Conor Owens-Walton
@cowenswal.bsky.social
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Neuroscientist @ MCRI, Melbourne, Australia
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Ravi Menon
6 days ago
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.
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Eric Topol
about 2 months ago
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...
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Carl Zimmer
3 months ago
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...
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What Rosalind Franklin truly contributed to the discovery of DNA’s structure
Franklin was no victim in how the DNA double helix was solved. An overlooked letter and an unpublished news article, both written in 1953, reveal that she was an equal player.
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-01313-5
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Jason Koebler
3 months ago
Farewell to one of the GOATs
www.404media.co/nancy-pelosi...
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One of the Greatest Wall Street Investors of All Time Announces Retirement
Nancy Pelosi’s trades over the years have been so good that a startup was created to allow investors to directly mirror her portfolio.
https://www.404media.co/nancy-pelosi-one-of-the-greatest-wall-street-investors-of-all-time-announces-retirement/
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Eric Topol
3 months ago
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...
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derek guy
4 months ago
australian street style, 1973
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Melanie Mitchell
4 months ago
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...
)
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Voices for Vaccines
5 months ago
It's a day that ends in Y which means it's time to post this again.
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Ars Technica
5 months ago
AI advocates have warned that if every author in the class action filed a claim, it would "financially ruin" the entire industry.
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Authors celebrate “historic” settlement coming soon in Anthropic class action
Advocates fear such settlements will “financially ruin” the AI industry.
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2025/08/authors-celebrate-historic-settlement-coming-soon-in-anthropic-class-action/?utm_source=bluesky&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=aud-dev&utm_social-type=owned
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John Herrman
5 months ago
just checking in with one of the most influential philosophers alive today
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Sam Gershman
7 months ago
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.
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Melanie Mitchell
8 months ago
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!
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Tim Onion
8 months ago
today
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Paul Thompson
8 months ago
🔥 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
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An absolute masterclass from
@ndrewvo.bsky.social
and
@alaindagher.bsky.social
along their wonderful colleagues at McGill. Our latest ENIGMA-PD Consortium project
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8 months ago
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Nico Dosenbach
8 months ago
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.
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www.thetransmitter.org/human-neurot...
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Why the 21st-century neuroscientist needs to be neuroethically engaged
Technological advances in decoding brain activity and in growing human brain cells raise new ethical issues. Here is a framework to help researchers navigate them.
https://www.thetransmitter.org/human-neurotechnology/why-the-21st-century-neuroscientist-needs-to-be-neuroethically-engaged/?utm_source=linkedin&utm_medium=org-social&utm_campaign=20250512-21century-neuroscientist-neuroethically-engaged
8 months ago
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Kath Barbadoro
9 months ago
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
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Very interesting - but also exhausting.
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9 months ago
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jamelle
9 months ago
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
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Jacob T. Levy
9 months ago
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.
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The Associated Press
9 months ago
BREAKING: Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has become the first Australian prime minister to win a second consecutive three-year term in 21 years.
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Australia's Prime Minister Anthony Albanese wins a second three-year term
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has become the first Australian prime minister to win a second consecutive three-year term in 21 years.
https://bit.ly/4iMrS6g
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Julia Brown, PhD
9 months ago
“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-...
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My Brain Finally Broke
Much of what we see now is fake, and the reality we face is full of horrors. More and more of the world is slipping beyond my comprehension.
https://www.newyorker.com/culture/the-weekend-essay/my-brain-finally-broke?utm_source=nl&utm_brand=tny&utm_mailing=TNY_Daily_050325&utm_campaign=aud-dev&utm_medium=email&utm_term=tny_daily_digest&bxid=5efa314a9d4a9556824d02ae&cndid=61533291&hasha=381209ae0ce4d735b93f152a59aadf17&hashb=8c8002aeaec3ef91246789c7f41a77c274fa0233&hashc=b4164a885e2fbbe7e224d67fcda2a2ea89a5861c242cddbe8b04f0c187da684d&esrc=bouncexmulti_first
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Eric Topol
9 months ago
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
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U.S. government researchers present 'phenomenal' new data on HPV vaccines
A new study seems to confirm that a single dose of the vaccine used to prevent HPV infection is just as effective as two — and, therefore, also helps to prevent cancer.
https://www.statnews.com/2025/04/28/hpv-vaccine-single-dose-prevents-infection-just-as-well-as-two-doses-hci-clinical-trial/
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Dr. Lucky Tran
9 months ago
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.
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Carl T. Bergstrom
10 months ago
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...
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This Is How Meta AI Staffers Deemed More Than 7 Million Books to Have No “Economic Value”
As more than a dozen lawsuits churn ahead, newly unsealed case files reveal the company’s stance: The pirated books Meta used to train its AI, including ones by Beverly Cleary, Jacqueline Woodson, and...
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/story/meta-ai-lawsuit
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this is nice
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10 months ago
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Let's all behave more like these dudes
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10 months ago
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Sherry Pagoto, PhD
11 months ago
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...
