Simon Fisher
@profsimonfisher.bsky.social
Director of Language & Genetics at Max Planck Institute, Nijmegen.
Tracing the complex connections between genes, brains, speech & language.
Website: https://www.mpi.nl/people/fisher-simon-e
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3132-1996
Tracing the complex connections between genes, brains, speech & language.
Website: https://www.mpi.nl/people/fisher-simon-e
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3132-1996
Pinned
Remember when you first learned about genetics at school? All those fascinating examples of human traits that are each apparently determined by just a single gene? Time to check in on some of your favourites to see how they’re doing. 🧬🧵🧪 1/n
Reposted by Simon Fisher
Please tell friends & colleagues about our unique course “Genetics & Neurobiology of Language” July 27-Aug 3 2026. Expert tutors, interactive talks, panel discussions, all in a beautiful setting. Scholarships available: meetings.cshl.edu/courses.aspx...
@cshlnews.bsky.social @cshlbanbury.bsky.social
@cshlnews.bsky.social @cshlbanbury.bsky.social
February 13, 2026 at 5:01 PM
Please tell friends & colleagues about our unique course “Genetics & Neurobiology of Language” July 27-Aug 3 2026. Expert tutors, interactive talks, panel discussions, all in a beautiful setting. Scholarships available: meetings.cshl.edu/courses.aspx...
@cshlnews.bsky.social @cshlbanbury.bsky.social
@cshlnews.bsky.social @cshlbanbury.bsky.social
Reposted by Simon Fisher
Roses are red
Violets are blue
More people get Valentine's cards than I do
[Feb 14th "Escher poem" for the linguists]
Violets are blue
More people get Valentine's cards than I do
[Feb 14th "Escher poem" for the linguists]
February 14, 2026 at 7:07 PM
Roses are red
Violets are blue
More people get Valentine's cards than I do
[Feb 14th "Escher poem" for the linguists]
Violets are blue
More people get Valentine's cards than I do
[Feb 14th "Escher poem" for the linguists]
Reposted by Simon Fisher
Roses are red.
Violets are blue.
We do not doubt the technical quality of your study.
However, we are not persuaded that the findings represent a sufficient advance to warrant publication in Nature Valentines, & are returning the paper without a review.
#AcademicValentine
Violets are blue.
We do not doubt the technical quality of your study.
However, we are not persuaded that the findings represent a sufficient advance to warrant publication in Nature Valentines, & are returning the paper without a review.
#AcademicValentine
February 14, 2025 at 9:14 AM
Roses are red.
Violets are blue.
We do not doubt the technical quality of your study.
However, we are not persuaded that the findings represent a sufficient advance to warrant publication in Nature Valentines, & are returning the paper without a review.
#AcademicValentine
Violets are blue.
We do not doubt the technical quality of your study.
However, we are not persuaded that the findings represent a sufficient advance to warrant publication in Nature Valentines, & are returning the paper without a review.
#AcademicValentine
Reposted by Simon Fisher
Roses are red
Violets are blue
I'm sorry but as a large language model
I have no capacity for genuine emotion & cannot confess my undying love for you
Violets are blue
I'm sorry but as a large language model
I have no capacity for genuine emotion & cannot confess my undying love for you
February 14, 2026 at 8:53 AM
Roses are red
Violets are blue
I'm sorry but as a large language model
I have no capacity for genuine emotion & cannot confess my undying love for you
Violets are blue
I'm sorry but as a large language model
I have no capacity for genuine emotion & cannot confess my undying love for you
Roses are red
Violets are blue
I'm sorry but as a large language model
I have no capacity for genuine emotion & cannot confess my undying love for you
Violets are blue
I'm sorry but as a large language model
I have no capacity for genuine emotion & cannot confess my undying love for you
February 14, 2026 at 8:53 AM
Roses are red
Violets are blue
I'm sorry but as a large language model
I have no capacity for genuine emotion & cannot confess my undying love for you
Violets are blue
I'm sorry but as a large language model
I have no capacity for genuine emotion & cannot confess my undying love for you
Please tell friends & colleagues about our unique course “Genetics & Neurobiology of Language” July 27-Aug 3 2026. Expert tutors, interactive talks, panel discussions, all in a beautiful setting. Scholarships available: meetings.cshl.edu/courses.aspx...
