I'm a big believer in using the right system for the right problem! This is a great review of alternative models for neuroscience research

Hey, I wrote a thing about AI in astrophysics
ergosphere.blog/posts/the-ma...

Anna's hummingbird hovering. Facing to the right. With a small ant on the tip of its bill.

Sometimes you just get that shot. Anna's hummingbird with a little friend, in my yard. Davis, CA. #birds #ants

Google Search is now using AI to replace headlines Let us know if you see more.

I mostly still use Google out of habit, but this is getting absolutely ridiculous. Open to suggestions for a new default search engine for my home page.

From my institution.

The OVCR released guidance today re the 2024 NIH Public Access Policy, specifically the applicability of the Government Use License/Federal Purpose License: research.washu.edu/topics/publi...

all lupins have a ton of alkaloids I believe--usually require long soaking periods before eating. i once had to soak a batch of lupins for nearly 2 weeks before the bitter flavor was removed

Upping this because it's an important read: results suggest there are spatially distributed brain areas which appear to use oxygen *more efficiently* during tasks, especially in the DMN - which is contrary to the assumptions made by conventional BOLD.
🧠🧶
#neuroskyence

Statement from the American Academy of Neurology: “This decision was made without consulting key neurology stakeholders, and there was no formal announcement nor a clear succession plan for NINDS leadership. NINDS plays a vital role in funding and directing research into the brain”

Director of NIH neurological disorders institute is ousted, adding to leadership churn Walter Koroshetz, director of the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, will soon be leaving his role, STAT has learned. His departure

🧪
#neuroskyence
Walter Koroshetz was a steady hand at the helm of NINDS over the last decade (and especially over the last year which must have felt like a decade to him). I'm sorry to see him go and shudder at the prospect of a Jay Bhattacharya-endorsed replacement.
www.statnews.com/2025/12/27/n...

Permission Structures How AI-skeptic Professors Can Still Help Students Write Papers

"[Students] have not been given the opportunity to think about why education is worthwhile or even what it truly is, and they experience significant anxiety about their work as students."

Really good article with lots of good ideas: mattdinan.substack.com/p/the-ai-ske...

Ursula K. Le Guin — Ursula on Writing: A Rant about "Techonolgy" Ursula K. Le Guin on the presence of technology in her work

www.ursulakleguin.com/a-rant-about...

The official home of the Python Programming Language

TLDR; The PSF has made the decision to put our community and our shared diversity, equity, and inclusion values ahead of seeking $1.5M in new revenue. Please read and share. pyfound.blogspot.com/2025/10/NSF-...
🧵

Any academic folks on H1B visas (even with stamps in passports) please get legal advice from your University attorneys before leaving the US.

Incidentally I saw both crab and this post on Discover so my Like wasn't even from a follower!

A caption from an Article in Nature. The headline is: "What’s a surprising question that you are asked about your job?" The text reads: "People often ask us to justify why we do our work or explain its broader benefit to society. I often retort with: “No one asks an accountant, or someone making money from money, what their greater purpose is.” Yet, someone like me working to conserve frogs is treated as if that’s not a real job. I’m not tired of justifying that what I do is important, because we are saving species from the face of extinction. But I do enjoy making people laugh with that joke, because it’s true."

This is probably one of the best retorts I've seen to justifying science anywhere. Taken from here: www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Close call at 39,000 ft.

On the perils of 'vibe coding' through BA WiFi while flying to Nairobi ...

I offer only this and only once with a huge YMMV caveat:

If people telling you to rage quit are not also inviting you into something — be it their organization, their strategy, their active movement — it isn’t a real call to action. It’s a (maybe righteous) temper tantrum.

This place is incredible and I highly recommend it!

This story should not have been published. They hint at an accusation (Mamdani said he is black to get into a fancy college) they can't back up. That this was published tells me that Mamdani's most important opponent may not be Cuomo or Adams but a paper whose NEWS section will run stuff like this.

Good call.

Penguin looking through telephoto camera lense

Defence Ministry Update: Border surveillance has not detected any abnormal activity. We stand rock-hop-ready to rock, set to defend ourselves against all threats both foreign and domestic (elephant seals mainly)

Trump administration orders NIH to eliminate $2.6 billion in federal contracts At a chaotic time, the NIH is given a deadline of April 8 to make a 35% cut in services that may include specimen storage, genetic counseling, and administration.

Another $2.6 billion in cuts to NIH are coming by next Tuesday
www.statnews.com/2025/04/03/n... The shredded image fits

Those trying to understand the tariffs as economic policy are dangerously naive.

No, the tariffs are a tool to collapse our democracy. A means to compel loyalty from every business that will need to petition Trump for relief.

1/ A 🧵 to explain his plan and how we fight back.

One big point amid all the headlines: I was texting with press secretary Karoline Leavitt during the event and she confirms that the 34 percent tariff on China is ON TOP of the previous 20 percent. So that means the rate on China will be *54* percent when these tariffs take effect.

Just figured out where these fake tariff rates come from. They didn't actually calculate tariff rates + non-tariff barriers, as they say they did. Instead, for every country, they just took our trade deficit with that country and divided it by the country's exports to us. So we have a $17.9 billion trade deficit with Indonesia. Its exports to us are $28 billion. $17.9/$28 = 64%, which Trump claims is the tariff rate Indonesia charges us. What extraordinary nonsense this is.

james surowiecki has discovered where the completely fabricated trump tariff rate has come from for each country

"...for every country, they just took our trade deficit with that country and divided it by the country's exports to us."

More in "bloodbaths": Per a source, the National Institute on Aging's leadership has been "decimated," including deputy director Amy Kelly and scientific director Luigi Ferrucci.

And apparently acquisitions teams across all of NIH have been fired.

1. Another Friday afternoon massacre of sorts:

NIH just rescinded its Scientific Integrity Policy.

h/t @lizborkowski.bsky.social

How can anything be real if our eyes aren't real

✨ Announcing a new glutamate indicator - iGluSnFR4! ✨

Launched as a pair, iGLuSnFR4s and iGluSnFR4f have high-sensitivity and fast activation/deactivation for recording synapses.

More on the indicators and what they are already revealing: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

🧠📈

My thoughts on LLMs-as-AGI: I cannot see how throwing the sum total of produced human language can lead to anything smarter than the average human. We're not even selecting for the works of geniuses here, it's mostly just Joe Someguy's random python scripts and thoughts about the weather