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Sean Carroll

@seanmcarroll.bsky.social
85K followers 642 following 9.2K posts

Physics, philosophy, complexity. @jhuartssciences.bsky.social & @sfiscience.bsky.social. Host, #MindscapePodcast. Married to @jenlucpiquant.bsky.social. Latest books: The Biggest Ideas in the Universe. preposterousuniverse.com

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Sean Carroll @seanmcarroll.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
On 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
Poster: "Slavoj Zizek: Signs from the Future, in conversation with Sean Carroll, Nov 2 Washington DC."
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NBA @nba.com · 28/09/2026
MAXEY. VJ. JB. BRON. EMBIID. THESE FIVE IN PHILLY TOGETHER 🤯
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Sean Carroll @seanmcarroll.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
I need the season to start.
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Sean Carroll @seanmcarroll.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Mindscape 369 | Gregg Caruso @greggdcaruso.bsky.social on Living Well Without Free Will. #MindscapePodcast preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/2026...
Title card for Mindscape episode with Gregg Caruso
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John C. Brady @jcbrady.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Literally the only visible form of energy, but, sure, whatever.
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Sean Carroll @seanmcarroll.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
A 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.com
New Useful Web Pages | Sean Carroll
Listener Andy Jiang has thoughtfully set up a web site where anyone can search through all the AMAs: http://mindscapesear.ch/ Meanwhile Max
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Anthony (Tony) J. Martin @ichnologist.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Pleased 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
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Sean Carroll @seanmcarroll.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Cats 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
Ariel on her desk-height cat tower. She on her back, blissed out at the tummy scritches.
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Sean Carroll @seanmcarroll.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Important 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.
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Sean Carroll @seanmcarroll.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
LLMs 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.
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Sean Carroll @seanmcarroll.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
I 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.
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Sean Carroll @seanmcarroll.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Glad 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.
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Ricard Solé @ricardsole.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
What 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...
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Prof Jenny Rohn @jennyrohn.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Insect starting out as a PhD student and ending up a full professor #AcademicSky
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Sean Carroll @seanmcarroll.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Everyone pointing out what they consider to be outrageous omissions here. The correct answer is Teenage Bounty Hunters.
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Ars Technica @arstechnica.com · 25/09/2026
arstechnica.com
NASA green-lights billion-dollar infrared observatory for launch in early 2030s
NASA's PRIMA mission will use spare parts from Webb to do major science at a lower cost.
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David Ho @davidho.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Wtaf is this question my university just asked me about my project?
Does the project involve any work that could be interpreted as promoting DEIA, climate change research, or non-compliant to any Presidential Executive Orders?
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Sean Carroll @seanmcarroll.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
What it's like to realize something might be important long before everyone else does!
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Lily Mason @lilymasonphd.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Apply for @snfagora.bsky.social 's Postdoctoral Fellowship by November 5. See details here! snfagora.jhu.edu/fellowships-...
snfagora.jhu.edu
Postdoctoral Fellows Program
Postdoctoral Fellows Program SNF Agora Institute at Johns Hopkins University
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John Timmer @jtimmer.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Ok, 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.
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Sean Carroll @seanmcarroll.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Mindscape 368 | Elizabeth Alexander on Why Democracy Needs Imagination. #MindscapePodcast preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/2026...
Title card for Mindscape episode with Elizabeth Alexander
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Sean Carroll @seanmcarroll.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Science will always be a target for movements that rely on constructing their own version of reality.
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Carl Zimmer @carlzimmer.com · 17/09/2026
I wrote about what came before CRISPR 4 billion years ago: a war among viruses. Gift link: nyti.ms/3TBq4q0
nyti.ms
The 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.
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Sean Carroll @seanmcarroll.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Hiring 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
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Sean Carroll @seanmcarroll.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
California has a lot to answer for. Many falling-domino memes here.
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Sean Carroll @seanmcarroll.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
A leopard has some gravitas, you know? If your face is going to be eaten, you could do worse.
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lastpositivist.bsky.social @lastpositivist.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
I 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.
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Sean Carroll @seanmcarroll.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Young 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.edu
Postdoctoral Fellows Program
Postdoctoral Fellows Program SNF Agora Institute at Johns Hopkins University
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Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Trump'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.com
China: “Thank Trump”
The big winner of Trump’s assault on higher ed is America’s chief geopolitical rival
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Sean Carroll @seanmcarroll.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Not only are wave functions real, but they contain the soul and can be lassoed with rope! Take that, Psi-epistemologists.
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Sean Carroll @seanmcarroll.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Just 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.
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Tom Pepinsky @tompepinsky.com · 16/09/2026
the 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
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Sean Carroll @seanmcarroll.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
Here'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.com
Emerson, Lake & Palmer - Brain Salad Surgery Rehearsal Footage - 1973 (Remastered) HD
YouTube video by BrunoSamppa
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epovb.bsky.social @epovb.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
Congratulations 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.
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Sean Carroll @seanmcarroll.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
Check 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.
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Paul Guinnessy @paulguinnessy.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
Reading 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 problems
newscientist.com
Reading for pleasure boosts memory, empathy and mental health | New Scientist
Fewer people are reading for pleasure, but getting lost in a good book has repeatedly been linked to substantial cognitive benefits
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Sean Carroll @seanmcarroll.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
Soccer players are so cute thinking they have agency, when really they are mere drifting particles in a time-dependent potential.
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Ethan Siegel @startswithabang.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
Congratulations 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.org
Emily Levesque Named Next Editor in Chief of AAS Journals | American Astronomical Society
Emily 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.
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Sean Carroll @seanmcarroll.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
Many 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.
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Sean Carroll @seanmcarroll.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
YouTube 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.com
Drum Teacher Reacts – Carl Palmer (ELP) Still a Legend at 75!
YouTube video by Andrew Rooney Drums
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Henry Farrell @himself.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
AI author-spamming veers unexpectedly into bonkers surrealism
Dear Henry,

