Simon Fisher

@profsimonfisher

Director of Language & Genetics at Max Planck Institute, Nijmegen. Tracing the complex connections between genes, brains, speech & language. Website: ORCID:

244 Following4,299 Followers664 Posts

Bluesky

Is this your profile?Claim it and profsimonfisher.dirty.social is yours.Claim profile

Simon Fisher@profsimonfisher· 10d

A privilege & a pleasure to co-lead the 6th run of our “Genetics & Neurobiology of Language” course at the beautiful @cshlbanbury.bsky.social campus. Huge thanks to inspirational speakers, our fab TAs, talented early career researchers who joined as participants, & all who helped make it so special.

Group photograph of faculty and participants of the sixth Cold Spring Harbor summer course on Genetics and Neurobiology of Language in 2026, taken as the sun was going down at the Banbury Campus, Lloyd Harbor.

Simon Fisher@profsimonfisher· 22d

Science reporters seem to love chasing stuff like this right now. For what it's worth, the self-declared biohacker has not cloned himself. See also the proliferation of credulous pieces on de-extinction gurus & designer baby grifters. Creates confusion & hot takes in lieu of informed conversation. 🧪

Headline of July 23rd 2026 article in the Science news section of UK newspaper the Independent. "Biohacker Bryan Johnson says he’s ‘cloned himself as a baby’ to harvest its organs. ‘This technology gives us a path to reverse aging,’ says 48-year-old tech entrepreneur."

Simon Fisher@profsimonfisher· 28d

If only he'd been called UneventfulJaunteus, so much pain & suffering could have been avoided.

The Greek hero Odysseus in the midst of an epic Odyssey, as captured on film by Christopher Nolan.

Simon Fisher@profsimonfisher· Jul 16

And I, for one, welcome our new robot overlords.

Simon Fisher@profsimonfisher· Jul 6

Classic xkcd webcomic by Randall Munroe, depicting a brief discussion between two people.
Person A: I used to think correlation implied causation. Then I took a statistics class. Now I don't.
Person B: Sounds like the class helped.
Person A: Well, maybe.

Simon Fisher@profsimonfisher· Jul 5

Tsoukalos: And the answer is YES! Reality: The answer is no. But admittedly that is based purely on hundreds of studies of FOXP2, its evolutionary history over millions of years, its functions in species including humans, mice, bats, birds, frogs, fish etc. + copious evidence-based research. 9/n

A still image from the History Channel’s TV series Ancient Aliens, season 3, episode 16, which includes a segment about the FOXP2 gene. The still shows the presenter Giorgio A. Tsoukalos as he responds to his own question about whether FOXP2 was gifted to humans by aliens, proclaiming with misplaced confidence “and the answer is yes”.

Simon Fisher@profsimonfisher· Jul 5

Tsoukalos: So my question is, is it possible that this gene was given to us or grafted into us by extraterrestrials in the remote past? Reality: [bangs head repeatedly against desk while quietly sobbing] 8/n

Simon Fisher@profsimonfisher· Jul 5

Tsoukalos: So this gene exists out of NOWHERE without ANY origin. Reality: Are you even paying attention? The very first study of the human gene (back in 2001) pointed out that it’s also present in mice! There are only 2 protein-coding differences between human FOXP2 & its counterpart in chimp! 7/n

Simon Fisher@profsimonfisher· Jul 5

Tsoukalos: There is absolutely NO EVIDENCE OF ORIGIN or that this thing somehow mutated from the animal kingdom towards us. Reality: By sequencing versions of FOXP2 found in many species, scientists have traced its origins & the ways it changed over hundreds of millions of years of evolution. 6/n

Simon Fisher@profsimonfisher· Jul 5

Tsoukalos: Scientists have suggested that THAT GENE ALONE is responsible for language. Fisher, Lai, Monaco [scientists who discovered FOXP2]: “It must be emphasized that this is likely to be just one of many genes involved in speech & language.” Annu Rev Neurosci, 2003 www.mpi.nl/publications... 5/n

Simon Fisher@profsimonfisher· Jul 5

Tsoukalos: It is something that sets us COMPLETELY APART from any other animal. Reality: Versions of FOXP2 are found in similar form in a great many distantly related species; humans, other apes, monkeys, rodents, bats, birds, reptiles, fish... This is a gene with a deep evolutionary history. 4/n

