Seattle's showing off again in case you need a timeline cleanse 😍 #sorryNotSorry

The last few weeks have been an adventure, fascinatingly captured by this pair of Strava entries:

Top Pot Donut Dash 5k - peak Seattle vibes and so fun. 🍩 It's been a minute since I felt strong while running, so it was exciting to hit a new PR while not fully pushing all out. ♥️

Got a paper acceptance email in the middle of a day filled with amazing science chats with amazing colleagues, and ending it with a flight home with an empty middle seat in my row. I should probably buy a lottery ticket, eh? 😂🙌

Why hello, ATL! You're looking lovely this morning. 🙌 Had an amazing day at GaTech yesterday and excited to hangout with folks at Emory today before heading back to the PNW!

It took me a while to embrace running hills. But Seattle views certainly help make the struggle feel worth it. 😍🫶

We're at the time of year where scheduling a post-lunch walk around campus is basically mandatory. My Friday timeline cleanse offering.

If you're interested in emerging ideas in neural interfaces, I humbly suggest my lab's latest: www.nature.com/articles/s42... Neural interfaces create dynamic interactions between the brain & devices. This means mean we need new engineering approaches beyond typical ML to "decode" a static brain

Is it just me or did every Internet recommendation algorithm seem to crank up the adaptation rate to 11 recently? I've been pulled into a crazy & strong local minimum across so many platforms. I'm worried Spotify is somehow going to find me songs about cottage cheese protein brownies.

It's been a very busy few months in the lab - we minted THREE new PhDs! Congratulations Si Jia, Pavi and Ryan 🙌🙌🙌 We took advantage of some Seattle sun to celebrate today. So fortunate to get to work with this amazing crew. 🧠♥️

It's starting! 🌸💖😊😍

When you order a macchiato from the campus cafe and they ask you what size (🤯)... The only option is to pivot to an 8 oz latte 🤣🫠

Last week, we welcomed Ryan Canfield from @neuroamyo.bsky.social's lab to hear about his latest preprint: "The spatiotemporal structure of neural activity in motor cortex during reaching" Check out his talk here: youtu.be/F23AW0k4y_M

Turns out when you put a bunch of nerds together in an amazing setting, amazing science happens! It's easy to focus on the negatives sometimes, but feeling very fortunate for some of the huge perks of this job right now 🙌😍♥️

Holy moly, Barbados. 😍😍😍

😍 Barbados! My absolute favorite bonus of getting into running is how much it's expanded my experiences traveling. Early morning runs have truly become one of my favorite ways to explore a new place.

My morning runs are finally back to catching the morning sunrise, rather than fully in the dark! Amazing how much of a mood booster that's been. The space needle looks best at sunrise, too 😍

A dreaded email subject, or the _most_ dreaded email subject? 😭

Sent another grant paper airplane into a strong headwind this morning, so I treated myself to some fresh air and sunshine around UW's campus. 😍 ...now to close all the tabs and dig myself out of email debt that built up while writing 😅

We've all already lived through a global pandemic. We don't need to add living through world war 3. Please and thank you.

I had braced myself for an email and slack deluge Monday/Tuesday, but it wasn't that bad. Turns out it's because Wednesday is the day y'all collectively woke up and decided to choose violence. I now feel violent. 🫠😅

I channeled stress into running in 2025. At the pace we're going, I might end up an ultra marathoner by the end of 2026. 🙃🫠

In case anyone needs a timeline cleans/candle in the dark, please enjoy the fact that Seattle puts a Christmas tree on top of the space needle every year. 🎄 It was literally my light in the dark today!

It's not exactly a hard signal detection problem, but still amusing to see the accuracy of the algorithm. Feeling very seen by YouTube 🤣🎯

I identify with this pumpkin more than I should. Especially after an invigorating, but exhausting, #SfN2025 😅

Inspiring talk and message from Michele Basso @ #SfN2025 on the responsibility and capacity we all have to advocate for science!

