Sign in

Randolph Nesse

@randynesse.bsky.social
1.1K followers 758 following 940 posts

A founder of evolutionary medicine now trying to help psychiatry find its missing foundation in evolutionary biology.

PostsRepliesMedia
Randolph Nesse @randynesse.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
Psychiatry lacks knowledge about normal functions that is the foundation for research in the rest of medicine. A new post at Nessays describes what it will take to find the functions of normal mood variation. When we do, depression will make much more sense.
000
Randolph Nesse @randynesse.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
A new Nessay: Depression is hard to explain because our questions have no answers of the sort we look for. And better questions reveal the messy reality of evolved emotions. Comments welcome. www.nessays.com/p/why-explai... @umehap.bsky.social @evmed.bsky.social @humbehevosoc.bsky.social
nessays.com
Why Explaining Depression Is Difficult
New questions will provide new answers
000
Randolph Nesse @randynesse.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
Martin Daly has shared a video of his wonderful recent talk about the early history of the Human Behavior and Evolution Society. It is full of nuggets about the people and ideas that gave birth to the field. I learned a lot and loved seeing the photos! drive.google.com/file/d/1q61g...
drive.google.com
MartinDaly_HistoryOfHBES_UM6P_Rabat.mp4
0121
Randolph Nesse @randynesse.bsky.social · 09/07/2026
www.nessays.com/p/antidepres...
nessays.com
Antidepressants are analgesics for mental pain
Much of the intense controversy that swirls around antidepressants arises from not understanding how they help.
130
Randolph Nesse @randynesse.bsky.social · 06/07/2026
This Nov. 6 Symposium in London will be a milestone for evolutionary psychiatry. My talk title is: "Why all psychiatry is not based on evolutionary biology...yet". But I don't yet know how to explain the outrageous absence of evolutionary biology in psychiatry. 🧪 www.rcpsych.ac.uk/events/confe...
rcpsych.ac.uk
8th International Evolutionary Psychiatry SIG Symposium
Detail page.
170
Randolph Nesse @randynesse.bsky.social · 06/06/2026
Overprescribing and the "Do Something Imperative" substack.com/@randynesse/...
substack.com
Overprescribing and the "Do Something Imperative"
The intense situation where decisions are made
011
Randolph Nesse @randynesse.bsky.social · 07/04/2026
In preparing my keynote address for this week's NIH NIDDK meeting, I am inspired by Robert Chevalier's articles on evolutionary nephrology. I look forward to talking with attendees about how evolutionary medicine can advance research. @isemph @NIDDKgov scholar.google.com/citations?hl...
030
Randolph Nesse @randynesse.bsky.social · 24/02/2026
This is the last week to submit an abstract for the 11th annual meeting of the International Society for Evolution, Medicine, and Public Health in Kiel Germany in July. This is a small friendly meeting and your talk or poster or discussion plan will be welcome. And you will be welcome! isemph.org
000
Randolph Nesse @randynesse.bsky.social · 17/02/2026
What is the best article you read in 2025 about evolutionary medicine? Please let @evmed.bsky.social know by filling out the simple form linked on the site. The deadline is March 15. isemph.org/Omenn-Prize @tricem.bsky.social @evmed.bsky.social
042
Randolph Nesse @randynesse.bsky.social · 26/01/2026
My new essay on the role of runaway positive feedback in causing disease. 🧪 @evmed.bsky.social @tricem.bsky.social @umehap.bsky.social @umichmedicalschool.bsky.social www.nessays.com/p/runaway-po...
nessays.com
Runaway positive feedback and disease
Vicious cycles are everywhere once you recognize them
041
Randolph Nesse @randynesse.bsky.social · 11/01/2026
Evolution, Medicine and Public Health has just started its 14th year. All publications from 2025 are listed with links at the EvMedReview.com substack post. Interesting reading! 🧪 @evmed.bsky.social @evmedasu.bsky.social @tricem.bsky.social www.evmedreview.com/p/evolution-...
