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Dr Emilie Taylor-Pirie

@dretaylorpirie.bsky.social
268 followers 128 following 38 posts

Historian of Medicine & Culture | Medical Humanities | Gut Health | Author of “Empire Under the Microscope" (2022) link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-… | lover of books, dogs, slow news, and the oxford comma. | vibe: 📚🔬🦟🐕👶🏻👶🏻🌱

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Dr Emilie Taylor-Pirie @dretaylorpirie.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
one for the parents… 📚 emilietaylorpirie.substack.com/p/the-childr...
emilietaylorpirie.substack.com
The Children’s Book Guide You’ve Always Wanted
Find your child’s perfect match from a mum with over 400 picture books at home.
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Cambridge University Library @theul.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
✒️ "Written & Edited by his Wife" Join us for a research talk by Dr Grace Exley who will explore how women’s hands have shaped our impression of some of the most famous scientists of the nineteenth century. 21 Oct, 5-6.30pm Cambridge University Library Book your FREE ticket loom.ly/KpzUmgM
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George Monbiot @georgemonbiot.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Here's today's column on the astonishing, ongoing mistreatment of people with #ME/CFS. Please spread it far and wide: the only thing which can break the media's wall of indifference is seeing an article about the issue go viral. Thank you. 1/2 www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
theguardian.com
Abandoned, dismissed and gaslighted: there is no excuse for the way ME sufferers have been betrayed | George Monbiot
Changes in guidance and science seem to have little impact on millions of devastated lives. It’s a social crisis playing out behind closed doors, says Guardian columnist George Monbiot
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Dr Emilie Taylor-Pirie @dretaylorpirie.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Something I don’t talk about very much but if you’ve ever had an awkward interaction with me, this one’s for you. emilietaylorpirie.substack.com/p/living-wit...
emilietaylorpirie.substack.com
Living with Face Blindness, or Why You Probably Think I Hate You.
Let me tell you about all the embarrassing ways prosopagnosia ruins my life. Joking, not joking.
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Dr Emilie Taylor-Pirie @dretaylorpirie.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
I'm seeing a lot of posts on Substack about how using AI allows people to write who otherwise wouldn't be good at it & thus it's an accessibility thing. But if you don't find writing enjoyable or natural maybe a long-form writing platform is just not for you? Apparently this is a controversial take!
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Marijke Valk @marijkevalk.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
I'm excited to share the CFP for this year's BSLS Winter Symposium, which I'm absolutely thrilled to be organising with @thebsls.bsky.social! Occult Science: Disenchantment, Re-Enchantment, and the Persistence of Wonder Abstract deadline: 31 October 2026 Full CFP: www.bsls.ac.uk/2026/09/bsls...
bsls.ac.uk
BSLS 2026/27 Winter Symposium Call for Papers – The British Society for Literature and Science
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Carsten Timmermann @ctimmermann.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
This is good on Cambridge and the difference between lived experience and public imagination. magazine.newstatesman.com/2026/08/12/a...
magazine.newstatesman.com
A dream of Cambridge
The university’s place in the public imagination is as illusory as Jason Arday’s academic credentials
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Dr Emilie Taylor-Pirie @dretaylorpirie.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
I haven't used BlueSky for a good long while! But I wrote something on substack so perhaps it's time... emilietaylorpirie.substack.com/p/on-unbecom...
emilietaylorpirie.substack.com
On UnBecoming...
Matrescence, home truths, and losing myself in motherhood.
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Science News @scinews.bsky.social · 19/12/2025
Circadian Rhythms in Gastroenterology: The Biological Clock’s Impact on Gut Health www.gastrojournal.org/article/S001...
gastrojournal.org
Circadian Rhythms in Gastroenterology: The Biological Clock’s Impact on Gut Health
Chronic gastrointestinal (GI) diseases, including functional, inflammatory, and neoplastic conditions, are increasing globally, partly due to modern lifestyles. The circadian rhythm, regulated by the ...
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Simon Pegg @simonpegg.bsky.social · 18/12/2025
I'm sharing this here, as I have on Facebook and Instagram, but there's no account on here to share from, and I just think this is wonderful. A really good balance of design and implementation, and appears to achieve everything it set out to do, and it *SO* appeals to my inner 'work nerd'.
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Dr Emilie Taylor-Pirie @dretaylorpirie.bsky.social · 19/12/2025
I've seen a few headlines including a recent one from New Scientist on immunotherapy outcomes and circadian rhythm. And what's so promising is that time of day and microbiomal/lifestyle factors are so actionable.
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Iwan Rhys Morus @irmorus.bsky.social · 16/09/2025
UK readers: if you want to buy a hardback HTVTUTTM at a paperback price, Amazon currently have it at a whopping 68% off. Worth it for the amazing dust-jacket alone:
amazon.co.uk
How the Victorians Took Us to the Moon: The Story of the Nineteenth-Century Innovators Who Forged the Future
Buy How the Victorians Took Us to the Moon: The Story of the Nineteenth-Century Innovators Who Forged the Future by Rhys Morus, Iwan (ISBN: 9781785789281) from Amazon's Book Store. Everyday low prices and free delivery on eligible orders.
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Will Tattersdill @tattersdill.bsky.social · 16/09/2025
Calling all Victorianists with Lego Ideas accounts! (yeah, I see you) VOTE FOR LEGO CRYSTAL PALACE beta.ideas.lego.com/product-idea...
beta.ideas.lego.com
The Crystal Palace | LEGO® Ideas
Welcome to the Crystal Palace and the grandest event of the Victorian age - the Great Exhibition of 1851!…
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Dr Emilie Taylor-Pirie @dretaylorpirie.bsky.social · 17/09/2025
just had the wild experience of finding an "AI podcast" of my book, "Empire Under the Microscope". Astonishingly, at the surface level, it's not that far off the mark, and thankfully shuns the Siri-robot voice.
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Dr Emilie Taylor-Pirie @dretaylorpirie.bsky.social · 18/08/2025
👶👶
Poem called "Twin Mum" by Emilie Taylor-Pirie

