Reposted by Tori HerridgeMatthew Cobb @matthewcobb.bsky.social · 06/10/202611. I will not be taking questions.The story of a woman whose data was stolen by two ambitious men who then did not credit her seems to be too powerful to be overcome by mere facts. This is, of course, all Watson's fault because of how he presented events. We are all hoist by his petard. 35110
Reposted by Tori HerridgeMatthew Cobb @matthewcobb.bsky.social · 06/10/2026A lot of excitement on here about the article in Science summarising the discoveries of @alistairsponsel.bsky.social and Brian Sutton, just published in the Journal of the History of Biology. Some people have asked, so here is what I think they show, and what are the implications:link.springer.comPhotograph 49 is the Key to Understanding the History of Rosalind Franklin’s DNA Photograph 51 - Journal of the History of BiologyThis essay, co-authored by a historian of science and an X-ray crystallographer, sheds new light on Rosalind Franklin’s Photograph 51. We refute the infamous claim that, unlike James Watson, Franklin ... 4246142
Tori Herridge @toriherridge.bsky.social · 23/09/2026Today marks 100 years since Paul Kammerer took his own life on a mountainside near Vienna. Only a few months earlier he was being fêted across the world as Darwin’s heir Then he was accused of faking his most (in)famous experiment… I made a radio programme about him www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...bbc.co.ukHoax - 3. The Toad Kisser - BBC SoundsA scientist with a toad collection is embroiled in a global scientific culture war. 2114
Reposted by Tori HerridgeDr Rebecca Wragg Sykes @lemoustier.bsky.social · 18/09/2026🏺 🦣 Nice paper on later E. European Upper Palaeolithic mammoth ivory figurine production & aesthetics. The Mezin-type geometric designs are so beautiful, and their placement on the (apparently) female figurines might indicate tattooing or scarification traditions. www.nature.com/articles/s40... 14310
Reposted by Tori HerridgeProfessor John R. Hutchinson @johnrhutchinson.bsky.social · 16/09/2026I talked to the NYT about the recently discovered T. rex trackway, by @peterfalkingham.com et al. Free access to full NYT article: www.nytimes.com/2026/09/15/s... And paper is here: www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....nytimes.comA T. Rex Walked Here: Teacher Finds Rare Footprints in North Dakota (Gift Article)Kent Hups, a high school science teacher in Colorado, discovered a 23-foot trackway of fossilized dinosaur footprints, which offer a glimpse of how the apex predator moved 66 million years ago. 0418
Tori Herridge @toriherridge.bsky.social · 16/09/2026“I do think it might be the oldest myth that we have,” Goriely said, “apart from religion.” 🔥 www.theguardian.com/science/2026...theguardian.comUK mathematician debunks myth around Parthenon’s optical illusionsStudy challenges belief that temple’s curves were designed to correct optical illusions that would have ruined its clean lines 0171
Reposted by Tori HerridgeDr Rebecca Wragg Sykes @lemoustier.bsky.social · 06/02/2025🏺 Great write up of this complicated topic. I'd merely add its *our* perception that treating human bodies in the same way as consumed animal bodies was necessarily an act of violence or disdain, because it assumes that hunting, butchering & eating other creatures is primarily about calories. 99623
Reposted by Tori HerridgeDarren Naish @tetzoo.bsky.social · 17/08/2026Ok, time for a thread about what I saw yesterday at #CrystalPalace. As you can see, just about everything has been repaired and re-painted, and in places (like the previously misidentified Xiphodon) re-positioned. It looks fantastic and you have to check it out, even if you've visited before... 16511172
Reposted by Tori HerridgeDr Anke Marsh @ankemarsh.bsky.social · 10/08/2026Wow! Really appreciated all of the suggestions - I will be busy for the next decade, thanks! 🤣🤣 I’ve decided to start with @toriherridge.bsky.social ‘s suggestion of the BA Mold gold cape - not in gold tho, can’t afford that! Working on the pattern now (brain pain) so fingers crossed…🏺 181
Reposted by Tori HerridgeNicola King @nicolaking.bsky.social · 06/08/2026Skeuomorphs, an excellent word. 131
Reposted by Tori HerridgeCaroline Dodds Pennock @carolinepennock.bsky.social · 06/08/2026This is an extraordinary story, centred on a group of remarkable women, but it just makes me mourn for the millions of women and girls trapped in Afghanistan, denied not only the freedom to play sports, but to speak, learn and live as they choose. We must not forget them.bbc.co.ukBanned from football at home, Afghan women's team reunite 8,000 miles awayWomen in the team, which is recognised by Fifa, say football has given them freedom and independence. 9262681406
Tori Herridge @toriherridge.bsky.social · 05/08/2026It really feels like everything that was once wondrous has now ruined any sense of progress, and is now effectively unusable and soon we will be copying books and maps onto velum, paying in gold and paying for hand delivered letters sealed in wax 1123
