Jacob Tennessen
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jacobphd.bsky.social
Jacob Tennessen
@jacobphd.bsky.social
Scientist errant. Genetics, evolution, whimsy, awe. https://connects.catalyst.harvard.edu/Profiles/display/Person/173289
🧬🦟🐌🩸👤🦠🍓🐸🧬
Joseph Stalin also quit WHO. Fortunately the Soviets returned after he died; if they hadn't, folks around the world would most likely still be dying from smallpox.
www.reuters.com/business/hea...
US set to quit World Health Organization
The U.S. is due to officially exit the World Health Organization on Thursday, in the face of warnings it will hit both U.S. health and global health and also in violation of a U.S. law that requires W...
www.reuters.com
January 22, 2026 at 3:19 PM
Wikipedia is my generation’s PBS: the crowning opus we have democratically cultivated to promote an educated and open-minded populace amid an otherwise increasingly brain-numbing medium.
www.pcgamer.com/gaming-indus...
Wikipedia turns 25, still boasting zero ads and over 7 billion visitors per month despite the rise of AI and threats of government repression
The Ming Dynasty Yongle Encyclopedia is quietly seething.
www.pcgamer.com
January 19, 2026 at 12:58 AM
I find myself in Canada this morning, and this is what I’ll be attending
January 18, 2026 at 5:23 PM
The Empirical Divine: The compatibility between evolutionary science and (open-minded) religion
adaptivediversity.wordpress.com/2026/01/09/t...
The Empirical Divine
Pha Trelgen Changchup Sempa, the monkey ancestor of humans in a Tibetan myth As an evolutionary biologist married to a minister, I think a lot about science and religion. Both are important in my l…
adaptivediversity.wordpress.com
January 10, 2026 at 1:32 AM
Mildly misleading titles on otherwise good nonfiction books: are these benign, or bad scicomm? E.g. Moonwalking with Einstein. It's about extraordinary mental feats, and Einstein was known for extraordinary mental feats, so one might assume it teaches Einstein's methods. Nope, he's just a mnemonic.
January 6, 2026 at 11:49 PM
In Spanish, the pig genus "Sus" is a possessive pronoun, and here the species name Sus scrofa apparently got autocorrected to "estrofa" meaning "stanza"; secret porcine poetry slipping through peer review.
January 6, 2026 at 1:40 AM
Going through old things as my folks prepare to sell my childhood house, and the stuff from my high school year in Venezuela hits extra hard today.
January 4, 2026 at 12:17 AM
Shout out to the West Virginia State Police for the time they rescued my brother and me after we embarked on an extremely ill-prepared hike in an Appalachian snowstorm.
January 3, 2026 at 2:40 AM
What are the best, or any, examples of scientific papers written from prison? I've been pondering that I could continue much of my work incarcerated if allowed access to an online computer. Not that I have any reason to suspect that fate for me other than (gestures broadly at current US government).
December 22, 2025 at 1:54 AM
For those who’ve missed it:
The emoji science of Biolojical is now on bluesky!
Who shares a great-great-etc. grandparent with you?

# of “greats”:
10⁰👨🏽👩🏽
10¹🧑🏾🧓🏽
10²🧔🏼👩🏿‍🦱all humans
10³
10⁴
10⁵
10⁶🦍🦧all apes
10⁷🐵🐒
10⁸🐰🐯
10⁹🦈🐙all animals
10¹⁰🌼🌲
10¹¹
10¹²🦠🌏all life
December 21, 2025 at 10:12 PM
The Nativity is a sitcom plot. Giving birth in a barn because the inn was full. Three random wizards show up with age-inappropriate gifts. Showwriters strive to generate this kind of comedy gold.
December 21, 2025 at 9:08 PM
Stephen Jay Gould devotes much of his book Full House to the disappearance of >400 batting averages, as a metaphor for evolution. He never really explains what a batting average is or how it’s calculated, he just assumes everyone knows. Gould is generally a fantastic teacher but maybe don’t do that.
December 19, 2025 at 6:39 PM
Love to have my data covered up by a misinformation button that can't be disabled.
December 17, 2025 at 6:17 PM
Working on a murder mystery game for the upcoming 8th grade hangout
December 14, 2025 at 3:34 AM
Unpopular opinion: rice does not belong in a burrito. The tortilla is already your grain. There’s a reason nobody eats potato sandwiches — carbs within carbs becomes tedious.
December 14, 2025 at 3:02 AM
Reposted by Jacob Tennessen
FABULOUS 😍
Precambrian:
🦠
🦠
🦠
🦠
Paleozoic:
🦠🐚
🦠🐚🌱
🦠🐚🌱🦂
🦠🐚🌱🦂🦈
Mesozoic:
🦠🐚🌱🦂🦈🐊
🦠🐚🌱🦂🦈🐊🐭
🦠🐚🌱🦂🦈🐊🐭🌼
🦠🐚🌱🦂🦈🐊🐭🌼🦆
Cenozoic:
🦠🐚🌱🦂🦈🐊🐭🌼🦆🍒
🦠🐚🌱🦂🦈🐊🐭🌼🦆🍒🐋
🦠🐚🌱🦂🦈🐊🐭🌼🦆🍒🐋🐎
🦠🐚🌱🦂🦈🐊🐭🌼🦆🍒🐋🐎👶🏾
December 10, 2025 at 10:47 PM
Reposted by Jacob Tennessen
My new favorite Bsky account
🐟sees🏝️→→🐸
🐻sees❄️→→🐻‍❄️
🐵sees🌜→→👨🏽‍🚀
🌱sees🐝→→🌸
🦛sees🌊→→🐳
🦎sees🕳️→→🐍
🦠sees💊→→☣️
🕊️sees🏝️→→🦤
🦖sees☄️→→💀

