Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Warwick Anderson @wombatscholar.bsky.social · 21h

I think there's a KPI for that!

Warwick Anderson @wombatscholar.bsky.social · 1d

Why would a university abolish its very successful sustainability institute? Looks like yet another example of Australian university managerial incompetence. The vandals have taken over the modern university....

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Warwick Anderson @wombatscholar.bsky.social · 1d

‘Completely flawed’: Monash University is scrapping its flagship sustainability institute www.crikey.com.au/2025/10/07/m...

'Completely flawed': Monash University is scrapping its flagship sustainability institute

The uni's plans to 'streamline operational services' by closing down its flagship institute dedicated to climate action and sustainability have sparked internal backlash.

www.crikey.com.au

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Warwick Anderson @wombatscholar.bsky.social · 1d

Nice to see Gershon vindicated by Sakaguchi et al, though a shame he died before the Nobel was awarded. Interesting to speculate on the line up if he'd been alive... Perhaps like Bill Hadlow (kuru) and Jacques Miller (thymus) he'd be scandalously ignored anyhow? We'll never know
#Nobel

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Warwick Anderson @wombatscholar.bsky.social · 2d

We had fun in chapter 6 with the horror of the suppressor T cell and the later irresistible rise of the regulatory T cell. Worth a book in its own right. I suspected it had something to do with the Cold War and then neoliberalism. Ian merely arched his eyebrow.

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Warwick Anderson @wombatscholar.bsky.social · 2d

My co-author Ian Mackay wryly predicted this award some 15 years ago, as we were writing Intolerant Bodies:
press.jhu.edu/books/title/...

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Warwick Anderson @wombatscholar.bsky.social · 2d

Fabulous. The much maligned 'suppressor' T cell of Gershon has resurfaced as the T reg with the Nobel Prize. The marvelous ebbs and flows of immunology. Echoes of Burnet's 'homeostatic mechanisms '... as described in Intolerant Bodies...
#Nobel #immunology #STS #histstm #histsci #histmed

Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine Is Awarded for Work on Immune Systems

www.nytimes.com

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Warwick Anderson @wombatscholar.bsky.social · 4d

Sad to learn of the death last week of Kerin O'Dea, an outstanding nutritional epidemiologist, who advanced the study of chronic diseases, especially type 2 diabetes, and Indigenous health. A model for engaged & activist epidemiology. I first met her some 40 years ago... Lancet profile here:

Kerin O'Dea: improving the health of Indigenous Australians

Kerin O'Dea's language teacher mother gave her the belief that with hard work she could do well in whatever profession she chose. With a slew of senior research appointments behind her, most recently ...

www.thelancet.com

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Warwick Anderson @wombatscholar.bsky.social · 6d

When Ian Mackay and I wrote our history of autoimmunity we focused on several diseases, but not ALS. If it were ever revised there would be so much more to include now!

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Warwick Anderson @wombatscholar.bsky.social · 6d

Interesting confirmation (and specification) of the role of autoimmunity in ALS published yesterday in Nature, open access. Still, not enough attention is given to the contributions of autoimmunity in disease causation.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Autoimmune response to C9orf72 protein in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis - Nature

An analysis of T cell responses in people with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis shows that the C9orf72 antigen is a key target of autoimmune responses in the disease, and identifies C9orf72 epitopes that are recognized.

www.nature.com

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Warwick Anderson @wombatscholar.bsky.social · 6d

Joel Barnes is working with us at the University of Sydney on a university truth telling project, which stimulated this important research. The value of real historical sleuthing... More to come, I hope
#austhist @sydney.edu.au @austhistassoc.bsky.social @humanitiesau.bsky.social

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Warwick Anderson @wombatscholar.bsky.social · 6d

Our Lancet viewpoint, 'Bioethics for the Planet', seems ever more timely. Caring for humans and all life forms demands we care also for the planet. Viewable with registration
www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...
#climate #planetaryhealth #globalhealth #STS #ethics

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Reposted by Warwick Anderson

Tamson Pietsch @capandgown.bsky.social · 7d

Important research here from Joel Barnes tracing the origins of philanthropic wealth in Australia. How should institutions reckon with these legacies?

theconversation.com/the-dixson-f...

