Is there an academic/industry divide in attitudes about using AI to support discovery? I noticed this post has 3.6k likes on X but only 6 likes on Bluesky. It deserves more attention here!

For a decade, my white whale as a neuroscientist has been working to convince public+private funders to "go big" on post-mortem human tissue analysis, so we can define circuit disruptions in disease and just maybe link them with molecular drivers. This remains as tough a sell today as 10 years ago.

Today, we're announcing Kosmos, our newest AI Scientist, available today. Kosmos makes fully autonomous scientific discoveries at scale by analyzing datasets and literature, and is the most powerful agent for science so far. Beta users estimate that Kosmos does 6 months of work in a single day.

Very excited that the clinical trial results for our PRIMA retinal prosthesis are published today in the New England Journal of Medicine! This is the first time that patients who are blind due to photoreceptor loss have been able to intuitively see again. www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_qT...

Applying new tools to entire brains, starting with C. elegans, offers the opportunity to uncover how molecules work together to generate neural physiology, and how neurons generate behavior, write @kordinglab.bsky.social and @eboyden3.bsky.social. #neuroskyence bit.ly/48EzEO8

Combinatorial protein barcodes enable self-correcting neuron tracing with nanoscale molecular context https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.09.26.678648v1

Settle a debate for me: If you could hook up a fruit fly brain to a completely new set of end effectors, could it learn to use them for goal-directed behavior? To what extent is an insect brain evolutionarily specialized for controlling its body? #FlyBCI

How to make frontier AI models safer and accelerate drug discovery with the connectome. We are featured in this @ifp.bsky.social article by @adammarblestone.bsky.social & @andrewcpayne.bsky.social ifp.org/mapping-the-...

There is a famine currently affecting 640k children in Sudan, driven by military action funded by a key US ally in the Middle East. It's been widely reported in the media since 2023. Yet no condemnation by public figures, no demonstrations in the US. Why does no one care?

Amazing work

(1/7) New preprint from Rajan lab! 🧠🤖 @ryanpaulbadman1.bsky.social & Riley Simmons-Edler show–through cog sci, neuro & ethology–how an AI agent with fewer ‘neurons’ than an insect can forage, find safety & dodge predators in a virtual world. Here's what we built Preprint: arxiv.org/pdf/2506.06981

The writing's on the wall that the future of neuroscience is team science. The key question is how to balance support for "top-down" vs "bottom-up" collaborative research efforts. I agree teams of early career researchers deserve greater agency. Thoughtful piece by @neuralreckoning.bsky.social 👇

This 👇 is a major advantage of optical circuit mapping approaches over non-destructive (i.e. non FIB) serial section EM. Fewer failure modes that prevent tracing across distinct imaging volumes.

Thought problem: If you could deeply phenotype a whole brain - mapping all ultrastructure and connectivity, plus in situ proteomics, metabolomics and transcriptomics - would that be sufficient to constrain a model of its function under all conditions? What's the minimal data needed for emulation?

Gratified by today's news of a $155M seed round for DNA data storage newco Atlas, built on technologies developed under the IARPA MIST program. It validates my "if we de-risk it investors will come" thesis. Also means my public service has now driven >$1B of economic activity 🙂

I've said it publicly before and I'll say it again: science awards that preferentially recognize individuals are an anachronism. This just doesn't reflect how much of today's impactful science gets done. 4/

I received an email that I've personally been nominated for "2025 Breakthrough of the Year" for MICrONS, by a science org I won't call out here. 🧵

“The MICrONS advances published in this special issue of Nature are a watershed moment for neuroscience, comparable to the Human Genome Project in their transformative potential"

“The MICrONS advances published in this special issue of Nature are a watershed moment for neuroscience, comparable to the Human Genome Project in their transformative potential"

We submitted an OpEd on the economic and national security importance of basic science shortly after the election (i.e. before any cuts began). No media outlet would publish it. Now that the horse has left the barn, suddenly every outlet has OpEds on the importance of basic science funding.

🚨 There are 30M legacy medical devices in the US and 6.2 vulnerabilities per device. Our health infrastructure is NOT SECURE. To fix it, we need tools that automate vulnerability detection and remediation at scale. Today, my team is releasing those tools. 🧵

🚨 There are 30M legacy medical devices in the US and 6.2 vulnerabilities per device. Our health infrastructure is NOT SECURE. To fix it, we need tools that automate vulnerability detection and remediation at scale. Today, my team is releasing those tools. 🧵

A top journal has an upcoming special issue on transformative neuroscience advances (10 papers!) that were driven by an ARPA program's focused R&D approach. But so far, the funding agency seems unwilling (unable?) to publicly discuss how its work delivered this impact. 1/

Joshua Sanes: "If I were starting my career today, I would focus on human neurobiology."

Trump has rescinded the Bioeconomy EO, calling it "radical biotech and biomanufacturing initiatives." www.whitehouse.gov/fact-sheets/...

