Randolph Nesse
@randynesse.bsky.social
A founder of evolutionary medicine now trying to help psychiatry find its missing foundation in evolutionary biology.
Evolution, Medicine and Public Health has just started its 14th year. All publications from 2025 are listed with links at the EvMedReview.com substack post. Interesting reading!
🧪 @evmed.bsky.social @evmedasu.bsky.social @tricem.bsky.social
www.evmedreview.com/p/evolution-...
🧪 @evmed.bsky.social @evmedasu.bsky.social @tricem.bsky.social
www.evmedreview.com/p/evolution-...
Evolution, Medicine, and Public Health: All articles published in 2025
EMPH is an open access Oxford University Press journal sponsored by the International Society for Evolution, Medicine, and Public Health
www.evmedreview.com
January 11, 2026 at 6:20 PM
Evolution, Medicine and Public Health has just started its 14th year. All publications from 2025 are listed with links at the EvMedReview.com substack post. Interesting reading!
🧪 @evmed.bsky.social @evmedasu.bsky.social @tricem.bsky.social
www.evmedreview.com/p/evolution-...
🧪 @evmed.bsky.social @evmedasu.bsky.social @tricem.bsky.social
www.evmedreview.com/p/evolution-...
Thanks, Daniela for helping people to realize that bad feelings can have meaning and provide useful motivations! But as your work shows, they can also be normal but useless. Or they can be products of a failing control system. Individualized assessment is essential.
What if your “bad” feelings aren’t bad at all, but evolution’s way of protecting you? Shame, anxiety, and sadness may hurt - but they can also heal.
@randynesse.bsky.social has written about this in his brilliant book: “Good Reasons for Feeling Bad.”
#DanielaSieff #ShameHealing #TraumaHealing
@randynesse.bsky.social has written about this in his brilliant book: “Good Reasons for Feeling Bad.”
#DanielaSieff #ShameHealing #TraumaHealing
December 9, 2025 at 3:43 PM
Thanks, Daniela for helping people to realize that bad feelings can have meaning and provide useful motivations! But as your work shows, they can also be normal but useless. Or they can be products of a failing control system. Individualized assessment is essential.
Turns out all the Friend of Darwin award winners this year are experts in evolutionary medicine! I will be curious to hear what we all have to say at the Dec 4,6 PM ET event at us02web.zoom.us/webinar/regi...
November 26, 2025 at 9:26 PM
Turns out all the Friend of Darwin award winners this year are experts in evolutionary medicine! I will be curious to hear what we all have to say at the Dec 4,6 PM ET event at us02web.zoom.us/webinar/regi...
The ClubEvMed on Dec 2 at Noon ET on this new book will be interesting! Laurence Hurst will kick it off, David Haig will comment, and I will MC a lively discussion. @evmed.bsky.social @umehap.bsky.social @tricem.bsky.social @evmedasu.bsky.social
Register now!
duke.zoom.us/meeting/regi...
Register now!
duke.zoom.us/meeting/regi...
November 21, 2025 at 12:27 AM
The ClubEvMed on Dec 2 at Noon ET on this new book will be interesting! Laurence Hurst will kick it off, David Haig will comment, and I will MC a lively discussion. @evmed.bsky.social @umehap.bsky.social @tricem.bsky.social @evmedasu.bsky.social
Register now!
duke.zoom.us/meeting/regi...
Register now!
duke.zoom.us/meeting/regi...
Why can't we find specific genes and brain abnormalities that cause and define specific mood disorders? It is because, like heart and renal failure, mood disorders are failure modes of control systems that can have diverse causes.
🧪 @evmed.bsky.social
www.nessays.com/p/mood-disor...
🧪 @evmed.bsky.social
www.nessays.com/p/mood-disor...
September 15, 2025 at 5:08 PM
Why can't we find specific genes and brain abnormalities that cause and define specific mood disorders? It is because, like heart and renal failure, mood disorders are failure modes of control systems that can have diverse causes.
