Richard Bellis
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richardtbellis.bsky.social
Richard Bellis
@richardtbellis.bsky.social
5.5K followers 440 following 74 posts
Historian of anatomy, disease, and medical books. Associate Lecturer in Medical Humanities, Medical school, Uni of St Andrews. Support Chester FC and edit the fanzine The Blue & White.
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Reposted by Richard Bellis
erikahall.bsky.social
My favorite comment on the FT story
Personally I'd be impressed if they could make something as smart as an ant. Ants only have 250,000 neurons, which is pretty small compared with GPT-5's reputed more than one trillion parameters. And yet ants are able to survive all by themselves in this complex world of ours, without endless infusions of investor capital or government subsidies. I don't think GPT-5 could do that.
November 6, 2025 at 7:49 PM
Reposted by Richard Bellis
rebeccawhiteley.bsky.social
Booking is now live for our exciting online workshop Object Stories in Health and Medicine 1700-1900!
See the full programme and grab a ticket here: www.birmingham.ac.uk/events/objec...
Object stories in health and medicine, 1700-1900 - University of Birmingham
This event is aimed at researchers across the medical humanities and histories of medicine and psychiatry working with material culture.
www.birmingham.ac.uk
October 31, 2025 at 4:08 PM
richardtbellis.bsky.social
A Halloween 'invitation to play' I made for my little boy- the anatomy lesson of Dr Noah. Attendees went in two by two...
A group of wooden animals in front of an ark are looking at a skeleton wooden toy flanked by two human wooden toys representing Noah and his wife.
October 31, 2025 at 4:27 PM
Reposted by Richard Bellis
pollypw.bsky.social
"Since when did we become Big Tech's free PR department?"

I'm really pleased to see an article like this pushing back on the uncritical adoption of (gen)AI by our universities. It hits all the major concerns.
apache.be apache/ @apache.be · 18d
Belgian AI scientists are advocating *against* the use of AI in academia. “If independent thinking is no longer encouraged at university, where would it?” apache.be/2025/10/24/b...
Belgian AI scientists resist the use of AI in academia
Several AI scientists have published an open letter calling for a ban on AI use by students.
apache.be
October 24, 2025 at 2:11 PM
Reposted by Richard Bellis
willpooley.bsky.social
“We need talk about the lack of ideas in here and what that lack signifies about the current situation for universities in this country”
October 22, 2025 at 9:08 PM
Reposted by Richard Bellis
darrencullen.bsky.social
Did a new one
Government style ad in watercolour. Image of a burglar stealing a painting from the wall of a home. Tagline: "It's not theft... if you say you're using it to train your AI algorithm". Body text: "Theft is now legal, so we can boost the economy by eliminating jobs. If that doesn't make any sense, ask a chatbot to explain it to you." HM government logo in the corner.
August 7, 2025 at 6:46 PM
Reposted by Richard Bellis
petermandler.bsky.social
In which Nick Hillman tells some home truths to the 'Battle of Ideas' about HE myths and the alleged 'alternatives': in fact we need more education, not less.
hepi-news.bsky.social Higher Education Policy Institute @hepi-news.bsky.social · 22d
New Post: The Era of the Downwardly Mobile Graduate?: Higher education at this weekend’s Battle of Ideas www.hepi.ac.uk/2025/10/19/t...
October 19, 2025 at 5:13 PM
Reposted by Richard Bellis
hurricanexyz.bsky.social
Cannot begin to express how illegal this should be
October 16, 2025 at 6:55 PM
Reposted by Richard Bellis
theguardian.com
David Squires on … plane sailing for Tuchel’s England amid off-field distractions
David Squires on … plane sailing for Tuchel’s England amid off-field distractions
Our cartoonist on a smooth journey towards the World Cup for England against a backdrop of patriotic uproar
www.theguardian.com
October 14, 2025 at 12:10 PM
richardtbellis.bsky.social
Was reminded of @camsell59.bsky.social when in Ballater. Sweets on their way!
A shop front with a yellow sign with red writing and red window frames. Sign says Dee Valley Confectioners
October 10, 2025 at 7:24 PM
Reposted by Richard Bellis
sexhistorian.bsky.social
Really looking forward to the @cshhh.bsky.social 20th Anniversary later this month, with Tracey Loughran and @joannabourke.bsky.social giving public lectures to help us celebrate! #HistSex #HistRepro #HistMed
October 8, 2025 at 10:22 AM
Reposted by Richard Bellis
hpsvanessa.bsky.social
Got nowhere with this - so if you know of a (bio)med or health journal that has OA now but subscription-only archives - or that is somehow still entirely paywalled - please drop a reply. I’ll make me own list! ✍️
hpsvanessa.bsky.social Dr Vanessa @hpsvanessa.bsky.social · Sep 25
#OA wonks - can anyone point me to a list of medicine-ish journals that partially offer gold OA - e.g. ones that have full OA now but paywalled archives? Doesn’t have to be comprehensive, I’m just trying to design an in-class exercise.
September 29, 2025 at 7:49 AM
Reposted by Richard Bellis
annafranjam.bsky.social
10 days until the #CFP deadline for the online workshop *Object Stories in Health and Medicine 1700-1900*.

