Uku Vainik
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ukuvainik.bsky.social
Uku Vainik
@ukuvainik.bsky.social
680 followers 620 following 240 posts
Professor of behavioral genetics with my own twins. I mix behaviour and genetics at Tartu & McGill to understand obesity. I also mix global music as a DJ.
Posts Replies Media Videos
Reposted by Uku Vainik
ent3c.bsky.social
Blog post: A Missing Heritability Update. Three legs and other problems. I follow up on the recent excellent post on the subject by @sashagusevposts.bsky.social. ericturkheimer.substack.com/p/missing-he...
Missing Heritability Revisited
Following up on Sasha
ericturkheimer.substack.com
November 25, 2025 at 3:04 PM
Reposted by Uku Vainik
dingdingpeng.the100.ci
New blog post!

Let's say you have two measures meant to capture the same confounder. They're highly correlated. Can you still proceed with your regression analysis?

(I admit, the title is a bit of a spoiler)

www.the100.ci/2025/10/13/i...
If you have two measures of the same confounder, you can just include both of them in your regression model
Sometimes, researchers worry about multicollinearity in situations where it’s actually a non-issue. Here’s one such scenario. Imagine a situation where you are interested in the effect of X on Y (X...
www.the100.ci
October 13, 2025 at 1:14 PM
Reposted by Uku Vainik
jonkk.bsky.social
🤔
November 22, 2025 at 9:51 AM
ukuvainik.bsky.social
Kaksikud on vahvad jah. Mul üks neist kõrvapõletikus, pidi vereproovi andma ja kisa sellest taevani. Teine kaksik on suur vereproovi andmise entusiast ja oli väga pettunud, et tema seekord ei saanud anda 🥲.
runnel.bsky.social Tõnu Runnel @runnel.bsky.social · 8d
Rattaga on talvel tõesti aeglasem liikuda kui suvel — sest üks jõnglastest tahab üle poole teest lastehoidu ise sõita, aga mitte tee peal. Lumes. Ja vahepeal lund degusteerida.
November 19, 2025 at 2:41 PM
Reposted by Uku Vainik
renemottus.bsky.social
Reminder: The submission deadline for ECP22 is December 7th.
www.ecp22edinburgh.org/submission
November 19, 2025 at 9:49 AM
Reposted by Uku Vainik
agingdoc.bsky.social
Semaglutide versus caloric restriction-induced weight loss: insights into effects on skeletal muscle mass and function

"[suggests] loss of muscle function and mass during treatment is not unique to GLP-1RA pharmacology but rather reflects the biology of caloric restriction…"

x.com/agingdoc1/st...
Agingdoc🩺Dr David Barzilai🔔MD PhD MS MBA DipABLM on X: "Semaglutide versus caloric restriction-induced weight loss: insights into effects on skeletal muscle mass and function "...suggests that the loss of muscle function and mass during treatment is not unique to GLP-1RA pharmacology but rather reflects the biology of caloric" / X
Semaglutide versus caloric restriction-induced weight loss: insights into effects on skeletal muscle mass and function "...suggests that the loss of muscle function and mass during treatment is not unique to GLP-1RA pharmacology but rather reflects the biology of caloric
x.com
November 19, 2025 at 12:41 AM
Reposted by Uku Vainik
neorsd.org
just learned we won an award for our blog post about Tom Holland and stormwater management.

remember, when you see an article about stormwater management, you repost it. i don’t make the rules.
What Tom Holland’s historic lip-sync showcase taught us about stormwater management
Grab your umbrella and your tights.
neorsd.medium.com
November 19, 2025 at 12:22 AM
ukuvainik.bsky.social
Would love to see this happening!

