 1863. It argued that humans once lived alongside extinct animals like mammoths, meaning we have a deep past. It also examined the original Neanderthal.
February 6, 2026 at 3:51 PM
Charles Lyell's book Antiquity of Man was published #OnThisDay in 1863. It argued that humans once lived alongside extinct animals like mammoths, meaning we have a deep past. It also examined the original Neanderthal.
Reposted by Zach Cofran
Is this what The Employee of the Month deserves?
February 6, 2026 at 5:43 PM
Is this what The Employee of the Month deserves?
Reposted by Zach Cofran
Imagination in bonobos!
I am thrilled to share a new paper w/ Amalia Bastos, out now in @science.org
We provide the first experimental evidence that a nonhuman animal can follow along a pretend scenario & track imaginary objects. Work w/ Kanzi, the bonobo, at Ape Initiative
youtu.be/NUSHcQQz2Ko
I am thrilled to share a new paper w/ Amalia Bastos, out now in @science.org
We provide the first experimental evidence that a nonhuman animal can follow along a pretend scenario & track imaginary objects. Work w/ Kanzi, the bonobo, at Ape Initiative
youtu.be/NUSHcQQz2Ko
Apes Share Human Ability to Imagine
YouTube video by Johns Hopkins University
youtu.be
February 5, 2026 at 7:18 PM
Imagination in bonobos!
I am thrilled to share a new paper w/ Amalia Bastos, out now in @science.org
We provide the first experimental evidence that a nonhuman animal can follow along a pretend scenario & track imaginary objects. Work w/ Kanzi, the bonobo, at Ape Initiative
youtu.be/NUSHcQQz2Ko
I am thrilled to share a new paper w/ Amalia Bastos, out now in @science.org
We provide the first experimental evidence that a nonhuman animal can follow along a pretend scenario & track imaginary objects. Work w/ Kanzi, the bonobo, at Ape Initiative
youtu.be/NUSHcQQz2Ko
Reposted by Zach Cofran
Childhood was a political project, centuries of activism carving out time and space for young people to grow and learn. It's an unfinished project, and the right wing wants it ended when it's barely even begun.
The Right has spent years trying to push a return to child labor and attacking age of consent laws. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that they’re exposing us to mountains of the most horrendous stuff imaginable while also normalizing it.
So much of what’s happening is the destruction of childhood.
So much of what’s happening is the destruction of childhood.
February 5, 2026 at 3:57 PM
Childhood was a political project, centuries of activism carving out time and space for young people to grow and learn. It's an unfinished project, and the right wing wants it ended when it's barely even begun.
Reposted by Zach Cofran
This guy is one of the most powerful people in the world and one of the most dangerous, vile, hateful, and deluded (assuming he really believes this stuff, which he seems to) fortune.com/2026/02/04/p...
Peter Thiel warns the Antichrist and apocalypse are linked to the ‘end of modernity’ currently happening—and cites Greta Thunberg as a driving example | Fortune
The Gen Z Swedish climate activist is a legionnaire of the Antichrist, Thiel claims, a “Luddite” who wants to halt technological progress in its tracks.
fortune.com
February 5, 2026 at 3:36 PM
This guy is one of the most powerful people in the world and one of the most dangerous, vile, hateful, and deluded (assuming he really believes this stuff, which he seems to) fortune.com/2026/02/04/p...
Reposted by Zach Cofran
New paper by PI Dr. Noreen von Cramon-Taubadel and former BHEML postdoc Dr. Lauren Schroeder! The human chin is a unique; investigating why and how it formed helps us to better understand ourselves and our lineage!
journals.plos.org/plosone/arti...
journals.plos.org/plosone/arti...
Is the human chin a spandrel? Insights from an evolutionary analysis of ape craniomandibular form
Humans are unique among primates in possessing a chin, yet it is currently unclear whether the form of the symphyseal region of the mandible where the chin is located is the product of direct selectio...
journals.plos.org
February 5, 2026 at 2:37 AM
New paper by PI Dr. Noreen von Cramon-Taubadel and former BHEML postdoc Dr. Lauren Schroeder! The human chin is a unique; investigating why and how it formed helps us to better understand ourselves and our lineage!
journals.plos.org/plosone/arti...
journals.plos.org/plosone/arti...
Reposted by Zach Cofran
My lab is looking to recruit 1-2 paid summer interns to do wet lab work on learning in a unicellular organism (Stentor coeruleus). You can apply here:
forms.gle/b47WpSobjFjo...
forms.gle/b47WpSobjFjo...
February 5, 2026 at 11:21 AM
My lab is looking to recruit 1-2 paid summer interns to do wet lab work on learning in a unicellular organism (Stentor coeruleus). You can apply here:
forms.gle/b47WpSobjFjo...
forms.gle/b47WpSobjFjo...
Reposted by Zach Cofran
Job alert in Malta on my ERC funded IslandLab Project for a post excavation research assistant. A bachalor's degree in Archaeology, or related fields is required, ideally with experience working on faunal assemblages and handling bones/fossils, and curating finds.
www.um.edu.mt/media/um/doc...
www.um.edu.mt/media/um/doc...
www.um.edu.mt
February 5, 2026 at 10:16 AM
Job alert in Malta on my ERC funded IslandLab Project for a post excavation research assistant. A bachalor's degree in Archaeology, or related fields is required, ideally with experience working on faunal assemblages and handling bones/fossils, and curating finds.
www.um.edu.mt/media/um/doc...
www.um.edu.mt/media/um/doc...
Reposted by Zach Cofran
Really wonderful story about Lazarus Kgasi, a leader in South African paleontology at the Ditsong Museum of Natural History.
www.npr.org/2026/02/04/g...
www.npr.org/2026/02/04/g...
How a Black fossil digger became a superstar in the very white world of paleontology
In South Africa, paleontology has been dominated by white people. Lazarus Kgasi is changing that dynamic — and coloring in the picture of the world our distant ancestors once inhabited.
www.npr.org
February 5, 2026 at 3:28 AM
Really wonderful story about Lazarus Kgasi, a leader in South African paleontology at the Ditsong Museum of Natural History.
www.npr.org/2026/02/04/g...
www.npr.org/2026/02/04/g...
Reposted by Zach Cofran
The history of evolutionary ideas about chins took me to Darwin, Pliny the Elder, Stephen Jay Gould, and Theodore Roosevelt. It's an irresistable subject that has befuddled scientists all this time.
www.johnhawks.net/p/what-the-h...
www.johnhawks.net/p/what-the-h...
What the heck are chins for?
A human characteristic that remains an enduring evolutionary enigma.
www.johnhawks.net
February 4, 2026 at 8:04 PM
The history of evolutionary ideas about chins took me to Darwin, Pliny the Elder, Stephen Jay Gould, and Theodore Roosevelt. It's an irresistable subject that has befuddled scientists all this time.
www.johnhawks.net/p/what-the-h...
www.johnhawks.net/p/what-the-h...
Reposted by Zach Cofran
New article! "Changing the Landscape of Archaeological Publishing" in Current Anthropology, by a giant collaborative group of coauthors fearlessly led by Jess Beck and including @bridgetalex.bsky.social @benmarwick.bsky.social @christinawarinner.bsky.social www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/epdf/10....
University of Chicago Press Journals: Cookie absent
www.journals.uchicago.edu
February 4, 2026 at 7:21 PM
New article! "Changing the Landscape of Archaeological Publishing" in Current Anthropology, by a giant collaborative group of coauthors fearlessly led by Jess Beck and including @bridgetalex.bsky.social @benmarwick.bsky.social @christinawarinner.bsky.social www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/epdf/10....