Ana Lucía

PhD Nutrition Science. Senior Postdoctoral Researcher @HIRH_Ireland @UCCPublicHealth in Cork.

[Dolia Estévez @DoliaEstevez]

Fuera de EEUU, México es el país que más rescatistas ha enviado a Venezuela. Esta vez la ideologización de la política exterior no se interpuso a la solidaridad.

[The Alliance for Responsible Citizenship @ARC_Conference]

“We're raising children who can't play.”

That is the warning at the heart of Sophie Winkleman's powerful speech on smartphones, screens and the future of education.

As countries around the world bring books and handwriting back into classrooms, she asks a simple question:

“If all the research says one thing, why are schools doing another?”

Watch the full speech from ARC 2026

[Jan-Albert Hootsen @jahootsen]

Academics at regional universities in Mexico are often the best sources you can find for context/background. Once, I spoke with an economist in Culiacán who completely demolished the idea that Sinaloa's economy is dominated by drug trafficking (it's not and it's not even close).

[Ana Lucía @anaconnav]

@IrishRail Hello, thank you for arranging bus from Cork to Mallow. Will there be train service from Mallow to Tralee?

[Rosa Ritunnano @RRitunnano]

Instead of listing my publications, as the year draws to an end, I want to put pressure on the commonplace assumption that productivity must always increase. Good research is disruptive and thinking time is central to high quality scholarship and necessary for disruptive research

[Univ Nebraska Press @UnivNebPress]

Jürgen Buchenau tells the story of the Sonoran dynasty in the Mexican Revolution. Between 1920 and 1934 the governments over which they ruled helped determine how far the revolution would go in implementing a nationalist and anticlerical constitution. https://t.co/jxp3DO9Rs2

[Ana Lucía @anaconnav]

Perfect song for sun down on friday evening in rural Ireland https://t.co/jvz6JVG0qu

[Archaeo - Histories @archeohistories]

When Christopher Columbus reached the Americas, he hoped the land would be rich with gold, silver and precious spices, but perhaps the New World’s greatest treasure was its bounty of native food crops cultivated for millennia by Indigenous Americans.

As much as three-fifths of the world’s agricultural crops originated in the Americas. Without the Columbian Exchange, there would be no tomatoes for Italian food, no hot chile peppers for Indian cuisine, and no dietary staples like potatoes, squash, beans or corn.

“A lot of the domestication and breeding that resulted in today’s major food crops, the important initial work was done by Indigenous people,” says Jules Janick, an emeritus professor of horticulture at Purdue University. “That was their contribution to world agriculture.”

While Indigenous diets and foodways were deeply impacted by European settlement, Indigenous American foods also changed the world.

When Spanish arrived in Antilles, they described a millet-like grain popular among the island natives, “little more than a palm in length, ending in a point… The grains are about the form and size of peas… When ground they are whiter than snow. This kind of grain is called maiz.” The crop we know as corn was domesticated from wild teosinte grass as far back as 8000 years ago in Mesoamerica. The maize grown in the Americas (Zea mays) wasn’t eaten fresh like sweet corn, but was allowed to dry on the stalk and then ground into flour for tortillas, corn breads and corn mush.

From its origins in central Mexico, knowledge of maize production spread to all corners of North and South America. Maize cultivation was an anchor for nomadic tribes and supported the growth of massive Mesoamerican city-states and empires like the Olmecs, Maya, Aztec and Inca. The need to continuously improve the corn harvest led to agricultural innovations like terraced mountainside fields in Peru and floating island gardens called chinampas in the shallow lake of Tenochtitlan, Aztec capital.

The earliest Native Americans to cultivate corn were the Pueblo people of the American southwest, whose culture was transformed by the arrival of corn in 1200 BC. By 1000 AD, corn was a staple crop that sustained tribes like Creek, Cherokee and Iroquois. Maize seeds traveled back to Europe in 1494 and maize cultivation spread with the expansion of Spanish empire, making it all the way to Philippines and China by 1550s.

