willmasters.bsky.social - Profile | ThreadSky | a Reddit-style client for Bluesky

A fulfilling escape: just finished reading So Very Small, on the slow then sudden rise of germ theory, antibiotics & vaccination. The deadly dance between people and bugs is riveting when told by @tomlevenson.bsky.social, and touches us all: My dad was saved by early sulfa drugs in Boston c. 1938

submitted 16 hours ago • 1 comment

Want a cheap & sustainable healthy diet? New preprint confirms that less expensive options generally emit less GHGs. Main exception is animal source foods. The least emitting healthy diets cost ~$7/day and emit 0.7 kg CO2e, while actual choices cost ~$10 and emit 2.4 kg. arxiv.org/abs/2505.24457

submitted 2 days ago • 0 comments

Details for this year's #ABCDE are now posted -- looking forward to new ideas from this big (four days!) program full of #EconSky folks including @rglenner.bsky.social , @markusgold.bsky.social, @eeshani.bsky.social etc. from @cgdev.org, @dannyquah.bsky.social @randomwalker.bsky.social & many others

submitted 4 days ago • 1 comment

Leaving today for #Nutrition2025, a packed schedule of presentations by my esteemed colleagues... including the inaugural "Excellence in Nutrition" Fellows of the ASN. It's an honor to be in this amazing group -- I will be proud to flash that extra qualification in the health sciences as PhD, FASN!

submitted 8 days ago • 1 comment

A new paper painstakingly details how national food supplies align with nutritional needs around the world, focusing on which nutrients in what foods have and can be industrially fortified. Fortification works only in some settings, but does so at an astonishingly low cost. ssrn.com/abstract=526...

submitted 10 days ago • 0 comments

This new paper validates the #HealthyDietBasket used to track food access globally, benchmarked to national food-based dietary guidelines (FBDGs) and EAT-Lancet targets for nutrition & sustainability. A big step in work on #FoodPricesForNutrition from @tuftsnutrition.bsky.social #AgSky #FoodSky

submitted 11 days ago • 0 comments

New WTO-IMF tracker shows latest changes in effective tariffs for US, China & Canada. For example, I just found that the US rate on coffee & tea is now 12% (because most is at the 10% floor), but cocoa & chocolate is 17% (due to high tax on imports via Canada, Mexico & the EU). #EconSky #TeachEcon

submitted 14 days ago • 1 comment

Stunning data, from @gelliottmorris.com

submitted 15 days ago • 0 comments

✍ Sign up for #ANH2025 Learning Labs—online or in Dar es Salaam! 🇹🇿 Explore 20+ workshops on topics like cost of a healthy diet, trade & nutrition, gender & food systems. 🍎 🔗 bit.ly/4k04pjg Attending in person? ✈️ Check your email for the LL sign-up link! 📩 🗓️See full programme: bit.ly/4mnQF3n

submitted 16 days ago • 1 comment

Brian Potter's roundup of findings from Construction Physics is full of surprises, showing how "things that seem recent often go back decades... what seems inevitable is often the result of chance... intuitive explanations are often wrong..." His discoveries are wild, and clearly explained:

submitted 16 days ago • 0 comments

It's not too late to register for (free) online ANH Learning Labs from @anhacademy.bsky.social, June 16-18. Each is a 2hr interactive session on topics like #FoodEconomics, #CostOfHealthyDiets and others, the week before in-person meetings in Tanzania. Details: www.anh-academy.org/form/anh2025...

submitted 19 days ago • 1 comment

My sister-in-law, on building bridges to overcome polarization: "Conversation is not enough -- what is effective is doing things together, with diverse people, when you have a shared purpose."

submitted 19 days ago • 0 comments

We’re 1 month away from #ANH2025! 🌍 Register to attend online now to hear from global experts in food systems, nutrition, health & equity! 🌱 🗓️ June 16–26 💻 Hybrid event 🔎 Explore the programme & register now: 🖇️ bit.ly/4ikxqWe #Agriculture #Nutrition #Health #FoodSystems

submitted 22 days ago • 1 comment

Meanwhile, people keep discovering unexpected new things. Hiawatha Bray tells the story of silk's weird superpowers emerging from the biomedical engineering labs of David Kaplan and Fio Omenetto at Tufts University:

submitted 40 days ago • 1 comment

Interestsed in resources to help you teach (or learn!) #FoodEconomics? Our new Open Access textbook is here: link.springer.com/book/10.1007... With the #AEPP explainer paper just published yesterday for a quick glance at the whole thing: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

submitted 42 days ago • 0 comments

Simon Schama on the U.S.'s love-hate relationship with knowledge, including why the Constitution of Massachusetts (the world's oldest, from 1780) enshrined support for Harvard University -- with wild swings in funding for and popularity of higher ed throughout history. Sharp truths for #AcademicSky

submitted 42 days ago • 0 comments

New article with @afinaret.bsky.social explains our #FoodEconomics book, using analytical diagrams and data visualizations to offer accessible insights for general readers, #TeachEcon instructors & students. In AEPP (gated): doi.org/10.1002/aepp... Preprint & resources: sites.tufts.edu/foodeconomics

submitted 43 days ago • 0 comments

New paper on "Measuring Food Access as Affordability of Least-Cost Healthy Diets" tells how this new diagnostic indicator of food security was launched in 2020, now used by FAO & World Bank + others. Deep dive into the data's context, use and limitations: doi.org/10.1111/agec... #TeachEcon #EconSky

