Nicholas A. Christakis
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nachristakis.bsky.social
Nicholas A. Christakis
@nachristakis.bsky.social

Sterling Professor of Social and Natural Science at Yale University. Sociologist. Network Scientist. Physician. Author of Apollo's Arrow; Blueprint; Connected; and Death Foretold. Director of the Human Nature Lab: https://humannaturelab.net .. more

Nicholas A. Christakis is a Greek American sociologist and physician known for his research on social networks and on the social, economic, biological, and evolutionary determinants of human welfare. He is the Sterling Professor of Social and Natural Science at Yale University, where he directs the Human Nature Lab. He is also the co-director of the Yale Institute for Network Science. .. more

Public Health 23%
Physics 18%

And here is Prof. Arthur Galston's response, verbatim, to the challenge of coping with the abuse of one's scientific work.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=nUL0...
The Galston Answer
YouTube video by For the Love of Science
www.youtube.com

Oppenheimer said "I am become Shiva, the destroyer of worlds." But what if your scientific work is used in (less extreme) harmful ways? How should a scientist cope with this?

www.youtube.com/watch?v=KoAg...
What to Do if Your Work is Abused
YouTube video by For the Love of Science
www.youtube.com

A Kavanaugh stop lasting 25 days in jail?
ICE releases Maryland woman attorneys say is US citizen after 25 days in detention

"A young woman, whose family says she was born in Laurel and is a U.S. citizen, was released from Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody Wednesday after 25 days in detention"

www.thebanner.com/community/ic...
ICE releases Maryland woman attorneys say is US citizen after 25 days in detention

"A young woman, whose family says she was born in Laurel and is a U.S. citizen, was released from Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody Wednesday after 25 days in detention"

www.thebanner.com/community/ic...
The seven circuits to resolve the issue - the 1st, 3rd, 5th, 7th, 9th, 10th, & 11th - all agree that the First Amendment protects the right to record police in public. The 8th, which covers Minnesota, hasn't joined yet but very likely would. My piece at @thedispatchmedia.bsky.social last fall.
DHS Says Videotaping ICE Agents Is Illegal. Federal Courts Disagree.
Filming law enforcement serves important goals central to a free republic.
www.cato.org

Thanks for the kind words.

Our new vlog

For the Love of Science

has weekly updates on the craft of science

at YouTube (youtube.com/@NAChristakis) or on Instagram (instagram.com/p/DTQbdgvAN-T/).

This week's installment:

What to Do if Your Work Is Abused
and
The Galston Answer
For the Love of Science
Weekly videos about the craft of science. A Human Nature Lab science outreach effort.
youtube.com

Still, a scientist should not avoid doing work that might be used for bad ends for fear that it might be abused. The primary commitment of a scientist is to the truth.

Here is the full reading of what my teacher, the botanist and Yale professor Arthur Galston, had to say about this challenge scientists can face, long ago, when he found that his work on plant hormones was unexpectedly used in Agent Orange:

The Galston Answer

youtube.com/watch?v=nUL0...
The Galston Answer
YouTube video by For the Love of Science
youtube.com

The solution to the challenge of others abusing one's scientific discoveries is to stay engaged. The work of a scientist doesn't stop upon publication.

I faced this challenge (of others abusing my work) when our paper on the social contagion of obesity appeared in 2007. People (and headlines) said you should "ditch your fat friends." I didn't expect this negative framing, or the death threats. I was very troubled by this.
www.nejm.org

New "For the Love of Science" short vlog:

What to Do if Your Work Is Abused

What should scientists do if their work is used for bad purposes?

youtube.com/watch?v=KoAg...
What to Do if Your Work is Abused
YouTube video by For the Love of Science
youtube.com

Dr. Nicholas Christakis (@nachristakis.bsky.social ) will be joining us as a Keynote Speaker at the Conference on Society-Centered AI 2026 Feb 12-14th! Learn more and Register here: sites.duke.edu/scai/

Yup! "This puts liberal critics of things like diversity statements in a bind. They’ve gotten what they want via a route that involved political pressure they oppose. How should internal critics of university illiberalism, of which you’ve been a vocal one, negotiate this weird situation?"
Randall Kennedy Is Afraid. He Thinks You Should Be Too.
The Harvard law professor on federal extortion, DEI overreach, and why defeating Trump in court won’t be enough.
www.chronicle.com
THREAD

The first full year of tracking research on @bsky.app

Hi, we are Altmetric, and we track how research is communicated across the web.

We now have one full calendar year of Bluesky research data and thought we'd have a looksie.
Videos Contradict Trump Administration Account of ICE Shooting in Minneapolis www.nytimes.com/video/us/100...
Video: Videos Contradict Trump Administration Account of ICE Shooting in Minneapolis
An analysis of footage from three camera angles shows that the motorist was driving away from — not toward — a federal officer when he opened fire.
www.nytimes.com

Reaults like these have long suggested (eg Simon Conway Morris) that if there are exoplanets similar to earth, any life there might resemble terrestrial life in certain ways. Ecology is a powerful factor in evolution. www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Convergent genome evolution shaped the emergence of terrestrial animals - Nature
Comparisons of 154 genomes from 21 animal phyla and outgroups have been used to reconstruct ancestral adaptation to life on land across 11 distinct terrestrialization events, revealing strong evidence...
www.nature.com
WITNESS: "I just can't let this narrative of self-defense go any further. That’s absolutely not what it was… ICE agents didn’t let anyone help her for 15 minutes, then medics couldn’t get through with their ambulance.”
@chrislhayes.bsky.social: “A 37-year-old American citizen, the mother of a young child is dead tonight. She was shot in the face by an agent of the federal government, and that government has spent the day telling despicable lies about her.”

It can’t be a good sign when @bellingcat.com must turn its gaze from Iranian or Russian state actors to American ones. To our deep shame.
Using imagery online of the shooting by an ICE agent in Minneapolis, we’ve created an animated sequence which highlights the approximate positioning of officers and vehicles at the scene. The red dot represents the agent who fired the shots. Yellow dots are other agents who arrived at the scene.

Another extraordinary event in our history: militarizing our own streets and shooting our own civilians. The video footage is incredibly damning, and consistent with deliberate killing. I hope justice prevails and the officer who shot her and his whole chain of command is brought to justice.
An ICE agent shot and killed a woman in Minneapolis on Wednesday, the latest in a series of shootings by federal agents during immigration enforcement operations. In the last four months alone, immigration officers have fired on at least nine people.
Deadly Minneapolis Encounter Is the 9th ICE Shooting Since September
All those targeted in the shootings were fired on while in their vehicles.
nyti.ms
An ICE agent shot and killed a woman in Minneapolis on Wednesday, the latest in a series of shootings by federal agents during immigration enforcement operations. In the last four months alone, immigration officers have fired on at least nine people.
Deadly Minneapolis Encounter Is the 9th ICE Shooting Since September
All those targeted in the shootings were fired on while in their vehicles.
nyti.ms