Prof Tim Coulson
@ProfExistence
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Following
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Author of The Universal History of Us published by Penguin MJ Joseph 2024 Professor of Zoology, University of Oxford Ecology, Evolution, Existence, Science
Oxford, England
Joined January 2024
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Last Seen Profiles
Well that was a first. I dressed as a giant cockroach to read part of The Metamorphosis in the Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford. Doesn’t get much more Kafkaesque than that.
@UniofOxford
@OxfordBiology
#kafka
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Things I’ve learned about leadership. And why it’s time I hand over the reins.
1.two people in any dept will always be doing something unfathomable that causes problems
2.Never get excited about the sandwich lunch at a meeting
3.Most stuff that comes in looks mundane and
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I am, it appears, an authority on cockroach outbreaks: . Strange how worlds collide.
@OxfordBiology
#cockroach
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38 years ago I got my A level results. B, B, D. All my children have now massively outperformed me! Good luck to everyone getting their results today. The future’s bright, even if like me, you didn’t do as well as you’d hoped.
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Thanks
@MichaelJBooks
and
@RebeccasBooks
. So excited to receive these author copies - they look amazing! Can’t wait for publication day on June 13.
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@Lilith_Atheist
Eternity is a long time. I’m be bored shitless after a couple of days. Particularly in the absence of sin and all things fun. Eternal life would suck.
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This afternoon I will mainly be racing against the research groups of
@TimBarraclough9
@sclknowles
and Sonya Clegg in the annual inter-group punt race. Sorry you can’t make it
@Ben_Sheldon_EGI
but glad your group can. You have forfeited the win. Again. 😂
@OxfordBiology
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The
@Independent
is a very fine paper indeed. "Coulson's book is highly readable and a neat mixture of erudition and entertainment". Glad you enjoyed it
@MartinChilton
. I'll take 4 out of 5 stars!
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The Life and Mind Building to house
@OxfordBiology
and
@OxExpPsy
is looking, and will be, amazing. Nice to tour with Jonathan Kingdon to discuss where some of his amazing art will be displayed.
@UniofOxford
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Peter Kareiva writes his take on Priyanga Amarasekare’s ongoing troubles with the UCLA leadership. It supports Priyanga’s narrative. Well worth a read.
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Very much looking forward to your talk on Wednesday 5th at the Oxford University Museum of Natural History
@georgecmcgavin
. The cockroach outfit has had an outing to the Sheldonian but will be available if you so desire.
@morethanadodo
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I’m still so excited to see my book on sale in bookshops. Feels unreal!
#UniversalHistoryOfUs
@MichaelJBooks
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So looking forward to being in conversation with David Macdonald of
@WildCRU_Ox
at the amazing Caper bookshop () in Oxford on July 9th. Come along, enjoy a drink, and a lively conversation. Details in the link below.
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Some thoughts on how to link
#ecology
and
#evolution
#biology
. Please think about retweeting if your followers work in this field. Comments most welcome.
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What a wonderful shop: Jaffe .& Neale in Chipping Norton.
@chippingnorton
I need a poster like this for my office
@MichaelJBooks
They have a few signed copies now too.
@RebeccasBooks
@RKbookpublicist
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Other dog walker looking at
#Woofler
: “what sort of dog is that”? Me: “he’s a cross between a sheepdog and a shih tsu. He’s a shit dog”. (I love him really)
#dog
#pets
#UniversalHistoryOfUs
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Thursday night, Oxford University Museum of Natural History, 7pm. Peggy Seeger and I will be in conversation about folk music and eco-feminism. Tickets here:
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What if gravity was 10% weaker?
What if Earth & Theia hadn’t collided to form the moon?
What if coal hadn’t formed?
What if climate had made Africa more forested 60K years ago?
Would we exist?
Science has some of the answers. Learn more in
now published
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Come and listen to
@PeggySeeger
and me in conversation about folk music, ecology and eco-feminism as we record a
@singforscience
podcast.
@morethanadodo
7pm 8th August.
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The outstanding musician and composer
@cosmosheldrake
and I answer one another’s questions about human exceptionalism and creativity in the arts in
@sci_inquirer
’s the Exchange.
