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Kristina Killgrove

@killgrove.bsky.social

17K followers 820 following 1.7K posts

Staff writer @LiveScience.com Email: [email protected] Web: Livescience.com/author/kristina-killgrove PhD in anthropology, MA in classical archaeology. Former professor & Roman bioarchaeologist. I crochet and bake a lot. Time zone: US Eastern

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Kristina Killgrove @killgrove.bsky.social · Feb 3

Being a science writer right now is like…

9am - Coffee and constitutional crisis!
10am - Read a neat study on 5000-year-old beads.
11am - US science funding is off/on/off/on!
Noon - Email a researcher about Iron Age skeletons.
Afternoon - More constitutional crises and screaming into the void!

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Sarah McAnulty, Ph.D. @sarahmackattack.bsky.social · 9h

I'm doing another print run of these "Biology is Bigger than Binaries" shirts!

Back, quite literally, by popular demand. Bullying works, sure, but so does a bunch of nice cutie patooties politely asking!

Order 'em now, I'll mail 'em in early November.

SquidFacts.net

a woman with short bown hair, glasses, and tassel earrings, wears a purple KN95 and looks cool as hell in her biology is bigger than binaries shirt, in orange

a woman with green glasses takes a selfie lookin' cool as hell in her pink biology is bigger than binaries shirt. She's also got ice cream, that lucky dog.

a woman with long brown hair and glasses hangs out in the back yard with her pink biology is bigger than binaries shirt

A man with a hat and sunglasses stands in hero-pose with his biology is bigger than binaires shirt (orange)

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Kristina Killgrove @killgrove.bsky.social · 10h

“The disastrous football coach isn't enough,” they wrote. “The careers of faculty, staff and students at both of these schools are being sacrificed to [UNC Chancellor] Roberts’ ego.”

www.dailytarheel.com/article/univ...

UNC schools of data science and information science to merge, forming unnamed ‘School of AI’

SDSS Dean Stanley Ahalt will be made dean of the new school while SILS Dean Jeffrey Bardzell will stand as the University’s Chief Artificial Intelligence Officer and Vice Provost for AI.

www.dailytarheel.com

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Claudia Astorino @claudistics.bsky.social · 11h

as an evolutionary bio & bioanthro, I've often wondered how my skeleton differs from typical M and F

my form of intersex, CAIS = my body doesn't use androgens. also, my gonads were removed just after my 1st bday - so I had NO sex hormones from age ~1-8 yr. how does that affect bone growth/dev? 🧪💀🦴

Claudia Astorino @claudistics.bsky.social · 13h

new article is up in full-text in #AJBA @bioanth.org! 🧪 💀

I predicted expression levels for skeletal sex indicators for 9 forms of #intersex, based on what we know ab these intersex variations (and which traits are most likely to affect bone growth, development, & remodeling) #SexualPolymorphism

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

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Matthew Noe @noethematt.bsky.social · 13h

Hey, this sucks. Like... a lot. 📚

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UNC schools of data science and information science to merge, forming unnamed ‘School of AI’

www.dailytarheel.com/article/univ...

UNC schools of data science and information science to merge, forming unnamed ‘School of AI’

SDSS Dean Stanley Ahalt will be made dean of the new school while SILS Dean Jeffrey Bardzell will stand as the University’s Chief Artificial Intelligence Officer and Vice Provost for AI.

www.dailytarheel.com

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Kathleen Bachynski @bachynski.bsky.social · 11h

“BMS Foods caught the attention of regulators earlier this year… an investigation by Indonesia’s nuclear agency has found evidence of widespread radioactive contamination in the area where the shrimp was packaged, a region of the island of Java known as the Cikande industrial area.”