The ideal companion crop for maize was the nitrogen-fixing legume known as the common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris) or dry bean. Beans provided nitrogen-rich soil for maize and the corn stalks provided natural supports for the bean plant’s climbing vines. But more importantly, says Janick, a diet based on beans and maize is rich in essential proteins that neither food can provide on its own.

“Maize alone is not a perfect food,” says Janick. “It’s missing some amino acids, particularly lysine, which is found in beans. Beans are deficient in other amino acids, cysteine and methionine, which are found in maize. So when you eat beans on a corn tortilla, which was the basis of Aztec and Maya diets, you have a complete protein food that fuels empires.”

Another game-changing legume of the New World was the peanut, which originated in Brazil and made its way to Africa through the Portuguese slave trade.

Pumpkins, gourds and other hard-skinned winter squashes (Cucurbita pepo, C. maxima and C. moschata) were part of the famous “three sisters” planting strategy practiced by Native Americans alongside beans and maize. Winter squash takes a long time to mature and the plant’s broad-leafed vines extend in all directions, providing a helpful ground cover that traps moisture and suppresses weeds for corn and beans. Gourds and squash were prized by Indigenous Americans for their nutrient-rich flesh, their protein-packed seeds and their sturdy shells, which were dried and used as containers and water jugs.

#archaeohistories

[Aviva Klompas @AvivaKlompas]

"They kept beating me because, for them, I was a prize. I woke up in some ruined house, lying half-naked on rocks, surrounded by Hamas terrorists."

Stop what you're doing and read this testimony from former hostage Ilana Gritzewsky who just spoke before the UN Security Council:

“They grabbed me by the hair, hit me in the stomach, causing me to lose my breath. They dragged me across the floor, lifted me, and threw me against the wall. They pointed guns at me, hit me, tried to film me with my phone.

I raised my hands, told them I was Mexican, begged them not to hurt me, not to rape me, not to shoot me, just to let me go. The only thing I could think of was having my family see me end my life like this. The terrorists beat me, humiliated me, touched me all over, threw me on a motorcycle, and took me into Gaza.”

On the way to Gaza, when they started to touch me and sexually abuse me, I passed out physically and mentally, I couldn't handle it anymore. I guess my body preferred to shut down.

They kept beating me because, for them, I was a prize. I woke up in some ruined house, lying half-naked on rocks, surrounded by Hamas terrorists. I had to beg not to be raped, telling them I was on my period. At first they didn’t understand if I was on my period or pregnant, but nevertheless that made them leave me alone. They threw a hijab and dress at me and ordered me to get dressed. I didn’t know exactly what had been done to my body in those lost minutes when I wasn’t conscious. But my soul already knew: nothing would ever be the same. I was suffering from a fractured jaw, a broken pelvis, ear damage from the explosions, and a burned leg.

In 55 days in captivity, I lost 12 kilograms, which is around 24 pounds. They did not give me any medicine, no doctor came to see me, even though I told them I was suffering from colitis and anemia.

The terrorists dictated everything: when we could talk, when we could go to the bathroom, when we could get up. They woke us up in the middle of the night for cruel interrogations. From the moment I was captured, the guards were with me all the time. They did not wear Hamas uniforms. They dressed like civilians. They told me that one of them is a math teacher and the other one is a lawyer. For 50 days, they made sure I could not escape. They told us all the time that we would be hostages for five, or even ten years.”

When it was time to eat, they took a lot of food to their room. They had meat, rice, vegetables. At the same time, they left us with our meal, which contained sometimes as little as 10 chickpeas or a piece of dry flatbread, which wasn’t always well cooked.

They transferred us to a hospital, now I know it was the Nasser hospital. They took us through the back entrance and walked us past all the civilians. In the hospital there was an area which was closed off and used only by Hamas, with an armed guard. They locked us in a room, where we met a third hostage.