Evolution: Reach for your dreams.
December 10, 2025 at 8:18 AM
How it started
🌊🌊🌊🌊🌊🧬🌊🌊🌊🌊🌊

How it’s going
🍇🦔🐌🦩🌵🦈🌺🦂🐊🍄🌴🐞🌻🦑🐸🌾🦠🥕🦥🐠🧑🏽‍🔬🌲🦝🕷☘️🐛🦞🌷🥬🦏🐙🍒🧅🌽🐝🦇🌿🐢🦉🦎🍍🥦🦦🦚🦙🦗🦟🐍🌽🌱🍌🍁🐬🐡🐇🍈🧄🌸🐨🦋🐧🦐🐟🦘🦨🌹🌼🌶🦀🍏🥭…
December 9, 2025 at 4:05 PM
Reposted by Jacob Tennessen
Biolojical is now on BlueSky!

(not promising anything new, but moved some of my favorite posts over from the other site)
Recipe for evolution:

1. Variation🐃🐂🐄🐃🐂🐄
2. Risk of death🐃🐂🐄🐃🐂🐄←←🦖
3. Non-random survival🐃🐂🥩🥩🐂🥩
4. Inheritance🐃🐂🐂→🐃🐂🐂🐃🐂🐂
5. Repeat🔁

That's it. All you need for
🦠→→→🌹🦚🌴🦋🍄👧🏻
December 8, 2025 at 10:36 PM
Reposted by Jacob Tennessen
Species:
🦁
Genus:
🦁🐯
Family:
🦁🐯🐱
Order:
🦁🐯🐱🐻
Class:
🦁🐯🐱🐻🐨
Phylum:
🦁🐯🐱🐻🐨🐸
Kingdom:
🦁🐯🐱🐻🐨🐸🦑
Domain:
🦁🐯🐱🐻🐨🐸🦑
🍅🍆🌶️🍠🍑🍌🌲
Kingdom:
🍅🍆🌶️🍠🍑🍌🌲
Phylum:
🍅🍆🌶️🍠🍑🍌
Class:
🍅🍆🌶️🍠🍑
Order:
🍅🍆🌶️🍠
Family:
🍅🍆🌶️
Genus:
🍅🍆
Species:
🍅
December 8, 2025 at 10:20 PM
Reposted by Jacob Tennessen
°Latitude:
90❄️
80🐺
70🐺🐻
60🐺🐻🐍🐿
50🐺🐻🐍🐿
40🐺🐻🐍🐿🐵🐯
30🐺🐻🐍🐿🐵🐯🦜🐘🐊🐪🦚🐼
20🐺🐍🐿🐵🐯🦜🐘🐊🐪🦚
10🐺🐍🦛🐵🐯🦜🐘🐊🐪🦚🦓
0🐧🦙🐍🦛🐵🐯🦜🐘🐊🐪🦓🦍
10🐧🦙🐍🦛🐵🐯🦜🐘🐊🦓
20🐧🦙🐍🦛🐵🦘🦜🐘🐊🦓🐨
30🐧🦙🐍🦛🐵🦘🦜🐘🐊🦓🐨
40🐧🦙🐍🦘🦜
50🐧🦙🦜
60🐧
70🐧
80🐧
90❄️
December 8, 2025 at 10:20 PM
Reposted by Jacob Tennessen
Who shares a common ancestor with you __ million years ago?
2⁰👩🏽
2¹👩🏽
2²👩🏽
2³👩🏽🦍
2⁴👩🏽🦍
2⁵👩🏽🦍🐒
2⁶👩🏽🦍🐒
2⁷👩🏽🦍🐒🐮🦊
2⁸👩🏽🦍🐒🐮🦊🐨🦘
2⁹👩🏽🦍🐒🐮🦊🐨🦘🦆🐠
2¹⁰👩🏽🦍🐒🐮🦊🐨🦘🦆🐠🐙🦋
2¹¹👩🏽🦍🐒🐮🦊🐨🦘🦆🐠🐙🦋🍄🌳
2¹²🌎
December 8, 2025 at 9:26 PM
Reposted by Jacob Tennessen
"The great Tree of Life… with its ever-branching and beautiful ramifications"
-C Darwin
  ┌🐯🐼🐺🐷🐳🦓
  ┌|
┌| └🐒🦍🧒🐰🐿️🐹
| |
┌| └🐊🦖🐧🦅🐍🐢
| |
| └🕷️🦀🦗🐞🦋🐝
|
| ┌🌷🌾🌽🍍🍌🥥
| |
└| ┌🌵🥝🥕🌻🌶️🥔
| |
└| ┌🍀🥜🌹🍑🍎🍉
  └|
  └🍁🍊🍋🥦🍫🌺
December 8, 2025 at 9:26 PM
Reposted by Jacob Tennessen
Calendar of evolution:
Jan 1☣1st life
Nov 2🐚1st animals
Nov 20🐛1st land animals
Nov 23🦈1st sharks
Nov 26🐸1st tetrapods
Dec 3🌲1st seed plants
Dec 9🌋💀
Dec 10🦕1st dinos
Dec 11🐭1st mammals
Dec 19🌼1st flowers
Dec 20🐦1st birds
Dec 25🦖1st T rex
Dec 26☄💀
Dec 31👋1st humans
December 8, 2025 at 9:22 PM