Simon Fisher@profsimonfisher· Jul 5

It begins badly then heads rapidly downhill. Tsoukalos: FOXP2 is a gene that was found in our nucleotides. Reality: Like other genes, FOXP2 is made of nucleotides. That is, nucleotides are found in FOXP2, not the other way around. I’m being pedantic, of course, but we’re just getting started ... 3/n

Simon Fisher@profsimonfisher· Jul 5

One big source of FOXP2-alien nonsense is a TV “documentary” series on the History Channel. In their segment on FOXP2 (first broadcast in 2011) a man named Giorgio Tsoukalos makes 5-6 statements about the gene, each of which is false. All packed into less than one minute’s viewing. Let’s dig in. 2/n

Simon Fisher@profsimonfisher· Jul 5

25 years ago, we implicated rare variants of the FOXP2 gene in a severe speech disorder. I’ve spent much time stressing that FOXP2, while interesting, is not the mythical “gene for language”. Weirdly, on occasion I also need to explain why it’s not “proof of aliens”. Full disclosure in this 🧵. 1/n 🧪

Promotional poster for the 2026 science fiction film Disclosure Day.

Simon Fisher@profsimonfisher· Jun 5

It's just something we do to relax once in a while.

Breaking news on the Guardian newspaper website, with headline that reads: "Scientists make sourdough bread using yeast found in 5,000-year-old mummy"

Simon Fisher@profsimonfisher· Jun 5

Brighten up your day by watching this ingenious little bumble bee spontaneously solving a novel object manipulation task. Source: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... 😊🐝🧪

Simon Fisher@profsimonfisher· Jun 2

CRISPR gene-editing has revolutionized what we do in the lab. But what nobody talks about is how difficult it is to find the tiny scissors when you accidentally drop them in the middle of an experiment.

Picture shows a pair of laboratory scissors in process of cutting into a DNA double-helix (not to scale).

Simon Fisher@profsimonfisher· May 23

Continuing my thread of threads on popular (mis)understanding of human genetics. How iconic images like “The March of Progress” fuel major misconceptions about the way evolution works: 🧬🧵🧪👇

Two pages from the multipage foldout entitled “The Road to Homo Sapiens” created by Rudolph Zallinger in 1965, depicting a sequence of figures of primates from the fossil record, lined up as though they are marching in a parade from left to right, with the pose shifting from walking on all fours towards a more upright stance. The left-hand page shows three ape ancestors from 15–8 million years ago: Dryopithecus, Oreopithecus, and Ramapithecus. The right-hand page shows three recent hominin figures labeled as Neanderthal, Cro-Magnon, and Modern Man.

Simon Fisher@profsimonfisher· May 20

“Carbon is an open-source autoregressive foundation genomic model that understands and writes DNA...“ especially if you want your double-helix twisting the wrong way, as shown in the big fancy animation currently adorning the website of this new AI tool.

A screenshot I took today of the web-site for Carbon, a major new foundation model for understanding DNA that twists the wrong way.

Simon Fisher@profsimonfisher· May 19

This telephone cord has spontaneously organized itself into a right-handed double-helix & that delights me more than you can possibly imagine. 🧬

Photograph of a telephone cord spotted in one of the offices at the Language & Genetics department of the Max Planck Institute in Nijmegen. In pleasing fashion, the cord has spontaneously organized itself into a right-handed double-helix.

Simon Fisher@profsimonfisher· May 18

You should definitely check out the new updated 10th anniversary edition of @adamrutherford.bsky.social's classic “A Brief History of Everyone Who Ever Lived”. If only so that you can better this insightful & helpful one-star review he received for the original.

An "Amazon Customer" review of Adam Rutherford's book "A Brief History of Everyone Who Ever Lived", from 27 September 2016. The reviewer gives the book just one star out of five, accompanied by the justification that it is "an excellent and very informative book written in a format that is easily understood".
This is followed by the note that "One person found this [review] helpful".

Simon Fisher@profsimonfisher· May 17

Photograph of the memorable front cover of that classic 1988 popular science book "A Brief History of Time: From the Big Bang to Black Holes and Grogu" by Stephen W. Hawking, with an introduction by Carl Sagan.

Simon Fisher@profsimonfisher· May 15

Taking the rabbit-duck illusion to its logical conclusion.