Twin Mum

There were a lot of things we couldn’t do,
because there was one of me,
and two of you.

No contact walks or contact naps,
Or coffee meet-ups on my lap, 
No impromptu swims or ‘baby spa’,
Or sitting beside you in the car. 

At baby classes we were always three:
Two of you and one of me.
So we sang songs for singletons on repeat,
While I clapped your hands 
And tapped your feet.

Before you could sit or crawl or walk,
Before you could sing or sign or talk,
You had to take turns. 

It’s hard to wait, it’s hard to share,
I pat your back, I stroke your hair.
We’d cry together as a three,
Two of you and one of me. 

Before you could roll or clap or stand
I saw you clasp each others’ hands.
I heard you give that boundless laugh
to your double in the bath.

It’s bedtime and you’ve had three books,
But you fix me with two little looks.
I know you want to hear me sing,
A song for her and one for him.

About a plucky little light,
And a lucky fishing night.
So I pull you close on one knee each,
I rock the chair and kiss your cheeks.

We move together as a three,
And I remember that you once were me. 

You shared my milk, you shared my womb.
I sing the stars, I sing the moon.
I’m pouring from an empty cup,
But I breathe you in, I drink you up.
Two sets of snores, four hands, unfurled,
I wouldn’t change it for the world.

The hardest thing I’ve ever done,
Is loving two, but being one.
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Dr Emilie Taylor-Pirie @dretaylorpirie.bsky.social · 15/08/2025
Can we all just take a sec to appreciate these cute names of new members of the Children's League in 1908 (set up to encourage the habits of kindness & self-denial): Elsie, Norman, Doris, Lawrence, Clarrie, Jeanie, Kitty, Edith, Queenie, Florence, Olga, Gertie, Ida, Martha, Agnes, Violet, Florrie 🥹
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Dr Emilie Taylor-Pirie @dretaylorpirie.bsky.social · 30/07/2025
realising that this article is indeed one of my books in a parallel universe... but not this one so I guess it's radical culling time. wish me luck. #antivaxhistories #narrativeauthority #ronaldross
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Dr Emilie Taylor-Pirie @dretaylorpirie.bsky.social · 30/07/2025
ads in a Date Book (1902) "Throw pens to the dogs! They belong to an age of tallow candles&stage coaches. c20th lecturers need a present day writing implement—the ROYAL BAR=LOCK TYPEWRITER!" Literally the next page: "Note down every engagement w/the SWAN FOUNTAIN PEN. Ever handy in your pocket!"
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Dr Emilie Taylor-Pirie @dretaylorpirie.bsky.social · 30/07/2025
"Before many months every one of us, on catching a cold, will slip off in all probability, to spend an hour in a chlorine gas chamber as naturally as we slip off to the dentist" (1924) - well this didn't age well.
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Dr Emilie Taylor-Pirie @dretaylorpirie.bsky.social · 11/04/2025
Enjoying a productive few days at #BSLS2025. currently enjoying Sydney Padua’s incredible illustrations & animations of c19th census data & naturalist texts! #litsci
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Dr Emilie Taylor-Pirie @dretaylorpirie.bsky.social · 02/04/2025
I'm in the office today & before we even hit 9am my colleague & I went down the rabbit hole of "grief tech" & it's bioethics. There's an AI Seance software that allows you to input data of your loved one to recreate them from beyond the grave. I kid you not. Now want to write a paper on it.
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Yvonne Lam @yvonnezlam.bsky.social · 02/04/2025
Knitters! digitalpreservation-blog.lib.cam.ac.uk/knitting-thr...
digitalpreservation-blog.lib.cam.ac.uk
Knitting Through Digital Decay: A Collection of Digital Preservation Jumpers No One Asked For (But…
I’ve been truly overwhelmed by the interest in my Digital Preservation knitting patterns — thank you to everyone who has reached out…
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Leeds Centre for the History and Philosophy of Science @hpsleeds.bsky.social · 02/04/2025
A wonderful opportunity to apply for a fully-funded collaborative PhD studentship in partnership with @royalsociety.org. "Weather Sceptics: Almanacs and the Making of Scientific Meteorology in Nineteenth-Century Britain". Deadline 6 May. See link for full details. #histsci @bshsnews.bsky.social
