Rebecca Sear
LightNews LightNews
rebeccasear.bsky.social
Rebecca Sear
@rebeccasear.bsky.social
12K followers 4K following 3.5K posts

Director of the Centre for Culture and Evolution, Brunel University London @brunelcce.bsky.social

https://www.rebeccasear.org/

Videos

Rebecca Sear, is a British anthropologist and academic, who specialises in evolutionary anthropology, demography and human behavioural ecology. Since 2024, she has been director of the Centre for Culture and Evolution at Brunel University London. She previously taught at the London School of Economics, Durham University and the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. .. more

Psychology 45%
Sociology 15%
Posts Replies Media Videos

rebeccasear.bsky.social
Rebecca Sear @rebeccasear.bsky.social · 9h
Which in fact is closer to reality than the claim that “DEI” has destroyed academia…

rebeccasear.bsky.social
Rebecca Sear @rebeccasear.bsky.social · 9h
There are good examples of media coverage out there - like the Guardian reporting on Hope not Hate’s investigation - but these stories rarely get picked up in the way Arday’s story was, nor do they result in anguished headlines about how academia has been taken over by a far-right cult

Reposted by Catherine J. Frieman

rebeccasear.bsky.social
Rebecca Sear @rebeccasear.bsky.social · 10h
If you read the replies you’ll see that Pinker was always a race science supporter, it’s just that nobody paid any attention. Maybe we should start noticing when celebrity scientists are fans of pseudoscientific ideas, and adjust our opinion of their competence accordingly

Reposted by Lesley A. Hall

rebeccasear.bsky.social
Rebecca Sear @rebeccasear.bsky.social · 10h
Pronatalist policies may backfire: “Using Nazi Germany as a case study, we show these policies may have counterproductive effects due to negative selection mechanisms in the marriage market. The excessive pressure to marry results in lower quality, ultimately less fertile & more fragile unions”
Pronatalist Policies’ Backlash in Authoritarian Regimes | The Journal of Economic History | Cambridge Core
Pronatalist Policies’ Backlash in Authoritarian Regimes
www.cambridge.org

Reposted by Lesley A. Hall, Rebecca Sear

hetanshah.bsky.social
Hetan Shah @hetanshah.bsky.social · 11h
Tomorrow (Sunday) you can come see the @britishacademy.bsky.social building as part of Open House! No pre booking required for self guided tours which let you explore the building's history, architecture, and art collection at your own pace. Do drop by
www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/events/searc...
Open House 2026
Step inside the British Academy’s historic Grade-I listed home for Open House Festival 2026. Discover the building’s Nash-designed architecture, its rich history, and art collection. Be among the firs...
www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk

Reposted by Lesley A. Hall

rebeccasear.bsky.social
Rebecca Sear @rebeccasear.bsky.social · 11h
Scientists are awesome: plant biologist and her team propose that cats eat grass because it helps them expel hairballs, after saving her cats’ hairballs for years “waiting for the right research project to come along”

www.science.org/content/arti...
Gold-covered hairballs may reveal why cats eat grass
Spiky projections on plant matter may act like “drain snakes,” helping felines dislodge wads of fur
www.science.org

Reposted by Shannon Vallor, Ben H. Ansell, Melissa Terras , and 3 more

ebharrington.bsky.social
Brooke Harrington @ebharrington.bsky.social · 23h
When I tell you this is one of the most riveting, concise and accurate depictions of the catastrophically defective thought processes behind Effective Altruism and the larger Broligarch Epistemic Universe...

Run, don't walk, to read the whole thing (link below), which concludes thus:
Example of the problematic thinking behind Effective Altruism.

