Philip Ball
@philipcball.bsky.social
Science writer and author of books including Bright Earth, The Music Instinct, Beyond Weird, How Life Works.
Reposted by Philip Ball
This week marks the debut of a new editorial column in Physics Magazine. Written in a personal voice by one of our editors, the column offers reflections on contemporary ideas filtered through a physicist’s way of seeing things.
Science Fiction as a Science Driver
Can scenarios inspired by science fiction help anticipate the effects of future technologies?
physics.aps.org
February 2, 2026 at 8:09 PM
This week marks the debut of a new editorial column in Physics Magazine. Written in a personal voice by one of our editors, the column offers reflections on contemporary ideas filtered through a physicist’s way of seeing things.
Reposted by Philip Ball
New contestant for "Greatest correction":
"The star rating for this film was corrected on 2 February 2026. A formatting issue led an earlier version to be awarded one star, when the reviewer’s intention was zero."
www.theguardian.com/film/2026/ja...
"The star rating for this film was corrected on 2 February 2026. A formatting issue led an earlier version to be awarded one star, when the reviewer’s intention was zero."
www.theguardian.com/film/2026/ja...
Melania review – Trump film is a gilded trash remake of The Zone of Interest
Dispiriting, deadly and unrevealing – there is a decent documentary to be made about the former model from Slovenia, but this one is unredeemable
www.theguardian.com
February 2, 2026 at 6:27 PM
New contestant for "Greatest correction":
"The star rating for this film was corrected on 2 February 2026. A formatting issue led an earlier version to be awarded one star, when the reviewer’s intention was zero."
www.theguardian.com/film/2026/ja...
"The star rating for this film was corrected on 2 February 2026. A formatting issue led an earlier version to be awarded one star, when the reviewer’s intention was zero."
www.theguardian.com/film/2026/ja...
Reposted by Philip Ball
Thank you for sharing these essays! We've also published some recent survey findings further demonstrating the tension between public/clinician perspectives in the U.S.:
Clinician Survey:
bsky.app/profile/remy...
Public Survey:
bsky.app/profile/remy...
Clinician Survey:
bsky.app/profile/remy...
Public Survey:
bsky.app/profile/remy...
Polygenic embryo screening is being marketed commercially – but how do IVF clinicians view it?
• General approval is low (12%)
For specific uses:
• 59% approved of health-related embryo selection
• 6% approved of trait-based selection
🧵 Survey findings in NPJ Genomic Medicine
• General approval is low (12%)
For specific uses:
• 59% approved of health-related embryo selection
• 6% approved of trait-based selection
🧵 Survey findings in NPJ Genomic Medicine
February 2, 2026 at 6:34 PM
Thank you for sharing these essays! We've also published some recent survey findings further demonstrating the tension between public/clinician perspectives in the U.S.:
Clinician Survey:
bsky.app/profile/remy...
Public Survey:
bsky.app/profile/remy...
Clinician Survey:
bsky.app/profile/remy...
Public Survey:
bsky.app/profile/remy...
I don't see any wave of evidence. That's because, as Mariana's article shows, there is no wave of evidence. Any claims of benefits for cursive over manuscript are marginal, contentious, and hard to reproduce...
February 2, 2026 at 6:24 PM
I don't see any wave of evidence. That's because, as Mariana's article shows, there is no wave of evidence. Any claims of benefits for cursive over manuscript are marginal, contentious, and hard to reproduce...
Reposted by Philip Ball
NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya has recently said that he wants to transform the NIH into the “research arm of MAHA” and a “central driver of the MAHA agenda.” Lysenkoism 2.0 continues apace at NIH. sciencebasedmedicine.org/maha-podcast...
Lysenkoism 2.0 continues: Podcast Jay wants to turn NIH into the “research arm” of MAHA
NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya has recently said that he wants to transform the NIH into the "research arm of MAHA" and a "central driver of the MAHA agenda." Lysenkoism 2.0 continues apace at NIH.
sciencebasedmedicine.org
February 2, 2026 at 3:14 PM
NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya has recently said that he wants to transform the NIH into the “research arm of MAHA” and a “central driver of the MAHA agenda.” Lysenkoism 2.0 continues apace at NIH. sciencebasedmedicine.org/maha-podcast...