🧪 @evmed.bsky.social
www.nessays.com/p/mood-disor...
🧪 @evmed.bsky.social
www.nessays.com/p/mood-disor...
I will give 2 talks on evolutionary psychiatry in Tokyo on Sept 24 mentalhealth-unit.jp/plugin/blogs...
and 1 in Kyoto on the 25th.
ashbi.kyoto-u.ac.jp/ja/event/eve...
I look forward to meeting Japanese colleagues.
@evmed.bsky.social @humbehevosoc.bsky.social 🧪 @evolmtg.bsky.social @evol
and 1 in Kyoto on the 25th.
ashbi.kyoto-u.ac.jp/ja/event/eve...
I look forward to meeting Japanese colleagues.
@evmed.bsky.social @humbehevosoc.bsky.social 🧪 @evolmtg.bsky.social @evol
September 14, 2025 at 6:47 PM
I will give 2 talks on evolutionary psychiatry in Tokyo on Sept 24 mentalhealth-unit.jp/plugin/blogs...
and 1 in Kyoto on the 25th.
ashbi.kyoto-u.ac.jp/ja/event/eve...
I look forward to meeting Japanese colleagues.
@evmed.bsky.social @humbehevosoc.bsky.social 🧪 @evolmtg.bsky.social @evol
and 1 in Kyoto on the 25th.
ashbi.kyoto-u.ac.jp/ja/event/eve...
I look forward to meeting Japanese colleagues.
@evmed.bsky.social @humbehevosoc.bsky.social 🧪 @evolmtg.bsky.social @evol
Not perfectly clear about epistasis? The illustrations and formulas in my new Nessay should help. 🧪
@umehap.bsky.social @evmed.bsky.social @vscooper.micropopbio.org @ent3c.bsky.social @arvidagren.bsky.social @carlbergstrom.com @eikofried.bsky.social
open.substack.com/pub/randynes...
@umehap.bsky.social @evmed.bsky.social @vscooper.micropopbio.org @ent3c.bsky.social @arvidagren.bsky.social @carlbergstrom.com @eikofried.bsky.social
open.substack.com/pub/randynes...
September 7, 2025 at 6:26 PM
Not perfectly clear about epistasis? The illustrations and formulas in my new Nessay should help. 🧪
@umehap.bsky.social @evmed.bsky.social @vscooper.micropopbio.org @ent3c.bsky.social @arvidagren.bsky.social @carlbergstrom.com @eikofried.bsky.social
open.substack.com/pub/randynes...
@umehap.bsky.social @evmed.bsky.social @vscooper.micropopbio.org @ent3c.bsky.social @arvidagren.bsky.social @carlbergstrom.com @eikofried.bsky.social
open.substack.com/pub/randynes...
How amazing and wonderful that all 3 winners of this year's @ncse.bsky.social Friend of Darwin Award ncse.ngo/friend-darwi... are evolutionary medicine researchers! Katie Hinde @mammalssuck.bsky.social was one of the first faculty I recruited for the @cemasu.bsky.social at ASU.
June 6, 2025 at 10:50 PM
How amazing and wonderful that all 3 winners of this year's @ncse.bsky.social Friend of Darwin Award ncse.ngo/friend-darwi... are evolutionary medicine researchers! Katie Hinde @mammalssuck.bsky.social was one of the first faculty I recruited for the @cemasu.bsky.social at ASU.
Here is my Substack essay commenting on an article that reports a research project on foraging theory and ADHD that I have long wanted to see...but whose conclusion–that ADHD is an adaptation–seems to me to be inconsistent with evolutionary theory.
www.nessays.com/p/adhd-is-no...
www.nessays.com/p/adhd-is-no...
ADHD is not an adaptation
But foraging theory is crucial for understanding it
www.nessays.com
May 27, 2025 at 12:18 AM
Here is my Substack essay commenting on an article that reports a research project on foraging theory and ADHD that I have long wanted to see...but whose conclusion–that ADHD is an adaptation–seems to me to be inconsistent with evolutionary theory.
www.nessays.com/p/adhd-is-no...
www.nessays.com/p/adhd-is-no...