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NIH Grants Fueled $95 Billion In FY 2024 Economic Activity, Finds New Report
National Institutes of Health grants generated almost $95 billion in economic activity nationwide in FY 2024 according to a new report by United for Medical Research.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaeltnietzel/2025/03/12/nih-grants-fueled-95-billion-in-economic-activity-finds-new-report/
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Eric Topol
11 months ago
99% of new medicines developed by the pharmaceutical industry depend on NIH research
jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...
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Comparison of Research Spending on New Drug Approvals by the NIH vs the Pharmaceutical Industry
This cross-sectional study examines National Institutes of Health and pharmaceutical industry investments in recent drug approvals.
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama-health-forum/fullarticle/2804378
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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....
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Endoscopist De-Skilling after Exposure to Artificial Intelligence in Colonoscopy: A Multicenter Observational Study
Background: Randomized trials show that artificial intelligence (AI) improves adenoma detection rate (ADR) in colonoscopy. However, it is unknown if continuous
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=5070304
11 months ago
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Mina Kimes
11 months ago
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.
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"[The NIH supported] 99 percent of the drugs approved in the U.S. from 2010 to 2019"
www.theatlantic.com/health/archi...
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Inside the Collapse at the NIH
Administration officials pressured the NIH to avoid clear advice from the agency’s own lawyers to restart grant funding now.
https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2025/02/nih-grant-freeze-biomedical-research/681853/?gift=XFcu4ghQw2QOufup6_aD3ve1sNs2zinNkRK9FNm2EZ0&utm_source=copy-link&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=share
11 months ago
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"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...
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https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/uploads/prod/2025/01/lee_2025_ai_critical_thinking_survey.pdf?ref=404media.co
12 months ago
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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....
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A direct hit
Late last week, the Trump administration set off a frenzy in the US scientific community when the National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced that indirect cost reimbursement for federally funded re...
https://www.science.org/doi/full/10.1126/science.adw6467
12 months ago
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Huge repercussions if this stuff comes to fruition
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12 months ago
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Sean Carroll
12 months ago
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...
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White House budget proposal could shatter the National Science Foundation
“This kind of cut would kill American science and boost China.”…
https://arstechnica.com/science/2025/02/white-house-budget-proposal-could-shatter-the-national-science-foundation/
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Paul Thompson
12 months ago
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...
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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...
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Opinion | The Long Shadow of Fraud in Alzheimer’s Research (Gift Article)
Fraud in research needs to end.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/24/opinion/alzheimers-fraud-cure.html?unlocked_article_code=1.rk4.kuTZ.8pyPt7Tpg3AY&smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare
about 1 year ago
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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...
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Scientists uncover how the brain washes itself during sleep
Pulsating blood vessels push fluid into and out of the brains of slumbering mice
https://www.science.org/content/article/scientists-uncover-how-brain-washes-itself-during-sleep?utm_source=sfmc&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=ScienceAdviser&utm_content=distillation&et_rid=79504704&et_cid=5488327
about 1 year ago
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dickretired
about 1 year ago
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
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What a great idea “This paper changed my life”. Excited to read the original ART architecture paper.
www.thetransmitter.org/this-paper-c...
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This paper changed my life: ‘A massively parallel architecture for a self-organizing neural pattern recognition machine,’ by Carpenter and Grossberg
This paper taught me that we can use mathematical modeling to understand how neural networks are organized—and led me to a doctoral program in the department led by its authors.
https://www.thetransmitter.org/this-paper-changed-my-life/this-paper-changed-my-life-a-massively-parallel-architecture-for-a-self-organizing-neural-pattern-recognition-machine-by-carpenter-and-grossberg/?utm_source=bluesky&utm_medium=org-social&utm_campaign=20250106-TPCML-carpenter-grossberg
about 1 year ago
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Remarkable, heartbreaking and inspiring article on FTD. Some optimism from FTD scientists in there too.
www.nytimes.com/2024/12/22/h...
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A Woman With a Rare Gene Mutation Fights to Avoid Her Mother’s Fate
A mutant gene is coming to steal Linde Jacobs’s mind. Can she find a way to stop it?
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/22/health/frontotemporal-dementia-genetic-mutation-linde-jacobs.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare
about 1 year ago
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Timely reminder to consider the turkey
www.theguardian.com/environment/...
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The short, painful life of your Thanksgiving turkey
In this excerpt from his book Consider the Turkey, philosopher Peter Singer explains how the birds bred for maximum breast meat suffer from health problems
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/nov/26/consider-the-turkey-peter-singer
about 1 year ago
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The science isn't set but it's happening anyway - Silicon Valley’s tech elite want to make superbabies.
sfstandard.com/opinion/2024...
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Opinion | Silicon Valley’s tech elite want to make superbabies. Their kids may suffer for it
The latest fertility tech invites parents to select baby traits like shopping at Whole Foods.
https://sfstandard.com/opinion/2024/11/23/silicon-valleys-tech-elite-want-to-make-superbabies-they-shouldnt/?utm_source=bluesky_sitebutton
about 1 year ago
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