phd.leeds.ac.uk
AHRC Collaborative Doctoral Partnership (CDP) - Weather Sceptics: Almanacs and the Making of Scientific Meteorology in Nineteenth-Century Britain
Project opportunity - AHRC Collaborative Doctoral Partnership (CDP) - Weather Sceptics: Almanacs and the Making of Scientific Meteorology in Nineteenth-Century Britain at the University of Leeds
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Dr Emilie Taylor-Pirie @dretaylorpirie.bsky.social · 31/03/2025
Telling it like it is in 1915 with the article title: "People who ought to be shot". Yikes!
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Anna McFarlane @mariettarosetta.bsky.social · 25/03/2025
Thanks to our contributors @grmorgan.bsky.social @timothysmiller.bsky.social @dretaylorpirie.bsky.social @nomad93.bsky.social @larsschmeink.bsky.social and many others. You can see the full table of contents here: edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-the-edi...
edinburghuniversitypress.com
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Anna McFarlane @mariettarosetta.bsky.social · 25/03/2025
I just received my copy of The Edinburgh Companion to Science Fiction and the Medical Humanities, feat. a lengthy introduction my @drgavinmiller.bsky.social and I, and a chapter on pregnancy from me. #medicalhumanities #sf #sciencefiction #disabilitystudies
A copy of the book The Edinburgh Companion to Science Fiction and the Medical Humanities
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University of Glasgow @glasgow.ac.uk · 24/03/2025
Glasgow's National Trust for Scotland's Mackintosh at the Willow will host a series of talks on the history of the cuppa. The Scottish Food Heritage Symposium led by @uofgartshums.bsky.social Dr Lindsay Middleton and @tenementkitchen.bsky.social will diving into tea's cultural impact. 🫖
gla.ac
Scottish food heritage symposium explores tea’s cultural and societal impact
At this month’s annual Scottish Food Heritage Symposium experts will explore how this simple beverage helped transform Scotland’s largest city.
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Adam Rutherford @adamrutherford.bsky.social · 24/03/2025
Now might be a good time to protect your data if you’ve used this service. www.bbc.com/news/article...
bbc.com
23andMe files for bankruptcy protection
The company said that it will now attempt to sell itself under the supervision of a court.
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Greg Jenner (Historian) @gregjenner.bsky.social · 20/03/2025
So, all three of my books for adults (plus translations) have been illegally pirated on LibGen, and then stolen again by Meta to train their AI Copyright law is being utterly trampled on, over and over. I hate it. www.theatlantic.com/technology/a...
theatlantic.com
Search LibGen, the Pirated-Books Database That Meta Used to Train AI
Millions of books and scientific papers are captured in the collection’s current iteration.
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Miriam Posner @miriamposner.com · 22/03/2025
This made me cheer. It gets directly at a problem I’ve often noticed: people don’t fundamentally understand what a historian *does*.
Ethical: There is a particular paradox that makes Al essentially useless as a tool for studying history. The entire point of what we do as historians is to look for untold stories...elements of the history of mankind that are novel and unexpected. There is a fundamental epistemological disjuncture between what PhD-holding historians do and what ChatGPT and its ilk do: the former meticulously, purposefully, and rigorously comb through a mountain of human-curated documents looking
- Continued to Next Pagefor revealing details that diverge from the baseline, offer indications of cultural shift, or elements humanity embedded in seemingly mundane activities; the latter processes terabytes of machine-harvested data in order to predict what will be the most likely next token in a string, and when these tokens are words they may or may not result in a grammatically coherent sentence.
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Dr Emilie Taylor-Pirie @dretaylorpirie.bsky.social · 24/03/2025
Proud to be part of this important companion to Science Fiction & the Medical Humanities, with chapters on pregnancy, sleep, disability, bioethics, trauma, scicomm & more… #medhums #litsci #histmed