We invite proposals for 15-minute talks on a single object related to health or medicine during the 18th & 19th centuries #histmed #histpsych #medhums

www.birmingham.ac.uk/events/objec...
Object Stories in Health and Medicine, 1700-1900 - University of Birmingham
x9artsandlaw-event,x9history-event,x9historycultures-event,x9clemt-event
www.birmingham.ac.uk
September 26, 2025 at 2:06 PM
Reposted by Richard Bellis
lawrencehurley.bsky.social
"If we go light on the Kissinger part, I wouldn't complain" is an instant hall-of-famer.
nycsouthpaw.bsky.social southpaw @nycsouthpaw.bsky.social · Sep 23
Isaac Chotiner interviews Cass Sunstein. www.newyorker.com/news/q-and-a...
= THE NEW YORKER ICO In terms of human rights, I've always found it a little bit puzzling, given what you write, and given who your wife is, that you two were so close to Henry Kissinger. Of all the pre-Trump political figures in America, he is the one I think of as in some ways the opposite of liberal, given his behavior toward the rest of the world. I'll tell you a story. I wrote a book a few years ago on Star Wars. We invited Dr. Kissinger to my Star Wars book party, and he said, "You wrote a book about Star Wars? Why'd you write a book about Star Wars?" He was puzzled and courteous, but really confused. And then he came to the book party, which was quite generous. He was a busy person. But, despite his busyness, he came to the book party. Yeah, and then I gave a talk on Star Wars, and he came up to me afterward and he said, "Oh, I see why you wrote a book on Star Wars. There's a lot there. It's, like, about families and it's about governments and freedom." The amount of curiosity and generosity that he showed was incomparable. I don't know anyone who showed that level of curiosity and generosity. And we really got into Star Wars. He just wanted to think about it. I know there are strong views about his career, and I'm hardly an expert on his career. But your wife is one of the great human-rights experts in the world. I asked you about him being anti-liberal, and your response was that he was very nice to you about your book. About Star Wars. It is certainly a touching story. But that's not totally an answer to the question. Yeah. Well, I don't know. What he would think of this book I'd love to know. But no second thoughts about being friends with him or anything? I feel generally very grateful for friendship, and he was, when I knew him, a person of immense kindness. Those who think of him as someone who was something horrible or worse, 1 don't know what to say about that. But you could have an opinion on it. You have an opinion on all kinds of things, right? Well, on him and his role in government, that's not something I've particularly studied, so I don't know. I know some people who think he was a horrible historic figure. They would say, "Would you be friends with Genghis Khan? Would you be friends with Stalin?" And I wouldn't be friends with Stalin, so I concede that. Well, the next time someone brings up a terrible anecdote about Cambodia or Vietnam, I will definitely drop the Star Wars story to show that people have two sides. Yeah. And I get those who think you shouldn't be friends with someone who did terrible things. I hear that. I can just say that he was, as a very large number of people would say, though many fewer would say it publicly, an extraordinarily generous friend. Professor, thank you so much for doing this. Great, thanks. If we go light on the Kissinger part, I wouldn't complain, because it could dwarf everything else. *
September 23, 2025 at 7:28 PM
Reposted by Richard Bellis
nicolasugden.bsky.social
In case you were wondering, two of the thirteen projects funded by the NIH's $50m Autism Data Science Initiative (ADSI) talk about prevention in their project abstracts: dpcpsi.nih.gov/autism-data-...
September 23, 2025 at 4:36 PM
Reposted by Richard Bellis
cinziag.bsky.social
But it will trickle down? Won't it?
UK public has paid £200bn to shareholders of key industries since privatisation – study
Analysis reveals ‘privatisation premium’ of £250 per household per year paid to owners of water, rail, bus, energy and mail services since 2010
www.theguardian.com
September 16, 2025 at 10:51 AM
Reposted by Richard Bellis
nathankhensley.bsky.social
yes! one was a technology of popular and bourgeois revolution; the other, for a neofeudal restoration of elite privilege and security from democratic intervention
sarahwingo.bsky.social Sarah Wingo @sarahwingo.bsky.social · Sep 9
I HATE when people compare AI to the printing press, it's so disingenuous. The printing press was opposed by the elites because it put power in the hands of everyday people, and popularized a vernacular. AI does the opposite, by allowing elites to bypass artists and laborers.
September 9, 2025 at 2:12 PM
Reposted by Richard Bellis
riacheyne.bsky.social
This is excellent:
September 3, 2025 at 11:10 PM
Reposted by Richard Bellis
theblueandwhite.bsky.social
Issue 39 of the fanzine is out on Saturday. In this issue:

A look back at the play-offs
Interview with Kieron Shiel, club chairman
We review Ian Rush's musical (yes really)
60s away days
A very special Ex-Men cartoon
And much more!

Subscribe theblueandwhitefanzine.bigcartel.com/product/fanz...
An advert with the fanzine logo and the latest cover of the fanzine with Conor Woods celebrating a goal in Chester's black third kit.
September 1, 2025 at 8:38 PM
Reposted by Richard Bellis
monicamedhist.bsky.social
Here's a #GiftLink for those who want to read the full NYT obit of historian of science & gender, Margaret Rossiter. www.nytimes.com/2025/08/29/s... #histSTM 🧪🗃️
August 30, 2025 at 3:04 PM
Reposted by Richard Bellis
europeanpowell.bsky.social
Palantir just took over the CDC.
The head of the UK branch of Palantir UK is Louis Mosley, grandson of renowned British fascist Oswald Mosley.
Palantir has 24 contracts with key UK public institutions; the NHS, Ministry of Defence, the police force, the Cabinet Office, and the DLUHC.
August 30, 2025 at 7:28 AM
Reposted by Richard Bellis
richardtbellis.bsky.social
Delighted that this has been published. It resulted from my residency on the wonderful @thehumanremains.bsky.social . Tom was an excellent collaborator, and I thoroughly enjoyed getting to grips with medical debates over burial reform in the mid-nineteenth century.
royalhistsoc.org Royal Historical Society @royalhistsoc.org · Aug 19
New in Transactions: 'George Alfred Walker’s Public Health Campaign for Burial Reform, 1839–1852' by Richard T. Bellis & Thomas J. Farrow bit.ly/46Xzssq

In this article, Richard and Thomas consider the intersection of sanitary and burial reform in the career of George Alfred Walker #Skystorians 1/2
Transactions article, first page: 'George Alfred Walker’s Public Health Campaign for Burial Reform, 1839–1852' by Richard Bellis and Thomas Farrow.
August 20, 2025 at 11:32 AM
Reposted by Richard Bellis
mauricejcasey.com
My first piece in the TLS — a review of a fantastic and pioneering new study of the Paris Commune’s afterlives in Britain and Ireland by @lauracforster.bsky.social

www.the-tls.com/history/the-...
The experiences of Communard refugees in Britain and Ireland
In 1886, Paschal Grousset, once a member of the executive committee of the Paris Commune, found himself troubled by Victorian Dublin’s food options.
www.the-tls.com
August 20, 2025 at 6:18 PM
richardtbellis.bsky.social
Delighted that this has been published. It resulted from my residency on the wonderful @thehumanremains.bsky.social . Tom was an excellent collaborator, and I thoroughly enjoyed getting to grips with medical debates over burial reform in the mid-nineteenth century.
royalhistsoc.org Royal Historical Society @royalhistsoc.org · Aug 19
New in Transactions: 'George Alfred Walker’s Public Health Campaign for Burial Reform, 1839–1852' by Richard T. Bellis & Thomas J. Farrow bit.ly/46Xzssq

In this article, Richard and Thomas consider the intersection of sanitary and burial reform in the career of George Alfred Walker #Skystorians 1/2
Transactions article, first page: 'George Alfred Walker’s Public Health Campaign for Burial Reform, 1839–1852' by Richard Bellis and Thomas Farrow.
August 20, 2025 at 11:32 AM
Reposted by Richard Bellis
richardtbellis.bsky.social
If you can't access this but would like to read it, please do get in touch and I'll share it with you.
richardtbellis.bsky.social Richard Bellis @richardtbellis.bsky.social · Aug 13
New article out today! 'The Structures and Textures of Disease Made Printable' focuses on how the illustrations for Matthew Baillie's morbid anatomy were made through collaborations with the artist William Clift and a team of engravers associated with the Royal Society. doi.org/10.1086/736874
University of Chicago Press Journals: Cookie absent
doi.org
August 14, 2025 at 10:59 AM