Nathan Whitmore
@nathanww.bsky.social
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I design tech for cognitive enhancement at the MIT Media Lab. he/him. Was @brain_juices on twitter.
reposted by
Nathan Whitmore
Matt Novak
2 days ago
And now someone has uploaded a version that wasn't filmed off a TV. There's also the torrent link there, which is probably the fastest way to download the 60 Minutes segment on CECOT if you want to save the file locally to your computer.
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Pulled 60 Minutes segment on CECOT : CBS : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive
This is a screen recording of a 60 Minutes segment about the Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo (CECOT) prison in El Salvador, which was intended to be...
https://archive.org/details/60minutes-cecotsegment
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reposted by
Nathan Whitmore
Kit Yates
9 days ago
Adopt āair hygieneā ratingsālike food hygieneāfor indoor spaces. Independent SAGE designed such a āscores on the doorsā system, yet progress is minimal. Make clean air as normal as clean water: visible standards, accountability, and incentives to improve. 9/10
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Nathan Whitmore
Kit Yates
9 days ago
Flu is surging. What can we do about it? Layered protectionsāvaccination, isolation with liveable sick pay, and clean airāenabled by government and institutions. BMJ Opinion by Stephen Reicher,
@martinmckee.bsky.social
&
@profstevegriffin.bsky.social
www.bmj.com/content/391/...
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Vaccinate, isolate, ventilate: will we finally learn the lessons from covid this flu season?
With flu surging again, Stephen Reicher and colleagues draw on the experience of covid-19 to argue that predictable winter pressures demand more than individual responsibility, they also require syste...
https://www.bmj.com/content/391/bmj.r2638
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I think one of the best things about AI search engines is how they foster curiosity by lowering the bar to asking questions, which is where creativity comes from.
add a skeleton here at some point
9 days ago
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Well that's a bit ominous...
17 days ago
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Come say hi if you're going to
#sfn25
and want to chat about cognitive enhancement, sleep, or memory! I'm around starting this evening and will be postering on Tuesday morning !
about 1 month ago
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One odd implication of the AI doom argument is that (super)intelligence is a sort of fungible power that can shape most things to your will. Eg do you believe that had Kamala been sufficiently smart, she would have won the election? Could she win the election in Russia? In China?
about 1 month ago
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Nathan Whitmore
Josh Marshall
about 2 months ago
Sounds like the squishes in the senate caucus are ready to pull the plug with no ACA changes. This is real. If you want to register your opinion you shld call yr senator in the next hour. They not only want to reopen w/nothing. They want cover from their colleagues who still want to hold out.
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The cool thing about prediction markets is that they are basically a way to monetize special interests.
about 2 months ago
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Tonight at 6 eastern time: Come talk about the craziest solutions to cool the planet (and whether we should do them)
www.twitch.tv/philososcien...
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philososcienceing - Twitch
Join us for philosophizing about science (philososciencing) for a bit!
https://www.twitch.tv/philososcienceing
about 2 months ago
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Tonight: It's almost Halloween, so it's time for the creepiest animals! 6:30 eastern time at
www.twitch.tv/philososcien...
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philososcienceing - Twitch
Join us for philosophizing about science (philososciencing) for a bit!
https://www.twitch.tv/philososcienceing
2 months ago
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Communism in the US is a lot like quicksand in that we all grew up thinking it was gonna be a much bigger issue than it is.
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2 months ago
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This Consumer Reports lead story shows a lot about what we get wrong in talking about chemicals in food. The main claim is that protein powders often contain "unsafe" levels of lead. Which is bizarre because there's no safe level of lead other than 0 lead.
www.consumerreports.org/lead/protein...
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Protein Powders and Shakes Contain High Levels of Lead - Consumer Reports
CR tests of 23 popular protein powders and shakes found that most contain high levels of lead.
https://www.consumerreports.org/lead/protein-powders-and-shakes-contain-high-levels-of-lead-a4206364640/
2 months ago
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Everyone loves evidence-based practices until the evidence says to eat a clove of raw garlic. (By everyone I mean me)
2 months ago
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Highly recommend tracking your mood and activities because if you have a terrible day you can be like oh well at least I collected some data to improve my life
3 months ago
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It's darkly ironic how many people will tell you that AI damages critical thinking skills solely on the basis of "it seems like it"
3 months ago
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Is BPA really bad for you? Did getting rid of lead make us better people? Tonight we're talking about poisons, toxins, and how we study them! 7 PM eastern time at
www.twitch.tv/philososcien...