Interesting essays on polygenic PGT published by PET here, presenting contrasting views. First, the view con, by Peter Thompson of the HFEA:
www.progress.org.uk/why-pgt-p-is...
www.progress.org.uk/why-pgt-p-is...
Why PGT-P is not lawful in the UK: The regulator explains | PET
PGT-P is not supported by evidence and may reduce the chances of having a baby overall, argues HFEA chief executive Peter Thompson...
www.progress.org.uk
February 2, 2026 at 6:01 PM
Interesting essays on polygenic PGT published by PET here, presenting contrasting views. First, the view con, by Peter Thompson of the HFEA:
www.progress.org.uk/why-pgt-p-is...
www.progress.org.uk/why-pgt-p-is...
"Over the years, this book has been depoliticised into just a love story." I finally got round to reading Wuthering Heights about six years ago, and was astonished at what I found. As this (good) essay says, we have, culturally, utterly neutered its savagery.
Emerald Fennell has said Wuthering Heights left its greatest impression on her at 14. Here’s my interpretation after reading at 41.
Turns out it isn’t really about love at all, but about inheritance, race & power.
kristiedegaris.substack.com/p/wuthering-...
#Books #Writing #Scotland #UK #Film
Turns out it isn’t really about love at all, but about inheritance, race & power.
kristiedegaris.substack.com/p/wuthering-...
#Books #Writing #Scotland #UK #Film
Two Terrible Children on a Windy Hill: A Rereading of Wuthering Heights
In 2026, Wuthering Heights has become synonymous with Jacob Elordi’s finger appraising Margot Robbie’s gag reflex.
kristiedegaris.substack.com
February 2, 2026 at 12:28 PM
"Over the years, this book has been depoliticised into just a love story." I finally got round to reading Wuthering Heights about six years ago, and was astonished at what I found. As this (good) essay says, we have, culturally, utterly neutered its savagery.
I cannot endorse this enough. AI itself is not "taking us" anywhere. But its developers would certainly like to.
It is hard to do, but people (me included) really should take care about ascribing agency to technologies that are implemented by and through all sorts of already existing entities and institutions.
www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
Opinion | Where Is A.I. Taking Us? Eight Leading Thinkers Share Their Visions.
Experts share their thoughts on the future of A.I. and how it will reshape society in the coming years.
www.nytimes.com
February 2, 2026 at 12:10 PM
I cannot endorse this enough. AI itself is not "taking us" anywhere. But its developers would certainly like to.
Reposted by Philip Ball
Nasa's definition of life states that it is '...a self-sustaining chemical system capable of Darwinian evolution’ – but there's a lot to ponder when you're talking about the beginning of everything.
How RNA reveals clues to life’s origins on Earth
The discovery of catalytic RNA transformed our understanding of life's beginnings. Clare Sansom explores how the RNA world hypothesis bridges the gap between non-living chemistry and the first cells
www.chemistryworld.com
February 2, 2026 at 11:45 AM
Nasa's definition of life states that it is '...a self-sustaining chemical system capable of Darwinian evolution’ – but there's a lot to ponder when you're talking about the beginning of everything.
Reposted by Philip Ball
"Among the hires at CBS News announced by Weiss is a doctor who claims he reduced his biological age by 20 years with cold plunges; that cod liver oil treats autism; and that Alzheimer’s and dementia can be reversed with supplements he sells on his online store."
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...
Bari Weiss’s new CBS hires include ‘germ theory denialist’ doctor
Dr Mark Hyman, who claimed he reduced his biological age by 20 years, brought on as a contributor
www.theguardian.com
February 1, 2026 at 7:58 PM
"Among the hires at CBS News announced by Weiss is a doctor who claims he reduced his biological age by 20 years with cold plunges; that cod liver oil treats autism; and that Alzheimer’s and dementia can be reversed with supplements he sells on his online store."
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...
And we all know who Lawrence is, of course.
Brockman is founder of “The Edge network”, a citation ring, and long time agent/broker to many academics you know
I was curious about the fact that there were seemingly no women scientists mentioned, even of equivalent caliber, and came across what is, seemingly, beef between Epstein and Brockman debating whether "the women are all weak" or not
February 1, 2026 at 8:58 PM
And we all know who Lawrence is, of course.
Some Sunday evening Homunculus.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPuk...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPuk...