A colleague who recently advertised a postdoctoral position in cancer research told me he's been flooded with resumes from US government staff with 20+ years of experience. I imagine this is happening across fields.

Thinking today about Max Planck, who felt it was his duty to quietly advocate for science from inside the German fascist system, while otherwise going along with government policies, and was nevertheless vilified and cast out by the government for his efforts. www.sparknotes.com/biography/pl...

My wife had a green card once. Our immigration attorney clearly informed us that, although she was entitled to due process, one exception was the government could, by law, immediately revoke her green card on national security grounds. Whether you agree with it or not, it's always been the law.

Ever thought about writing for @thetransmitter.bsky.social? You should! It’s a great way to spread your message across the neuroscience community. Here’s how it works: 1️⃣ Read this: www.thetransmitter.org/editorial-po.... 2️⃣ Email a pitch: www.thetransmitter.org/contact-us/

Interesting that amid all the federal science belt-tightening, DARPA's hiring authorities have been expanded to pay PMs up to the President's salary ($400k) to maintain competitiveness with industry. Not sure if same changes apply to other ARPAs, but I would guess so.

Brains can be more than just a source of inspiration for AI capabilities; they can be a source of inspiration for AI safety, writes @patrickmineault.bsky.social in the latest entry in our NeuroAI series. www.thetransmitter.org/neuroai/does... #neuroskyence #NeuroAI #neuroscience

Killing the science funding engine that drives startup creation and GDP growth over a cultural grievance would be the ultimate cutting off America's nose to spite its face.

My children are descended from Holocaust survivors. 80 years later, they have always needed armed guards at their school and places of worship because antisemitic violence remains so common. I work in national security to make them safer. But hate takes generations to undo.

🚀 Calling all visionary scientists and engineers! Announcing our call for Focused Research Organization proposals in the UK. 🔬Submit your concept paper by Feb 7 & full proposal by March 28. More here: www.convergentresearch.org/frost-uk ⤵️

In the era of Trump 2.0, we're calling on all scientists+ to unpack science for the public. This is much bigger than anyone of us. But if we all do one thing, imagine the cumulative impact! It need not be a burden. More here, in @thetransmitter.bsky.social. www.thetransmitter.org/craft-and-ca...

What is or isn't a "BCI"? We argue in Nature BME today that if the tech stimulates or records brain activity AND does computation, it's a BCI. www.nature.com/articles/s41... But we still need a way to discuss different types of BCI separately... 🧵 #BCI #BrainComputerInterface

I'm excited to share another project we've been working on: The Transmitter's first book, which includes some of our favorite essays from our first ~9 months. Download a copy here: www.thetransmitter.org/transmitter-...

FutureHouse is launching an independent postdoctoral fellowship program for exceptional researchers who want to apply our automated science tools to specific problems in biology and biochemistry, in collaboration with world-leading academic labs. 1/

This is exactly the public debate I hoped to stimulate (provoke?). John's thoughtful analysis is worth your time. 👇

To advance #NeuroAI, we need a focused, top-down approach 👇

We're at the threshold of understanding intelligence itself. The convergence of neuroscience and AI has created an unprecedented opportunity — but our research ecosystem isn't built to seize it. We need a new model that matches the scale of our ambition... 🧵

Us: "Hey we wrote a spirited defense of basic science funding, showing how it drives startup creation and ultimately GDP. Would you like to publish it as an OpEd?" Major Media Outlets: "No."

Recently I spoke at a science philanthropy retreat and an audience member asked "What's the biggest challenge you've faced in your work?" My answer: Imagining a world that works differently than it does today. 🧵

🧪 E11 Bio is excited to share a major step towards brain mapping at 100x lower cost, making whole-brain connectomics at human & mouse scale feasible (🧠→🔬→💻). Critical for curing brain disorders, building human-like AI systems, and even simulating human brains. Read more: e11.bio/news/roadmap

Please share: ARIA is offering £500k seed awards for neural interface projects. Apply by 13 Feb 2025. I've been impressed with ARIA's scientific team and overall execution so far. They deserve your best ideas! www.aria.org.uk/scalable-neu...

Unpopular opinion: If you are a scientist who doesn't participate in science advocacy outside your filter bubble, you are doing yourself a disservice. Bluesky is intellectually fun, but the people who will soon be making decisions about government science funding priorities are not on here.

One cultural rift I've observed in neuroscience: Connectomics folks tend to be firm in their belief that only a dense connectome is useful, sparse reconstructions need not apply. Meanwhile physiologists are content to randomly sample a few neurons here and there...

Checkout the launch of @thetransmitter.bsky.social's new essay series on NeuroAI, with an intro by @tonyzador.bsky.social exploring how neuroscience has inspired advances in artificial intelligence and how AI has provided a testing ground for neuro models. www.thetransmitter.org/neuroai/neur...

What a joyful day for Princeton and pocket protector wearers everywhere. One graduate mentor's Nobel down, one to go.