Kostas Kampourakis
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kampourakisk.bsky.social
Kostas Kampourakis
@kampourakisk.bsky.social
2K followers 150 following 310 posts

Author and editor of books intended to help non-experts understand science. Interested in anything about evolution, development, heredity and nature of science.

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Philosophy 29%
Biology 23%
Posts Replies Media Videos

Reposted by Kostas Kampourakis, Catherine J. Frieman, Alan McNally

pontus-skoglund.bsky.social
Pontus Skoglund @pontus-skoglund.bsky.social · 4d
As I told the CNN, without details and data it is not possible to assess the claims.

More importantly, the scientific value of this media campaign, balanced against the possible stigmatization of individuals with these real conditions today, is highly questionable. edition.cnn.com/2025/11/13/s...
Researchers say they have verified and sequenced Hitler’s DNA – and found a genetic disorder | CNN
Analysis of Adolf Hitler’s DNA reveals he may have had a rare genetic disorder that can delay puberty.
edition.cnn.com

Reposted by Kostas Kampourakis

matthewcobb.bsky.social
Matthew Cobb @matthewcobb.bsky.social · 4d
A thoughtful review of CRICK - “vivid and authoritative” - in @nytimes.com.
The Building Blocks of Life Were Just the Beginning
www.nytimes.com

kampourakisk.bsky.social
Kostas Kampourakis @kampourakisk.bsky.social · 4d
Is having an Irish parent the same with having Irish DNA?

open.substack.com/pub/kostaska...
Is having an Irish parent the same with having Irish DNA?
NO!!!! Establishing paternity through DNA does not entail anything about one's ethnicity
open.substack.com

kampourakisk.bsky.social
Kostas Kampourakis @kampourakisk.bsky.social · 5d
A nice coincidence! The Greek and the Turkish edition of my book Ancestry Reimagined are being published a few weeks apart. I hope the message is clear: we are all family, there are no pure ethnicities! Geographic neighbors are also close relatives, in relative terms.
global.oup.com/academic/pro...

Reposted by Kostas Kampourakis

kampourakisk.bsky.social
Kostas Kampourakis @kampourakisk.bsky.social · 9d
A nice evening last Monday at the CUP.gr bookstore in Athens, about the Greek edition of my book Ancestry Reimagined

Reposted by Kostas Kampourakis

lpachter.bsky.social
Lior Pachter @lpachter.bsky.social · 10d
I wrote a review of James Watson's obituary by CSHL: liorpachter.wordpress.com/2025/11/08/r...
Review of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory’s Obituary for Dr. James Watson
James Watson, who described himself as “not a racist in a conventional way”, has died at the age of 97. Below is a review of an obituary for Dr. James Watson published by Cold Spring Ha…
liorpachter.wordpress.com

Reposted by Kostas Kampourakis, Philippe Huneman, Lesley A. Hall

matthewcobb.bsky.social
Matthew Cobb @matthewcobb.bsky.social · 11d
If you believe either that Franklin discovered the double helix, and / or Watson and Crick stole her data, ask yourself how you know this. Then take a read of this article.

Reposted by Joanna Bryson, Kostas Kampourakis, Philippe Huneman , and 1 more

rsmythfreelance.bsky.social
Richard Smyth @rsmythfreelance.bsky.social · 11d
If I see one more stupid Rosalind Franklin take I'm going to lose my mind. Thank god for @matthewcobb.bsky.social and @nccomfort.bsky.social. www.nature.com/articles/d41...
What Rosalind Franklin truly contributed to the discovery of DNA’s structure
Franklin was no victim in how the DNA double helix was solved. An overlooked letter and an unpublished news article, both written in 1953, reveal that she was an equal player.
www.nature.com

Reposted by Ricard V. Solé, Kostas Kampourakis

nccomfort.bsky.social
Nathaniel Comfort @nccomfort.bsky.social · 11d
James D. Watson is dead. Stay tuned for some thoughts, based on my research on his biography, to be published soon.
While I write that up, y'all can throw tomatoes at this if you like. But I will offer a more nuanced take.
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/07/s...
James Watson, Co-Discoverer of the Structure of DNA, Is Dead at 97
www.nytimes.com

kampourakisk.bsky.social
Kostas Kampourakis @kampourakisk.bsky.social · 28d
Here is the full report: www.hepi.ac.uk/wp-content/u...
www.hepi.ac.uk

kampourakisk.bsky.social
Kostas Kampourakis @kampourakisk.bsky.social · Oct 18
Doesn't this look like "purity" in modern terms?

kampourakisk.bsky.social
Kostas Kampourakis @kampourakisk.bsky.social · Oct 18
Why don't geneticists frame people's differences in relative terms - that some individuals have less diverse (most likely recent) ancestry than others? Imagine a journalist reading this in the abstract: "...10,000 single-origin individuals from 35 worldwide populations..."?

kampourakisk.bsky.social
Kostas Kampourakis @kampourakisk.bsky.social · Oct 18
What is a "single-origin" individual? How can one identify "single-origin individuals" in a way that is not arbitrary, or at least operational?
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Tracing human genetic histories and natural selection with precise local ancestry inference - Nature Communications
Here the authors present a local ancestry inference algorithm with superior accuracy, and use it to shed light on the demographic histories of Latin Americans and the Askenazi Jewish, and to map a can...
www.nature.com

Reposted by Kostas Kampourakis

Reposted by Kostas Kampourakis

philipcball.bsky.social
Philip Ball @philipcball.bsky.social · Oct 13
This is a lovely review of my (brief) history of alchemy by Kit Chapman. As Kit says, I wanted neither to duck the esoteric/spiritual aspects of the alchemical tradition & make it out to be *just* early chemistry, nor to over-emphasize those things as some books have.
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Client Challenge
www.nature.com

Reposted by Simon J. Greenhill, Kostas Kampourakis, Rebecca Sear , and 2 more

ent3c.bsky.social
Eric Turkheimer @ent3c.bsky.social · Oct 13
In 2018, Charles Murray challenged me to a bet: "We will understand IQ genetically—I think most of the picture will have been filled in by 2025—there will still be blanks—but we’ll know basically what’s going on." It's now 2025, and I claim a win. I write about it in The Atlantic.
Your Genes Are Simply Not Enough to Explain How Smart You Are
Seven years ago, I took a bet with Charles Murray about whether we’d basically understand the genetics of intelligence by now.
www.theatlantic.com

Reposted by Kostas Kampourakis