@UniofOxford
@OxfordBiology
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Congratulations to Kathy Willis on the publication of her excellent new book: "Good Nature: The New Science of How Nature Improves Our Health". I was lucky enough to read a draft and it is brilliant. As a result our house if full of plants and I am happier.
@RebeccasBooks
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Cells, organisms, & ecosystems are v complex & this makes biology hard. We will never accurately predict ecological and evolutionary dynamics -mechanisms are too complex. Yet we have a very good understanding of the underlying processes. Some researchers do not appreciate this.
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What breed is Woofler? Compared his genome against known breeds. Not a bad mix for a Bulgarian street dog:
Chihuahua
Pekingese
Segugio Italian
German Shepherd Dog
Caucasian Shepherd Dog
I love
#genomics
Read about what
#sciene
tells us about why
#woofler
’s
#existence
is a
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Delighted to receive hard copies of the US imprint of my book --
@Pegasus_Books
.
#Americans
, this is the perfect summer read and a great escape from the upcoming
#election
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Want to know why we haven't encountered
#aliens
yet? The
#universe
is just too damn big. And want to know why we haven't discovered God? It's not out there.
@FreedomPactPod
@FFBAtheists
#universalhistoryofus
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At 7.30 on the 9th July, I will be at the excellent independent bookshop, Caper , in East Oxford in conversation with
@WildCRU_Ox
's David Macdonald exploring why life on Earth exists and why we should cherish it
@OxfordBiology
#UniversalHistoryOfUs
. Come
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This is perhaps the craziest thing I have learned today. Having published scientific research on bears I can confirm they are highly unlikely to seek out a book shop. Marmalade sandwiches will be their primary quarry if they escape.
it is absolutely ridiculous that every bookshop in central london is still obliged to carry out "bear drills", in case the bears escape from london zoo. firstly there is no evidence they would particularly target bookshops. secondly the zoo hasn't had any bears since 2008.
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And what better Father's Day gift could there be?
Except for my kids. I already have a copy funnily enough. And don't buy any more socks either. Beer please.
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@ArmandDAngour
And the free sandwiches were the primary reason I agreed to take on the role as head of
@OxfordBiology
in the first place!
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Congrats
@auraraulo
- you did a great job in producing this excellent paper.
Our gravity-defying mouseys made it to the cover of Nature ecoevo 🐭❤️
See the featured article on social transmission of gut microbes here:
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I have turned into my dad and am a gardener.
Last picking of rhubarb and this year’s first crop of raspberries. First crop of gooseberries. Huge blackberry crop to pick soon. Beans, aubergine and tomatoes in flower, and loads of carrots, radishes and salad leaves.
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A fun evening recording a
@singforscience
podcast on
#ecofeminism
with
@PeggySeeger
at
@morethanadodo
. Podcast will be live in about 3 weeks.
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Non US-based folk can pre-order the UK version of my book from amazon.
‘Most scientists know only their own field. Tim Coulson is at home with science as an integrated whole. A pleasure to read, and a lasting accomplishment’ Richard Dawkins
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Really enjoyed my conversation about
#life
, the
#universe
and everything with Jordan at FreedomPact podcast. We discuss everything from the Big Bang to
#human
#Existence
@FreedomPactPod
@UniofOxford
@UniofOxford
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What I find remarkable is that an intense point of enormously hot energy that formed 13.77 billion years ago grew to become the universe, and that in our corner of the cosmos a tiny bit of that energy became us. Scientists know a lot about what had to happen for this to occur. My
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If you ever get the opportunity to hear
@jennykleeman
talk, go. The idea behind her new book, “The Price of Life” is genius. And her in conversation event at was captivating and riveting.
@picadorbooks
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Our
#universe
is awesome, but boy is it frustrating. I want to visit planets in other solar systems and galaxies, but that is, and likely always will be, impossible. Yesterday’s trip from
@UniofOxford
to
@BangorUni
was hard enough!
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This winter I will mostly be eating damson and greengage jams.
And probably dried apples too given the number of apples on the trees around Oxford.
