That's nothing! The US, as we know, is an agrarian economy, optimized for growing soybeans exported to China. The yearly production of soybean seeds, if placed end to end, forms a chain of beads 10^10 km long: the distance from the Sun to Pluto and back. It streams at about 0.1% the speed of light.

Sure, China has invented the future, with innovations like high-speed trains and all-electric traffic. But no-one talks about the Jim Beam Soda Fountain! Dispenses everything from straight Bourbon to 3 different cocktails. Beating Kentucky at its own game...

Human intelligence is overrated and not a useful yardstick for AI - a polemic. markusmeister.com/2025/09/15/w...

What a cool public science project! www.nytimes.com/2025/08/08/w...

I learned a lot from reading this book on climate science: "Unsettled?" by Steven E. Koonin. Sure, it comes from a contrarian perspective, but it's quantitative, well-sourced, and nuanced in its critique. Lots of useful pointers to go explore the primary literature.

I wrote about the government's attacks on Harvard. Hope this reaches a few persuadable minds. prosyn.org/PhWi74r?h=Ky...

If you're planning a course with mathematical methods content, or use such methods in your own work, please take a look at "Mathematics in Biology", by Meister, Lee, and Portugues, published at MIT Press. 1/2 @portugueslab.bsky.social mitpress.mit.edu/978026204940...

A sobering assessment of consciousness studies from Hakwan Lau: "the label ’consciousness’ may eventually serve little other function but to signal that the associated studies are subpar and overinterpreted compared to mainstream cognitive neuroscience research"

I'm with David Sussillo's critique here. If you want answers you have to ask concrete questions. Black-box modelling of huge data volumes won't get you any closer.

Here it is finally: Our mathematical methods book for life scientists! Aimed at advanced undergrads and beginning grad students, plus all those who want a deeper look at the math behind quantitative biology. @portugueslab.bsky.social. 1/3

I wrote about a scientific paper called “The Unbearable Slowness of Being” which finds that the human brain’s throughput is just 10 bits per second. Gift link: www.nytimes.com/2024/12/26/s... 🧪

"[It’s] the largest unexplained number in brain science. I feel like neuroscience should pay more attention to it ..." said Marcus Meister when @claudia-lopez.bsky.social sat down with him and @jieyusz.bsky.social for a Q&A about the brain's information-processing rate. #neuroskyence bit.ly/3ZXxWTf

The unbearable slowness of being: Humans still clock in at just 10 bits/s. Even after peer review :) Share link: authors.elsevier.com/a/1kHVa3BtfH.... ArXiv: arxiv.org/abs/2408.10234

After being gifted the most magical computing device on the planet, humans use it to organize more vicious fist fights. Does anyone still think that human intelligence is a useful milestone on the way to machine intelligence? www.nytimes.com/2024/12/15/t... #NeuroAI

Horace Barlow, by all accounts, was thinking about 30 years ahead of his time. Here is a transcript of the opening keynote I gave at a symposium honoring Horace's scientific legacy: markusmeister.com/2024/12/14/h....

If you're a student interested in quantitative life science, and you don't have this book on your shelf yet, this is the best time to correct that!

The third edition of my textbook, Nonlinear Dynamics and Chaos, was published today. You can preview the first 68 pages on Google Books, or take a look at the preface below to see what's new. The main new thing is a chapter on the Kuramoto model! Hope you enjoy it.

Have you had private doubts whether we'll ever understand the brain? Whether we'll be able explain psychological phenomena in an exhaustive way that ranges from molecules to membranes to synapses to cells to cell types to circuits to computation to perception and behavior?

Flying Lufthansa during the presidential debate. We’re told that “unfortunately” the WiFi is broken. Clever move to ensure a peaceful flight.

From my file of "papers that keep on giving", this beautiful review from Mike Land on eye movements in everyday life: pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16516530/. I read this back when, but came across it again now with different needs, and learned a whole set of orthogonal things.

Why is reality so slow? Why can we only have one thought at a time? Why do we need so many neurons? Will Elon Musk's Neuralink really speed up his cognition? For answers and more questions check out our new review: "The Unbearable Slowness of Being". arxiv.org/abs/2408.10234

Are you going to #CCN2024? And are you ready to question your beliefs about rodent hippocampus and cortex? Then see the talk and poster by Jieyu Zheng and Rogerio Guimaraes. Details: jieyusz.github.io/publication/...

A few days ago, the journal eLife published a self-study on the first year of its new publishing model, and it is well worth a look. Here are some notes based on my own experience with the journal as author and reviewing editor: markusmeister.com/2024/03/17/a....

Guilty pleasure last week: watching "Beckham" on Netflix. Lots of unexpected insights! Trigger warning for England fans: features the "hand of god" goal.

Got to experience general anesthesia again today. What a miracle! From "lights on" to "lights out" and back, both transitions were instantaneous. These methods have improved so much since I got tonsils out as a kid.

Saw a fantastic art documentary yesterday: "Anselm" by Wim Wenders. The scale of the ambition and accomplishment here is stunning.