Sean Carroll @seanmcarroll.bsky.social · 28/09/2026On November 2, I’ll be in Washington, DC, for a conversation with Slavoj Žižek sponsored by How To Academy. The title is Signs from the Future, which makes me worry about the arrow of time! Drama already. howtocademy.com/signs 5696
Reposted by Sean CarrollNBA @nba.com · 28/09/2026MAXEY. VJ. JB. BRON. EMBIID. THESE FIVE IN PHILLY TOGETHER 🤯 1317136
Sean Carroll @seanmcarroll.bsky.social · 28/09/2026Mindscape 369 | Gregg Caruso @greggdcaruso.bsky.social on Living Well Without Free Will. #MindscapePodcast preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/2026... 10485
Reposted by Sean CarrollJohn C. Brady @jcbrady.bsky.social · 28/09/2026Literally the only visible form of energy, but, sure, whatever. 111012
Sean Carroll @seanmcarroll.bsky.social · 27/09/2026A couple of thoughtful #MindscapePodcast listeners have set up useful web pages for those who want to dig into the vast trove of past discussions. Summary here: www.patreon.com/seanmcarroll...patreon.comNew Useful Web Pages | Sean CarrollListener Andy Jiang has thoughtfully set up a web site where anyone can search through all the AMAs: http://mindscapesear.ch/ Meanwhile Max 1504
Reposted by Sean CarrollAnthony (Tony) J. Martin @ichnologist.bsky.social · 27/09/2026Pleased to see I've gained a few more followers through my inclusion in a Bluesky starter pack, 'Scientists Who Write Science Books.' For my followers, check out this list & find your favorite scientist authors who you might not have known are here! go.bsky.app/2LmKSDN 24117
Sean Carroll @seanmcarroll.bsky.social · 26/09/2026Cats can’t talk, so it took me a while to understand that Ariel was requesting a cat tower the same height as my desk, so there could be scritches while I was working. I finally figured it out, now all is well. #Caturday 111523
Sean Carroll @seanmcarroll.bsky.social · 26/09/2026Important proposals for how to fix science funding. Funding needs to map onto how science is actually done: not by demanding this or that result, but by exploring this or that promising direction and seeing what happens. 18020
Sean Carroll @seanmcarroll.bsky.social · 26/09/2026LLMs could be the end of the “shut up and calculate” approach to fundamental physics. (Not that Kyle is part of that.) When the computer is better at calculating than you are, you might be forced to actually think about things. 7738
Sean Carroll @seanmcarroll.bsky.social · 26/09/2026I haven’t completely diagnosed why people judge figures like Thiel to be “smart.” Ingredients include apparent conviction and putting big words together in surprising combinations. And talking fast. 3116720
Sean Carroll @seanmcarroll.bsky.social · 26/09/2026Glad to see that mathematicians are taking seriously the question of what graduate education should look like in the AI era. Neither giving in to doom nor pretending it’s no big deal. 39215
Reposted by Sean CarrollRicard Solé @ricardsole.bsky.social · 26/09/2026What is the historical origin of neural networks, from the eary ideas on mind-body to modern Ai systems? Check this video by @bingbrunton.bsky.social (and her great Youtube Channel!) for an excellent explanation. www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKpN... 0378
Reposted by Sean CarrollProf Jenny Rohn @jennyrohn.bsky.social · 25/09/2026Insect starting out as a PhD student and ending up a full professor #AcademicSky 37914
Sean Carroll @seanmcarroll.bsky.social · 25/09/2026Everyone pointing out what they consider to be outrageous omissions here. The correct answer is Teenage Bounty Hunters. 5111
Reposted by Sean CarrollArs Technica @arstechnica.com · 25/09/2026arstechnica.comNASA green-lights billion-dollar infrared observatory for launch in early 2030sNASA's PRIMA mission will use spare parts from Webb to do major science at a lower cost. 05612
Reposted by Sean CarrollDavid Ho @davidho.bsky.social · 23/09/2026Wtaf is this question my university just asked me about my project? 15145751295
Sean Carroll @seanmcarroll.bsky.social · 23/09/2026What it's like to realize something might be important long before everyone else does! 5734
Reposted by Sean CarrollLily Mason @lilymasonphd.bsky.social · 22/09/2026Apply for @snfagora.bsky.social 's Postdoctoral Fellowship by November 5. See details here! snfagora.jhu.edu/fellowships-...snfagora.jhu.eduPostdoctoral Fellows ProgramPostdoctoral Fellows Program SNF Agora Institute at Johns Hopkins University 0149
Reposted by Sean CarrollJohn Timmer @jtimmer.bsky.social · 22/09/2026Ok, this "there are two separate brains" thing appears to be making the rounds, and I want to be absolutely clear: this is a press office overhyping some perfectly reasonable science that won't come as a surprise to most developmental biologists. 32754237