What Is Really Going on With All This Radioactive Shrimp? - Consumer Reports

Here’s the latest on how shrimp and spices got contaminated with cesium-137, how the FDA has responded, and why consumers should not panic.

www.consumerreports.org

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Justin Baragona @justinbaragona.bsky.social · 16h

Besides linking Tylenol in pregnant women to autism, RFK Jr. now says circumcision is part of the reason why kids are autistic.

"Children who are circumcised early have double the rate of autism, and it's highly likely because they're given Tylenol. None of this is positive..."

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MOLA @museumofloot.bsky.social · 1d

At least 100 out of 1,000 well-known archaeological sites around Sudan have already been destroyed so far, especially through the use of heavy, gold-digging machinery.

allthatsinteresting.com/sudan-jabal-...

Illegal Miners Destroy 2,000-Year-Old Heritage Site In Sudan While Digging For Gold

Hundreds of archaeological sites have been vandalized in a similar fashion by illegal miners across Sudan.

allthatsinteresting.com

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Ollie Connolly @ollieconnolly.bsky.social · 1d

Per sources: Bill Belichick has discussed buyout options with North Carolina’s hierarchy. Belichick has signaled a willingness to trigger his own $1 million buyout if he can find a soft landing with another team or in media

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Carl Zimmer @carlzimmer.com · 1d

Today my @nytimes.com colleagues and I are launching a new series called Lost Science. We interview US scientists who can no longer discover something new about our world, thanks to this year‘s cuts. Here is my first interview with a scientist who studied bees and fires. Gift link: nyti.ms/3IWXbiE

nyti.ms

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Catherine Frieman @cjfrieman.bsky.social · 1d

nice!!!!! 🏺
www.npr.org/sections/goa...

A MacArthur 'genius' gleans surprising lessons from ancient bones, shards and trash

Kristina Douglass wanted to find out the truth about how past communities adapted to environmental change. Her revelatory work has earned her a MacArthur award.

www.npr.org

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Jessica Price @delafina777.bsky.social · 2d

Hey all, I'm trying to get a baseline for how good people are at detecting whether fiction is AI-generated or human-written (most of the research on this is for nonfiction and my hypothesis is we're better with fiction).

If you have time, give it a try?

jlp-experiment.github.io/ai-detection...

AI vs Human Fiction Detection Test

jlp-experiment.github.io

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Kristina Killgrove @killgrove.bsky.social · 1d

Oooh, something in addition to the cancelation of the Hulu docuseries?

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Laura Helmuth @laurahelmuth.bsky.social · 1d

Six of the nine Nobel Prize winners this year work in the U.S.
Three of the six were born outside the U.S., which is the pattern most years. No country has benefited more from welcoming immigrants from around the world.
www.nobelprize.org

The official website of the Nobel Prize - NobelPrize.org

The Nobel Prize rewards science, humanism and peace efforts. This is one of the central concepts in the will of Alfred Nobel, and it also permeates the outreach activities that have been developed for...

www.nobelprize.org

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Kristina Killgrove @killgrove.bsky.social · 2d

Me: I'm pretty sure the Getty Villa is in Malibu.

Coworker: The website says it's in Pacific Palisades.

Wikipedia: The Villa self-identifies with Malibu as it is located just east of the city limits of Malibu in the city of Los Angeles in the community of Pacific Palisades. 😂

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Tom Scocca @tomscocca.bsky.social · 2d

It's not just that they're going to strike down a law against conversion therapy, it's that they're going to do it on behalf of made-up claims from a straw plaintiff who can't honestly show the law affected her at all

Tom Scocca @tomscocca.bsky.social · 2d

One thing about American's widespread distrust and disapproval of the Supreme Court is that mainstream news coverage mostly doesn't dwell on stuff like standing, so people don't even begin to grasp how rigged the Court truly is www.nytimes.com/live/2025/10...

