Jon Bang Ploug @jonploug.bsky.social · 16/05/2026Honestly I have been perplexed by this for the last 6 years and still is. I think they just rely on whatever basic medical training they got 30 years ago instead of asking a specialist. Plus, they don’t want to rock the boat, and ultimately, they just don't care about the transmission of pathogens. 000
Jon Bang Ploug @jonploug.bsky.social · 27/04/20268/ Thanks to Mark Humphries and Lianne C. Leddy for the original Archive Studio project and for showing why this moment in historical handwriting recognition matters. generativehistory.substack.com/p/gemini-3-s...generativehistory.substack.comGemini 3 Solves Handwriting Recognition and it’s a Bitter LessonTesting shows that Gemini 3 has effectively solved handwriting on English texts, one of the oldest problems in AI, achieving expert human levels of performance. 000
Jon Bang Ploug @jonploug.bsky.social · 27/04/20266/ The app is local-first in the practical sense: project folders, images, transcriptions, translations, logs, and exports stay on your computer. When you run AI tasks, the relevant images/text are sent to the API provider you choose. 000
Jon Bang Ploug @jonploug.bsky.social · 27/04/20265/ Archive Studio for Mac is meant to make this new LLM-based transcription workflow easier to test on macOS. 100
Jon Bang Ploug @jonploug.bsky.social · 27/04/20264/ This is not just “better OCR.” For historians, it changes the workflow: photographed archival pages can become usable text much faster, so more time can be spent checking, correcting, interpreting, and analysing rather than manually typing everything. 100
Jon Bang Ploug @jonploug.bsky.social · 27/04/20263/ Mark Humphries and Lianne C. Leddy have been testing Gemini 3 Pro on historical handwriting, and the results suggest that general multimodal LLMs are now reaching a level where handwritten transcription can be genuinely useful out of the box. 100
Jon Bang Ploug @jonploug.bsky.social · 27/04/20262/ The app lets you create local projects from images or PDFs, run AI-assisted transcription/OCR/HTR with Gemini, OpenAI, or Claude, correct the text against the image, translate it, and export to TXT, Markdown, CSV, JSON, or JSONL. 100
Jon Bang Ploug @jonploug.bsky.social · 27/04/20261/ I’ve made Archive Studio for Mac available on GitHub. It is a community macOS adaptation of Mark Humphries and Lianne C. Leddy’s Archive Studio, built for historians, archivists, and humanities researchers working with historical documents. #DigitalHumanities github.com/JonBangPloug...github.comGitHub - JonBangPloug/Archive_Studio_for_Mac: Frontier archival processing of historical documents with AI (Mac version)Frontier archival processing of historical documents with AI (Mac version) - JonBangPloug/Archive_Studio_for_Mac 100
Reposted by Jon Bang PlougDaniel Blanco-Melo @dbm003.bsky.social · 31/01/2026Excited to share our work on #AncientRNA from alcohol-preserved lungs, recovering the oldest human RNA virus genome (an 18th-century rhinovirus). Our study shows that viral RNA remnants persist in centuries-old tissue, opening new ways to study virus evolution and historical disease #Paleovirology🫁🦠biorxiv.org 27221
Jon Bang Ploug @jonploug.bsky.social · 28/01/2026"Don't go meddling with Babylonian horoscopes." We get a fascinating glimpe here into an old pastime 020
Jon Bang Ploug @jonploug.bsky.social · 28/01/2026Yes, I guess so. They tap into our pro-nature bias, so many people, even MDs, really wish that their theories are true even when 30 years of evidence gathering shows the opposite. 010
Jon Bang Ploug @jonploug.bsky.social · 27/01/2026Yes, they can delay it. Better to prevent it, but that requires a complete understanding of the mechanism. 010
Jon Bang Ploug @jonploug.bsky.social · 27/01/2026Between 1904 and 1907, approximately two million people are estimated to have died of plague in northern India. Despite this extraordinary scale, the episode has never been narrated as a historical catastrophe, surviving instead almost exclusively in statistical series and technical reports. 041
Jon Bang Ploug @jonploug.bsky.social · 26/01/2026Claude AI has been reasonably good in providing advice on Type 1 diabetes management. After I uploaded several months of data from a Tandem insulin pump and a Dexcom sensor, it gave some great advice that led to small adjustments, which improved time in range and gave fewer hypos 000
Jon Bang Ploug @jonploug.bsky.social · 26/01/2026They are so obviously a cult that I am perplexed why nobody sees it. 170
Jon Bang Ploug @jonploug.bsky.social · 26/01/2026It reminds me of the days when certain Germans couldn't accept advanced physics, such as the theory of special relativity, solely because of the people who developed it. It didn't help them in the end. 010
Jon Bang Ploug @jonploug.bsky.social · 26/01/2026Most bizarrely, this logic undercuts decades of historical epidemiology. Carmichael and Silverstein become “naïve” simply for doing what historians have always done: reconstruct change across time. 010
Jon Bang Ploug @jonploug.bsky.social · 26/01/2026Yet in aDNA studies, heavy sample selection, modeling, and interpolation are treated as rigorous inference. Texts = bias. Molecules = truth. 110
Jon Bang Ploug @jonploug.bsky.social · 26/01/2026The implication was clear: only genomic data counts as “real” evidence for biological change. Textual sources are methodologically suspect by default. 100
Jon Bang Ploug @jonploug.bsky.social · 26/01/2026At a recent presentation, I argued (with a bioinformatician) that smallpox virulence likely declined around 1600, an argument already well described by the historians Carmichael and Silverstein. A historian at the presentation dismissed my use of sources from different periods as “cherry-picking.” 100
Reposted by Jon Bang PlougGrant Jacobs BioinfoTools/NotJustDNA 🔬🧬🖥️✍️📚🇳🇿 @notjustdna.bsky.social · 26/01/2026🦠 Nipah outbreak Nipah virus outbreaks have high fatality rates, in the 40-70% range. The latest outbreak is in eastern India. Five cases are reported, and 100 people are under quarantine. Several Asian countries are reported to be stepping up alertness. 1/2slguardian.orgThailand Begins Airport Screening as Nipah Virus Outbreak Spreads in IndiaThailand’s Ministry of Public Health has begun screening air passengers arriving from India for signs of Nipah virus infection, following reports of a cluster of cases in India’s eastern state... 12823
Jon Bang Ploug @jonploug.bsky.social · 02/01/2026Actually, it's absurd how little we can read of what humans have produced. We just never see this, as we avoid all the stuff we aren't familiar with. Even philologists are only able to read a small percentage. 010
Jon Bang Ploug @jonploug.bsky.social · 02/01/2026Great! I hope that Denmark will follow suit soon. 000
Jon Bang Ploug @jonploug.bsky.social · 31/12/2025He has sworn fealty to Putin, so he will do his utmost to help him now. What a disgrace for him to lower himself to such servitude. 010
Jon Bang Ploug @jonploug.bsky.social · 30/12/2025The church also made it illegal. So you could get into serious trouble eating horsemeat, which probably removed most of the flavour.. 000
Jon Bang Ploug @jonploug.bsky.social · 28/12/2025A truly paradigme changing piece. I’ll be using this to push back against the old guard and their droplet theory. Habits and policies come and go (masking vs. non-masking eg.) but fundamentally rewriting our understanding of a scientific subject is a rare and historic event. 010
Jon Bang Ploug @jonploug.bsky.social · 23/12/2025I also believe that we historians have a heightened responsibility to combat antisemitism. It is an age-old 'mind virus', one that is still endemic around the world, occasionally flaring into epidemics as seen in recent times. 010
Jon Bang Ploug @jonploug.bsky.social · 19/12/2025Perhaps, but Monbiot is part of the problem. He reminds me of the European elites before World War II, who were completely ignorant of and disrespectful toward the plights of the working class, fueling grievances that ultimately proved catastrophic. 000
Jon Bang Ploug @jonploug.bsky.social · 13/12/2025Gullfoss, but I haven't seen Seljalandsfoss and Hraunfossar 010
Jon Bang Ploug @jonploug.bsky.social · 12/12/2025Yes, it was a great talk indeed. You really got us convinced that this is something we need to look more into! I am sitting here and reading about plague in Denmark and Eastern Europe right now :) 010
Reposted by Jon Bang PlougThe Spectator @thespectator1828.bsky.social · 11/12/2025The intellectual diversity of IoT has been astounding. One of my favourite moments was when a scientist began his reply: ‘A billion, billion light years ago…’ ✍️ Melvyn Braggspectator.co.ukMy farewell to In Our TimeI set up In Our Time 27 years ago. I had been shunted from Start the Week to what was cheerfully known as the ‘death slot’, 9 a.m. on Thursdays, because BBC management decided I could no longer present... 031
Jon Bang Ploug @jonploug.bsky.social · 11/12/2025Folklore experts: I need help visualizing a portent from an Icelandic Annal: A man sees a "strange sheep" that is spotted and shaped like a "gaflkæna" (a small boat with a flat stern?). Text says: "...with a long snout in front and short/blunt behind; it came up after him in the wake of his boat." 010
Reposted by Jon Bang PlougMonica H Green @monicamedhist.bsky.social · 09/12/2025My thanks to the PandemiX center at @roskildeuni.bsky.social for hosting me today. What a great opportunity to talk about the current state of plague research & the challenges of thinking across so many disciplinary methods. #PandemicThinking #histmed h/t @jonploug.bsky.social 191
Jon Bang Ploug @jonploug.bsky.social · 09/12/2025Italian plague doctor, Rome 1656 The outbreak most closely linked to the iconic beaked suit. – Made with Nano Banana Pro 020