"When an investigator (or group of investigators) is funded, they would have to agree that the funders’ platform will be the sole means of data dissemination and publication."
November 17, 2025 at 12:22 PM
Reposted by Uku Vainik
wiringthebrain.bsky.social
New paper with @statsepi.bsky.social and @deevybee.bsky.social in which we show there's really no evidence for a link between the gut microbiome and autism www.cell.com/neuron/fullt...
Conceptual and methodological flaws undermine claims of a link between the gut microbiome and autism
Claims that the gut microbiome causally contributes to autism regularly appear in the scientific literature and popular press. Mitchell et al. critically examine influential studies underpinning these...
www.cell.com
November 13, 2025 at 4:10 PM
Reposted by Uku Vainik
segadusterapeut.bsky.social
Ilmselt lugesite Tuuli Jõesaare artiklit, kuidas konstellöör ⚠️Ada Kesonen on koolipsühholoogide esindusisik ja kuidas ametiau ei maksa punast pennigi. 🤡

❗Pärispsühholoog Kenn Konstabel pani FB 🌟täismahus üles ka loo juurde antud kommentaari. Lugege 👇 ja mõelge, miks uhhuu presidendi roosiaias käib.
Kenn Konstabel · Tuuli Jõesaar küsis minu kommentaari lingitud artikli kohta. https://www.delfi.ee/.../korraga-kahel-toolil... Vastasin talle järgmist (artiklis on tsiteeritud sellest paari lauset): Kõigepealt - olen samast teemast pikemalt [...] rääkinud selles podcastis: https://storiesforimpact.com/.../42-teraapia.../ [...] EPL-i eetikanõuded: nt eetikanõuete p 5 ja 6: 5. Psühholoog ei soodusta pettekujutluste, illusioonide, väärarvamuste teket ega levikut. 6. Psühholoog ei kasuta oma töös kontrollimata ja teaduslikult põhjendamata töömeetodeid ega vahendeid. Perekonstellatsioonide meetodi puhul ei ole minu jaoks küsimust, kas ta "juba on" või "vasti saab" tõendus- või teaduspõhiseks. Tõenduspõhise meetodi mõju peaks olema tõestatud - kui uuringuid veel ei ole, siis võib tulemus, kui see ükskord saadakse, olla nii positiivne kui negatiivne, samuti näidata kahjulikku mõju. Seega argument, et miski on tulevikus tõenduspõhine, kindlasti ei päde, v.a juhul kui ütlejal on tõestatult selgeltnägemise võime. Perekonstellatsioonide meetodi autorid on meetodi toime kohta välja pakkunud selgitusi, mis ei põhine teaduslikul meetodil, vaid vastanduvad sellele või siis püüavad esoteerilist sisu maskeerida vanakreeka päritolu sõnadega nagu "morfogeneetilised väljad", "energia", "kvantliigutused" või "epigeneetika" (osal neist mõistetest on teaduses päriselt tähendus, kuid see ei kattu konstellatsioonimeetodi autorite või arendajate poolt välja pakutuga). Sellliste meetodite kasutamisel tuleks lisaks kasuliku mõju tõestamisele (mida praegu ei ole tehtud) näidata ka kahjulike kõrvalmõjude puudumist ning loobuda esoteerilise terminoloogia kasutamisest. Potentsiaalselt kahjulike kõrvalmõjude hulka kuuluvad minu meelest ka näiteks see, kui klient hakkab uskuma pseudoteaduslikke selgitusi või hakkab lootma tervisekasule, mida võiks saada esoteeriliste praktikate rakendamisest. Nagu ütleb Matteuse evangeelium, keegi ei saa teenida korraga kaht isandat - ta kas vihkab üht ja armastab teist või vastupidi (Mt 6:28). Psühholoog ei saa korraga pettekujutluste teket soodustada ja hajutada või siis kasutada ühe kliendiga teaduslikult põhjendatud ja teisega esoteerilisi meetodeid. Võib muidugi vastu väita, et teadus ei saagi kõike tõestada. See on suurel määral õige, sest teadus ei tea sugugi kõike. Kuid teaduslikud meetodid sekkumiste (sh farmakoloogilised ja psühhoterapeutilised sekkumised) tõhususe tõestamiseks on väga hästi arenenud. Kui sekkumisest on päriselt kasu, siis on seda võimalik teatud vaevaga tõestada. Teiseks võib väita, et esoteerika uskumine on usuvabaduse küsimus: igaüks võib kodus põristada šamaanitrummi, nii kaua, kuni see naabreid ei sega. Ka see väide on teatud määral õige - kuni see trumm jääb väljapoole professionaalset tegevust ning ta ei väida, et tema tegevusest on kellegi vaimsele tervisele abi. Olen kuulnud ka väidet, et esoteeriline praktika on kedagi (näiteks mõnda psühholoogi) aidanud ning seetõttu on tal kogemuslikult tõestatud toime. Selline väide vastandub teaduslikule meetodile (järeldus tehakse positiivse üksikjuhu põhjal arvestamata ning süstemaatiliselt kontrollimata võimalikke negatiivseid tulemusi) ning spetsialist võtab sellest lähtudes vastutuse talle tundmatu toimemehhanismiga meetodi toimimise eest (st võtab vastutuse, mida ta tegelikult ei saa ega tohiks võtta).
November 14, 2025 at 5:53 AM
Reposted by Uku Vainik
statsepi.bsky.social
Nice one, from @drg.bsky.social and @jamesheathers.bsky.social