Sean Carroll @seanmcarroll.bsky.social · 21/09/2026Mindscape 368 | Elizabeth Alexander on Why Democracy Needs Imagination. #MindscapePodcast preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/2026... 2321
Sean Carroll @seanmcarroll.bsky.social · 21/09/2026Science will always be a target for movements that rely on constructing their own version of reality. 622948
Reposted by Sean CarrollCarl Zimmer @carlzimmer.com · 17/09/2026I wrote about what came before CRISPR 4 billion years ago: a war among viruses. Gift link: nyti.ms/3TBq4q0nyti.msThe Next Gene-Editing Technology May Also Be the Oldest (Gift Article)Scientists have discovered a powerful gene-targeting system in viruses. Billions of years old, VIPR seems to predate CRISPR and may be even more powerful. 114350
Sean Carroll @seanmcarroll.bsky.social · 17/09/2026Hiring philosophers at Johns Hopkins! philjobs.org/job/show/32109?philjobs.org Associate Professor (endowed chair), Johns Hopkins University - PhilJobs:JFP Associate Professor (endowed chair), Johns Hopkins University An international database of jobs for philosophers 56918
Sean Carroll @seanmcarroll.bsky.social · 17/09/2026California has a lot to answer for. Many falling-domino memes here. 5270
Sean Carroll @seanmcarroll.bsky.social · 17/09/2026A leopard has some gravitas, you know? If your face is going to be eaten, you could do worse. 2555
Reposted by Sean Carrolllastpositivist.bsky.social @lastpositivist.bsky.social · 16/09/2026I genuinely think one thing I'm learning from the Trump II situation is that while it's true the poor don't vote in their interests it turns out neither do the rich. Competent economic stewardship would be better but they massively over value ephemeral stats goods they erroneously believe he grants. 38818121
Sean Carroll @seanmcarroll.bsky.social · 16/09/2026Young academics interested in democracy: check out the postdoc program at the SNF Agora Institute at Johns Hopkins! @snfagora.bsky.social snfagora.jhu.edu/fellowships-...snfagora.jhu.eduPostdoctoral Fellows ProgramPostdoctoral Fellows Program SNF Agora Institute at Johns Hopkins University 0243
Reposted by Sean CarrollDon Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 16/09/2026Trump's attacks on US higher ed, and Chinese scholars in particular, has been a gift to China's efforts to surge past the US on science and innovation. One report from Renmin University summed it up: "Thank Trump." 🧵 donmoynihan.substack.com/p/china-than...donmoynihan.substack.comChina: “Thank Trump”The big winner of Trump’s assault on higher ed is America’s chief geopolitical rival 19962368
Sean Carroll @seanmcarroll.bsky.social · 16/09/2026Not only are wave functions real, but they contain the soul and can be lassoed with rope! Take that, Psi-epistemologists. 147614
Sean Carroll @seanmcarroll.bsky.social · 16/09/2026Just to add: it fits well with the same attitudes that led to DOGE, MAHA, etc. An absolute conviction that the gang in power, who are not experts in anything at all, know better than the experts. Sharing responsibility and appreciating expertise is essential to our complex world, and is being lost. 48511
Reposted by Sean CarrollTom Pepinsky @tompepinsky.com · 16/09/2026the hardest thing for the politician-bureaucrats to understand -- but which NSF staff *absolutely do* understand and always have -- is that you actually make scientific progress by giving young people money and promising not to bother them 430084
Sean Carroll @seanmcarroll.bsky.social · 15/09/2026Here's rehearsal video from ELP in 1973. A wee bit different than the Beatles in Let It Be (who I also love, for different reasons). www.youtube.com/watch?v=RDTJ...youtube.comEmerson, Lake & Palmer - Brain Salad Surgery Rehearsal Footage - 1973 (Remastered) HDYouTube video by BrunoSamppa 4374
Reposted by Sean Carrollepovb.bsky.social @epovb.bsky.social · 13/09/2026Congratulations to Lilliana Mason (Johns Hopkins), winner of the Philip E. Converse Book Award for Uncivil Agreement: How Politics Became Our Identity. Many thanks to the committee: Zeynep Somer-Topcu (chair), Sierra Davis, Stuart Turnbull-Dugarte & Hans Hassell. 3357
Sean Carroll @seanmcarroll.bsky.social · 15/09/2026Check whether you are registered to vote. You can play a role in preserving our centuries-old institution of government by and for the people! How exciting is that. 28014
Reposted by Sean CarrollPaul Guinnessy @paulguinnessy.bsky.social · 15/09/2026Reading for pleasure is linked with structural brain changes and a laundry list of positive effects, including improved mental health and reduced risk of cognitive decline. Starting young is linked to better attention, memory, executive function, academic achievement and fewer mental health problemsnewscientist.comReading for pleasure boosts memory, empathy and mental health | New ScientistFewer people are reading for pleasure, but getting lost in a good book has repeatedly been linked to substantial cognitive benefits 2357