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philososcienceing - Twitch
Join us for philosophizing about science (philososciencing) for a bit!
https://www.twitch.tv/philososcienceing
3 months ago
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Nathan Whitmore
Puff the Magic Hater
3 months ago
We need a bigger national spotlight on this building raid, fam. Agents dropped from helicopters onto the roof. Citizens and non-citizens alike were dragged from their homes in the night. People who weren't kidnapped during the raid had their belongings seized after the fact. This is madness.
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What is the ideal amount of Teflon in your food? If you said zero Teflon, you're *wrong*--according to the winner of this year's Ig-Nobel Prize in Chemistry! Join us at 9 eastern time to chat about the year's weirdest science at the Ig-Nobels!
www.twitch.tv/philososcien...
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philososcienceing - Twitch
Join us for philosophizing about science (philososciencing) for a bit!
https://www.twitch.tv/philososcienceing
3 months ago
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Finally read the
ai-2027.com
scenario and my main impression is that this is real heavy on geopolitics for a team that knows nothing about geopolitics. Like if your thesis is that the fate of the world will be decided by a US-China arms race, shouldn't you involve some people who...study that?
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AI 2027
A research-backed AI scenario forecast.
https://ai-2027.com
3 months ago
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Our next stream is tonight at 6:45 Eastern time! Come chat about the fake (and real) science that's been viral on social media recently!
www.twitch.tv/philososcien...
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philososcienceing - Twitch
Join us for philosophizing about science (philososciencing) for a bit!
https://www.twitch.tv/philososcienceing
3 months ago
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Tonight at 6:30: Monsanto, sketchy pesticide science, and how safe is our food? Come chat at 6:30
www.twitch.tv/philososcien...
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philososcienceing - Twitch
Join us for philosophizing about science (philososciencing) for a bit!
https://www.twitch.tv/philososcienceing
3 months ago
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reposted by
Nathan Whitmore
Chicago Teachers Union
4 months ago
Chicago is doing what works without Trumpās invasion of our city. We reject occupation. We welcome investments in public education, youth employment, and affordable housing.
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Nathan Whitmore
Ed Belongia MD
4 months ago
Opposition to RFKJr is ramping up. Joint statement from Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) and 21 other organizations š
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Nathan Whitmore
Gregg Gonsalves
4 months ago
Everyone in public health, healthcare and biomedical research has been screaming this for months. Itās time for RFK Jr to go. Everyone, please, please get on the phone to your members of Congress. Call them every day. This man is that dangerous.
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Tonight: Should we tell everyone to get vaccinated? We're talking about the science of science communication! 6:30 Eastern time!
www.twitch.tv/philososcien...
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philososcienceing - Twitch
Join us for philosophizing about science (philososciencing) for a bit!
https://www.twitch.tv/philososcienceing
4 months ago
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If this was a political drama we would be laughing at how terroble the writing was
4 months ago
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Spotify now automatically generates chapters for news podcasts, but the hilarious part is that it uses the same algorithm and tone for horror podcasts.
4 months ago
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Streaming now!
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4 months ago
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Recently a lot of media has been talking about how AI is bad for your brain. Is this true, and what can the science of learning and brain exercise tell us about it? Chatting tonight at 6:30 eastern time!
www.twitch.tv/philososcien...
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philososcienceing - Twitch
Join us for philosophizing about science (philososciencing) for a bit!
https://www.twitch.tv/philososcienceing
4 months ago
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I understand why they do it, but the idea that AGI is AI that can do useful work seems kinda stupid. Children clearly have general intelligence, get they do rather poorly at SWE-Verified (or running a business in general)
4 months ago
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We are back tonight to talk about space! Interstellar comets, nuke plants on the moon, and whatever if going on in this graph! 6 PM eastern time at
www.twitch.tv/philososcien...
5 months ago
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reposted by
Nathan Whitmore
Jeremy Berg
5 months ago
New ArsTechnica story about the new steaming pile of Executive Order...
arstechnica.com/science/2025...
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New executive order puts all grants under political control
All new funding on hold until Trump administration can cancel any previously funded grants.
https://arstechnica.com/science/2025/08/new-executive-order-puts-all-grants-under-political-control/
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Nathan Whitmore
Joe Allen
5 months ago
Funding for this groundbreaking research on Alzheimer's was terminated by the Trump Administration
www.bostonglobe.com/2025/08/06/m...