The Dixson family were great Australian philanthropists, but their wealth was built on slave labour

The legacy of the Dixson family reveals a complicated history of interconnected global capital and racialised exploitation.

theconversation.com

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Reposted by Warwick Anderson

Mara Dicenta @mdicenta.bsky.social · Aug 28

Ghostly Lessons: New Forum at Anthropology Theory Commons @anthrotheory.bsky.social led by Emma Kowal & Amanda Domingues

Right on time before the 2025 AAA Meeting on "Ghosts" in November @americananthro.bsky.social

Essays are short but deep (including mine)! www.at-commons.com/ghosts

Ghostly Lessons · Anthropological Theory

www.at-commons.com

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Reposted by Warwick Anderson

Alisa Bokulich @alisabokulich.bsky.social · 17d

#HPS program at the University of Copenhagen invites applications for Postdoc in History and Philosophy of Science as part of research project Human Variables in Biodiversity Assessment (PI: Joeri Witteveen): employment.ku.dk/faculty/?sho...
#philsky #PhilJobs #philsci

Deadline is November 7, 2025.

Post-doc position in History and Philosophy of Science

employment.ku.dk

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Warwick Anderson @wombatscholar.bsky.social · 17d

A sweet story

Chickens step in to raise abandoned emu chicks at wildlife park

Birds of a different feather are flocking together at a wildlife park in New South Wales, where the chickens have been given the responsibility of being foster parents to a pair of abandoned emu chick...

www.abc.net.au

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Reposted by Warwick Anderson

Jon Piccini @jonpiccini.bsky.social · 19d

Australia's universities are blighted by a "culture of consequence-free, rotten failure", according to the former chair of a senate inquiry examining governance at public universities. ... "There's no other sector in the country where failure is rewarded so handsomely and with so little scrutiny."

'Rotten' Australian university culture lashed in long-running senate inquiry

Australia's universities are blighted by a "culture of consequence-free, rotten failure", a senate inquiry has found.

www.abc.net.au

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Warwick Anderson @wombatscholar.bsky.social · 19d

Two ageing men sitting on the beach at Byron Bay, chatting about history and philosophy of biology, as one does. Paul Griffiths and me, photo Terese Hayward

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Reposted by Warwick Anderson

Keren Lavelle @kerenlavelle.bsky.social · 26d

Finally saw the Sydney Opera House seal.

In the foreground a dark brown seal posed on a pink granite platform with a row of steps behind, with a view of old warehouses, all surrounded by turquoise blue waters.

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Reposted by Warwick Anderson

Greg Jericho @grogsgamut.bsky.social · 26d

Disgraceful.

No govt that actually cares about climate change would do this.

www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...

Australia news live: Labor approves extension of Woodside’s North West Shelf gas export project until 2070

Follow live

www.theguardian.com

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Warwick Anderson @wombatscholar.bsky.social · 26d

Shameful decision from the Labor govt

Alice K @coalisdead.bsky.social · 26d

There’s no climate scientist on the planet who thinks this decision isn’t catastrophically destructive

Ffs, It’s the largest gas deposit in the Southern hemisphere & new deposit moratoriums should have been implemented years ago

Labor’s a fucked up party #auspol

www.abc.net.au/news/2025-09...

Australia's largest gas project given final approval to operate until 2070

Australia's biggest gas project, Woodside's North West Shelf, has received final approval to extend operations through until 2070.

www.abc.net.au

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Warwick Anderson @wombatscholar.bsky.social · 26d

A moving essay by Joan Scott, addressing our current predicament. Her parents remind me of my own, though in Australia, a more democratic country, the consequences of their politics were less severe.

A General Air of Anxiety - Boston Review

The Red Scare targeted my father. He taught me the meaning of resistance.

www.bostonreview.net

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Warwick Anderson @wombatscholar.bsky.social · 27d

We'll be celebrating (and critically reflecting on) 100 years of Anthropology at the University of Sydney, 9 October 2025. A great program! From Radcliffe-Brown ('Anarchy Brown') to ... who knows? An Indigenous professor of anthropology, maybe.

The Sydney Anthropology Centenary: 100 Years of Anthropology at the University of Sydney

Join us in marking the centenary of Anthropology at the University of Sydney—Australia’s first anthropology department.

events.humanitix.com

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Reposted by Warwick Anderson

Laura @lucytartan.bsky.social · 27d

Big turnout at this morning’s rally against @mupublishing.bsky.social vandalism of Meanjin. @beneltham.bsky.social called for Meanjin’s name and archive to be surrendered so the magazine can be published by someone who deserves to and appreciates the honour

Protesters gathered outside Melbourne University Publishing office at 715 Swanston St

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Warwick Anderson @wombatscholar.bsky.social · 27d

So appealing!