evmedreview.com
Evolution, Medicine, and Public Health: All articles published in 2025
EMPH is an open access Oxford University Press journal sponsored by the International Society for Evolution, Medicine, and Public Health
085
Randolph Nesse @randynesse.bsky.social · 06/01/2026
open.substack.com/pub/randynes...
open.substack.com
The gene ➔ trait path traverses a tangled bank
Severely limiting the power of genetic predictions
2174
Randolph Nesse @randynesse.bsky.social · 09/12/2025
Thanks, Daniela for helping people to realize that bad feelings can have meaning and provide useful motivations! But as your work shows, they can also be normal but useless. Or they can be products of a failing control system. Individualized assessment is essential.
020
Randolph Nesse @randynesse.bsky.social · 26/11/2025
Turns out all the Friend of Darwin award winners this year are experts in evolutionary medicine! I will be curious to hear what we all have to say at the Dec 4,6 PM ET event at us02web.zoom.us/webinar/regi...
us02web.zoom.us
Welcome! You are invited to join a webinar: Friend of Darwin and Friend of the Planet Celebration. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email about joining the webinar.
Join us as we celebrate NCSE's 2025 Friend of Darwin and Friend of the Planet awardees. This online event is free and will include a Q&A after brief comments from the winners. This year's Friend of D...
130
Randolph Nesse @randynesse.bsky.social · 21/11/2025
The ClubEvMed on Dec 2 at Noon ET on this new book will be interesting! Laurence Hurst will kick it off, David Haig will comment, and I will MC a lively discussion. @evmed.bsky.social @umehap.bsky.social @tricem.bsky.social @evmedasu.bsky.social Register now! duke.zoom.us/meeting/regi...
0105
Randolph Nesse @randynesse.bsky.social · 15/09/2025
Why can't we find specific genes and brain abnormalities that cause and define specific mood disorders? It is because, like heart and renal failure, mood disorders are failure modes of control systems that can have diverse causes. 🧪 @evmed.bsky.social www.nessays.com/p/mood-disor...
Ten Failure Mode for Mood Control Systems
050
Randolph Nesse @randynesse.bsky.social · 14/09/2025
I will give 2 talks on evolutionary psychiatry in Tokyo on Sept 24 mentalhealth-unit.jp/plugin/blogs... and 1 in Kyoto on the 25th. ashbi.kyoto-u.ac.jp/ja/event/eve... I look forward to meeting Japanese colleagues. @evmed.bsky.social @humbehevosoc.bsky.social 🧪 @evolmtg.bsky.social @evol
050
Randolph Nesse @randynesse.bsky.social · 07/09/2025
Not perfectly clear about epistasis? The illustrations and formulas in my new Nessay should help. 🧪 @umehap.bsky.social @evmed.bsky.social @vscooper.micropopbio.org @ent3c.bsky.social @arvidagren.bsky.social @carlbergstrom.com @eikofried.bsky.social open.substack.com/pub/randynes...
Epistasis illustrated
130
Randolph Nesse @randynesse.bsky.social · 06/06/2025
How amazing and wonderful that all 3 winners of this year's @ncse.bsky.social Friend of Darwin Award ncse.ngo/friend-darwi... are evolutionary medicine researchers! Katie Hinde @mammalssuck.bsky.social was one of the first faculty I recruited for the @cemasu.bsky.social at ASU.
160
Randolph Nesse @randynesse.bsky.social · 27/05/2025
Here is my Substack essay commenting on an article that reports a research project on foraging theory and ADHD that I have long wanted to see...but whose conclusion–that ADHD is an adaptation–seems to me to be inconsistent with evolutionary theory. www.nessays.com/p/adhd-is-no...
nessays.com
ADHD is not an adaptation
But foraging theory is crucial for understanding it
372
Randolph Nesse @randynesse.bsky.social · 22/05/2025
The Body is not a Machine open.substack.com/pub/randynes...
open.substack.com
The Body is not a Machine
This post is adapted from my 2016 essay that inspired the 2025 PNAS Nexus article with Guru Madhavan and Jay Labov on the origins of failure in bodies and machines.