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Carsten Timmermann @ctimmermann.bsky.social · 12/03/2025
A #HistPsych query addressed to historians of women's rights and the suffragette movement: for an undergraduate student project, can anyone point me to primary sources where protests by suffragettes are dismissed as expressions of mental illness? And is there secondary literature on this?
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Dr Emilie Taylor-Pirie @dretaylorpirie.bsky.social · 12/03/2025
I've been listening to countless podcasts and reading articles & books about anti-vaxxers & anti-vax histories the past week. Vaccine hesitancy is a prime candidate for promoting the importance of the humanities. It's rarely about the science. It's about trust, fear, risk, authority & narrative.
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Richard Fallon @richardfallon.bsky.social · 03/03/2025
It's publication month, and you can read parts of my new book on that bastion of surprisingly un-previewable public domain material and surprisingly previewable copyrighted material: Google Books. Don't tell me if you find errors, typos, or dubious geology. books.google.co.uk/books?id=6Ch...
books.google.co.uk
Contesting Earth's History in Transatlantic Literary Culture, 1860-1935
By the mid-nineteenth century, geologists and palaeontologists had reconstructed an authoritative narrative of Earth's deep history, from the planet's molten origins to the rise of humanity. Many figu...
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Dr Lindsey Fitzharris @drlindseyfitz.bsky.social · 03/03/2025
It's #MementoMoriMonday! Here are male and female memento mori figurines used for spiritual contemplation from the 19th century. They were meant to remind the owner of the transience of life and material luxury. They are now part of the Wellcome Collection in London. Wedding cake toppers, anyone?
Two figurines, one male, one female. They are dressed in 19th-century clothing, and half of them appears as a decaying corpse/skeleton.
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Dr Emilie Taylor-Pirie @dretaylorpirie.bsky.social · 03/03/2025
Today I am going down the rabbit hole of anti-vax histories.... if anyone has any recommendations send them my way! #antivax #histmed #litsci
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Greg Jenner (Historian) @gregjenner.bsky.social · 28/02/2025
New episode! This week on BBC You’re Dead To Me we turn our hands to Arctic Exploration and go in search of the deadly Northwest Passage With expert historian @hpsvanessa.bsky.social and comedian @stuartgoldsmith.bsky.social Listen now on BBC SOUNDS www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...
Photo of Stu Goldsmith in pink t-shirt, Dr Vanessa Heggie in black and white striped dress and red cardigan, and Greg Jenner in maroon knitwear. They’re all smiling in front of the BBC You’re Dead To Me podcast artwork on a TV screen Greg Jenner is joined by Dr Vanessa Heggie and comedian Stu Goldsmith to learn all about the perilous history of Arctic exploration. From the fifteenth to twentieth centuries, Europeans searched for the Northwest Passage, a supposed seaway between the Atlantic and Pacific through the Arctic Ocean. Indigenous groups had been traversing the passage for centuries, using small skin boats and dog sleds, but from 1497, European expeditions were launched to find and claim it. Most of these ended in failure, with explorers either returning home empty handed or not returning at all.
Some even got completely lost, arriving in Hawaii or North Carolina rather than Canada! In 1845, the most famous Arctic expedition, led by Sir John Franklin, was launched. Within a few months, his two ships, the Erebus and the Terror, with their crew of 129 souls, had vanished.It was not until 1906 that a Norwegian team, led by Roald Amundsen, finally navigated the passage. This episode explores the often fatal quest for the Northwest Passage, charting the various expeditions that tried and failed to find and traverse it, uncovering the men who lost their lives looking for it, and asking why Europeans were so keen to explore such a hostile region of the world. And we unravel the mystery of just what happened to John Franklin and his men out there on the ice.