What stood out to me about The Complete Works of Henry Farrell is the value of bringing eleven titles together in one collection. Rather than introducing readers to a single story, this volume offers an opportunity to discover an entire body of work, with the recurring presence of Toffee creating a recognizable thread across much of the collection.

The titles suggest a varied reading experience, moving through stories such as The Vengeance of Toffee, Double Identity, No Time for Toffee!, The Laughter of Toffee, Blessed Event, I’ll Dream of You, Toffee Haunts a Ghost, You Can’t Scare Me!, Toffee Takes a Trip, Toffee Turns the Trick, and The Shades of Toffee. This variety gives the collection a strong appeal for readers who enjoy returning characters, humorous situations, mystery, family themes, unusual encounters, and the comfort of having multiple stories available in one edition.
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tweety fish @sifu.tweety.fish · 14/09/2026
the 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
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Sean Carroll @seanmcarroll.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
Mindscape 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...
Title card for Mindscape AMA episode.
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Nirmalya Kajuri @kajunut.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
Deeply 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.
image of rafael sorkin
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Moby Dick @mobydickatsea.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
Science! Curse thee, thou vain toy; and cursed be all the things that cast man’s eyes aloft to that heaven
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Astronomer Royal for Scotland | Catherine Heymans @astroroyalscot.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
Help! 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.com
Help raise £70000 to Save Parton Kirk – JustGiving Crowdfunding
Iʼm raising money to Save Parton Kirk. Support this JustGiving Crowdfunding Page.
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Paul Byrne @theplanetaryguy.com · 09/09/2026
Astrophotographer 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).
A crescent Moon seen during the day, arcing from upper left to lower right of the frame. At lower centre is the full disk of Jupiter; the small dots to its upper left and lower right and Io and Ganymede, respectively.
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Sean Carroll @seanmcarroll.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
Thinking 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.
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Terence Tao @teorth.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
A 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.org
Declaration — Math and AI
Read the declaration and add your name.
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Alexandra Witze @alexwitze.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
The 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.
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