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I hear
@BBCRadio4
’s 6am Tweet of the Day about 50% of the time. I love it and it informs about
#nature
&
#birdsong
I hear
@BBCr4today
’s 7.50am Thought for the Day most days. It is uninformative and irrelevant. Pls swap when they are broadcast. Or ditch Thought for the Day.
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GTP: write me a Trump speech. “Hannibal Lecter had a shark. That shark ate a Christian. The shark was a democrat. I’m not a Christian but I am a shark. A great big beautiful shark. I love the dolphins.”
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I really enjoyed recording my episode of the UnShaw podcast. Looking forward into it being live!
Series 2 coming soon.
With thanks to
@profexistence
@jarlebreivik
@StuartSorensen
@TimONeill007
@Uncannylassie
and others for making Series 2 possible.
To subscribe on the following platforms, click the link:
Amazon Music:
Audible:
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The first season of the podcast was superb. Really excited about the second. It was an honour to talk about my book “The Universal HIsTory of Us: A 13.8 billion year tale from the Big Bang to you”.
Series 2 coming soon.
With thanks to
@profexistence
@jarlebreivik
@StuartSorensen
@TimONeill007
@Uncannylassie
and others for making Series 2 possible.
To subscribe on the following platforms, click the link:
Amazon Music:
Audible:
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Always a delight to see warthogs, like this one we saw in Kruger. No one else stopped to look at him. They wanted to see something prettier. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and even a warthog is a gazelle in the eyes of its mother.
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If you focus on your own silly mystical beliefs about life, you risk completely missing the magnificent insights that science has revealed about your existence
Read about what
#sciene
tells us about why
#human
#existence
is a thing.
#UniversalHistoryOfUs
@MichaelJBooks
If you bring your own silly sense of order to life, you will completely miss the magnificent order of the existence.~
@SadhguruJV
#existence
#spirituality
#life
#yoga
#meditation
#ultimate
#home
#Bharat
#TamilNadu
#Coimbatore
#Isha
#ashram
#volunteers
#cosmos
#universe
#kids
#UN
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The
#universe
obeys rules and these can be described with equations. That in itself is amazing. Scientists search for these rules, and having a job being a small part of the search, and teaching about, is a privilege.
@OxfordBiology
@UniofOxford
@mplsoxford
#UniversalHistoryOfUs
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All organisms need resources - food, water, shelter, mates, trace nutrients etc. - to survive and reproduce.
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“So god created man in his own image”. If he used my image, it must have been shortly after he’d created the menswear section of Marks & Spencer
Read about what
#sciene
tells us about why
#human
#existence
is a thing.
#UniversalHistoryOfUs
@MichaelJBooks
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Looking forward to X becoming a place of tranquility and harmony now the election is over……
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Ground hornbills breed every three years and live until over 65+ in zoos. I saw this one, with a beak full of food for the sole chick that is raised each breeding attempt, in Kruger. The surviving chick would have killed any siblings as >1 egg can be laid. Life’s amazing!
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Really enjoyed talking with the amazing Peggy Seeger and selling a few copies of my book.
New episode out today!
Recorded Live at the
@morethanadodo
in Oxford, England—listen to folk icon
@PeggySeeger
talk with
@UniofOxford
Biology Professor Tim Coulson (
@ProfExistence
) about Eco Feminism, pre-patriarchal societies, and more.
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I have finished recording the audio version of my forthcoming book “The Universal History of Us” . Quite how I channeled the narrator of
#Bagpuss
() I do not know.
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@ucfagls
@jhpantel
I despair at flow charts like this. The first thing i try to teach students is that statistics is all about explaining variation in data to test a hypothesis or quantify support (or not) for a pattern. The challenge is to identify appropriate error structures, transformations and
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So excited my book is now published in the US. The title there is “The Science of Why We Exist: A history of the universe from the Big Bang to consciousness”
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@Ben_Sheldon_EGI
@Ben_Sheldon_EGI
It has been a great working relationship and, more importantly, friendship. Time to write some more papers together methinks. Would give us more opportunities to disagree 😀! Looking forward to winning the inter-group punt race later this month.