Reposted by Tori HerridgeDr. Abigail Desmond @abigaildesmond.bsky.social · 05/08/2026Archaeologists are often the first people to hold artifacts after their makers. In this case, there are around 47,000 years between me and the human beings who expertly carved these tools. Made by Homo sapiens just leaving Africa, the time between us collapses as I hold their technology in my hand. 1193
Reposted by Tori HerridgeSteven J. Gibbons @stevenjgibbons.bsky.social · 04/08/2026This is the moss tortoise. It keeps watch over the forest path. I always say hello. 1192
Reposted by Tori HerridgeRichard Fallon @richardfallon.bsky.social · 04/08/2026It's extremely neat that the scientific volumes prepared for the British Association for the Advancement of Science's 1901 Glasgow meeting had covers in the ultra-cool Glasgow Style. Just stumbled across this, so I don't know which artist is responsible. 3328
Tori Herridge @toriherridge.bsky.social · 03/08/2026Images like these are reminders that our world is so much poorer now in nature—Tigers could once be found as far east as Turkey. 2102
Reposted by Tori HerridgeDr. Abigail Desmond @abigaildesmond.bsky.social · 02/08/202615,000 years ago, in one of the the earliest settled communities in the world, a child collected fine clay from the slow-moving river by her home. She then committed an act familiar to all inveterate play-doh enthusiasts; rolling and and pinching the squishy clay into tiny round balls. 3534169
Reposted by Tori HerridgeSarah May @sarahmay1.bsky.social · 30/07/2026Last week the posy I brought home from the garden had a chrysalis attached though I didn't notice till I got home. If you, like me, haven't watched a butterfly emerge you won't be prepared for how amazing or how long emergence takes #TinyJoys a 🧵 929196
Reposted by Tori HerridgeAnthony (Tony) J. Martin @ichnologist.bsky.social · 29/07/2026A marine Cretaceous "turducken" from Queensland, Australia, where an ichthyosaur ate a pterosaur, then a giant pliosaur (Kronosaurus) ate the ichthyosaur. Extraordinary example of how gut contents can show us trophic relationships of ancient ecosystems. 🧪🪨⚒️ 27629
Tori Herridge @toriherridge.bsky.social · 30/07/2026nothing more annoying than a gentle reminder... 190
Tori Herridge @toriherridge.bsky.social · 30/07/2026So many great quotes from @flygirlnhm.bsky.social (of course!) in this piece on “plagues of flies” —i can’t pick one to snippet, so just go and read them all! www.theguardian.com/environment/...theguardian.com‘It makes you feel you’ve got a really dirty house’: what’s behind the UK’s plagues of flies?From Leicestershire to Carmarthenshire, neighbourhoods are struggling with wave after wave of houseflies. Why are they suffering while others are spared? And is there no alternative to nets and zapper... 2133
Reposted by Tori HerridgeTom Sharpe @tomsharperocks.bsky.social · 30/07/2026Very much looking forward to seeing this new Mary Anning exhibition @dorsetmuseum.bsky.social which opens 6 months today, on 30 January 2027. More on it here: www.dorsetmuseum.org/whats-on/mar... where you'll also find a link to contribute to the museum's fundraising campaign for the exhibition. 03413
Reposted by Tori HerridgeJimbob Blinkhorn @jblinkhorn.bsky.social · 28/07/2026Looking forward to returning to Latnija,Malta, in August - and our new modelling paper suggests forager occupations from 8.5-7.5ka were only possible through sustained, long-distance seafaring in the Mesolithic Mediterranean! (Image: (C) Huw Groucutt) academic.oup.com/pnasnexus/ar... 1234
Reposted by Tori HerridgeEleanor Scerri @elliescerri.bsky.social · 28/07/2026New paper: Mesolithic mariners in the Central Mediterranean made sustained, long distance sea journeys. Not accidents, one offs, and not rare events. See thread in the comments. academic.oup.com/pnasnexus/ar..., led by @jblinkhorn.bsky.social 15021
Reposted by Tori HerridgeRachel Pope @prehistorian.bsky.social · 29/07/2026Because girls were actively discouraged from STEM subjects during the late 20th century. This is the recovery from that previous discriminatory practice. It doesn’t mean that we then scrap the Humanities! www.cambridge.org/core/journal...cambridge.orgProcessual archaeology and gender politics. The loss of innocence | Archaeological Dialogues | Cambridge CoreProcessual archaeology and gender politics. The loss of innocence - Volume 18 Issue 1 34311
Reposted by Tori HerridgeNereide @drnereide.bsky.social · 28/07/2026Jodrell Bank is a piece of world radio #astronomy, a UNESCO World Heritage Site still leading research & training new astronomers🔭🧪⚛️ Shutting it down to save a tiny fraction of science budget is short-sighted. We can't let it become a rusting monument to discoveries never made. #SaveJodrellBank 35530
Tori Herridge @toriherridge.bsky.social · 27/07/2026Lunchtime emoji puzzle: 🍋🍋🟩🍳🤬 Clue: This political activist used direct action in the early days of their career, but ended up joining the Conservative Party… 120
Reposted by Tori HerridgeHelen Barrett @helenbarrett.bsky.social · 27/07/2026Plot twist: www.telegraph.co.uk/gift/b8a5ecd...telegraph.co.ukClimate change is real – and the Right needs to get serious about itThe evidence is stacking up – we only have to look out of our windows 314037