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New hope for Alzheimerās: Groundbreaking Harvard study finds lithium reverses brain aging - The Boston Globe
The research suggests a new approach to preventing and treating the mind-robbing disease.
https://www.bostonglobe.com/2025/08/06/metro/alzheimers-treatment-harvard-lithium-deficiency-plaques/
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Oh no it's back
add a skeleton here at some point
5 months ago
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reposted by
Nathan Whitmore
Gregg Gonsalves
5 months ago
Russell Vought wanted to shut down all extramural grants from NIH in this current fiscal year, putting stop to ALL research across the US. Someone in the White House had better sense. But Vought is a dangerous man, who will stop at nothing to destroy science in America.
www.wsj.com/politics/pol...
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Trump Administration Scraps Effort to Pause Health-Research Funding
The administration halted and then restarted billions in new research grants flowing from the National Institutes of Health.
https://www.wsj.com/politics/policy/trump-administration-puts-new-chokehold-on-billions-in-health-research-funding-19660215?st=6EGBi5
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Two years ago I started working on this crazy idea that we could use a smartwatch to increase slow wave activity during sleep and improve sleep quality. Now Iām excited to share a first look at some of the results from the project!
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
A few cool things we found:
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Slow wave stimulation using a smartwatch improves sleep quality
Poor sleep affects millions, increasing long-term health risks. Slow wave entrainment (SWE) is a promising method for improving sleep. While typically lab-based, we developed a smartwatch app to perfo...
https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.07.28.666762v1.full.pdf+html
5 months ago
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Nathan Whitmore
Emily L. Hauser (she/her) āš
5 months ago
This stopped me cold. I just keep reading the headline. It seems literally impossible to me, that this thing that cut through an entire generation has an answer now. It's impossible to convey how terrifying those years were, how much loss there was, how much pain. My heart. It feels like a miracle.
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What's really striking about this study is how small the effect size is. If this study is well conducted, the takeaway is that social media use has no effect on your personal mental health that is significant in a practical sense.
5 months ago
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Do you ever think about how sleep staging is basically just Macrodata Refinement?
#sleep
#severence
#mysteriousandimportant
5 months ago
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Did you know that when you get a nasal swab to check for covid, the test uses part of an ancient bacterium from Yellowstone? Tonight: the history and tech of biomedical testing! Chat with us at 6 pm Eastern time!
www.twitch.tv/philososcien...
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philososcienceing - Twitch
Join us for philosophizing about science (philososciencing) for a bit!
https://www.twitch.tv/philososcienceing?sr=a
6 months ago
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One of the stranger things about this idea that "AI is bad for your brain" is the implication that it's good to be doing hard mental work *all the time*. Its pretty clear from cog neuro research (eg directed attention fatigue, post encoding interference) this is not true.
6 months ago
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I've been testing a prototype of a smartwatch that induces slow oscillations during sleep for the last couple of months and (subjectively) the most noticeable effect is that it makes me significantly less groggy and more alert in the morning on nights when I use it.
6 months ago
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"Mamdani will charge the taxpayers for busses and childcare!" Yeah that is way worse thenthe current model where taxpayers get those things for free š
6 months ago
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ChatGPT has some pretty terrible cliches but it also just told me that I was "Not just going after the low-hanging fruit but already juicing it"š
6 months ago
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I think one of the biggest misconceptions about the brain is that it's like a muscle and that intense mental work makes us smarter in general. Yet we have hundreds of studies showing that this is not true. Training at one task almost never "transfers" to unrelated tasks.
6 months ago
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reposted by
Nathan Whitmore
If Books Could Kill
6 months ago
Episode 40: In Covid's Wake Looking back at a pandemic that killed more than 1 million people, two political scientists bravely ask, "Could we have done even less?"
podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/i...
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"In Covid's Wake": Lying About⦠- If Books Could Kill - Apple Podcasts
Podcast Episode Ā· If Books Could Kill Ā· 06/17/2025 Ā· 58m
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/in-covids-wake-lying-about-lockdowns/id1651876897?i=1000713221810
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reposted by
Nathan Whitmore
Mark Copelovitch
6 months ago
In a more serious country, unilaterally withdrawing from the JCPOA would have immediately ended Trump's first presidency & destroyed the GOP's reputation on national security policy for a generation š§
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Nathan Whitmore
ACLU
6 months ago
BREAKING: A federal judge reversed National Institutes of Health's terminations of hundreds of critical research grants that were canceled because of their alleged connection to disfavored topics, including diversity, equity, inclusion, and gender identity. This is a major win for public health.
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Tonight at 6 PM eastern time we're talking about the science of dreams!
www.twitch.tv/philososcien...
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philososcienceing - Twitch
Join us for philosophizing about science (philososciencing) for a bit!
https://www.twitch.tv/philososcienceing
6 months ago
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