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I must admit I didn’t entirely understand this manifesto pledge, but was surprised that Trump didn’t mention that sharks have Ampullae of Lorenzini, battery-like electric sense organs used to locate prey.
ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST
featuring Donald Trump
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A lot had to happen for you to exist. In a series of tweets to follow I’ll explore just a few things that had to happen for us to exist. Some scientists think these things are down to chance. Others think k they were inevitable. What do you think?
#UniversalHistoryOfUs
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“So god created man in his own image”. My image suggests we have been depicting him all wrong.
Read about what
#science
tells us about why
#human
#existence
is a thing.
#UniversalHistoryOfUs
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I had a most enjoyable chat with David Freeman on his author archive
#podcast
. A short listen found here.
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Listen in! Can’t wait.
On Let's Talk with
@marbellagiles
from 10.00CET - Tim Coulson (
@ProfExistence
) with 'The Universal History of Us: A 13.8 billion year tale from the Big Bang to you', and Michael Senker, aka
@Silverfox1949xx
, aka Mr Grumpy...
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Spiritual bloke (SB): what do you think my spirit animal is?
Me: spirit animals don’t exist.
SB: I have one, what do you think it is?
Me: A seal.
SB: A seal? What sort of seal?
Me: an imbecile.
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I love
@MargoGuryan
's beautiful song "Timothy Gone" and not just because my name is Tim. It is a great tune! I also use it as my out of office, usually saying something like: on reading this OOO you might well ask the question posed in this song.
. The
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Hello
@OxfordBiology
and
@UniofOxford
I have rejoined social media, so expect me now to be even better informed about what’s going on in the department and University!
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Fabulous meeting today with
@PenguinBooks
to discuss the launch of my forthcoming book.
I have rejoined Twitter, and this is my first tweet in over five years.
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Science aims is to understand the universe and is doing great. It requires imaginative, logical thought. Religion is imaginative but not logical. Science is not compatible with creation myths. How do some scientists simultaneously believe in a god that played some sort of role in
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Woofler makes various noises
Whine: give me your cheese
Growl: I’m dangerous. Give me your cheese.
Yip: I’m cute. Give me your cheese.
Bark: I’m going to annoy you until you give me your cheese.
Read what
#science
tells us about why
#Woofler
#exists
.
#UniversalHistoryOfUs
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Bears a passing resemblance to my great uncle Neville.
Human origins tied to ancient jawless blood-sucking fish
Researchers have traced cell origins critical to vertebrate evolution by studying a group of primitive, bloodsucking fish called lampreys.
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5. Evolution increases the frequency of phenotypic traits and phenotypic trait values if their development is under genetic control and this reduces the depressive effect of the limiting factor. Mean fitness (whatever may be in given the context) increases.
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Great joke by Olaf Falafel at this year’s Edinburgh Fringe:
“The conspiracy theory about the moon being made of cheese was started by the hallouminati”.
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I enjoyed being questioned by Jason Goodyear, one of the creators of
@sciencefocus
, for this podcast about life, the universe and everything in between.
@RKbookpublicist
@RebeccasBooks
@MichaelJBooks
#podcasts
#science
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Today I will mostly be wearing shorts with an elasticated waistband as it is the
@OxfordBiology
summer barbecue.
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Been there. Everyone else finds their hotel easily enough at a conference in a strange town, but I have an uncanny knack of ending up miles away, lost.
There's always one. Satellite tracking map from
@SEO_BirdLife
Migra program of 18 marked Black
#Vultures
over several years showing how they don't really move that much. Apart from one, who did. Random bird movements happen.
#LoveVultures
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#Humans
are dangerous, but do we really need a sphere of observable
#universe
with a diameter of 93 billion light years to ourselves? No. That’s a lot of cosmic real estate for a species that is yet to walk on another planet. There’s other life out there.
#existence
#science
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Spotted hyenas, like this one from South Africa, have the strongest bite of any carnivore, but the herbivorous hippo has a more powerful bite estimated to be up to 8130 newtons/square inch. Life’s amazing!
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“So god created man in his own image”. If he used my image, he’s really let himself go.
Read about what
#science
tells us about why
#human
#existence
is a thing.