110
Randolph Nesse @randynesse.bsky.social · 21/05/2025
300 characters is often only a good start. For longer essays on evolutionary medicine, psychiatry, and more, visit my new Substack at Nessays.com.
nessays.com
Nessays | Randolph Nesse | Substack
Randy Nesse's Essays on why evolution left us vulnerable to sickness, suffering, and simplistic thinking. Click to read Nessays, by Randolph Nesse, a Substack publication. Launched 3 days ago.
040
Randolph Nesse @randynesse.bsky.social · 17/05/2025
@awaisaftab.bsky.social is doing so much to help make psychiatry sensible. The questions he posed about #EvolutionaryPsychiatry helped me to get a better grasp of my own field! See the full version on his substack www.psychiatrymargins.com/p/why-did-ev...
psychiatrymargins.com
Why Did Evolution Leave Us Vulnerable to Mental Disorders? A Q&A with Randolph Nesse
“Individuals with disorders often have advantages, but that does not make the disorder an adaptation.”
182
Randolph Nesse @randynesse.bsky.social · 11/05/2025
The essay by @awaisaftab.bsky.social does a fine job of describing how cliff-edge fitness functions may explain vulnerability to some diseases. For an accessible Psychology Today article on the topic, see the link below. www.researchgate.net/publication/...
researchgate.net
(PDF) The Puzzle of the Unbalanced Mind
PDF | Why do genes for mental disorders persist? This article argues it is because traits with a cliff-edged fitness function are shaped to a... | Find, read and cite all the research you need on Rese...
063
Randolph Nesse @randynesse.bsky.social · 09/05/2025
A recent article about autism cites experts who say that its high heritability means that environmental factors are unimportant. That is a fundamental mistake. Environmental changes that influence entire populations can make previously neutral alleles deleterious.🧪 www.medscape.com/viewarticle/...
medscape.com
What Do We Know About the Causes of Autism?
Scientists who have dedicated their careers to studying autism remain highly skeptical that a definitive answer to what causes autism can be reached within a few short months — if at all.
2184
Randolph Nesse @randynesse.bsky.social · 02/05/2025
An engineer, an educator, and an evolutionary biologist walk into a bar...(well, actually, we talked at @evmed.bsky.social meetings); today, 3 years later, our plans for a new bridge between engineering and medicine are published in @pnasnexus.org! academic.oup.com/pnasnexus/ar...
academic.oup.com
Explanations for failures in designed and evolved systems
Abstract. Engineers have long studied the origins of design features that make machines prone to failure, but biologists have only recently begun investiga
192
Randolph Nesse @randynesse.bsky.social · 05/04/2025
Here is an insightful essay by Rob Kurzban on the pressure to produce novel counterintuitive articles to get attention in academia. We need a name for false ones that spread fast. Perhaps "#MemeArticles" is catchy enough to spread fast.
000
Randolph Nesse @randynesse.bsky.social · 16/03/2025
The best 2024 article about evolution, medicine and public health will win the $5000 Omenn Prize. Nominate an article now. It is easy. And the winner-and all of us- will REALLY appreciate it! isemph.org/Omenn-Prize 🧪E. #EvMed @evmed.bsky.social @tricem.bsky.social @sse-evolution.bsky.social
0188
Randolph Nesse @randynesse.bsky.social · 12/03/2025
#TacitCreationism is pervasive and problematic. Dan Stein and I explain why, and why it matters, in our just-published article. 1/3 @evmed.bsky.social @umehap.bsky.social ky.social @eikofried.bsky.social @carlbergstrom.com onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
Tacit creationism article
150
Randolph Nesse @randynesse.bsky.social · 04/03/2025
Really interesting ClubEvMed discussion with Dr. Paul Turke on Evolutionary Pediatrics on Wednesday at noon ET. Based on his new book Bringing Up Baby. All welcome. A great group! Free. Join us! @evmed.bsky.social 🧪 #evmed duke.zoom.us/meeting/regi...
duke.zoom.us
Welcome! You are invited to join a meeting: Club Ev Med: Bringing Up Baby. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email about joining the meeting.