Supreme Court Live Updates: Justices Seem Set to Rule Against Colorado’s Ban on Conversion Therapy

www.nytimes.com

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Phil Lewis @phillewis.bsky.social · 2d

Bob Ross paintings to be auctioned to support public TV stations after federal cuts

Thirty paintings by Bob Ross are set to be auctioned to support public television stations

abcnews.go.com

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Kristina Killgrove @killgrove.bsky.social · 2d

"In this excerpt from "Born: A History of Childbirth," author and historian Lucy Inglis reveals records from ancient Egypt that show how female physicians treated issues of "the womb," how men reacted to periods, and how the first known pregnancy test actually worked." 🏺🧪

'The papyrus also recommends putting a clove of garlic in your vagina before bed': The texts that reveal the baffling healthcare for women in ancient Egypt

In this excerpt from "Born: A History of Childbirth," author and historian Lucy Inglis reveals records from ancient Egypt that show how female physicians treated issues of "the womb," how men reacted ...

www.livescience.com

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Maggie Astor @maggieastor.bsky.social · 2d

This one's for all the parents who have told me they're going through hell trying to find Covid vaccines for their children: It's not just you! Gift link:

Seeking Covid Shots for Their Children, Some Parents Hit a Wall

www.nytimes.com

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Kristina Killgrove @killgrove.bsky.social · 2d

When I was a kid, I secretly hoped that I would find something Roman in my backyard. 🏺

New Orleans couple discovers ancient Roman grave marker in their yard

Discovery of 1,900-year-old headstone dedicated to Roman sailor sets off effort to repatriate item to Italy

www.theguardian.com

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🦇Zombatman🦇 @budbuddyguy.bsky.social · 23d

The reverb 🤌

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Kristina Killgrove @killgrove.bsky.social · 3d

In case it’s at all useful (even though it’s from 2013), I blogged quite a bit about my Presenting Anthropology seminar, which was all about disseminating archaeology to the public. This link is to the syllabus, but I also posted students’ work.

www.poweredbyosteons.org/2013/01/pres...

Presenting Anthropology - Syllabus

The spring semester starts at UWF on Monday. Most of my syllabi are done, but the reading list for Presenting Anthropology, my graduate pro...

www.poweredbyosteons.org

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Kristina Killgrove @killgrove.bsky.social · 3d

It was! About 2 min 30 seconds to get the annoying wrap off the CD, then 3 minutes to figure out how the boombox worked. She was pretty proud of herself.

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Kristina Killgrove @killgrove.bsky.social · 3d

The 12yo just got her new Taylor Swift CD in the mail. So I dug out our only CD player -- a janky mini boombox my mom left in the basement -- and timed how long it took her to figure out how to unwrap and open the CD and get it to play: 5 minutes, 47 seconds. 😂

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Live Science @livescience.com · 3d

Researchers investigating a vulture nest in a cliff cave in southern Spain discovered an unusual piece of footwear — a grass shoe from medieval times.

www.livescience.com/archaeology/...

750-year-old grass shoe discovered in a vulture's nest in Spain

Bearded vultures in medieval Spain stole various things from humans to feather their nests.

www.livescience.com

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Dr. Lucky Tran @luckytran.com · 3d

The acting CDC director has finally signed off on the vaccine advisory panel's recommendations for the COVID vaccines.

While the CDC is trying to sell this as a win for antivaxxers, in reality this means that COVID vaccines will be more accessible than they have been in recent weeks.

CDC Immunization Schedule Adopts Individual-Based Decision-Making for COVID-19 and Standalone Vaccination for Chickenpox in Toddlers

ATLANTA—October 6, 2025— The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) today updated its adult and child immunization schedules to apply individual-based decision-making to COVID-19 vaccination and recommend that toddlers receive protection from varicella (chickenpox) as a standalone immunization rather than in combination with measles, mumps, and rubella vaccination.The immunization schedules adopt recent recommendations by the CDC Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), which were approved last week by Acting Director of the CDC and Deputy Secretary of Health and Human Services Jim O’Neill. The schedules will be updated on CDC.gov by October 7, 2025.

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