#UniversalHistoryOfUs
@MichaelJBooks
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Very much enjoyed talking about
#kafka
and
#insects
on the Colin McEnroe show. Great job editing Lily Tyson. .
@colinmcshow
@colinmcenroe
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Sneak preview of the UK and Commonwealth cover of my book published by
@MichaelJBooks
in June. Perfect timing given when I am released from my sentence as head of
@OxfordBiology
.
@PenguinUKBooks
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Thanks,
@PhoebeWhitlock1
, for having me on your Off Your Shelf podcast . Loved having to identify my five favourite
#books
. Really enjoyed our chat.
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“I am not afflicted by a belief in a god”. Could complexity theory developed in
#ecology
and
#evolution
one day help explain my
#atheist
position?
@FFBAtheists
#UniversalHistoryOfUs
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Tomorrow evening, come and have a glass of wine at Caper and hear
@wildCRU_Ox
's David MacDonald and me in conversation.
@OxfordBiology
@UniOfOxford
At 7.30 on the 9th July, I will be at the excellent independent bookshop, Caper , in East Oxford in conversation with
@WildCRU_Ox
's David Macdonald exploring why life on Earth exists and why we should cherish it
@OxfordBiology
#UniversalHistoryOfUs
. Come
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Woofler recently killed a rat & didn’t eat it. I left it hoping a red kite would scavenge it. The neighbours cat found it and left it by their back door. A strange urban ecology.
#science
#ecology
played a role in
#human
#existence
.
#UniversalHistoryOfUs
@MichaelJBooks
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Loved doing this Brazilian podcast. Translation in progress.
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What if climate change 40000 years ago had made Africa more forested? Homo sapiens might have gone extinct and Neanderthals might be tweeting.
Does that mean our
#existence
is down to luck or inevitable? Read about what
#science
tells us about why
#human
#existence
is a thing.
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Ever think about how we’re just tiny specks on a rock floating through space, trying to make sense of it all?
#ExistentialThoughts
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I wondered what ChatGPT would make of Liz Truss losing her seat. It seems to have captured the public mood quite well.
In the land of tea and crumpet fame,
Liz Truss faced her electoral game.
With posters bright and leaflets bold,
She thought her seat was safely sold.
But
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@DavidMarkHerman
@UniofOxford
@OxfordBiology
Indeed! The German word ungeheueres doesn't have a simple translation into English -- a sort of insect vermin. Anyway, I didn't have a ungeheueres costume so I went as a cockroach!
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What better way to spend a summer Tuesday evening than with a pint in hand hearing me discuss life, the universe and everything. Brighton, Tuesday 13th, 7.30pm. Hope to see you there!
@BrighthinkOrg
#UniversalHistoryOfUs
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So well deserved. Amazing news. Well done Carol!
The
@EPOorg
has announced that
@OxfordChemistry
's Prof Dame Carol Robinson will receive the Lifetime Achievement Award.
The award recognises Prof Robinson’s ground-breaking work in mass spectrometry, advancing drug discovery, and personalised medicine.
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Thanks
@RebeccasBooks
! The subtitle is 'A 13.8 billion year tale from the Big Bang to you'. It may have taken nearly 13.8 billion years to make Tim, but it has also taken Tim quite a long time to make this book. He first dreamed it up as a student. This is how he describes its
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Great panel debate on attitudes to insects last night at the Oxford Natural History Museum
@morethanadodo
. All part of the
#Oxfordreadskafka
celebrations. Thanks
@Liam_M_Crowley
for chairing, and Rosie, Clair and Jeri for being panelists.
#OxfordReadsKafka
Momentum continued
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These red-billed oxpeckers hitching a ride on a zebra might look cute, but as well as eating ticks and insects they also keep wounds open on large herbivores to feed on their favourite food, blood.
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What a lovely review. It makes writing worthwhile when people learn while enjoying what they read. In the UK and Commonwealth the title is “The Universal History of Us”.
@MichaelJBooks
@RebeccasBooks
Just finished The Science of Why We Exist by
@ProfExistence
. He makes the journey from the Big Bang to human life easier to grasp! Highly recommend! Check out my review and summary here:
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