Check out our latest, online now at @sfnjournals.bsky.social www.jneurosci.org/content/earl...

This is a powerful account from a PhD student whose fellowship was terminated by NIH because it was part of a "diversity" program without any other considerations or understanding of what the program or the students were actually doing. undark.org/2025/10/09/o... 1/2

What does the naked mole rat’s extreme healthspan have to do with ongoing clinical trials? open.substack.com/pub/erictopo...

FIGHT FOR SCIENCE RALLY ✊🌏 ⏰ WHEN: October 17th, 2025 📍WHERE: 200 Independence Ave SW, Washington DC! RSVP to JOIN THE FIGHT IRL: zurl.co/LayiM ‼️ 📲 Join us Virtually!: zurl.co/Um47l

Why does the naked mole rat have the longest lifespan of any rodent, nearly 40 years? A 30-year long mystery unraveled @ScienceMagazine today! Its cGAS enzyme in cells has 4 missense mutations that upends its function, promoting DNA repair and suppressing inflammation www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Are there clues we are missing in the gut? Spoiler alert: Microbiome differences in Parkinson’s vs isolated REM sleep behavior disorder. The intestinal microbiota refers to the trillions of microorganisms living in our gut that play critical roles in digestion, immunity and possibly brain health.

This year’s #NobelPrize in Physiology or Medicine has been awarded to three scientists for discovering how the immune system distinguishes friend from foe. https://scim.ag/3Wt5rdi

💡Fascinating study seeking to understand the genetic and behavioral links between musicality and communication, could have important implications for speech therapy🎵🗣️ www.nature.com/articles/s41...

The role of perturbation of our circadian clock plays in promoting the fibrosis (scarring) of organs www.jci.org/articles/vie...

In one of Gary Larson's books, he reportedly got in trouble with the Jane Goodall Society for this cartoon, but he heard that Jane Goodall personally loved it.

Evidence-based tips on getting better sleep: the primacy of circadian rhythm new feature @nature.com nature.com/articles/d41...

To cleanse the mind & purge my timeline of ugly events, I took a long hike in a grand forest—a place of hobbits, fairies, & silent giants, reaching for the sun. Winding rusty paths, winds through moss & ferns-frond, invite the soul into Middle-earth. #tolkien #photography #pnw

With 2 postdocs moving on to faculty positions🥳, we're looking to hire someone new. If you're interested in norepinephrine and neural circuits, please apply! tinyurl.com/42bfe24k

Happy Left Behind Day to all who celebrate! 🥳🫶

The Sosa Lab website is now live! www.sosaneurolab.com We will be seeking a postdoctoral researcher to join the growing team! If you are a rodent neuroscientist and interested in doing systems neuro work in the mountains 🏔️, please check out the "Join" page.

Hmm. Come to find out that the big one, “The Rapture” is happening next week. But I’ve got salon appointments scheduled with my mom 💅 so…guess I’m busy getting my hair done for the apocalypse.

A new, tour de force review on the future approaches to treat and potentially cure Type 1 diabetes @thelancet.com thelancet.com/journals/lan...

Today is World #AlzheimersDay A note of optimism @science.org www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

But without the wit...

I have to keep this deliberately vague, but this is a total disaster for academic research. And imposing it so suddenly is just cruel. I’ve got friends scrambling to get back to the US before midnight tonight. Do you know how hard that is to do on 36 hours of notice?

As you cancel streaming services, here is a casual reminder that only 16% of Americans read for pleasure anymore, and your local library has hundreds or thousands of books you haven't read. They would love to see you stop by and renew your library card.

How sugary drinks loaded with fructose and glucose may promote colon cancer metastatic potential www.nature.com/articles/s42...

"At breathtaking speed, the Trump administration is enacting policies that will be difficult to reverse and could disrupt population health for years or decades to come. Time is running out to intervene." www.thelancet.com/journals/lan... @thelancet.com

Why do we sleep? And how? The 2 theories, broken down cell.com/neuron/fullt...

A simple way to help reduce obesity and stroke? Stop the shifts in our clocks twice a year www.pnas.org/doi/abs/10.1...

I've been following the field of biosensors for nearly 2 decades. This may well turn out to be the most important advance yet erictopol.substack.com/p/biosensors...

"We will never know what diseases might have been cured or what advances in technology might have been invented had the lights not gone out in the labs." www.nytimes.com/2025/09/08/o...

Discovery of a brain center (BNST) that controls consumption (including sweets, fats, salt and other foods) in mice www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...

Today @nature.com www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Calling for RFK’s resignation is less than the bare minimum. People have already died bc of decisions he’s made. The impacts of what he’s done over the last few months will already be felt for decades even if they could all be reversed today. Not demanding actual consequences is missing the moment.

A nasal spray reduced the risk of Covid infections in a double blind, placebo controlled randomized trial jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...

Hey everybody! @drjuliawester.bsky.social and I have a new paper! We surveyed over 800 scientists, science communicators, and science educators who use social media. Conclusion: Scientists no longer find Twitter useful or pleasant, and many have switched to Bluesky! 🧪🌎🦑 doi.org/10.1093/icb/...

Good to see @bsky.app has emerged as the social media platform of choice for science stuff arstechnica.com/science/2025...

made these stickers a few years ago and yeah that's still accurate

"Any book worth banning is a book worth reading." Isaac Asimov

Great breakdown of the SCOTUS shadow docket ruling on NIH grants terminations by @strictscrutiny.bsky.social. Even though SCOTUS ruled that the grant recipients would likely succeed, they allowed the NIH to continue terminating the grants for now. My brain hurts from this one.

The @NYTimes has done a fantastic job on explaining what the Trump administration’s savage cuts to biomedical research mean: cures that won’t happen. Please share this widely. This is a catastrophe. www.nytimes.com/2025/08/24/o...

Extensive story from ProPublica about HHS staffing cuts. Outstanding reporting and a lot to digest. projects.propublica.org/federal-heal...

I think everyone knows this will be bad because it’s going to mean less physicians, less scientists, less new advancements & missed cures for diseases like cancer that may end up killing us. But it’s also going to devastate all of us economically even sooner cause the ROI on these dollars was crazy.

A powerful piece from Bloomberg about the damage being done to NIH. 1/2

I wrote a Comment on neurotheory, and now you can read it! Some thoughts on where neurotheory has and has not taken root within the neuroscience community, how it has shaped those subfields, and where we theorists might look next for fresh adventures. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

1. "'Trusting the experts is not a feature of either a science or democracy," Kennedy said." It's literally a vital feature of both science and of representative democracy. I've written a fair bit about trust in expertise as a vital mechanism in the collective epistemology of science.

That's right.

How does Epstein- Barr virus induce multiple sclerosis? The infection leads to B cells that get into the brain, attracting pro-inflammatory T cells (mouse model) www.nature.com/articles/s41...

RFK Jr and HHS just ended all US supported mRNA vaccine development www.hhs.gov/press-room/h...

🚨Pre-print alert🚨 We stimulated serotonin with optogenetics while doing large-scale Neuropixel recordings across the mouse brain. We found strong widespread modulation of neural activity, but no effect on the choices of the mouse 🐭 How is this possible? Strap in! (1/9) 👇🧵 doi.org/10.1101/2025...

A rundown on the big advances we’re seeing on the brain-immune axis erictopol.substack.com/p/our-braini...

"Analyses of cancer survivors databases reveal that SARS-CoV-2 infection substantially increases the risk of cancer-related mortality and lung metastasis compared with uninfected cancer survivors." Mice data show #COVID drives the proliferation of previously dormant cancer cells.

New paper with @mujianing.bsky.social & @prestonlab.bsky.social! We propose a simple model for human memory of narratives: we uniformly sample incoming information at a constant rate. This explains behavioral data much better than variable-rate sampling triggered by event segmentation or surprisal.

Metformin, the first line drug for Type 2 diabetes, has been used for 60 years without a clearcut mechanism of action. It turns out it's not just reducing glucose output from the liver. Metformin also works via the brain www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...