The Body is not a Machine open.substack.com/pub/randynes...
The Body is not a Machine
This post is adapted from my 2016 essay that inspired the 2025 PNAS Nexus article with Guru Madhavan and Jay Labov on the origins of failure in bodies and machines.
open.substack.com
May 22, 2025 at 1:24 PM
The Body is not a Machine open.substack.com/pub/randynes...
300 characters is often only a good start.
For longer essays on evolutionary medicine, psychiatry, and more, visit my new Substack at Nessays.com.
For longer essays on evolutionary medicine, psychiatry, and more, visit my new Substack at Nessays.com.
Nessays | Randolph Nesse | Substack
Randy Nesse's Essays on why evolution left us vulnerable to sickness, suffering, and simplistic thinking. Click to read Nessays, by Randolph Nesse, a Substack publication. Launched 3 days ago.
Nessays.com
May 21, 2025 at 9:35 PM
300 characters is often only a good start.
For longer essays on evolutionary medicine, psychiatry, and more, visit my new Substack at Nessays.com.
For longer essays on evolutionary medicine, psychiatry, and more, visit my new Substack at Nessays.com.
@awaisaftab.bsky.social is doing so much to help make psychiatry sensible. The questions he posed about #EvolutionaryPsychiatry helped me to get a better grasp of my own field! See the full version on his substack www.psychiatrymargins.com/p/why-did-ev...
May 17, 2025 at 8:02 PM
@awaisaftab.bsky.social is doing so much to help make psychiatry sensible. The questions he posed about #EvolutionaryPsychiatry helped me to get a better grasp of my own field! See the full version on his substack www.psychiatrymargins.com/p/why-did-ev...
The essay by @awaisaftab.bsky.social does a fine job of describing how cliff-edge fitness functions may explain vulnerability to some diseases. For an accessible Psychology Today article on the topic, see the link below. www.researchgate.net/publication/...
May 11, 2025 at 11:11 AM
The essay by @awaisaftab.bsky.social does a fine job of describing how cliff-edge fitness functions may explain vulnerability to some diseases. For an accessible Psychology Today article on the topic, see the link below. www.researchgate.net/publication/...
A recent article about autism cites experts who say that its high heritability means that environmental factors are unimportant. That is a fundamental mistake. Environmental changes that influence entire populations can make previously neutral alleles deleterious.🧪
www.medscape.com/viewarticle/...
www.medscape.com/viewarticle/...
What Do We Know About the Causes of Autism?
Scientists who have dedicated their careers to studying autism remain highly skeptical that a definitive answer to what causes autism can be reached within a few short months — if at all.
www.medscape.com
May 9, 2025 at 12:58 PM
A recent article about autism cites experts who say that its high heritability means that environmental factors are unimportant. That is a fundamental mistake. Environmental changes that influence entire populations can make previously neutral alleles deleterious.🧪
www.medscape.com/viewarticle/...
www.medscape.com/viewarticle/...
An engineer, an educator, and an evolutionary biologist walk into a bar...(well, actually, we talked at @evmed.bsky.social meetings); today, 3 years later, our plans for a new bridge between engineering and medicine are published in @pnasnexus.org!
academic.oup.com/pnasnexus/ar...
academic.oup.com/pnasnexus/ar...
May 2, 2025 at 2:27 PM
An engineer, an educator, and an evolutionary biologist walk into a bar...(well, actually, we talked at @evmed.bsky.social meetings); today, 3 years later, our plans for a new bridge between engineering and medicine are published in @pnasnexus.org!
academic.oup.com/pnasnexus/ar...
academic.oup.com/pnasnexus/ar...
Here is an insightful essay by
Rob Kurzban on the pressure to produce novel counterintuitive articles to get attention in academia. We need a name for false ones that spread fast.