If you're a fan of intrepid explorers, mysterious historical disappearances and the history of scientific advancement, you'll love our episode on Arctic Exploration.You're Dead To Me is the comedy podcast that takes history seriously. Every episode, Greg Jenner brings together the best names in history and comedy to learn and laugh about the past.
Hosted by: Greg Jenner
Research by: Matt Ryan
Written by: Matt Ryan, Emmie Rose Price-Goodfellow, Emma Nagouse, and Greg
Jenner
Produced by: Emmie Rose Price-Goodfellow and Greg Jenner
Audio Producer: Steve Hankey
Production Coordinator: Ben Hollands
Senior Producer: Emma Nagouse
Executive Editor: James Cook
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Douglas Small @drdouglassmall.bsky.social · 28/02/2025
So, quite obviously everything is insane & on fire right now [gestures broadly to everything being insane & on fire] BUT if you're interested, I have a new article in this month's BBC History on the Victorian love affair with cocaine. www.historyextra.com/magazine/cur...
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Dr Emilie Taylor-Pirie @dretaylorpirie.bsky.social · 28/02/2025
slowly finding my people again. holla if you are interested in history, science, the medical humanities, scicomm, good books, hot coffee, mundane adventures, simple joys, secret doors...
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Dr Laura Eastlake @victorianmasc.bsky.social · 28/02/2025
Do you take sugar in your tea? I'm speaking at this year's 'Scottish Food Heritage Symposium' on how sugar got into our cultural bloodstreams as well as our literal ones in the 19th century! 📆 Friday 28 Mar. 10am-5pm in the gorgeous Mackintosh at the Willow 🎟️ shorturl.at/47FXZ Free! All welcome.
POster for the Scottish Food heritage SYmposium. showing Edwardian women sitting at a tea table.
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Dr Emilie Taylor-Pirie @dretaylorpirie.bsky.social · 28/02/2025
Late to the party. (but hey I showed up, didn't I?) Lover of science 🔬 writer of history 📚 mother of twins 👶👶 Follow me for tepid takes about science & society, especially parasite content, fun facts, & why we need the humanities more than ever. blogs.bmj.com/medical-huma...
blogs.bmj.com
The Poet Who Conquered Malaria: Medical Humanities and the Public Understanding of Science - Medical Humanities
Dr Emilie Taylor-Pirie considers the Scottish pathologist Ronald Ross, who proved that mosquitos transmit malaria.
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