So, I left with a hole in my heart. I promised my friends I would do everything in my power to bring them home. And now, I am keeping that promise.

People see my face and think I'm ‘free.’ But freedom is not a switch you can turn on and off. Trauma doesn't vanish once you're released. Now, with every siren, every rocket from Iran, Yemen, or Gaza, I'm thrown back into that hell. The difference is: I have a safe room. Matan doesn't. He's still in Gaza.

I’m here not just for myself, but for every woman and man who didn’t make it home. For every voice which was ignored. For the 50 hostages still in Gaza. For their families.

I’m calling on human rights groups, and everyone who claims to care: Stand with us. Speak up. Demand the truth. Because silence is betrayal.”

📷 WebTV UN

[Hoover Institution @HooverInst]

Peter Robinson (@P_M_Robinson) speaks with @DrJBhattacharya, a former Stanford professor and epidemiologist, and the newly appointed director of the National Institutes of Health. Once labeled a "fringe epidemiologist" by the previous administration at NIH, he now leads the world's largest biomedical research agency and its $50 billion annual budget.

Their conversation explores the structural flaws in America's public health institutions, including the replication crisis, the culture of scientific risk aversion, and the NIH's growing failure to address the rise of chronic disease. Dr. Bhattacharya outlines his vision for reform—emphasizing transparency, innovation, and restoring public trust in science. He also addresses the politics of scientific funding, the need for better vaccine evaluation standards, and the rationale behind the administration's new restrictions on gain-of-function research.

It is a candid and thoughtful discussion with a scientist now tasked with reshaping the very system that once attacked him. Watch the full episode of @UncKnowledge on X:

[Honestly with Bari Weiss @thehonestlypod]

Newly sworn-in NIH director @DrJBhattacharya: “The diet that the American people generally have is not working.

We have this massive chronic disease crisis and there's no way that diet is not at least part of it… We need to have much better answers for people.”

[Maria Popova @themarginalian]

The myth of Sisyphus, in a gorgeous 1974 Oscar-nominated Hungarian animation https://t.co/7m3xvC3e23

[Ana Lucía @anaconnav]

"It is not enough to be industrious; so are the ants. What are you industrious about?" Henry David Thoreau

[Massimo @Rainmaker1973]

The collective intelligences of ants solving a dimensional puzzle.

[Ana Lucía @anaconnav]

"If you do not bend, you will break.

The adaptable prevail. Determined, but flexible."

-@JamesClear

[Massimo @Rainmaker1973]

Born 215 years ago today, Charles Darwin was the fundamental contributor to the science of evolution. His proposition that all species have descended from common ancestors is now a foundational concept in science

[🖌️ Mads Madsen /Zuzahgaming]

[Physics In History @PhysInHistory]

The public has a distorted view of science, because children are taught in school that science is a collection of firmly established truths. In fact, science is not a collection of truths. It is a continuing exploration of mysteries.

- Freeman Dyson

[PPI Ignite Network @ UCC @PPI_Ignite_UCC]

📢Are you a @UCC undergraduate student?

Would you like to gain experience in #PPI?

The PPI Ignite Network@UCC #SummerStudentScholarships application process is now open here: https://t.co/5pBi7ZlZ0C

[Ana Lucía @anaconnav]

Unintended consequences of the global climate change agenda... "The requirements and the regulations that they imposed even in rural Ireland do not fit with rural Ireland."

[gript @griptmedia]

"I hope Eamon Ryan is happy": As hundreds of thousands of homes across Ireland continue to go without power following Storm Eowyn, Galway businessman Declan Ganley blames Green policies like the turf ban for many houses going cold in an emergency.

[Ana Lucía @anaconnav]

@janasharrington Thanks Janas! Looking forward to being in the office on January! All the best x

[Ana Lucía @anaconnav]

Every day is a Sunday but not for long #todayshike Old Kenmare Road