If you parent a college student, could you pretty please with sugar on top ask them to stop using ChatGPT to email their professors? These emails are driving us slowly bananas.

Today I learned I am at the “perturbed rather than excited by back-to-back snow days” stage of being a professor. A small part of me has died.

Have had this happen to me a couple times over the last year, including on a re-review of a manuscript I had serious concerns about (so they really should’ve wanted my input!). This is very low on the priority list of things to fix with peer review, but it is disproportionately irritating 😡😡😡

Remember that week on the Old Site where we all put our thesis/paper titles in a very early AI image generator for shits and giggles? I miss those simple times… of about 5 years ago.

Revision of the lab’s first manuscript submitted! Now the (anxious) waiting begins…

Realizing that Futurama perfectly predicted AI in scientific research 15 years ago: youtu.be/LCPhbN1l024

Ok I forgot how brilliant John Noble is… I’m back fully hooked. Also the cow.

On one hand, I’m so excited that FRINGE is finally streaming somewhere for a nostalgic rewatch. On the other hand, I’m 20 minutes in I’ve scoffed at the pseudoscientific nonsense that used to entertain me a half dozen times. And yet…

Why can I NEVER spell the word analagous right on the first try? Damn it, I did it again!

I’m reminded of recent stories in @theatlantic.com on grade inflation. The common thread? The idea that educators are now evaluated on student “satisfaction” rather than, you know, whether students actually learn what they are supposed to. We’ve got work to do. apple.news/AY76JVMD-SWe...

The part of this that doesn’t get talked about enough? The creeping expectation that educators are in the “customer service” business. Education shouldn’t be thought of as a business at all, while we’re at it. (Can you tell it’s end-of-semester grading season? 🫠🫠🫠)

A proud #NewPI moment to break-up your daily doomscroll: In six weeks, my first rotation student went from not having coded since undergrad to having a 2D neuronal network visualized via movies up and running. AND they want to keep doing computational neuroscience as part of their thesis 😀

The world is on fire, but at least it's a great time to be a college basketball addict who got his undergrad from Duke, his Ph.D. from Michigan, and currently teaches at UConn 😉

Today was a good day 😈😈😈

"Neuroscientists need better training in computational methods." We got you. Join us in July: neuromatch.io/courses/ Our #ComputationalNeuroscience course is the perfect way to gain practical experience and build a strong foundation in this field.

That halftime show is why only Detroit/Michigan teams should be allowed to do the Seven Nation Army chant at sporting events. An explosion of Detroit pride. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!!

Just an absolutely gutting essay by Tatiana Schlossberg, a writer, mother of two young children, and cousin of RFK Jr who is dying of leukemia. www.newyorker.com/culture/the-...

This is terrifying. As university educators, if we can’t trust that students’ grades actually reflect their knowledge and understanding, where do we even start? How do we teach dozens (hundreds!) of students at a time if they don’t all have the appropriate foundation? apple.news/ASXIhp9hAS1C...

One of the only recent time travel shows (spoiler alert for a years old show that’s spoiled in its own trailer?) that uses it as a proper storytelling device and not a gimmick. Plus, there’s an internal logic and rules that it sticks to for the whole run. Can’t recommend enough.

Grant resubmitted. With a four month old baby. Hallelujah! I know I should feel some sense of pride/accomplishment/relief, but right now all I’m able to think about is what I would’ve improved if I had another month and/or a less sleep deprived brain. #NewPI imposter syndrome at its finest!

Waiiiiit… does this apply to the resubmission in submitting Monday that is b 99.9% done? I’m not sure if I appreciate the extra time or am bad I’ve worked so much to finish things this week only for it to be for naught. It’s the latter 😡😡😡

Since the vibe around here has changed over the past 24 hours (wonder why?), let me add to the good news with my own: After a long wait, the lab’s first paper received a very reasonable R&R!!!

Can’t emphasize how good this is if it gets universally adopted. I felt like such a burden on my (very supportive!) mentors every time I had to ask for another letter, or prod them about a deadline. It’s just an unnecessary extra stressor on everyone involved in the process.