Reposted by Steven French, Rebecca Sear

virginiaheffernan.bsky.social
Virginia Heffernan @virginiaheffernan.bsky.social · 1d
What happened to Steven Pinker? I only felt free to write this because he blocks me:

www.thenerve.news/p/steven-pin...
From celebrity intellectual to anti-woke outlaw: how Steven Pinker lost his way
The pop psycholgist’s new book seems to betray a lurking fear of others’ criticism – about his Epstein links, his manosphere admirers and his discredited former field of study, writes Virginia Heffern...
www.thenerve.news

rebeccasear.bsky.social
Rebecca Sear @rebeccasear.bsky.social · 1d
Byline Times is the one media outlet which has consistently reported on the topic, for example

bylinetimes.com/2026/08/18/t...

bylinetimes.com/2021/12/10/p...
The Peter Thiel-Linked Race Science Network that Penetrated Cambridge University and Targeted Jason Arday
The media's coverage of the academic's life was fuelled by the campaign of an established far-right network
bylinetimes.com

rebeccasear.bsky.social
Rebecca Sear @rebeccasear.bsky.social · 1d
Here you go:
www.angelasaini.co.uk/superior

www.theguardian.com/world/2024/o...

hopenothate.org.uk/eugenics-rev...

www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/podcasts/the...

www.adamrutherford.com/eugenics

press.princeton.edu/books/hardco...
Angela Saini | Award-winning Science Journalist and Author
The website of British independent science journalist, author and broadcaster, Angela Saini. Her most recent book is Superior: The Return of Race Science.
www.angelasaini.co.uk

Reposted by Philip N. Cohen

rebeccasear.bsky.social
Rebecca Sear @rebeccasear.bsky.social · 1d
If the media wants a story about academia which is of real public interest, then they should cover the resurgence of race science, which is providing legitimacy for racism and eugenic ideology in political and public discussions. Unfortunately, there seems to be little interest in this story

Reposted by Jonathan Portes

rebeccasear.bsky.social
Rebecca Sear @rebeccasear.bsky.social · 1d
Gave my first public lecture on the return of eugenics and race science this week at the British Science Festival. Reassuring to see how much interest, and concern, there was in the room
fionacoward.bsky.social Agent of Chaos @fionacoward.bsky.social · 3d
Great talk going on now by @rebeccasear.bsky.social at the @britsciassoc.bsky.social #BSF26 on the return of eugenics - slightly depressing but really important stuff
Image shows a lady in a blue dress and cream cardigan giving an academic talk

rebeccasear.bsky.social
Rebecca Sear @rebeccasear.bsky.social · 1d
Thanks for the invitation!

rebeccasear.bsky.social
Rebecca Sear @rebeccasear.bsky.social · 1d
Sarah Hrdy has posted the final chapter of her book, Father Time, online:

"So far as man’s evolutionary birthright is concerned, protecting and caring for offspring is as much a part of it as is competing or fighting with rivals or infanticide"

www.researchgate.net/publication/...
(PDF) Twenty-First-Century Convergence of Men and Babies - Chapter 12 Father Time (summary)
PDF | On Jan 1, 2024, Sarah Blaffer Hrdy published Twenty-First-Century Convergence of Men and Babies - Chapter 12 Father Time (summary) | Find, read and cite all the research you need on ResearchGate
www.researchgate.net

rebeccasear.bsky.social
Rebecca Sear @rebeccasear.bsky.social · 1d
Congratulations!

Reposted by Rebecca Sear

hopenothate.org.uk
HOPE not hate @hopenothate.org.uk · 1d
🧵 NEW REPORT: Between 1 May and 31 August 2026, we recorded 166 far-right protests. That's an average of 10 per week.

What have we learnt from them? Here’s three key takeaways 👇

hopenothate.org.uk/2026/09/17/s...
Summer 2026: Anti-migrant trends in the Far Right
From 1 May - 31 Aug, we recorded 166 far-right protests. That’s an average of 10 per week. What have we learnt from that?
hopenothate.org.uk

Reposted by Joanna Bryson

rebeccasear.bsky.social
Rebecca Sear @rebeccasear.bsky.social · 1d
Conflict, Constraint, Cooperation, and Allocation: A Plural Evolutionary Architecture for Human Reproductive Paradoxes

doi.org/10.1002/ajpa...
Conflict, Constraint, Cooperation, and Allocation: A Plural Evolutionary Architecture for Human Reproductive Paradoxes
Human reproduction presents features that appear inefficient in isolation: gamete overproduction, mechanically demanding birth, neonatal altriciality, lactational suppression of fertility, reproducti...
doi.org