link.springer.com/article/10.1...
“Cake causes herpes?” - promiscuous dichotomisation induces false positives - BMC Medical Research Methodology
Background Continuous biomedical data is often dichotomized into two or more groups for analysis, despite long-standing warnings from statisticians that this constitutes bad practice. This dichotomisa...
link.springer.com
November 13, 2025 at 7:46 PM
Reposted by Uku Vainik
tkaiser.science
I never understood why these companies are even taken seriously.
Polygenic scores explain ~7% of IQ variance. Even under luxurious assumptions, you could maybe say something like "your kid will have an IQ between 72 and 128 with 95% probability". What's useful about this?
antonioregalado.bsky.social Antonio Regalado @antonioregalado.bsky.social · 16d
A month after Bari Weiss hired to lead CBS News division, heretic eugenics philosopher Jonathan Anomaly is on the morning show pitching bell curves and embryo scores.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=qvVM...
November 11, 2025 at 9:31 AM
Reposted by Uku Vainik
loic-yengo.bsky.social
First time on Bsky and first big announcement!

I am excited to announce that our new study explaining the missing heritability of many phenotypes using WGS data from ~347,000 UK Biobank participants has just been published in @Nature.

Our manuscript is here: www.nature.com/articles/s41....
Estimation and mapping of the missing heritability of human phenotypes - Nature
WGS data were used from 347,630 individuals with European ancestry in the UK Biobank to obtain high-precision estimates of coding and non-coding rare variant heritability for 34 co...
www.nature.com
November 12, 2025 at 5:57 PM
ukuvainik.bsky.social
Yes, if all EU / NIH / Wellcome funds would announce that their research must be in certain Diamond open access journals, eg Open Research Europe, then the whole problem would go away
hansonmark.bsky.social Mark A. Hanson @hansonmark.bsky.social · 15d
We wrote the Strain on scientific publishing to highlight the problems of time & trust. With a fantastic group of co-authors, we present The Drain of Scientific Publishing:

a 🧵 1/n

Drain: arxiv.org/abs/2511.04820
Strain: direct.mit.edu/qss/article/...
Oligopoly: direct.mit.edu/qss/article/...
A table showing profit margins of major publishers. A snippet of text related to this table is below. 1. The four-fold drain 1.1 Money Currently, academic publishing is dominated by profit-oriented, multinational companies for whom scientific knowledge is a commodity to be sold back to the academic community who created it. The dominant four are Elsevier, Springer Nature, Wiley and Taylor & Francis, which collectively generated over US$7.1 billion in revenue from journal publishing in 2024 alone, and over US$12 billion in profits between 2019 and 2024 (Table 1A). Their profit margins have always been over 30% in the last five years, and for the largest publisher (Elsevier) always over 37%. Against many comparators, across many sectors, scientific publishing is one of the most consistently profitable industries (Table S1). These financial arrangements make a substantial difference to science budgets. In 2024, 46% of Elsevier revenues and 53% of Taylor & Francis revenues were generated in North America, meaning that North American researchers were charged over US$2.27 billion by just two for-profit publishers. The Canadian research councils and the US National Science Foundation were allocated US$9.3 billion in that year. A figure detailing the drain on researcher time. 1. The four-fold drain 1.2 Time The number of papers published each year is growing faster than the scientific workforce, with the number of papers per researcher almost doubling between 1996 and 2022 (Figure 1A). This reflects the fact that publishers’ commercial desire to publish (sell) more material has aligned well with the competitive prestige culture in which publications help secure jobs, grants, promotions, and awards. To the extent that this growth is driven by a pressure for profit, rather than scholarly imperatives, it distorts the way researchers spend their time. The publishing system depends on unpaid reviewer labour, estimated to be over 130 million unpaid hours annually in 2020 alone (9). Researchers have complained about the demands of peer-review for decades, but the scale of the problem is now worse, with editors reporting widespread difficulties recruiting reviewers. The growth in publications involves not only the authors’ time, but that of academic editors and reviewers who are dealing with so many review demands. Even more seriously, the imperative to produce ever more articles reshapes the nature of scientific inquiry. Evidence across multiple fields shows that more papers result in ‘ossification’, not new ideas (10). It may seem paradoxical that more papers can slow progress until one considers how it affects researchers’ time. While rewards remain tied to volume, prestige, and impact of publications, researchers will be nudged away from riskier, local, interdisciplinary, and long-term work. The result is a treadmill of constant activity with limited progress whereas core scholarly practices – such as reading, reflecting and engaging with others’ contributions – is de-prioritized. What looks like productivity often masks intellectual exhaustion built on a demoralizing, narrowing scientific vision. A table of profit margins across industries. The section of text related to this table is below: 1. The four-fold drain 1.1 Money Currently, academic publishing is dominated by profit-oriented, multinational companies for whom scientific knowledge is a commodity to be sold back to the academic community who created it. The dominant four are Elsevier, Springer Nature, Wiley and Taylor & Francis, which collectively generated over US$7.1 billion in revenue from journal publishing in 2024 alone, and over US$12 billion in profits between 2019 and 2024 (Table 1A). Their profit margins have always been over 30% in the last five years, and for the largest publisher (Elsevier) always over 37%. Against many comparators, across many sectors, scientific publishing is one of the most consistently profitable industries (Table S1). These financial arrangements make a substantial difference to science budgets. In 2024, 46% of Elsevier revenues and 53% of Taylor & Francis revenues were generated in North America, meaning that North American researchers were charged over US$2.27 billion by just two for-profit publishers. The Canadian research councils and the US National Science Foundation were allocated US$9.3 billion in that year. The costs of inaction are plain: wasted public funds, lost researcher time, compromised scientific integrity and eroded public trust. Today, the system rewards commercial publishers first, and science second. Without bold action from the funders we risk continuing to pour resources into a system that prioritizes profit over the advancement of scientific knowledge.
November 12, 2025 at 1:03 PM
Reposted by Uku Vainik
mitpress.bsky.social
Happy birthday, Emil du Bois-Reymond!
The Greatest Unknown Intellectual of the 19th Century
Emil du Bois-Reymond proclaimed the mystery of consciousness, championed the theory of natural selection, and revolutionized the study of the nervous system. Today, he is all but forgotten.
thereader.mitpress.mit.edu
November 7, 2025 at 9:27 PM
Reposted by Uku Vainik
triadsou.bsky.social
The rapid growth in Mendelian randomization studies. Gibran Hemani, Stefan Stender, Frank J. Wolters, Albert Hofman & George Davey Smith. European Journal of Epidemiology. link.springer.com/article/10.1...
The rapid growth in Mendelian randomization studies - European Journal of Epidemiology
European Journal of Epidemiology -
link.springer.com
November 6, 2025 at 2:20 PM
Reposted by Uku Vainik
alxndrmlk.bsky.social
For the last 50 years, we've designed cars to be safe...

For the 50th-percentile male.

Well, that's actually not 100% correct.

According to Stanford's report**, we introduced "female" crash test dummies in the 1960s, but...

1/

#CausalSky #ScienceSky #MLSky #EpiSky #StatSky #AISky
November 5, 2025 at 8:16 AM
Reposted by Uku Vainik
weratedags.com
We love a good 'association as as fluid' metaphor, but this guy takes it to the next level.