Single-panel cartoon by the brilliant Paul Noth, first published in the New Yorker in May 2026. The cartoon depicts an open casket funeral. The coffin is bedecked with flowers. Inside it lies the deceased, dressed smartly in a suit and tie. His head, laying on a pillow, looks remarkably like the rabbit-duck illusion, an ambiguous figure that is famous in philosophy for highlighting distinctions between perception and interpretation. The coffin is flanked on either side by two grieving individuals wearing widow's veils and holding handkerchiefs. One widow (left) is a duck, the other (right) is a rabbit.

Simon Fisher@profsimonfisher· May 12

CAPTCHA grid showing an image of the ship of Theseus, with the text: "Select all squares with the ship of Theseus, if there are none, click skip".

Simon Fisher@profsimonfisher· May 4

POW! For perhaps the quintessential sighting of a left-handed double-helix in the wild, check out this genuine screenshot I took a few years ago of a company selling their extremely dubious “Superhero DNA test” to unwitting consumers.

Simon Fisher@profsimonfisher· May 3

Been training for this moment my whole life.

A 3x3 CAPTCHA grid showing different stock images of DNA, several of which have unusual left-handed double-helices, rather than the right-handed structure most typically seen in nature. To prove that the user is not a robot, they simply need to click on "all DNA stock images with messed-up chirality".

Simon Fisher@profsimonfisher· May 2

And the “de-extinction” grift continues. Your regular reminder that it's only a dire wolf if it comes from the Late Pleistocene epoch, otherwise it's just sparkling dog.

Headline and photograph for yet another credulous media article hyping up Colossal Biosciences, published in Time on April 30th 2026. "The company that brought back the dire wolf is eyeing a blue antelope for its next de-extinction" by Jeffrey Kluger, editor at large.

Simon Fisher@profsimonfisher· Apr 25

Exclusive never-before-seen footage of the Artemis II moon mission, captured by the great @tomgauld.bsky.social:

Multiple-panel cartoon by Tom Gauld for New Scientist, offering a novel perspective on the Artemis II moon mission of 2026.
The Orion spacecraft, as it heads towards the moon, shouts out: "Hello Moon!"
A happy smiling moon responds: "Hi guys!"
As the spacecraft flies past, a worried moon asks: "You're not landing?"
Orion responds: "Just orbiting this time."
Moon (looking a little crestfallen): "Oh."
The spacecraft finishes its flyby and heads away again, with the clarification: "But we'll be back soon!"
The moon thinks for a minute, then sadly sighs: "That's what they said in 1972."

Simon Fisher@profsimonfisher· Apr 12

No "difficult second album syndrome" for these guys - they followed up their debut less than a year later with another stone cold classic. Like their first, this got heavy rotation in my home when I was a kid:

Photograph of the opened out gatefold sleeve of my copy of the 1978 vinyl LP "The Muppet Show 2". Front cover shows the stage, with the Great Gonzo hanging from The Muppet Show sign holding on to a large 2, in front of an audience that includes Miss Piggy, Kermit the frog, and some chickens. The track listing is as follows:
Side One.
1. THE MUPPET SHOW THEME.
2. BABY FACE.
3. THERE'S A NEW SOUND as Sung by Scooter.
4. A MONOLOGUE by FOZZIE BEAR!
5. CUENTO LE GUSTA as Sung By Miss Piggy and The Pigs.
6. WHO as Sung By Zelda AND Her Singing Owl.
7. TIME in a BOTTLE.
8. an EDITORIAL by SAM THE EAGLE.
9. BORNEO.
10. AT THE DANCE.
11. UPIDEE.
12 JUST ONE PERSON With BERNADETTE PETERS.
Side Two.
1. HAPPY FEET as Sung by Kermit.
2. PIGS IN S-P-A-C-E.
3. I'M FIVE as Sung by Robin.
4. SEA CHANTEY Link Hogthrob, Scooter, Fozzie Bear, Gonzo, Robin.
5. NEW YORK STATE OF MIND as Sung by Floyd.
6. THE PIG CALYPSO.
7. WHEN as Sung by Rowlf.
8. A GYPSY'S VIOLIN With PETER SELLERS.
9. WISHING SONG as Sung by Gonzo.
10. ANIMAL SINGS GERSHWIN.
11. FOR WHAT IT'S WORTH.
12. WE GOT US.
13. CLOSING THEME!

Simon Fisher@profsimonfisher· Apr 12

Going through a box of old vinyl LPs, came across this absolute gem from my childhood, one of the finest albums of the 1970's: