Gregory Morgan 🇺🇸🇳🇿
@drgregorymorgan.bsky.social
Historian and philosopher of science, especially virology. New Zealand-American. Lover of antiquarian books, and verge pocket watches. Author of Cancer Virus Hunters (JHU Press, 2022)
https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=RRkkWaYAAAAJ
https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=RRkkWaYAAAAJ
If you are looking to read a more nuanced account of Rosalind Franklin and Jim Watson following the Double Helix, check out an article Angela Creager and I wrote a while back:
www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/...
www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/...
After the Double Helix : Rosalind Franklin's Research on Tobacco mosaic virus | Isis: Vol 99, No 2
ABSTRACT Rosalind Franklin is best known for her informative X-ray diffraction patterns of DNA that provided vital clues for James Watson and Francis Crick's double-stranded helical model. Her scienti...
www.journals.uchicago.edu
November 8, 2025 at 4:04 PM
If you are looking to read a more nuanced account of Rosalind Franklin and Jim Watson following the Double Helix, check out an article Angela Creager and I wrote a while back:
www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/...
www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/...
Reposted by Gregory Morgan 🇺🇸🇳🇿
Children and young people faced higher and longer-lasting risks of rare heart complications after #COVID19 infection than after vaccination, say @vpd-hlri.bsky.social researchers.
Find out more about this study 👇
bit.ly/43BmUof 🧪
Find out more about this study 👇
bit.ly/43BmUof 🧪
Risk of rare heart complications in children higher after COVID-19 infection than after vaccination
Children and young people faced long-lasting and higher risks of rare heart and inflammatory complications after COVID-19 infection, compared to before or
bit.ly
November 6, 2025 at 9:46 AM
Children and young people faced higher and longer-lasting risks of rare heart complications after #COVID19 infection than after vaccination, say @vpd-hlri.bsky.social researchers.
Find out more about this study 👇
bit.ly/43BmUof 🧪
Find out more about this study 👇
bit.ly/43BmUof 🧪
Nice to see philosophers of science taking on issues of the day. aeon.co/essays/scien...
Science needs disagreement. What makes some disagreement useless? | Aeon Essays
Scientific progress depends on disagreement. So why are vaccine sceptics and other science critics not worth listening to?
aeon.co
November 4, 2025 at 4:40 AM
Nice to see philosophers of science taking on issues of the day. aeon.co/essays/scien...
Reposted by Gregory Morgan 🇺🇸🇳🇿
Last chance to download my book for free! It's still available until tomorrow.
New Element in the Philosophy of Biology series—free to download until Oct. 24! @djnicholson.bsky.social uncovers Schrödinger’s motivations for writing "What Is Life?", revisits its central arguments & examines the book’s lasting impact on cell & molecular biology👇 www.cambridge.org/core/element...
October 23, 2025 at 3:40 PM
Last chance to download my book for free! It's still available until tomorrow.
Rare white whale sighted in New Zealand:
www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/3608...
www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/3608...
Rare white humpback whale spotted off coast of Kaikōura
Could it be the world-famous Migaloo who hasn’t been spotted in five years?
www.stuff.co.nz
October 14, 2025 at 1:50 PM
Rare white whale sighted in New Zealand:
www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/3608...
www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/3608...
One of my undergraduate mentors the biologist Hamish Spencer has retired:
www.otago.ac.nz/news/newsroo...?
www.otago.ac.nz/news/newsroo...?
Zoology academic retires following career exploring natural evolution
Emeritus Professor Hamish Spencer recalls that, even when he was a child collecting shells from his local Bay of Plenty beaches, he was fascinated by the diversity of animals and how they relate to ea...
www.otago.ac.nz
October 11, 2025 at 12:24 PM
One of my undergraduate mentors the biologist Hamish Spencer has retired:
www.otago.ac.nz/news/newsroo...?
www.otago.ac.nz/news/newsroo...?
I really love this new song from the artist Plain Henley:
open.spotify.com/track/67Tb5m...
open.spotify.com/track/67Tb5m...
Summer's Out
open.spotify.com
October 7, 2025 at 12:54 PM
I really love this new song from the artist Plain Henley:
open.spotify.com/track/67Tb5m...
open.spotify.com/track/67Tb5m...
Moa creek was just down the road from where I grew up
www.facebook.com/reel/7731375...
www.facebook.com/reel/7731375...
993 reactions · 178 shares | The wingless bird that ruled the roost.
Episode 13. Remembering Moa 🥚
#moa #frankfilm #storiesfromthesouth | Frank Film
The wingless bird that ruled the roost.
Episode 13. Remembering Moa 🥚
#moa #frankfilm #storiesfromthesouth.
www.facebook.com
September 18, 2025 at 4:49 PM
Moa creek was just down the road from where I grew up
www.facebook.com/reel/7731375...
www.facebook.com/reel/7731375...