Umm… If KK Arnold has leveled up the way she seems to have nothing else matters, because everyone is going to be fighting for second behind UConn. (Also: Hi fellow Chronicle alum! 😀)

Ummmm I think baseball is broken

I’m at the #NewPI stage where I still respond to every email inquiry. It’s not sustainable, but I want to at least try. But regularly getting emails addressed to “Dr. Scott” is going to burn that out of me quickly. If you don’t take the time to know my name, do I need to take the time to reply?

There was a looooong time I was pushing to name our daughter Lyra, so when I say I’m excited for this it may be the understatement of the year. (Aside: I hope all of us scientists are putting His Dark Materials in the hands of our children ASAP.) apple.news/A6xaGr2gRTui...

Nearly a week and still stuck on a “Decision in Progress” status… I’ve never experienced a stall like this at this stage! By the time I get a decision it’ll be four full months, which seems unusually slow even for these unprecedented times 🫠🫠🫠

The first time my Dad duties have helped my work: my baby girl’s poop explosion just reset my brain enough to write the perfect sentence for an idea I had been agonizing over for the previous hour 😂😂😂

Omg this worked back into happy anxiety mode GO TIGERS

After 3+ months in review, the status on the lab’s first manuscript has finally progressed. Cue the anxiety spike to every email until the decision comes. 😅🤔😂 🤞🤞🤞

In all my years of having my mental health disproportionately determined by sports (yes I’m aware of the problem!), I’ve never felt so… RESIGNED to the end of a once promising season like I am with these Detroit Tigers. May this skeet anti-jinx them into playing actually competitive baseball.

First grant as a Dad submitted! Ok, it was an LOI. But on newborn-addled levels of sleep and time to work, I’m still counting this as a big win… regardless of the outcome 😀 #AcademicSky #neurosky #compneurosky #NewPI

Counterpoint: the never-ending gluten-free fad creates so many more options to those of us who ACTUALLY have Celiac 😂 apple.news/AGhFj5SStQb2...

This snippet is from an article on the “AI bubble” (apple.news/AYexgL6UdTrO...), but next time a University proposes slashing support staff in response to budget challenges we should all wave it in their faces.

See? I wasn’t kidding! 😉 bsky.app/profile/rich...

Anti-jinxing this until the cows come home.

This is gonna be fun. #GoBlue

“That easy A’s would lead students to phone in their coursework should have been predictable. What’s surprising is that the system has also failed to reduce stress. The percentage of first-year students who have received counseling has nearly tripled in the past decade.” apple.news/AlZopGWfBSL-...

The podcast I make semi-regular cameos hosting interviewed Jon Scheyer today. Not surreal at all.

If @mgoblog.bsky.social can be excited for college sports after this, then I feel so much less guilty about my plans to use football season to ignore the dismantling of American science for at least one day a week. Worth a read by everyone, sports fan or no. Go Blue. mgoblog.com/content/stor...

Every mentor I ever had warned me about this, and I STILL wasn’t prepared for how much of my life is emails. Especially when I’m lecturing to ~300 young premeds…

Welllllll there goes any optimism I had after the congressional budget news. I’m not sure how we’re supposed to survive amidst all this chaos, independent of needing money to do the actual science.

Tenure-track job postings specifically for COMPUTATIONAL neuroscience are few and far between. Great to see one here!

A reminder: Black Mirror concepts are meant as warnings, NOT AS SUGGESTIONS! 🤦‍♂️

Ummm… is this good news?!??

Also (minus the one obviously dated bit) this exchange lives rent free in my head: youtu.be/uqyDP_6yFFM?...

Life in #AcademicSky in a nutshell. Futurama science for the win, always.

Sincere question about this (purposefully?) confusing policy: as a #NewPI am I better off stalling some grant resubmissions until this stabilizes? Are the funding rates this year going to be so low that it isn’t worth it? #AcademicSky #NeuroSkyence

Not what I want to read about my alma mater. As researchers we need to do better not only making the broad argument for our importance, but the SPECIFIC one that higher education needs us. E.G., future doctors need exposure to biomedical research as undergrads, etc…