#SfN2025 we've got 2 posters this morning on new directions studying how humans learn redundant sensorimotor mappings! People are worse at this than you might expect. We're trying to understand why, which will help improve neural interfaces. Come say hi to Brady @ poster T7 & Victoria @ poster SS9

More science fueling with a morning run to a panderia! 🥐 #SfN2025

It's important to properly fuel for science #SfN2025 🥐

#SfN2025 Planning & making a reach involve different brain areas and neural populations, but are coordinated behavioral computations. Check out Ryan's poster tomorrow morning (PSTR076.02, M14) where he uses neuropixel recordings to test hypotheses about how neural populations implement this feat!

Folks @ #SfN2025 - wondering what to do on this rainy Saturday evening? I've got the solution for you. Come to hear discussions about how we can help advocate for our science and ourselves, meet new & old friends, & enjoy some snacks at the WINE social. 7pm at Deck 655 tonight.

I really came from Seattle to San Diego and get this? Ayfkm? 🤣😭 #sfn2025

🚨Another paper alert! 🚨 www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... Do you perform neural implant procedures? Develop new neural implants? Train people to do neural implants? This paper describes our lab’s approach to make custom ~whole-head simulators that can help in those tasks.

Important coda: lab pre-print dessert celebration! Lead author gets to request a dessert & I bake it. We enjoyed an apple crumble cake, vanilla ice cream, and apple cider caramel sauce this afternoon to mark Ryan's paper! PLUS a tiramisu for Lydia's paper, which I'll post about tomorrow 😂

🚨Pre-print alert! 🚨https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.10.17.683171v1 Our new study tackles the question: do all neurons in motor cortices (MC) encode movement & coordinate as we move? Answering this question will be key for effectively targeting motor representations in BCIs.

Had a great visit to the center for Mind, Brain, Computation and Technology @ Stanford yesterday! I was excited to talk about brewing ideas in the lab on neural representations at neuron & population scales. Plus new data mapping motor cortex w/ neuropixels - preprint dropping soon, stay tuned! 🍿

One of the most valuable lessons I've gotten from reviewing grants and papers is deeper empathy for the reviewers. So essential.

Thankful that UW and Washington state continue to support vaccination and make it easy for folks to access them 🙌 Boosted against Flu and COVID 💪

Thankful for the chance to spend time in Berlin around giving a seminar! As an American in These Times, visiting the many moving memorials right around Unity Day really hits differently. So much important history we need to remember and pay close attention to.

Running's also awesome for being a tourist! 😍

Had a great first day at the Bernstein workshop on control theory uses in neuroscience! I presented some of our work on control theory behavior assays for movement, and approaches to designing BCIs.

Seattle (and I) am lucky that all these hills lead to good views 😅. New route meant new hill challenges, but a bonus new vantage point on downtown 😍

A rare day when an email task sparks joy:

The best advice I saw on learning to love running was to use it as a chance to experience your city like a tourist. I feel spoiled getting to do that in Seattle 😍

I think I might be a runner now, not just "someone who runs". At least I am for races like this where fuel stations are stocked with cake and Nutella, and it's all about fun! My first #halfmarathon race in the books. #ibeattheblerch

Excited to hear from my community and our representative (Jayapal) about the current state of our government's relationship to supporting academic research, and what we can do to keep the US a leader. Kudos to the local academic unions for organizing!

We are on a bullet train to the end of US science, and possibly the country as a whole, when political appointees are reviewing every scientific grant submitted to NIH to determine if The Regime finds the science acceptable.

Need data to help talk to your friends and family about the impacts of current US government policies on science? AIMBE @aimbe-official.bsky.social released a great survey that paints a clear picture. The Bioengineering research & training that create new therapies are coming to a grinding halt:

New favorites in my"places I've eaten PB&J sandwiches" photo album* #pnwlife #sorrynotsorry *Real album of mine.

It took me a while to learn that expert Seattle folks take winter vacations, not summer. This is why #pnwlife #sorrynotsorry