Reposted by Deryk Tolman

rebeccasear.bsky.social
Rebecca Sear @rebeccasear.bsky.social · 1d
Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Postdoctoral Fellowships call received "highest number of applications to date & highest number of proposals ever for any funding action in 40 years of EU research & innovation framework programmes...increase of 26.7% on previous year". Success rate expected to be ~7%
MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships 2026 receives record number of applications
The 2026 call has attracted considerable interest from the research community with 21,627 applications submitted.
marie-sklodowska-curie-actions.ec.europa.eu

Reposted by Rebecca Sear, Mike Rowe

evansmithhist.bsky.social
Evan @evansmithhist.bsky.social · 1d
This week 49 years ago (Sep 1977) students at Melbourne University protested against lectures given by psychologists Hans Eysenck and Arthur Jensen, who falsely argued that there was a link between race and IQ. The protests led to much discourse about a free speech crisis at Australian universities.

Reposted by Diane Coyle, Nandita Sharma, Peter Thorne , and 12 more

nicolakellywrites.bsky.social
Nicola Kelly @nicolakellywrites.bsky.social · 2d
I have spent weeks shadowing the RNLI and I can tell you, they do it out of nothing more than compassion.

Wrote about the heroes I've met over the years in this free-to-read post.

nicolakelly.substack.com/p/the-rnli-a...
The RNLI aren't traitors; they're heroes
I have spent weeks shadowing lifeboat crews. Here's what they do and what it's like.
nicolakelly.substack.com

Reposted by Simon Hix, Carl T. Bergstrom, Rebecca Sear , and 3 more

hetanshah.bsky.social
Hetan Shah @hetanshah.bsky.social · 2d
AI is screwing up journal papers:
Journal editor asks authors of 10 submitted papers to meet and discuss their paper. Of the 7 that showed up, 3 were unable to answer basic questions about the paper and 3 had difficulty when asked further questions on technical details…
medium.com/@TmlrOrg/ask...
Asking Authors About Their Own Papers
By Nihar B. Shah
medium.com

Reposted by Rebecca Sear, Markus P. Eichhorn

mattschabathphd.bsky.social
Dr. Matt Schabath (he/him/his) @mattschabathphd.bsky.social · 2d
🧪 New cat species identified in Bolivia, first in over a century - Called Tilcayo by local communities, it is part of a group called tiger cats found across much of South America

www.reuters.com/business/env...
New cat species identified in Bolivia, first in over a century
A diminutive wild cat that inhabits Bolivia's cloud forest has been identified as a previously unknown species, marking the first time a new living cat species has been formally named and described ​i...
www.reuters.com

Reposted by Richard McElreath, Simon J. Greenhill, Rebecca Sear

gillianrbrown1.bsky.social
Prof. Gillian Brown @gillianrbrown1.bsky.social · 2d
🚨Call open for manuscripts on 'Metascience of the evolutionary human sciences' for a Special Collection in EHS, co-edited by @louisbachaud.bsky.social, @hclarkbarrett.bsky.social and myself.

@ehbea.bsky.social @humbehevosoc.bsky.social @culturalevolsoc.bsky.social

www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
Call for papers
Welcome to Cambridge Core
www.cambridge.org

Reposted by Peter Thorne, Mathias Disney, Steve Peers , and 19 more

nicolashenin.net
Nicolas Hénin @nicolashenin.net · 2d
Nice campaign by the Norwegian Consumer Council about the declining lifespan of products. Enjoy!

Reposted by Lesley A. Hall

rebeccasear.bsky.social
Rebecca Sear @rebeccasear.bsky.social · 2d
Hybrid workshop coming up today & tomorrow aiming to "query the history of the evolutionary behavioural sciences, think reflexively about what's working & what isn't & chart a conscientious & inclusive path forward". Thanks to Siobhan for moving forward these much-needed discussions in the field 😊