Rebecca Sear

Director of the Centre for Culture and Evolution, Brunel University London. President of the European Human Behaviour & Evolution Association

[Rebecca Sear @RebeccaSear]

Four years on, the paper which prompted this thread was retracted but the ludicrous dataset the thread describes is still thriving in the academic literature (and beyond). Read our article and 🧵 below for examples https://t.co/ia75OlmC6O

[Rebecca Sear @RebeccaSear]

Do 'national IQ' datasets present accurate and unbiased data on average IQs in nation-states worldwide?

A thread 👇

(Spoiler alert: NO)

1/n

[Rebecca Sear @RebeccaSear]

The Cultural Evolution Society has also put out a statement in solidarity with Stand Up For Science day https://t.co/152ksPUuSw

[Rebecca Sear @RebeccaSear]

More info on the Stand Up For Science movement https://t.co/UnyF8kpTyd

[Rebecca Sear @RebeccaSear]

The European Human Behaviour and Evolution Association has put out a statement to support science and scientists worldwide, to voice our solidarity with all those taking part in #StandUpForScience events today

[Agustín Fuentes @Anthrofuentes]

Push against X's anti-knowledge algorithms and
Stand Up For Science Today!! Find your local event and/orGet loud and tell everyone why you’re Standing Up for Science. #standupforscience2025 #sciencenotsilence #scienceforall (link in next tweet)

[nature @Nature]

More than 1,300 scientists have signed a letter calling on the Royal Society to reassess the billionaire’s membership following cuts to US science

https://t.co/kgkYbThvnc

[Martin Kolk @MartinKolk]

People focusing on current global fertility declines rely nearly only on period data. Cohort and period trends can however look very different.

The declines in fertility in central & eastern Europe in the 1990s only resulted in quite modest eventual cohort TFR decline.

[Nick Lowles @lowles_nick]

🚨🚨 @hopenothate exclusive 🚨🚨 A Russian-linked Telegram group is encouraging Nazi terrorist acts in the UK

https://t.co/HkitXPg5tF

[pop@LSE @pop_LSE]

Next London Universities seminar 11 February, 13:00 LSE Room CON 1.01 - @MireilleLeGuen (INED), 'The dark side of birth control: Why men’s contraceptive use is understudied by demographers’ @PSG_LSHTM @CLScohorts
Zoom link: https://t.co/3jja1Bys3z

[Mother Jones @MotherJones]

Elon Musk keeps boosting white nationalists on X https://t.co/ppFwaZnPyz

[Retraction Watch @RetractionWatch]

"Scientists globally are racing to save vital health databases taken down amid Trump chaos."
https://t.co/3xZdvYE2Ne

[News from Science @NewsfromScience]

Breaking news: 22 states are suing to block NIH’s cutting of indirect costs.

See our updated story on the Friday night news and its aftermath. ⬇️ https://t.co/MnEJBjh0dO

[Carole Cadwalladr @carolecadwalla]

This is what should be on every front page right now. What's happening in the US right now is an illegal power grab by a private citizen.

IT'S A COUP.

It's a digital coup. It's Musk who's leading it. The consequences are terrifying. And it's coming for us next.
1/

[Research Fortnight @ResFortnight]

Musk fellowship ‘debases’ Royal Society, warns climate scientist.
https://t.co/AHGcCYLM9A

[AABA @BiologicalAnth]

The American Journal of Biological Anthropology (@AmJBioAnth), the official Journal of the American Association of Biological Anthropologists, published by Wiley, seeks a new Editor-in-Chief. The submission deadline is March 31, 2025. https://t.co/LNuns4xsxJ

[george davey smith @mendel_random]

Excellent explainer by Philip Ball on why now more than ever scientists need to resist the logic of "anticipatory obedience" https://t.co/QR1og0NZ21

[Ruth Mace @tavitonst]

Tuesday Aiyana Willard @aiyanakoka Brunel @CCE_Brunel speaking on “The practice and function of witchcraft in Mauritius and in the UK” @UCLanthropology DFL 3.30-5pm

[Rebecca Sear @RebeccaSear]

The Pioneer Fund lives on, now rebranded as the Human Diversity Foundation, politics intact and still attempting to influence research and policy through, for example, its media arm Aporia https://t.co/B5z3uCzhq4

[Rebecca Sear @RebeccaSear]

In today's episode of Science Has Always Been Political: the journal Intelligence *invited an editorial* in 1998 by Harry Weyher, President of the Pioneer Fund, to defend its funding of research on race differences in IQ. Pioneer Fund = "scientific racism's keeper of the flame"

[Rebecca Sear @RebeccaSear]

The Funding of Scientific Racism was published in 2002, and its Conclusion is a painful read in 2025: Tucker believed “Pioneer represents the last gasp of an ideology whose time has gone”. If only that were true.