The shingles vaccine has demonstrated in what is now a 4th replication that it results in a ~20% reduction in dementia. This is better than any drug ever designed and tested for Alzheimer’s.

Multiple large natural experiments have documented Shingles vaccine is linked with ~20-25% reduced risk of dementia and Alzheimer's disease. A new report today adds to that and extends the to slowing the progression of dementia @cellcellpress.bsky.social www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...

On the event of James Watson's death, I highly recommend this 2023 commentary from @matthewcobb.bsky.social and Nathaniel Comfort with crucial new insights into the discovery of the double helix. (And also check out Cobb's brand new biography of Francis Crick) www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Farewell to one of the GOATs www.404media.co/nancy-pelosi...

For children and teens, heart and blood vessel complications of Covid overshadow the very rare and short-term risk of vaccinations, a new report from nearly 14 million kids www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...

australian street style, 1973

Andrew Ng: "AI is the new electricity!" Cory Doctorow: "AI is the asbestos we are shoveling into the walls of our society and our descendants will be digging it out for generations." ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ (pluralistic.net/2025/09/27/e...)

It's a day that ends in Y which means it's time to post this again.

AI advocates have warned that if every author in the class action filed a claim, it would "financially ruin" the entire industry.

just checking in with one of the most influential philosophers alive today

The sycophantic tone of ChatGPT always sounded familiar, and then I recognized where I'd heard it before: author response letters to reviewer comments. "You're exactly right, that's a great point!" "Thank you so much for this insight!" Also how it always agrees even when it contradicts itself.

My husband’s cell was getting calls from people thinking they were phoning a certain city’s police number. He was puzzled—his number doesn’t appear on any web page. Then he learned that if you Google “[city name] non-emergency police”, the AI overview hallucinates his number. Thanks, Google!

today

🔥 Just out! Our new massive global ENIGMA-CNV study led by Ana Silva + David Linden (+90 authors!) reveals how rare copy number variants (CNVs) in the human genome disrupt brain structure. Landmark in human genetics 🧨 Basically

An absolute masterclass from @ndrewvo.bsky.social and @alaindagher.bsky.social along their wonderful colleagues at McGill. Our latest ENIGMA-PD Consortium project

Stimulants rescue cognition and brain functional architecture if you didn’t sleep enough … short term: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... Is it possible that this is a true rescue, or is it just a temporary cover up and there will be a price to pay … maybe decades later? Asking for a friend.

i dont want to be a killjoy but we desperately need to make it socially unacceptable to talk about asking chatgpt things in regular conversation

Very interesting - but also exhausting.

posted some of my thoughts on using LLMs for basic tasks on tiktok and i’m getting cooked by people who insist that it is actually good to offload your critical thinking skills to a bullshit machine

I got the best teaching evals of my career for a large course last semester— along with three teaching awards— after rebuilding my intro class around in-class handwritten essays. I simply do not believe that this is unsolvable or that students don't care about actually learning to do their work.

BREAKING: Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has become the first Australian prime minister to win a second consecutive three-year term in 21 years.

“ChatGPT will reify the problems that it purports to solve, and thus make itself essential: encouraging users to rely less and less on inner resources and personal capacity … with which we handle the task of being alive.” — 🙏🏼Jia Tolentino www.newyorker.com/culture/the-...

The real "one and done." Remarkable new data supporting the HPV vaccine prevention of cancer. www.statnews.com/2025/04/28/h... by @matthewherper.bsky.social @statnews.com

Deaths from heart disease down 75%, that’s NIH. Deaths from stroke down 75%, that’s NIH. HIV/AIDS no longer a death sentence, that’s NIH. 99% of FDA approved drugs in the last decade, that’s NIH. Please show this video to anyone who doesn’t understand why the NIH is so important.

Meta deemed my books of "of no economic value" and used them to train their AI. Perhaps they are of no value to someone of Zuck's stature but they pay annual royalties that allowed my first child to attend college and will, I hope, allow my second to do the same. www.vanityfair.com/news/story/m...

this is nice

Let's all behave more like these dudes

New report shows that NIH grants fueled $95 billion in economic activity and 407,782 jobs in 2024. That's not to mention the countless lives that biomedical research has saved. Show me a better investment than that. www.forbes.com/sites/michae...

99% of new medicines developed by the pharmaceutical industry depend on NIH research jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...

An example from Medicine. As AI gets better, folks who use it will get worse 😅 "Continuous exposure to AI reduced [cancer detection] standard ... suggesting a negative impact on endoscopist performance." papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

As someone who spends a lot time thinking about the values I want to teach my kid (besides PLEASE DON’T EAT DIRT), the thing I keep coming back to is this: I want him to believe that the strongest, bravest thing he can do is give a shit about other people—especially ones who aren’t like him at all.

"[The NIH supported] 99 percent of the drugs approved in the U.S. from 2010 to 2019" www.theatlantic.com/health/archi...

"Surprisingly, while AI can improve efficiency, it may also reduce critical engagement, ... raising concerns about long-term reliance and diminished independent problem-solving." #AI #ChatGPT #LLMs www.microsoft.com/en-us/resear...

A good summary from the leaders at Science. And a good reminder... "These cuts should be a rallying cry for higher education to come together to make the case for the American system of research and teaching. " www.science.org/doi/full/10....

Huge repercussions if this stuff comes to fruition

The US government has been turned over to a group of extraordinarily ignorant people, and they are working to destroy science in this country. Cutting over half the NSF budget would save < 0.1% of the federal budget, but do incalculable harm. Simply heartbreaking. arstechnica.com/science/2025...

For those concerned about NIH, here is what we learned today: 1. A federal judge on Tuesday afternoon temporarily blocked part of the Trump administration’s plans to freeze all federal aid: www.cnn.com/2025/01/27/p...

Great summary of scientific fraud in AD research. Lots of bad actors, and in the end it’s patients and caregivers who suffer 😔 www.nytimes.com/2025/01/24/o...

Great write up in Science about new research on mechanics of waste clearance in non-REM sleep. Norepinephrine playing a big role www.science.org/content/arti...

I am devastated to share the news that Professor Eleanor Maguire has died at the age of 51 after 3 operations and proton beam therapy for a spinal tumour. She was internationally renowned for her work on navigation, episodic memory and brain plasticity. #neuroscience #psychology

What a great idea “This paper changed my life”. Excited to read the original ART architecture paper. www.thetransmitter.org/this-paper-c...

Remarkable, heartbreaking and inspiring article on FTD. Some optimism from FTD scientists in there too. www.nytimes.com/2024/12/22/h...

Timely reminder to consider the turkey www.theguardian.com/environment/...

The science isn't set but it's happening anyway - Silicon Valley’s tech elite want to make superbabies. sfstandard.com/opinion/2024...