12/10 for the reminder that conditioning on a collider doesn't just mess with your identification; it can also flood your basement.
ruben.the100.ci Ruben C. Arslan @ruben.the100.ci · 29d
I built a DAG diagram with garden hoses for teaching.
Pictured: a collider bias diagram, inspired by a blocked pipe situation I experienced (which I credit with giving me the intuition though it also ruined my belongings in the flooded cellar).
me with some garden hoses connected in a X -> Z <- Y fashion. If I shut the valve at Z, water from X spills out at Y
October 31, 2025 at 9:47 AM
Reposted by Uku Vainik
The Netherlands Food and Consumer Product Authority at the Netherlands Food and Consumer Product Authority is looking for an applied statistician with expertise in Bayesian statistics or causal inference
statmodeling.stat.columbia.edu/2025/11/03/t...
The Netherlands Food and Consumer Product Authority at the Netherlands Food and Consumer Product Authority is looking for an applied statistician with expertise in Bayesian statistics or causal infer...
statmodeling.stat.columbia.edu
November 3, 2025 at 9:31 PM
ukuvainik.bsky.social
Lovely interview! We always preprint our analyses coming from @estbiobank.bsky.social, and personality X job satisfaction is no exception!

@renemottus.bsky.social
cos.io Center for Open Science @cos.io · 23d
For Maris Vainre & coauthors, sharing their preprint led to coverage in New Scientist, 1,800+ downloads, & invites to discuss their work.

Their study explores whether people in certain professions are more or less satisfied with their jobs & lives. Read more in our Q&A!

🏢
Q&A with Maris Vainre: Job Satisfaction and the Power of Preprints
For Maris Vainre and her team, sharing their preprint led to media attention, high downloads, and invites to discuss their findings. She shares what inspired the study, how preprints accelerate scientific progress and real-world impact, and more.
www.cos.io
November 3, 2025 at 2:50 PM
Reposted by Uku Vainik
jayvanbavel.bsky.social
Whoever wins the #worldseries tonight is going to make a legion of fans for life
The psychology of fans &identification with teams is fascinating
Like goslings, boys imprint on the team that wins when they are young. A championship leads them to identify with a team for life, especially boys 8-12
November 2, 2025 at 1:08 AM
ukuvainik.bsky.social
Which way does causality flow?💦
ruben.the100.ci Ruben C. Arslan @ruben.the100.ci · 29d
I built a DAG diagram with garden hoses for teaching.
Pictured: a collider bias diagram, inspired by a blocked pipe situation I experienced (which I credit with giving me the intuition though it also ruined my belongings in the flooded cellar).
me with some garden hoses connected in a X -> Z <- Y fashion. If I shut the valve at Z, water from X spills out at Y
October 31, 2025 at 5:43 AM
Reposted by Uku Vainik
wbderry.bsky.social
Fantastic opportunity at The Hospital for Sick Children. Please repost. www.nature.com/naturecareer...
SCIENTIST – Developmental, Stem Cell &amp; Cancer Biology Program - Toronto (City), Ontario (CA) job with The Hospital for Sick Children - Developmental &amp; Stem Cell Biology Program | 12848200
Discovery-based and/or translational research using model organism genetics and/or stem cell and organoid platforms to study paediatric cancer.
www.nature.com
October 28, 2025 at 10:06 PM
Reposted by Uku Vainik
behaviorgenetic.bsky.social
We currently have multiple job openings (post-doc/assistant prof/associate prof) listed on our website, see thread below if you don't want to miss out!
bga.org/content.aspx...
BGA Job Listings - Behavior Genetics Association
bga.org
October 28, 2025 at 6:16 PM
Reposted by Uku Vainik
cmolho.bsky.social
📢 Two weeks left to apply for a (2-year) research fellowship @iast.fr

A fantastic opportunity to work full-time on your own research, in an interdisciplinary environment, and in a lovely city in the South of France.

Deadline: November 15, 2025

How to apply: www.iast.fr/research-fel...
Research Fellowships
Each year, IAST invites applications for post-doctoral Research Fellowships, which offer candidates an opportunity to devote themselves full-time to their research at the start of their careers. Fello...
www.iast.fr
October 28, 2025 at 1:44 PM