submitted 44 days ago • 0 comments

So excited to see our article in @natcomms.nature.com, led by Valentin Seidler & w/ Edson Utazi, @sluckene.bsky.social , Gregor Zens, Maksym Bodarenko, Abigail Smith (@alleghenycollege.bsky.social alum!), Sarah Bradley, Andy Tatem, and @patrickwebb.bsky.social. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

submitted 46 days ago • 1 comment

🚨Development Economists!🚨Do you use Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS Program) data, which had been supported by USAID? IPUMS ( @ipums.bsky.social ) and the UN Statistics Division have a survey for you. I just filled it out. You can too. #econsky

submitted 47 days ago • 1 comment

Bacteria were first seen in 1676, but the germ theory of disease came much later and infectious disease control remains "a hard thought to think", as @tomlevenson.bsky.social says on the #MindscapePodcast with @seanmcarroll.bsky.social. New book out soon: www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/672378...

submitted 47 days ago • 0 comments

Blog post from @foodtank.bsky.social summarizes this week's podcast conversation with Dani Nierenberg, offering a quick summary of #FoodPricesForNutrition, sustaining ourselves and rebuilding after Trump, and other #FoodEconomics work at @tuftsnutrition.bsky.social #TeachEcon #EconSky #FoodSky

submitted 50 days ago • 2 comments

Podcast listeners, the latest Food Talk with Dani Nierenberg from @foodtank.bsky.social starts with the latest news, then a step back with me to what we've found about #FoodPrices and #DietCosts, as well as #FoodEconomics more generally. That segment begins at the 7:50 mark:

submitted 51 days ago • 0 comments

A break from the news -- high schooler Amelia Cho has a fun podcast about food, asking lots of great questions about #FoodEconomics research & teaching. Excellent earlier interviews include @dlortega.bsky.social, Michael Jacobson about the @nationalfoodmuseum.bsky.social, etc., all on Substack:

submitted 57 days ago • 1 comment

It's macro week in my #FoodEconomics class. We'll start with the new tariffs, then economywide balances, inflation and unemployment. Plenty of motivation to #TeachEcon at @tuftsnutrition.bsky.social now! For #EconSky, the current account balance chart is via FRED: fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=D3IM

submitted 62 days ago • 1 comment

Signs of the times -- here's the mix around us at #HandsOff in Boston earlier today

submitted 63 days ago • 1 comment

On Trump's tariffs, it's errors all the way down. AEI's Kevin Corinth & Stan Veuger show how mistaken use of retail vs. trade elasticities raised "retaliatory" rates 4x: www.aei.org/economics/pr... Trump could fire folks, announce the fix, and limit the damage. Would be less wrong... #TeachEcon

submitted 63 days ago • 3 comments

Yesterday afternoon's #FoodEconomics class started with real-time reaction to the new tariffs, showing websites of media outlets like the Wall Street Journal. A student asked to see Fox News. Here's the two, live from the classroom camera around 4:30pm. One owner, two audiences. #TeachEcon #EconSky

submitted 64 days ago • 2 comments

Tufts leadership meets the moment, defending our students, our institution, and our values in the lawsuit to bring back Rümeysa Öztürk Spot-on coverage by Ali Bianco in @politico.com

submitted 64 days ago • 1 comment

A clear, brief statement from the faculty of the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy -- and a good example for others on #AcademicSky

submitted 70 days ago • 0 comments

The Times of India reports that the U.S. State Department is revoking student visas for actions as small as sharing "derogatory information" on social media. They say notifications don't specify what was offensive, or to whom.

submitted 70 days ago • 0 comments

I don't often do sign-on letters, but just found and signed the Not In Our Name statement below for Jewish academics. For me there's special horror in the government's use of anonymous denunciations like the awful canarymission.org to identify targets for deportation. Gruesomely familiar.

submitted 70 days ago • 0 comments

I'm so happy that the wonderful Elena Naumova has been elected a Fellow of the AAAS. Elena is brilliant, devoted and fierce in pursuit of the truth about how environmental conditions affect public health. A great teacher too. It's a joy to work with her at @tuftsnutrition.bsky.social

submitted 71 days ago • 0 comments

The official departmental website today describes the Tufts graduate student, Rumeysa Öztürk, who was seized by masked immigration authorities. Department chair Prof. Tama Leventhal and colleague Prof. Sara Johnson call Rumeysa "a valued member of our community." as.tufts.edu/epcshd/news-...

submitted 71 days ago • 0 comments

Food price changes are confusing, due in part to selection bias in what we see, read and hear about. For #TeachEcon & #EconSky folks here's a short blog post on eggs, potatoes & other food inflation dynamics in the US, with live FRED data. More #FoodEconomics from @tuftsnutrition.bsky.social:

submitted 71 days ago • 5 comments

New paper uses lowest-cost healthy diets in each country plus alternative definitions of other basic needs to measure the extent and depth of global poverty. Great work from @jonasstl.bsky.social & coauthors @unigoettingen.bsky.social, much needed for #TeachEcon #EconSky & #FoodSky

submitted 77 days ago • 2 comments

Social psychology lost a giant, and I lost a dear friend and collaborator. Still processing the loss of Sam Sommers, and probably will be for some time. Cherish the time you have with your people, folks. now.tufts.edu/2025/03/20/r...

submitted 79 days ago • 26 comments

Worried about soft skills? So is everyone else. To keep up, "the relatively able among us train for supercommunication and ultramarathons alike." From @lilyscherlis.bsky.social in @harpers.bsky.social's dive into America's century-old effort to be friendlier & remember stuff about each other:

submitted 79 days ago • 0 comments