Jon Bang Ploug @jonploug.bsky.social · 06/12/2025I often use documentaries by BBC and others to help bring the past to life for my students. The catch is that you can't make them yourself to fit the exact subject you're teaching. That’s where AI tools could be helpful. They offer infinite customization. Here I had some fun with Nano Banana Pro. 120
Jon Bang Ploug @jonploug.bsky.social · 04/12/2025Yes, the archaeologist was so surprised that her first reaction after having unearthed it was to put it back down again, thinking "Shit! - How can there suddenly be iron here, right in the middle of Bronze Age finds and in a Bronze Age setting?" www.dr.dk/nyheder/indl...dr.dkDa Lone pludselig stod med en guldbelagt lanse i hånden, fik chokket hende til at stikke den i jorden igenArkæologer fra Museum Vestsjælland har gjort fundet af lanserne, som er det ældste jern fundet i Danmark. 000
Jon Bang Ploug @jonploug.bsky.social · 01/12/2025For more info: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... But you read about past influenza outbreaks. I was reading about the influenza outbreak in Iceland in 1862. It spread through the whole island in 14 days. Good luck trying to argue that this was due to big droplets!science.orgAirborne transmission of respiratory virusesA Review discusses the scientific basis of and factors controlling airborne transmission of respiratory viruses including coronavirus. 041
Jon Bang Ploug @jonploug.bsky.social · 01/12/2025Why are we still too good-mannered to say this loud? Aren't the stakes too high for niceties and for ignoring the fact that we have a completely wrong understanding of how best to protect ourselves against influenza, caused by an outdated paradigm? 120
Jon Bang Ploug @jonploug.bsky.social · 01/12/2025Looking back five years, we faced a similar situation where medical professionals were evidently more concerned about having to revise dogma and their teachings than about effectively addressing a pandemic virus. 110
Jon Bang Ploug @jonploug.bsky.social · 01/12/2025However, when a new strain of the virus emerges and immunity is lacking, the virus's airborne nature becomes much more evident. Relying on measures like coughing into your elbow and washing your hands will then be entirely useless. 110
Jon Bang Ploug @jonploug.bsky.social · 01/12/2025When studying the history of influenza, it is clear that it spreads in the air, just like measles. The challenge is that widespread immunity can create the illusion that influenza is not easily transmitted, as it reduces the number of individuals who are susceptible to the virus. 110
Jon Bang Ploug @jonploug.bsky.social · 01/12/2025It will be challenging to counter a new pandemic influenza strain that spreads through a population like wildfire if our health authorities keep insisting that it is transmitted solely via large droplets. Unfortunately, this is the stance that all health authorities are taking now. 151
Reposted by Jon Bang PlougThe Fake History Hunter @fakehistoryhunter.net · 23/11/2025Another social media thread turned into an article for easier reading: Art review: Hunters in the Snow, by Pieter Bruegel the Elder (1565) You can read it here; fakehistoryhunter.net/2025/11/23/a... Or here; fakehistoryhunter.substack.com/p/art-review...fakehistoryhunter.netArt review: Hunters in the Snow, by Pieter Bruegel the Elder (1565)This article was originally a thread on social media, which is why it is formatted with lots of images and short responses.The text is about the image below that paragraph. Let’s do another p… 5919
Jon Bang Ploug @jonploug.bsky.social · 22/11/2025With a superspreading pathogen like Covid combined with zero epistemic flexibility on the part of health authorities to recognize its airborne nature and take the necessary precautions, it's impossible to see how a lockdown was avoidable. 030
Reposted by Jon Bang PlougJon Cohen @cohenjon.bsky.social · 21/11/2025Thanks to @undark.org for reviewing my new book! undark.org/2025/11/21/b...undark.orgBook Review: The Urgent Quest to Prevent the Next PandemicIn "Planning Miracles," Jon Cohen chronicles the efforts of scientists and others to eradicate the threat of pandemics. 0135
Reposted by Jon Bang PlougNahyan Fancy @fancynahyan.bsky.social · 19/11/2025I am very pleased and grateful to share this announcement of our recent award from the @wellcometrust.bsky.social for a project on history of smallpox and measles #histmed #histsci news.exeter.ac.uk/faculty-of-h... The project will be based @exeter.ac.uk @cceh-u24.bsky.social led by ... 1/2news.exeter.ac.ukExeter scholars secure significant research funding to investigate the early history of Smallpox and MeaslesThe early histories of smallpox and measles – and the insight they might offer to contemporary health and medicine – will be under the microscope of a new research project. Pustules, Palaeogenetics an... 56513
Jon Bang Ploug @jonploug.bsky.social · 21/11/2025Congratulations on this award! This is wonderful news for the field. I'm currently working on a smallpox paper drawing on previously unstudied medieval sources, so I'll be following this project's developments with great interest. 110