Tori Herridge @toriherridge.bsky.social · 27/07/2026Perfect encapsulation of the soul-sucking exhaustion of trying to kill a myth (about Ring-a-Ring-a-Roses & the plague) 'the Opies (who first recorded & debunked the belief in 1951) wrote: “We ourselves have had to listen so often to this interpretation we are reluctant to go out of the house.”' 271
Tori Herridge @toriherridge.bsky.social · 26/07/2026Also, the picture inadvertently provides a brilliant example of allometry in human development 062
Reposted by Tori Herridgemoppettshow.bsky.social @moppettshow.bsky.social · 26/07/2026I think Fronds Reunited already caused enough trouble at the time. 011
Tori Herridge @toriherridge.bsky.social · 26/07/2026Lena Headey seeing into my soul… ‘…I’m really lazy. I look at people who seem to get lots of work and opportunities and ask: “Why didn’t I get that job?” My agent will reply: “Well, if you did a bit more press or agreed to having a publicist, things might be different.”’ 160
Reposted by Tori HerridgeAntronics Ltd @antronicsltd.bsky.social · 26/07/2026Or just freshwater peat-forming wetlands? #OnlyFens 141
Tori Herridge @toriherridge.bsky.social · 26/07/2026Yes but where is Only Ferns, monilophyte purists demand it? 160
Reposted by Tori HerridgeBaran Karapunar @barankarapunar.bsky.social · 24/07/2026🦈 New #Open-access paper 🥳 on the impact of the Permian–Triassic mass extinction 🌋 on marine vertebrates 🐠, from the Dolomites (Italy) together with @aswolniewicz.bsky.social, Carlo Romano & others. We report the first Early Triassic marine reptile from the Dolomites 😎 #FossilFridaytandfonline.comNew insights into the extinction and recovery of marine vertebrates across the Permian–Triassic mass extinction event in the Dolomites, Southern Alps, ItalyThe impact of the Permian–Triassic mass extinction on marine vertebrates is incompletely understood due to their scarce fossil record. To better understand marine vertebrate extinction and recovery... 1239
Reposted by Tori HerridgeBaran Karapunar @barankarapunar.bsky.social · 24/07/2026New data indicates that there were more fishes in the Dolomites before the extinction & the shark Acrodus was the apex predator. All taxa extirpated, but a new reptile appeared in the community in post-extinction. New fossils are discovered nearly after 200 years of research of these deposits. So... 293
Tori Herridge @toriherridge.bsky.social · 25/07/2026Hive mind, what is the closest equivalent to a Philleus Fog tortilla chip? 121
Reposted by Tori HerridgeProfessor John R. Hutchinson @johnrhutchinson.bsky.social · 24/07/2026We (several of us in our lab, and biomechanics colleague Andrew Biewener) wrote an obituary for the late Alan Wilson. Please read this little window into the life of a truly amazing scientist; one of a kind. It still shocks me to think he's gone. rdcu.be/fvHdXrdcu.beAlan M. Wilson (1964–2026)Nature Ecology & Evolution - Visionary comparative biomechanist and physiologist who pioneered experimental methods for laboratory and field research into large-mammal locomotor performance and... 0103
Tori Herridge @toriherridge.bsky.social · 23/07/2026I love this! My overwhelming lay-person take home from the British museum’s Stonehenge exhibition was that the Bronze Age was all about transformation literally and figuratively. So wool as ceramic is perfect 😻 1193
Reposted by Tori HerridgeMartyn Barber @martynjb.bsky.social · 20/07/2026at the Athenaeum where you can see'em in full only in that upper room (so like a tomb); between six & seven they are as happy as souls in heaven. That's all the space I can afford on Gordon. (2/3) 342
Reposted by Tori HerridgeMartyn Barber @martynjb.bsky.social · 20/07/2026Another prime slice of OGS Crawford's doggerel, this time concerning another of his archaeological contemporaries: Comrade's Fall Once upon a time Gordon Childe was a bit wild (red, not yellow - he's a good fellow); it just goes to show what can be done by playing cards with those die-hards (1/3 252
Reposted by Tori HerridgeDr Rebecca Wragg Sykes @lemoustier.bsky.social · 17/07/2026Completely wonderful seeing Oliver Beer's show with him, and exploring together many shared ideas of #art & #archaeology, around what caves do to humans and humans do to caves... This exhibition of sound-paintings, music & film is just gorgeous, go see it at Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, London! 🏺 36812
Reposted by Tori HerridgeDr James Rule @palaeo-jrule.bsky.social · 15/07/2026Seals have a superpower: they are the only mammals with amphibious hearing! They hear well both in-air and underwater. My collagues and I have a new study in Proceedings B on the origins and evolution of amphibious hearing in pinnipeds 🦭🔊🧪 doi.org/10.1098/rspb...doi.orgThe origin and evolution of amphibious hearing in pinnipedsAbstract. Pinnipeds (true seals, eared seals and walruses) are the only mammals that can hear effectively in both air and water. How and when they achieved 411544