Welcome! You are invited to join a meeting: Club Ev Med: Bringing Up Baby. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email about joining the meeting.
051
Randolph Nesse @randynesse.bsky.social · 13/02/2025
Some questions resist resolution. -Mind vs. body -Nature vs. nurture -Free will vs. determinism -Group selection vs. gene level selection. Why? I think it is because they get entangled in the cognitive and emotional hooks of our evolved minds. 1/5
171
Randolph Nesse @randynesse.bsky.social · 09/02/2025
Gems from pages 28-29 in Richard Lewontin’s 1974 book “The Genetic Basis of Evolutionary Change” It is a common myth of science that scientists collect evidence about some issue and then by logic and "intuition" form what seems to them the most reasonable interpretation of the facts. /4
120
Randolph Nesse @randynesse.bsky.social · 06/02/2025
The chaos from Washington in the last week has made travel planning impossible for many scientists, so the International Society for Evolution, Medicine, and Public Health meeting is allowing submission of talk abstracts until Feb 28. 🧪 #EvMed @evmed.bsky.social @evmed.bsky.social evmed.org
1146
Randolph Nesse @randynesse.bsky.social · 05/02/2025
This is the cutting edge for cancer research. It transcends the simplistic view that cancer cells just have bad genes. The surrounding tissues have strong effects on progression. #Evned #Cancer #ecology @jappliedecology.bsky.social @evmed.bsky.social
051
Randolph Nesse @randynesse.bsky.social · 03/02/2025
It is fascinating and frustrating to see so many sophisticated Op-Ed authors trying to makes sense of Trump’s policies. But most of his actions arise not from any considered strategy but from wishful thinking, and, much worse, #WishfulActing. @ezrakleinbot.bsky.social @nytimesoped.bsky.social
141
Randolph Nesse @randynesse.bsky.social · 31/01/2025
Looking forward to seeing everyone in Nashville! And to hearing some talks that look super. And the food. And I hear they have music there. isemph.org Our Tenth Annual Meeting! #evmed @evmed.bsky.social
052
Randolph Nesse @randynesse.bsky.social · 31/01/2025
So timely and welcome!
010
Randolph Nesse @randynesse.bsky.social · 31/01/2025
Nominations are open for the $5000 Omenn Prize for the best 2024 article in the area of evolution, medicine and public health. Nominate an article that you think deserves the prize. Including yours! @evmed.bsky.social isemph.org/Omenn-Prize @sse-evolution.bsky.social @eseb.bsky.social #EvMed
isemph.org
ISEMPH - Gilbert S. Omenn Prize
042
Randolph Nesse @randynesse.bsky.social · 25/01/2025
The Abstract deadline is Feb 3 for the 10th annual meeting of the International Society for Evolution, Medicine, and Public Health in Nashville. All welcome, esp. students and clinicians. Full info at iemph.org Please repost #EvMed 🧪 @evmed.bsky.social @sse-evolution.bsky.social @eseb.bsky.social
The 10th annual meeting of the International Society for Evolution, Medicine, and Public Health
0209
Randolph Nesse @randynesse.bsky.social · 22/01/2025
What a great honor and responsibility, Vaughn! I learned a lot from you when you were a TA in #EvMed classes I taught at U Mich! Vaughn has also just become the Editor of Evolution, Medicine, and Public Health. Good combo! @sse-evolution.bsky.social @evmed.bsky.social @paulturnerlab.bsky.social
150
Randolph Nesse @randynesse.bsky.social · 22/01/2025
Paul Turke's book on Evolutionary Pediatrics is just out. With a PhD, research on aging, and decades of treating kids in the clinic, only he could write this. Part autobiography, part biology, part clinical advice, lots of stories & engaging humor. Recommended. #evmed www.amazon.com/Bringing-Up-...