Sean Carroll @seanmcarroll.bsky.social · 15/09/2026Soccer players are so cute thinking they have agency, when really they are mere drifting particles in a time-dependent potential. 5577
Reposted by Sean CarrollEthan Siegel @startswithabang.bsky.social · 15/09/2026Congratulations to Emily Levesque on becoming the new AAS journals editor-in-chief! Emily succeeds Ethan Vishniac, who is awesome and did a wonderful job. Emily is also awesome and I'm sure will also do a wonderful job! Great choices by AAS! aas.org/press/emily-...aas.orgEmily Levesque Named Next Editor in Chief of AAS Journals | American Astronomical SocietyEmily Levesque (University of Washington) has been named the next Editor in Chief of the prestigious suite of AAS journals, beginning her term in August 2027. 0233
Sean Carroll @seanmcarroll.bsky.social · 14/09/2026Many people — even those who think about politics all the time — think about politics ultimately as a way to express one’s beliefs, not as a route to enacting policies that improve the world. 1110610
Sean Carroll @seanmcarroll.bsky.social · 14/09/2026YouTube just served up what might be my new favorite drum solo of all time. Carl Palmer at age 75! www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5JW...youtube.comDrum Teacher Reacts – Carl Palmer (ELP) Still a Legend at 75!YouTube video by Andrew Rooney Drums 3410
Reposted by Sean CarrollHenry Farrell @himself.bsky.social · 14/09/2026AI author-spamming veers unexpectedly into bonkers surrealism 10636
Reposted by Sean Carrolltweety fish @sifu.tweety.fish · 14/09/2026the core of what I think about "intelligence" is that you CAN'T and won't have something meaningfully described as "intelligence" without a rich, independent, evolving goal structure, which is (part of) why the paperclip optimizer framing is so boneheaded 710021
Sean Carroll @seanmcarroll.bsky.social · 14/09/2026Mindscape Ask Me Anything | September 2026. This month: If you were innocent of a serious crime and the evidence needed to establish the truth was available, would you rather 12 human jurors or 12 AIs decide your fate? #MindscapePodcast preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/2026... 12365
Reposted by Sean CarrollNirmalya Kajuri @kajunut.bsky.social · 13/09/2026Deeply saddened to learn that Rafael Sorkin is no more. One of the deepest and most original thinkers of quantum gravity and the pioneer of causal set theory, he was also among the nicest, gentlest physicists I have met. 3617
Reposted by Sean CarrollMoby Dick @mobydickatsea.bsky.social · 12/09/2026Science! Curse thee, thou vain toy; and cursed be all the things that cast man’s eyes aloft to that heaven 39123
Reposted by Sean CarrollAstronomer Royal for Scotland | Catherine Heymans @astroroyalscot.bsky.social · 05/09/2026Help! Parton Community Council has 60 days to raise £70k to buy Parton Kirk (resting place of James Clerk Maxwell). They plan to turn it into a visitor centre celebrating our great hero! The other buyers could turn it into long-term storage 😬 Even £5 would help 🙏🧪⚛️ www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding...justgiving.comHelp raise £70000 to Save Parton Kirk – JustGiving CrowdfundingIʼm raising money to Save Parton Kirk. Support this JustGiving Crowdfunding Page. 14277200
Reposted by Sean CarrollPaul Byrne @theplanetaryguy.com · 09/09/2026Astrophotographer Adam (AJ) Smadi caught this image a few hours ago from Washington state. A thin crescent Moon, sunlight illuminating the rugged lunar surface. And 2,400 times farther away—and on the other side of the Sun—mighty Jupiter, and its moons Io (left) and Ganymede (right). 187165315068
Sean Carroll @seanmcarroll.bsky.social · 11/09/2026Thinking of politics as “defeat the enemy” is easy and energizing. Thinking of politics as “working together even if we disagree about some big things” is hard and exhausting. 7938
Reposted by Sean CarrollTerence Tao @teorth.bsky.social · 11/09/2026A group of 25 Fields Medalists, including myself, have made a joint declaration on Math and AI: mathandai.org . We welcome additional signatories. See also this article in the Economist announcing the declaration: www.economist.com/science-and-...mathandai.orgDeclaration — Math and AIRead the declaration and add your name. 422051921
Reposted by Sean CarrollAlexandra Witze @alexwitze.bsky.social · 10/09/2026The National Science Foundation has not had a director since April 2025, but is undertaking very significant structural changes in how it funds US science. No permanent leadership appears anywhere in sight. 14423