Reposted by Gregory Morgan 🇺🇸🇳🇿
🧪 Cool subtext to this cool story on the “little red dots’ - possibly primordial black holes! - dotting the early Universe is that the hopes for the James Webb telescope have been realised. It is pulling back the curtain on puzzling and unexpected things that will help us understand how we got here.
A Single, ‘Naked’ Black Hole Rewrites the History of the Universe | Quanta Magazine
The James Webb Space Telescope has found a lonely black hole in the early universe that’s as heavy as 50 million suns. A major discovery, the object confounds theories of the young cosmos.
www.quantamagazine.org
September 13, 2025 at 6:07 PM
🧪 Cool subtext to this cool story on the “little red dots’ - possibly primordial black holes! - dotting the early Universe is that the hopes for the James Webb telescope have been realised. It is pulling back the curtain on puzzling and unexpected things that will help us understand how we got here.
Hoboken train station is being renovated
September 12, 2025 at 1:37 PM
Hoboken train station is being renovated
The start of the 2025-26 academic year at Stevens Institute of Technology
September 7, 2025 at 12:45 AM
The start of the 2025-26 academic year at Stevens Institute of Technology
Reposted by Gregory Morgan 🇺🇸🇳🇿
A technology that played a key part in saving millions of lives during the pandemic should be celebrated. Yet in the US, research into mRNA vaccines is being cut. While sadly not unexpected, it’s irresponsible as we argue in our editorial this week 🧪
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Cancelling mRNA studies is the highest irresponsibility
The rest of the world is not following the US government’s dangerous path, and will stick with the technology that helped the world out of the COVID-19 pandemic.
www.nature.com
August 20, 2025 at 10:51 PM
A technology that played a key part in saving millions of lives during the pandemic should be celebrated. Yet in the US, research into mRNA vaccines is being cut. While sadly not unexpected, it’s irresponsible as we argue in our editorial this week 🧪
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Why are most books written by historians of science not read by scientists? Is it they focus too much on social context and not enough on the details of past science? #sts #hps #historyofscience #sociologyofscience 🧪
August 21, 2025 at 4:22 AM
Why are most books written by historians of science not read by scientists? Is it they focus too much on social context and not enough on the details of past science? #sts #hps #historyofscience #sociologyofscience 🧪
Reposted by Gregory Morgan 🇺🇸🇳🇿
New on H-Sci-Med-Tech:
Check out Amalia Sweet (@harvard.edu)’s review of @drgregorymorgan.bsky.social (Stevens Institute of Technology)’s book _Cancer Virus Hunters: A History of Tumor Virology_, pub 2022 @hopkinspress.bsky.social
#HSTM
Review available @hnetreviews.bsky.social
Check out Amalia Sweet (@harvard.edu)’s review of @drgregorymorgan.bsky.social (Stevens Institute of Technology)’s book _Cancer Virus Hunters: A History of Tumor Virology_, pub 2022 @hopkinspress.bsky.social
#HSTM
Review available @hnetreviews.bsky.social
August 19, 2025 at 3:20 PM
New on H-Sci-Med-Tech:
Check out Amalia Sweet (@harvard.edu)’s review of @drgregorymorgan.bsky.social (Stevens Institute of Technology)’s book _Cancer Virus Hunters: A History of Tumor Virology_, pub 2022 @hopkinspress.bsky.social
#HSTM
Review available @hnetreviews.bsky.social
Check out Amalia Sweet (@harvard.edu)’s review of @drgregorymorgan.bsky.social (Stevens Institute of Technology)’s book _Cancer Virus Hunters: A History of Tumor Virology_, pub 2022 @hopkinspress.bsky.social
#HSTM
Review available @hnetreviews.bsky.social
In the history of cancer research, "horns" growing from rabbits' heads were important in showing cancer could be virally caused. See Chapter 1 of Cancer Virus Hunters.
apnews.com/article/rabb...
apnews.com/article/rabb...
Rabbits with 'horns' in Colorado are being called 'Frankenstein bunnies.' Here's why
Some cottontail rabbits in Fort Collins, Colorado, have been drawing attention because they have wart-like growths on their faces that look like horns.
apnews.com
August 14, 2025 at 1:01 PM
In the history of cancer research, "horns" growing from rabbits' heads were important in showing cancer could be virally caused. See Chapter 1 of Cancer Virus Hunters.
apnews.com/article/rabb...
apnews.com/article/rabb...
Amazing frequency of lightning strikes in this July storm in South Dakota
July 28, 2025 at 2:28 PM
Amazing frequency of lightning strikes in this July storm in South Dakota
Reposted by Gregory Morgan 🇺🇸🇳🇿
Archaeologists recovered 22 blocks from the Lighthouse of Alexandria, an ancient wonder. Using 3D scans, researchers aim to digitally reconstruct it, shedding light on its design and collapse. The blocks were found in the harbor off Alexandria.