@cshlnews.bsky.social @cshlbanbury.bsky.social
@cshlnews.bsky.social @cshlbanbury.bsky.social
February 13, 2026 at 5:01 PM
Please tell friends & colleagues about our unique course “Genetics & Neurobiology of Language” July 27-Aug 3 2026. Expert tutors, interactive talks, panel discussions, all in a beautiful setting. Scholarships available: meetings.cshl.edu/courses.aspx...
@cshlnews.bsky.social @cshlbanbury.bsky.social
@cshlnews.bsky.social @cshlbanbury.bsky.social
“If a single animal can have several different genomes at once, which one is the blueprint? This may not even be the right question to ask...” Intriguing jumping-off point for a superb piece on why our favourite metaphors fail to capture biology; @elisecutts.bsky.social in @pioneerwork.bsky.social
🧪
🧪
Myth of the Genetic Blueprint | Broadcast
Life isn't constructed along pre-drawn plans. It grows.
pioneerworks.org
February 13, 2026 at 11:01 AM
“If a single animal can have several different genomes at once, which one is the blueprint? This may not even be the right question to ask...” Intriguing jumping-off point for a superb piece on why our favourite metaphors fail to capture biology; @elisecutts.bsky.social in @pioneerwork.bsky.social
🧪
🧪
One of my favourite things about this figure (sketched by Charles Darwin in one of his notebooks in 1837) is the “I think” at the top. Beyond an illustration of his evolving thoughts on descent with modification, the image somehow captures the essence of scientific curiosity. #DarwinDay 2026
February 12, 2026 at 8:31 AM
One of my favourite things about this figure (sketched by Charles Darwin in one of his notebooks in 1837) is the “I think” at the top. Beyond an illustration of his evolving thoughts on descent with modification, the image somehow captures the essence of scientific curiosity. #DarwinDay 2026
I have just learned that AI is IA in Spanish, French & Italian, and KI in German. Exciting times.
February 11, 2026 at 7:29 PM
I have just learned that AI is IA in Spanish, French & Italian, and KI in German. Exciting times.
I'm always up for learning a new board game but there's nothing in the instructions to explain what the cat is for.
February 9, 2026 at 5:59 PM
I'm always up for learning a new board game but there's nothing in the instructions to explain what the cat is for.
Without naming your job, tell me something you say over and over again at work.
"Well it was definitely worth a shot. Let's try submitting to a different journal and hopefully they will send it out for review."
"Well it was definitely worth a shot. Let's try submitting to a different journal and hopefully they will send it out for review."
Without naming your job, tell me something you say over and over again at work.
"Don't use gerunds in headlines and crossheads, for the love of God."
"Don't use gerunds in headlines and crossheads, for the love of God."
Without naming your job, tell me something you say over and over again at work.
“Would you say more about what’s worrying you here?”
“Would you say more about what’s worrying you here?”
February 7, 2026 at 10:00 PM
Without naming your job, tell me something you say over and over again at work.
"Well it was definitely worth a shot. Let's try submitting to a different journal and hopefully they will send it out for review."
"Well it was definitely worth a shot. Let's try submitting to a different journal and hopefully they will send it out for review."
For anyone teaching/studying/researching the evolution of language, we wrote a framework paper especially for you!
It lays out how bridging diverse fields can give new insights into this most mysterious of human traits.
There's a link for free access on MPI website here:
www.mpi.nl/publications...
🧪
It lays out how bridging diverse fields can give new insights into this most mysterious of human traits.
There's a link for free access on MPI website here:
www.mpi.nl/publications...
🧪
What enables human language? A biocultural framework
Explaining the origins of language is a key challenge in understanding ourselves as a species. We present an empirical framework that draws on synergies across fields to facilitate robust studies of l...
www.science.org
February 6, 2026 at 1:12 PM
For anyone teaching/studying/researching the evolution of language, we wrote a framework paper especially for you!
It lays out how bridging diverse fields can give new insights into this most mysterious of human traits.
There's a link for free access on MPI website here:
www.mpi.nl/publications...
🧪
It lays out how bridging diverse fields can give new insights into this most mysterious of human traits.