Frankenstein
YouTube video by Philip Ball
www.youtube.com
February 1, 2026 at 8:51 PM
Some Sunday evening Homunculus.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPuk...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPuk...
One more time for luck.
I had intended to post something about this new Google DeepMind paper that appeared yesterday in Nature, but the press coverage has added to what there is to say. So this is a long 🧵
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Advancing regulatory variant effect prediction with AlphaGenome - Nature
AlphaGenome, a deep learning model that inputs 1-Mb DNA sequence to predict functional genomic tracks at single-base resolution across diverse modalities, outperforms existing models in variant effect...
www.nature.com
January 31, 2026 at 10:41 PM
One more time for luck.
Reposted by Philip Ball
Can’t believe they released the Epstein files to cover up for the Melania movie.
January 30, 2026 at 7:47 PM
Can’t believe they released the Epstein files to cover up for the Melania movie.
Reposted by Philip Ball
Bhattacharya, a moment ago: "What you've been seeing in the press is that there have been funding cuts. There haven't been funding cuts. What there has been is a change in agency priorities."
Our year in numbers begs to differ
www.nature.com/immersive/d4...
Our year in numbers begs to differ
www.nature.com/immersive/d4...
January 30, 2026 at 5:29 PM
Bhattacharya, a moment ago: "What you've been seeing in the press is that there have been funding cuts. There haven't been funding cuts. What there has been is a change in agency priorities."
Our year in numbers begs to differ
www.nature.com/immersive/d4...
Our year in numbers begs to differ
www.nature.com/immersive/d4...
I can't quite really imagine that Melania was worth it just for the sake of this review, but I have to hand it to Xan Brooks that it's a close-run thing.
www.theguardian.com/film/2026/ja...
www.theguardian.com/film/2026/ja...
Melania review – Trump film is a gilded trash remake of The Zone of Interest
Dispiriting, deadly and unrevealing – there is a decent documentary to be made about the former model from Slovenia, but this one is unredeemable
www.theguardian.com
January 30, 2026 at 9:50 PM
I can't quite really imagine that Melania was worth it just for the sake of this review, but I have to hand it to Xan Brooks that it's a close-run thing.
www.theguardian.com/film/2026/ja...
www.theguardian.com/film/2026/ja...
Reposted by Philip Ball
The thread as a shareable webpage: https://skywriter.blue/pages/did:plc:a4feceawcvvxstg7pagxnryg/post/3mdmzicepgs2p.
Page by Philip Ball | @philipcball.bsky.social - skywriter.blue
I had intended to post something about this new Google DeepMind paper that appeared yesterday in Nature, but the press coverage has added to what there is to say. So this is a long 🧵
www.nature.com...
skywriter.blue
January 30, 2026 at 4:54 PM
The thread as a shareable webpage: https://skywriter.blue/pages/did:plc:a4feceawcvvxstg7pagxnryg/post/3mdmzicepgs2p.
Reposted by Philip Ball
Heritability = a statistical description of sources of interindividual variation in a specific set of people under a specific set of environmental conditions. It doesn't index a fixed underlying feature of human biology. A few lines in this paper acknowledge that but its overall framing may mislead.
Heritability of intrinsic human life span is about 50% when confounding factors are addressed
How heritable is human life span? If genetic heritability is high, longevity genes can reveal aging mechanisms and inform medicine and public health. However, current estimates of heritability are low...
www.science.org
January 30, 2026 at 3:36 PM
Heritability = a statistical description of sources of interindividual variation in a specific set of people under a specific set of environmental conditions. It doesn't index a fixed underlying feature of human biology. A few lines in this paper acknowledge that but its overall framing may mislead.
Gonna put this out again, as I'm pleased to see that it seems to be useful.
I had intended to post something about this new Google DeepMind paper that appeared yesterday in Nature, but the press coverage has added to what there is to say. So this is a long 🧵
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Advancing regulatory variant effect prediction with AlphaGenome - Nature
AlphaGenome, a deep learning model that inputs 1-Mb DNA sequence to predict functional genomic tracks at single-base resolution across diverse modalities, outperforms existing models in variant effect...
www.nature.com
January 30, 2026 at 3:42 PM
Gonna put this out again, as I'm pleased to see that it seems to be useful.
Reposted by Philip Ball
Vital point, often lost:
"As the team notes, the heritability of any trait isn’t a fixed number that is true for everyone, everywhere, anytime. Rather, it applies to only a specific population in a specific environment."