amazon.com
Bringing Up Baby: An Evolutionary View of Pediatrics: Turke MD PhD, Paul W: 9798991492607: Amazon.com: Books
Bringing Up Baby: An Evolutionary View of Pediatrics [Turke MD PhD, Paul W] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Bringing Up Baby: An Evolutionary View of Pediatrics
0132
Randolph Nesse @randynesse.bsky.social · 20/01/2025
A remarkable coincidence: On the same day I got a request to renew the Russian rights for my book on evolutionary psychiatry I also got a request for a Ukrainian translation! Lots of Good Reasons for Bad Feelings there, but we can hope the war will end soon. www.amazon.com/Good-Reasons... #evmed
amazon.com
Good Reasons for Bad Feelings: Insights from the Frontier of Evolutionary Psychiatry
Good Reasons for Bad Feelings: Insights from the Frontier of Evolutionary Psychiatry [Nesse MD, Randolph M.] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Good Reasons for Bad Feelings: Insights from the Frontier of Evolutionary Psychiatry
061
Randolph Nesse @randynesse.bsky.social · 15/01/2025
Here is a new #EvMed take on liver pathology. Dezső, K., Paku, S., Juhász, M., Kóbori, L., & Nagy, P. (2024). Evolutionary View of Liver Pathology. Evolutionary Applications, 17(12), e70059. doi.org/10.1111/eva.... 🧪
doi.org
Evolutionary View of Liver Pathology
Evolutionary medicine emerged in the late twentieth century, integrating principles of natural selection and adaptation with the health sciences. Today, with a rapidly widening gap between the biolog...
081
Randolph Nesse @randynesse.bsky.social · 09/01/2025
Today's visitor leaving a message for all other predators.
000
Randolph Nesse @randynesse.bsky.social · 09/01/2025
I gave up on a leading geneticist when he gave a lecture attributing most disease to genetic drift.
030
Randolph Nesse @randynesse.bsky.social · 09/01/2025
EMPH is the best place to get your work noticed by the #EvMed community. Better yet, it provides reviews that are fast and even…gasp…helpful! @micropopbio.org has creative plans for it. #isemph #Evolution #Medicine
074
Randolph Nesse @randynesse.bsky.social · 01/01/2025
Ending the year the same way we end every day...watching the light on the tank glow gold, then fade as the mountains go purple.
040
Randolph Nesse @randynesse.bsky.social · 13/12/2024
Steady progress in prime number theory! www.quantamagazine.org/mathematicia...
quantamagazine.org
Mathematicians Uncover a New Way to Count Prime Numbers | Quanta Magazine
To make progress on one of number theory’s most elementary questions, two mathematicians turned to an unlikely source.
121
Randolph Nesse @randynesse.bsky.social · 04/12/2024
On Dec 12, Sarah Hrdy will do a "Legacy Interview" live on zoom. Sponsored by a mental health organization with commentators. There is a fee. Her work is foundational for understanding relationships. I look forward to this event. mindinmind.org.uk/event/sarah-...
mindinmind.org.uk
Sarah Hrdy: Rethinking Maternal Instinct | Live Legacy Interview | MINDinMIND
Join us for a special Live Legacy Interview exploring the life and work of Sarah Hrdy, a pioneering anthropologist and primatologist who has revolutionised our understanding of maternal behaviour, att...
164
Randolph Nesse @randynesse.bsky.social · 04/12/2024
Nice essay by Josh Slatkus @LivingFossilsSS on how doing things that are hard or painful is worth it to maintain meaning and our social identities. Social selection shapes motives that are otherwise inexplicable. open.substack.com/pub/thelivin...
open.substack.com
What We Suffer For
And why I'm still writing.
010