There's a link for free access on MPI website here:
www.mpi.nl/publications...
🧪
“Our findings suggest the capacity to form secondary representations of pretend objects is within the cognitive potential of, at least, an enculturated ape & likely dates back 6-9 million years, to our common evolutionary ancestors.” Amalia Bastos & @chriskrupenye.bsky.social today in @science.org.🧪
Evidence for representation of pretend objects by Kanzi, a language-trained bonobo
Secondary representations enable our minds to depart from the here-and-now and generate imaginary, hypothetical, or alternate possibilities that are decoupled from reality, supporting many of our rich...
www.science.org
February 5, 2026 at 8:06 PM
“Our findings suggest the capacity to form secondary representations of pretend objects is within the cognitive potential of, at least, an enculturated ape & likely dates back 6-9 million years, to our common evolutionary ancestors.” Amalia Bastos & @chriskrupenye.bsky.social today in @science.org.🧪
Most people can call up pictures in their minds, visualizing the past & summoning images of the future. But for ~4% of us, such mental imagery is weak or absent. New edition of @nature.com has a nice introduction to how research on this phenomenon (aphantasia) opens up novel windows into the brain.🧪
Many people have no mental imagery. What’s going on in their brains?
People with aphantasia are offering a window into consciousness.
www.nature.com
February 4, 2026 at 6:34 PM
Most people can call up pictures in their minds, visualizing the past & summoning images of the future. But for ~4% of us, such mental imagery is weak or absent. New edition of @nature.com has a nice introduction to how research on this phenomenon (aphantasia) opens up novel windows into the brain.🧪
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.
Some dogs are “gifted word learners”, found idiosyncratically across breeds & households. Adapting methods designed to study understanding of human toddlers, researchers discovered that these dogs can pick up words by overhearing conversations, just like (or better than) 1.5-year-old children. 🐶🗣️🧪
Dogs with a large vocabulary of object labels learn new labels by overhearing like 1.5-year-old infants
Children as young as 18 months can acquire novel words by overhearing third-party interactions. Demonstrating similar learning processes in nonhuman species would indicate that the social-cognitive sk...
www.science.org
January 9, 2026 at 12:53 PM
Some dogs are “gifted word learners”, found idiosyncratically across breeds & households. Adapting methods designed to study understanding of human toddlers, researchers discovered that these dogs can pick up words by overhearing conversations, just like (or better than) 1.5-year-old children. 🐶🗣️🧪
~773kya fossils from Morocco show “a combination of primitive & derived traits reminiscent of later H. sapiens & Eurasian archaic hominins...The findings align with phylogenetic structure from paleogenetic data & highlight the Maghreb as a pivotal region for understanding emergence of our species.“🧪
Early hominins from Morocco basal to the Homo sapiens lineage - Nature
New hominin fossils from the Grotte à Hominidés at Thomas Quarry I (ThI-GH) in Casablanca, Morocco, dated to around 773 thousand years ago are similar in age to Homo antecessor, yet are morphologicall...
www.nature.com
January 7, 2026 at 5:13 PM
~773kya fossils from Morocco show “a combination of primitive & derived traits reminiscent of later H. sapiens & Eurasian archaic hominins...The findings align with phylogenetic structure from paleogenetic data & highlight the Maghreb as a pivotal region for understanding emergence of our species.“🧪
Thank you for submitting to Nature Years. Based on feedback from independent expert reviewers, we are unable to accept 2026 in its present form. If you feel up to the task, we would be willing to consider a substantially revised version that addresses the major concerns raised...
January 3, 2026 at 3:51 PM
Thank you for submitting to Nature Years. Based on feedback from independent expert reviewers, we are unable to accept 2026 in its present form. If you feel up to the task, we would be willing to consider a substantially revised version that addresses the major concerns raised...
A big benefit of travelling on a Eurostar train is that you get to enjoy the fascinating live travel statistics displayed on in-carriage info screens during your journey.
January 3, 2026 at 1:08 PM
A big benefit of travelling on a Eurostar train is that you get to enjoy the fascinating live travel statistics displayed on in-carriage info screens during your journey.
30 years ago today, December 31st 1995, the last ever Calvin & Hobbes comic strip was published. Even now, I still find it so poignant & moving.