Perhaps "#MemeArticles" is catchy enough to spread fast.
Rob Kurzban on the pressure to produce novel counterintuitive articles to get attention in academia. We need a name for false ones that spread fast.
Perhaps "#MemeArticles" is catchy enough to spread fast.
April 5, 2025 at 9:26 PM
Here is an insightful essay by
Rob Kurzban on the pressure to produce novel counterintuitive articles to get attention in academia. We need a name for false ones that spread fast.
Perhaps "#MemeArticles" is catchy enough to spread fast.
Rob Kurzban on the pressure to produce novel counterintuitive articles to get attention in academia. We need a name for false ones that spread fast.
Perhaps "#MemeArticles" is catchy enough to spread fast.
The best 2024 article about evolution, medicine and public health will win the $5000 Omenn Prize. Nominate an article now. It is easy. And the winner-and all of us- will REALLY appreciate it!
isemph.org/Omenn-Prize
🧪E. #EvMed @evmed.bsky.social @tricem.bsky.social @sse-evolution.bsky.social
isemph.org/Omenn-Prize
🧪E. #EvMed @evmed.bsky.social @tricem.bsky.social @sse-evolution.bsky.social
March 16, 2025 at 8:34 PM
The best 2024 article about evolution, medicine and public health will win the $5000 Omenn Prize. Nominate an article now. It is easy. And the winner-and all of us- will REALLY appreciate it!
isemph.org/Omenn-Prize
🧪E. #EvMed @evmed.bsky.social @tricem.bsky.social @sse-evolution.bsky.social
isemph.org/Omenn-Prize
🧪E. #EvMed @evmed.bsky.social @tricem.bsky.social @sse-evolution.bsky.social
#TacitCreationism is pervasive and problematic. Dan Stein and I explain why, and why it matters, in our just-published article. 1/3
@evmed.bsky.social @umehap.bsky.social ky.social @eikofried.bsky.social @carlbergstrom.com
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
@evmed.bsky.social @umehap.bsky.social ky.social @eikofried.bsky.social @carlbergstrom.com
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
March 12, 2025 at 5:00 PM
#TacitCreationism is pervasive and problematic. Dan Stein and I explain why, and why it matters, in our just-published article. 1/3
@evmed.bsky.social @umehap.bsky.social ky.social @eikofried.bsky.social @carlbergstrom.com
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
@evmed.bsky.social @umehap.bsky.social ky.social @eikofried.bsky.social @carlbergstrom.com
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
Really interesting ClubEvMed discussion with Dr. Paul Turke on Evolutionary Pediatrics on Wednesday at noon ET. Based on his new book Bringing Up Baby. All welcome. A great group! Free. Join us! @evmed.bsky.social 🧪 #evmed
duke.zoom.us/meeting/regi...
duke.zoom.us/meeting/regi...
Welcome! You are invited to join a meeting: Club Ev Med: Bringing Up Baby. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email about joining the meeting.
Welcome! You are invited to join a meeting: Club Ev Med: Bringing Up Baby. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email about joining the meeting.
duke.zoom.us
March 4, 2025 at 1:42 AM
Really interesting ClubEvMed discussion with Dr. Paul Turke on Evolutionary Pediatrics on Wednesday at noon ET. Based on his new book Bringing Up Baby. All welcome. A great group! Free. Join us! @evmed.bsky.social 🧪 #evmed
duke.zoom.us/meeting/regi...
duke.zoom.us/meeting/regi...
Some questions resist resolution.
-Mind vs. body
-Nature vs. nurture
-Free will vs. determinism
-Group selection vs. gene level selection.
Why?
I think it is because they get entangled in the cognitive and emotional hooks of our evolved minds.
1/5
-Mind vs. body
-Nature vs. nurture
-Free will vs. determinism
-Group selection vs. gene level selection.
Why?
I think it is because they get entangled in the cognitive and emotional hooks of our evolved minds.