🧪📜
#AncientEgypt
#Archaeology
#DigitalReconstruction
🧪📜
#AncientEgypt
#Archaeology
#DigitalReconstruction
Massive blocks from the Lighthouse of Alexandria, an ancient wonder, hauled up from the Mediterranean
French and Egyptian researchers are making a "digital twin" of the Lighthouse of Alexandria in Egypt after lifting its ancient submerged blocks out of the Mediterranean Sea.
www.livescience.com
July 8, 2025 at 8:01 PM
Archaeologists recovered 22 blocks from the Lighthouse of Alexandria, an ancient wonder. Using 3D scans, researchers aim to digitally reconstruct it, shedding light on its design and collapse. The blocks were found in the harbor off Alexandria.
🧪📜
#AncientEgypt
#Archaeology
#DigitalReconstruction
🧪📜
#AncientEgypt
#Archaeology
#DigitalReconstruction
Meeting and talking with Roger Penrose in 1993 was one of the highlights of my undergraduate experience. Here is an excellent review of a recent biography:https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v47/n11/steven-shapin/through-the-trapdoor
Steven Shapin · Through the Trapdoor: Roger Penrose’s Puzzles
Stephen Hawking may have been a genius, but ‘Roger Penrose’s insights seem to stem from some superhuman life-form...
www.lrb.co.uk
June 25, 2025 at 2:11 PM
Meeting and talking with Roger Penrose in 1993 was one of the highlights of my undergraduate experience. Here is an excellent review of a recent biography:https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v47/n11/steven-shapin/through-the-trapdoor
Johns Hopkins University Press is having a book sale including on Cancer Virus Hunters. "From now until July 10th, use code H4JUL25 for 40% off all books and free shipping on $75+ orders." @JHUPress
www.press.jhu.edu/books
www.press.jhu.edu/books
Books
From now until July 10th, use code H4JUL25 for 40% off all books and free shipping on $75+ orders. From summer reads like "Jane Austen and the Price of Happiness" to titles on American history, presidents, and more, Hopkins Press has something for every reader.
www.press.jhu.edu
June 24, 2025 at 1:19 PM
Johns Hopkins University Press is having a book sale including on Cancer Virus Hunters. "From now until July 10th, use code H4JUL25 for 40% off all books and free shipping on $75+ orders." @JHUPress
www.press.jhu.edu/books
www.press.jhu.edu/books
Looking for a good book on the philosophy of quantum mechanics?
www.amphilsoc.org/news/aps-awa...
www.amphilsoc.org/news/aps-awa...
APS Awards 2025 Patrick Suppes Prize in Philosophy of Science, largest book prize in Philosophy, to Dr. Alyssa Ney | American Philosophical Society
The American Philosophical Society has awarded the 2025 Patrick Suppes Prize in Philosophy to Dr. Alyssa Ney for her book The World in the Wave Function: A Metaphysics for Quantum Physics (Oxford Univ...
www.amphilsoc.org
June 13, 2025 at 1:20 PM
Looking for a good book on the philosophy of quantum mechanics?
www.amphilsoc.org/news/aps-awa...
www.amphilsoc.org/news/aps-awa...
Stevens Institute of Technology Commencement 2025: Prof Gregory Morgan as faculty marshall and Prof Carlos Alomar, music professor #stevens @FollowStevens @StevensNewsroom
June 9, 2025 at 2:28 PM
Stevens Institute of Technology Commencement 2025: Prof Gregory Morgan as faculty marshall and Prof Carlos Alomar, music professor #stevens @FollowStevens @StevensNewsroom
Reposted by Gregory Morgan 🇺🇸🇳🇿
Reminder: Nobel-prize winning PCR (1983), used in basically all genetic tech today, was only possible because of extremophile bacterium discovered in 1964 in Yellowstone funded by a small ~$80k NSF grant with no obvious application at the time. #science 🧪
www.richmondscientific.com/how-a-discov...
www.richmondscientific.com/how-a-discov...
How a discovery in Yellowstone National Park led to the development of PCR - Richmond Scientific
A discovery in Yellowstone National Park led to the development of PCR, the gold-standard COVID-19 tests used to fight the global pandemic.
www.richmondscientific.com
June 8, 2025 at 9:09 PM
Reminder: Nobel-prize winning PCR (1983), used in basically all genetic tech today, was only possible because of extremophile bacterium discovered in 1964 in Yellowstone funded by a small ~$80k NSF grant with no obvious application at the time. #science 🧪
www.richmondscientific.com/how-a-discov...
www.richmondscientific.com/how-a-discov...
China is catching the US on R&D spending
May 30, 2025 at 2:55 PM
China is catching the US on R&D spending