December 31, 2025 at 2:32 PM
30 years ago today, December 31st 1995, the last ever Calvin & Hobbes comic strip was published. Even now, I still find it so poignant & moving.
I once fingerpicked "Street Spirit" (badly) on an acoustic guitar that I was considering buying, in a music shop in Oxford, unaware that Thom Yorke of Radiohead was standing directly behind me. My wife observed the sad affair but only informed me later, after we had exited said establishment.
Please quote this with the time you didn’t interact with someone famous - eg one time I was in Cardiff the same weekend as Willem Dafoe (but I didn’t see him or even know he was there until he appeared on the telly later)
Please quote this with your major interactions with massive celebrities. eg “I was married to the pope for fifteen years”
December 30, 2025 at 10:24 AM
I once fingerpicked "Street Spirit" (badly) on an acoustic guitar that I was considering buying, in a music shop in Oxford, unaware that Thom Yorke of Radiohead was standing directly behind me. My wife observed the sad affair but only informed me later, after we had exited said establishment.
For the interdisciplinary scientists at the Max Planck Society's little known North Pole Institute of Christmas Studies, this is always an especially busy time of year.
Exclusive report by @tomgauld.bsky.social:
Exclusive report by @tomgauld.bsky.social:
December 24, 2025 at 10:15 PM
For the interdisciplinary scientists at the Max Planck Society's little known North Pole Institute of Christmas Studies, this is always an especially busy time of year.
Exclusive report by @tomgauld.bsky.social:
Exclusive report by @tomgauld.bsky.social:
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
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
December 18, 2025 at 1:51 PM
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
Explainer🧵👇1/n
Reposted by Simon Fisher
On our evolutionary branch, a few genes got an update unique to humans.
Some used to think those variants might have been difference that made all the difference: the key to becoming human.
This month's Q&A with Barbara Molz @mpi-nl.bsky.social gets into new results that tell a different story. 🧪
Some used to think those variants might have been difference that made all the difference: the key to becoming human.
This month's Q&A with Barbara Molz @mpi-nl.bsky.social gets into new results that tell a different story. 🧪
December 11, 2025 at 6:19 PM
On our evolutionary branch, a few genes got an update unique to humans.
Some used to think those variants might have been difference that made all the difference: the key to becoming human.
This month's Q&A with Barbara Molz @mpi-nl.bsky.social gets into new results that tell a different story. 🧪
Some used to think those variants might have been difference that made all the difference: the key to becoming human.
This month's Q&A with Barbara Molz @mpi-nl.bsky.social gets into new results that tell a different story. 🧪
Heisenberg & Schrödinger get pulled over for speeding.
Cop: D'you know how fast you were driving?
Heisenberg: No but I know exactly where I am.
Cop: It was 118mph.
H: Thanks, now I'm lost.
Cop [inspects car, opens boot]: Were you aware there's a dead cat back here?
Schrödinger [angrily]: We are now!
Cop: D'you know how fast you were driving?
Heisenberg: No but I know exactly where I am.
Cop: It was 118mph.
H: Thanks, now I'm lost.
Cop [inspects car, opens boot]: Were you aware there's a dead cat back here?
Schrödinger [angrily]: We are now!
I just did a little post about Schrödinger's cat. I get why it is culturally iconic, but in terms of quantum physics it isn't very meaningful.
philipball86.substack.com/p/enough-abo...
philipball86.substack.com/p/enough-abo...
Enough about the cat
As the year of quantum draws to a close, so should our cultural obsession with Schrödinger's cat
philipball86.substack.com
December 11, 2025 at 12:43 PM
Heisenberg & Schrödinger get pulled over for speeding.
Cop: D'you know how fast you were driving?
Heisenberg: No but I know exactly where I am.
Cop: It was 118mph.
H: Thanks, now I'm lost.
Cop [inspects car, opens boot]: Were you aware there's a dead cat back here?
Schrödinger [angrily]: We are now!
Cop: D'you know how fast you were driving?
Heisenberg: No but I know exactly where I am.
Cop: It was 118mph.
H: Thanks, now I'm lost.
Cop [inspects car, opens boot]: Were you aware there's a dead cat back here?
Schrödinger [angrily]: We are now!