"As the team notes, the heritability of any trait isn’t a fixed number that is true for everyone, everywhere, anytime. Rather, it applies to only a specific population in a specific environment."
How long people live in countries such as Sweden is now roughly equally dependent on genes and environment 🧪
I suspect that's what many people assume anyway, but twin studies had suggested genes play a smaller role
www.newscientist.com/article/2513...
I suspect that's what many people assume anyway, but twin studies had suggested genes play a smaller role
www.newscientist.com/article/2513...
Our lifespans may be half down to genes and half to the environment
A reanalysis of twin data from Denmark and Sweden suggests that how long we live now depends roughly equally on the genes we inherit, and on where we live and what we do
www.newscientist.com
January 30, 2026 at 1:11 PM
Vital point, often lost:
"As the team notes, the heritability of any trait isn’t a fixed number that is true for everyone, everywhere, anytime. Rather, it applies to only a specific population in a specific environment."
"As the team notes, the heritability of any trait isn’t a fixed number that is true for everyone, everywhere, anytime. Rather, it applies to only a specific population in a specific environment."
Reposted by Philip Ball
I also think we can conceive of the whole genome as instantiating a generative model of the organism... 😊 www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
January 30, 2026 at 12:19 PM
I also think we can conceive of the whole genome as instantiating a generative model of the organism... 😊 www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Reposted by Philip Ball
What is already known about gene regulation is so complicated that "there is not really any good language to communicate it in the general media".
But - imo - there is in this (not really) long 🧵 and in @philipcball.bsky.social's How Life Works...
But - imo - there is in this (not really) long 🧵 and in @philipcball.bsky.social's How Life Works...
January 30, 2026 at 12:18 PM
What is already known about gene regulation is so complicated that "there is not really any good language to communicate it in the general media".
But - imo - there is in this (not really) long 🧵 and in @philipcball.bsky.social's How Life Works...
But - imo - there is in this (not really) long 🧵 and in @philipcball.bsky.social's How Life Works...
This looks like a parody, but evidently it isn't. (And yes, of course Jeremy is being ironic with "Big" - but also of course, in a way not.)
Big Event Today
MAHA INSTITUTE PRESENTS
Reclaiming Science: The People's NIH
with Dr. Jay Bhattacharya
January 30, 2026
12:00–5:00pm
Registration Starting at 11:00am
The Willard Hotel
The Crystal Room
1401 Pennsylvania Ave NW
Washington, DC 20004
1/5
MAHA INSTITUTE PRESENTS
Reclaiming Science: The People's NIH
with Dr. Jay Bhattacharya
January 30, 2026
12:00–5:00pm
Registration Starting at 11:00am
The Willard Hotel
The Crystal Room
1401 Pennsylvania Ave NW
Washington, DC 20004
1/5
January 30, 2026 at 12:08 PM
This looks like a parody, but evidently it isn't. (And yes, of course Jeremy is being ironic with "Big" - but also of course, in a way not.)
I recommend this as a great summary of the debates and the state of play in eukaryotic regulation. I particularly commend the discussion of causation.
For historical and conceptual context of understanding the genome as a dynamic reactive system, may I suggest our paper in @biologicaltheory.bsky.social link.springer.com/article/10.1...
Back to Chromatin: ENCODE and the Dynamic Epigenome - Biological Theory
The “Encyclopedia of DNA Elements” (ENCODE) project was launched by the US National Human Genome Research Institute in the aftermath of the Human Genome Project (HGP). It aimed to systematically map t...
link.springer.com
January 30, 2026 at 11:50 AM
I recommend this as a great summary of the debates and the state of play in eukaryotic regulation. I particularly commend the discussion of causation.
I had intended to post something about this new Google DeepMind paper that appeared yesterday in Nature, but the press coverage has added to what there is to say. So this is a long 🧵
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Advancing regulatory variant effect prediction with AlphaGenome - Nature
AlphaGenome, a deep learning model that inputs 1-Mb DNA sequence to predict functional genomic tracks at single-base resolution across diverse modalities, outperforms existing models in variant effect...
www.nature.com
January 30, 2026 at 9:47 AM
I had intended to post something about this new Google DeepMind paper that appeared yesterday in Nature, but the press coverage has added to what there is to say. So this is a long 🧵
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...