The Little Probe That Could: Why Voyager 1 Matters, and Why NASA Just Switched Part of It Off This week, NASA announced it had shut down one of that spacecraft's remaining science instruments — not because the mission has failed, but to keep it alive a little longer.

This week, NASA announced it had shut down one of that spacecraft's remaining science instruments — not because the mission has failed, but to keep it alive a little longer. n.pr/41HfdLS

Is there somewhere a list of all the definitions of "complexity" especially in the context of biology, information theory, evolution, complex systems?

#ALife

What does it take to truly understand #cancer in all of its complexity?

Delighted to share our Review in Cell "Cancer ecosystems: A dynamic interplay across scales" with Daniela Quail, where we propose a multi-scale framework connecting tumor ecology with physiology 🧪⚕️

www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...

A bluish polished piece of labradorite sitting on a wooden desk. Photo by John Baez.

In the town of Quartzsite I picked up a beautiful chunk of labradorite. This mineral creates an eerie blue shimmer in the sunlight - a phenomenon called 'labradorescence'. It's a form of feldspar.

60% of the Earth's crust is feldspar, and I know so little about this stuff!

(1/n)

#886 Randall Beer: Autopoiesis, Enactivism, Dynamical Systems, and Evo-Devo Approaches in Biology YouTube video by The Dissenter

In episode 886, I talk with Dr. Randall Beer about autopoiesis, enactivism, dynamical systems, and evo-devo approaches in #Biology. #CognitiveScience #Science

youtu.be/1YcSgczYqKk

there's so much bad in the world but there's also people who lift up and carry an elderly bat around every day so he can pretend he's flying again, and that's the part of the world I think is worth fighting for

The bluebirds are rethinking their migration plans

The first cancer vaccine

The hepatitis B vaccine is amazing.

It was the first viral protein subunit vaccine, the first recombinant vaccine, AND the first vaccine to prevent a type of cancer.

That's right: we've had a cancer vaccine for over 40 years.

Our new three-hour episode of Hard Drugs is all about it:

The online gallery for 2026 Joint Mathematics Meetings Exhibition of Mathematical Art is now live: gallery.bridgesmathart.org/exhibitions/....

One proposed strategy to promote a youthful immune system and human healthspan is to rejuvenate our thymus gland. Can we learn from this exceptional (and peculiar looking) vertebrate that can do this?
science.org/doi/10.1126/...

With nearly 10 million neurons & 26 billion synapses, a supercomputer-powered virtual brain model, developed by our scientists and collaborators, could allow risky or impossible experiments to be run safely in software.

@reuters.com reports:

www.reuters.com/video/watch/...

Emergence and Self-organisation across biological scales! I hope you are ready for next year conference! It will be an incredible event April 20-22 2026. The first of many #LakeConference organised by
@ehannezo.bsky.social @alleninstitute.org and James Sharpe @embl.org

Another thing that is making this an "interesting" time to be the head of Integrity in Publishing at a scientific publisher 🥲

We really need major oversight at institutions, before things are sent for publication. Data provenance is key.

Competitor enters a major AI competition (RNA folding)
GPU poor so can't train an AI
Builds a "classic" eng pipeline instead. (90s tech)
Wins and beat everyone using DL 💀
Their winning "hybrid" model had an AI in it. Their original one did not and had a higher score
So they won despite the AI 😂

What are your favourite biographies of mathematicians? 🧪 📚💙

Two leading voices in medicine – Lee Hood and Eric Topol – will explore what it means to live longer and healthier in a free virtual conversation hosted by @isbscience.org.

🗓️ November 4, 10-11 a.m. PT
💻 Register here – isbscience.zoom.us/webinar/regi...

#Longevity #DigitalHealth #SuperAgers

Having just finished reading Other Minds by @petergs.bsky.social , I definitely think more about squid (and cephalopods) than other animals. Sorry kids 🙂

Dryad partnership brings easier data sharing to bioRxiv bioRxiv - the preprint server for biology, operated by Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, a research and educational institution

bioRxiv partners with Dryad to enable easier, better linking to curated datasets connect.biorxiv.org/news/2025/09...

Manu Prakash, a bioengineer at Stanford University, interacts with students in a lab

Manu Prakash practices “recreational biology,” a scientific approach that explores life in the same playful way that puzzles probe math. “Basic science is not at the service of something, but the groundwork that is our entire society’s foundation.”
www.quantamagazine.org/how-paradoxi...

Opinion: Susan Stamberg, trailblazer and NPR Founding Mother, retires NPR Founding Mother Susan Stamberg is retiring. She became the first woman to anchor a nightly national news program in 1972, and helped loosen up the serious, stodgy sound of radio hosts.

www.npr.org/2025/09/06/n...

Opinion: Susan Stamberg, trailblazer and NPR Founding Mother, retires - NPR

Our new collection offers cell biologists practical, expert-driven guidance and best practices in the design, execution, and analysis of experiments, and the subsequent communication of their results to their peers. 👉 rupress.org/jcb/collecti...

#Reproducibility

Opinion | The Era of the American Lawn Is Over

www.nytimes.com/2025/08/30/o...

Are different cell types like oil and water? Over a century ago, researchers found that dissociated sponges and embryonic tissues can self-assemble into functional structures. Join me, @benswedlund.bsky.social to explore the differential adhesion hypothesis & its applications in tissue engineering!

My recent postdoctoral work is out today in @nature.com! We found that physical confinement makes melanoma cells more invasive and drug tolerant. Thanks to all who made this work possible @whitefishlab.bsky.social @mskcancercenter.bsky.social #NIH #NCI www.nature.com/articles/s41...

How did life get multicellular? Five simple organisms could have the answer Single-celled species that often stick together in colonies have researchers rethinking the origin of animals.

For some three billion years, unicellular organisms ruled Earth. Then, around one billion years ago, a new chapter of life began

go.nature.com/3JyRV4S

Why newsrooms must rethink science journalism before the next crisis Despite climate extremes, pandemics and a global AI revolution, science reporting remains underfunded and undervalued.

We need (good) science journalism now more than ever. And you'll find me and other journalists saying just that in this smart piece.

International Day of Mathematics A worldwide celebration of Mathematics on March 14 of every year.

I love the theme of the 2026 International Day of Mathematics: “Mathematics and Hope” 👉🏼 www.idm314.org #mathsky

Human interpretable grammar encodes multicellular systems biology models to democratize virtual cell laboratories We developed a plain text modeling language—a cell behavior hypothesis grammar—to easily build virtual cell models and connect them to data, helping scientists to unlock the hidden dynamics of tissues...

Really excited to share our new @cellpress.bsky.social Cell paper with @fertiglab.bsky.social and colleagues. 1/n

www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...

@jktgfoundation.bsky.social @itcrtraining.bsky.social @smbmathbiology.bsky.social #mathbio #mathonco @mathonco.bsky.social @deniswirtz.bsky.social

Ok, reinforcement learning fans: RL is great, but what do we do when there's no obvious reward from the environment? What about perfecting a golf swing or a foxtrot or a musical performance? We may have an answer. A tale of 🐦 🎶 + 🧠. 🧵1/ #bioacoustics #prattle 💬 #neuroai #compneuro