1/5
February 13, 2025 at 10:59 PM
Some questions resist resolution.
-Mind vs. body
-Nature vs. nurture
-Free will vs. determinism
-Group selection vs. gene level selection.
Why?
I think it is because they get entangled in the cognitive and emotional hooks of our evolved minds.
1/5
-Mind vs. body
-Nature vs. nurture
-Free will vs. determinism
-Group selection vs. gene level selection.
Why?
I think it is because they get entangled in the cognitive and emotional hooks of our evolved minds.
1/5
Gems from pages 28-29 in Richard Lewontin’s 1974 book “The Genetic Basis of Evolutionary Change”
It is a common myth of science that scientists collect evidence about some issue and then by logic and "intuition" form what seems to them the most reasonable interpretation of the facts.
/4
It is a common myth of science that scientists collect evidence about some issue and then by logic and "intuition" form what seems to them the most reasonable interpretation of the facts.
/4
February 9, 2025 at 4:08 AM
Gems from pages 28-29 in Richard Lewontin’s 1974 book “The Genetic Basis of Evolutionary Change”
It is a common myth of science that scientists collect evidence about some issue and then by logic and "intuition" form what seems to them the most reasonable interpretation of the facts.
/4
It is a common myth of science that scientists collect evidence about some issue and then by logic and "intuition" form what seems to them the most reasonable interpretation of the facts.
/4
The chaos from Washington in the last week has made travel planning impossible for many scientists, so the International Society for Evolution, Medicine, and Public Health meeting is allowing submission of talk abstracts until Feb 28. 🧪 #EvMed @evmed.bsky.social @evmed.bsky.social evmed.org
February 6, 2025 at 9:52 PM
The chaos from Washington in the last week has made travel planning impossible for many scientists, so the International Society for Evolution, Medicine, and Public Health meeting is allowing submission of talk abstracts until Feb 28. 🧪 #EvMed @evmed.bsky.social @evmed.bsky.social evmed.org
This is the cutting edge for cancer research. It transcends the simplistic view that cancer cells just have bad genes. The surrounding tissues have strong effects on progression. #Evned #Cancer #ecology @jappliedecology.bsky.social @evmed.bsky.social
Call for Papers: Exploring Eco-Evo Applications in Cancer.
This Special Issue aims to explore and cultivate the frontier between ecology and evolution and cancer. The lead editor is Jason Somarelli (Duke).
EMPH is the society journal of ISEMPH and I'm the EIC.
academic.oup.com/emph/pages/e...
This Special Issue aims to explore and cultivate the frontier between ecology and evolution and cancer. The lead editor is Jason Somarelli (Duke).
EMPH is the society journal of ISEMPH and I'm the EIC.
academic.oup.com/emph/pages/e...
Exploring Eco-Evo Applications In Cancer
Call for Papers
Cancers are essentially large communities of cells, and the individual members act and interact in complex ways. Long-established principles of
academic.oup.com
February 5, 2025 at 12:45 AM
This is the cutting edge for cancer research. It transcends the simplistic view that cancer cells just have bad genes. The surrounding tissues have strong effects on progression. #Evned #Cancer #ecology @jappliedecology.bsky.social @evmed.bsky.social
It is fascinating and frustrating to see so many sophisticated Op-Ed authors trying to makes sense of Trump’s policies. But most of his actions arise not from any considered strategy but from wishful thinking, and, much worse, #WishfulActing.
@ezrakleinbot.bsky.social @nytimesoped.bsky.social
@ezrakleinbot.bsky.social @nytimesoped.bsky.social
February 3, 2025 at 6:36 PM
It is fascinating and frustrating to see so many sophisticated Op-Ed authors trying to makes sense of Trump’s policies. But most of his actions arise not from any considered strategy but from wishful thinking, and, much worse, #WishfulActing.
@ezrakleinbot.bsky.social @nytimesoped.bsky.social
@ezrakleinbot.bsky.social @nytimesoped.bsky.social