This one made me smile. The cover of the September issue of @brain1878.bsky.social depicts Hume and Sartre in animated conversation, accompanying a new essay on mental imagery by Margherita Arcangeli and Paolo Bartolomeo academic.oup.com/brain/articl...

There's greed and then there's Springer Nature greed. No wonder some people are smiling!

To my astonishment, my new book Vanished has been shortlisted for the Royal Society’s Trivedi Science Book Prize. Thankful to all the roarsome people who helped make it happen, from the Royal Society and judges to many beloveds. Roaring! 🐯 #Extinction #BookSky #HPS #Skystorians

Very happy to be in such great company, shortlisted for the @royalsociety.org Trivedi Science Book Prize with 'Our Brains, Our Selves' published by @canongate.co.uk

Latest edition of @brain1878.bsky.social includes a new paper on General Paresis of the Insane and an accompanying editorial, explaining why it and neurosyphilis still remain conditions which we can't afford to forget academic.oup.com/brain/articl...

Our Dementia Research Oxford Seminar series recommences on Sept 11th with Prof Martin Turner on 'Advancing therapy development in ALS'. 12 Noon on Zoom us06web.zoom.us/webinar/regi... @masudhusain.bsky.social @ndcnoxford.bsky.social

July issue of @brain1878.bsky.social includes an article on AI-based tools for urgent decision-making for thrombectomy in acute #stroke. Unlike the White Rabbit, we don't want to be late! academic.oup.com/brain/articl...

Very pleased to see 'Our Brains, Our Selves' made it into the @financialtimes.com best of this year's science books www.ft.com/content/0f0b...

This month's issue of @brain1878.bsky.social contains two fascinating essays - runners up from last year's competition, as well as a fantastic range of articles from anti-NMDAR encephalitis, through to stroke and neurodegenerative diseases. academic.oup.com/brain/issue/...

I'm planning to write an editorial in @brain1878.bsky.social entitled "If patients only knew". It's about obstacles that slow down or prevent people from participating in clinical studies and the pace of initiating #ClinicalTrials. If you have experience or comments please message me and repost.

"Thinking time —the time needed to concentrate without interruptions has always been central to scholarly work. It is essential to designing experiments, compiling data, assessing results, reviewing literature and, of course, writing. Yet, [it] is often undervalued." www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Had a wonderful time at the International Dublin Literature Festival #IDLF discussing my new book 'Our Brains, Our Selves' with Shauna Bowers from the Irish Times, and having some fantastic conversations with a lot of people curious about brains and their disorders.

Interesting discussion tonight on How to Hack your Brain to improve learning at Oxford Biohacking Society with my neuroscience colleagues bstaresina.bsky.social‬ and vineytj.bsky.social

Absolutely spellbinding talk from @masudhusain.bsky.social on the neuroscience of apathy - what a great start to the final day of #BNA2025. Off to order the book now 👍

Needless bureaucracy and “bullshit jobs” are preventing academics from fulfilling their core creative responsibilities and making clinical research an “impossible task”, a leading neuroscientist has warned. @patrickjack.bsky.social reports #AcademicSky

On Sunday 11 May at Stratford Upon Avon Literary Festival, hear from @masudhusain.bsky.social on 'Our Brains: Our Selves' @oxexppsy.bsky.social

If you happen to be in central Oxford on Sat 5th April and you're interested in the relationship between brains and selves, I'm speaking at the Oxford Literary Festival

Here is a chance to make your voice heard within the university and reduce the administrative burden.

At @ox.ac.uk it's time for the staff survey. Here's my answer to: "What is the main thing the University could do to help you to progress your career?" Please repost and respond similarly to the survey if you agree. It's the only way to get our points across!

It's not just clinical research either!

Ditto here in Australia…

It is important that we move toward changing this before it is too late and leave us far behind researchers in other countries.. in fact, other items on the list, such as inflexible environments, also have roots in the designed beurucracy for clinical research in the UK.

Thank goodness people are waking up to the fact that there is a crisis for clinical research in the UK @financialtimes.com High on the list are the bureaucratic processes that have become an obstacle to getting things done

Review of my book 'Our Brains, Our Selves' @financialtimes.com www.ft.com/content/e9c2...

The number of patients entering clinical trials in the UK fell by 27% from 2018 to 2023 and new industry trials declined 38%. To revive clinical research we need to streamline systems and dismantle bureaucracy, writes @masudhusain.bsky.social www.bmj.com/content/388/...

Writing this took some guts, but we are all thinking it.

Clinical research in the UK is under threat, partly because it takes so long to get a study or trial approved. Here are some of my suggested solutions in this BMJ Opinion piece @nihr.bsky.social @wellcometrust.bsky.social @ukri.org www.bmj.com/content/388/...

Additional: If you are on a committee, resist the need for more processes

ON SALE TODAY! 🧠💻 Christopher Summerfield's (@summerfieldlab.bsky.social) "brilliant" (@mustafasuleymanai.bsky.social) THESE STRANGE NEW MINDS charts the evolution of intelligent talking machines and helps us understand how they work and how we can use them. Start reading now 👉 bit.ly/41WoPTB

Thanks to everyone for comments on my Brain editorial. There've been lots of questions on solutions. I'm afraid it's unlikely that any supreme body is going to come to our rescue. We have to do it ourselves. The problems came one by one. We can dismantle them one by one.

Some took offense to the travel example in the article (doi.org/10.1093/brai... ), so I outlined others in some detail: external compliance, internal weirdness, and some good processes with poor implementation. Importantly, we ALL benefit (administrative and academic staff alike!) from reduced BS.

Recently, @masudhusain.bsky.social argued that corporatisation of universities has overloaded us with inefficient processes that drown out teaching and research. Others read it as against administrative colleagues, and/or badly-timed DOGE ammunition. Some thoughts: www.dalmaijer.org/2025/03/redu...

Totally ! Yes. As a scientist I used to think "meh! why am spending my time booking this trip myself …" But fact is, when I booked the trips, it was cheaper and faster. Now, it is a back and forth of e-mails over several days or weeks until the agency makes the booking, while the prices increase.

So true it hurts

“If contracts like this were the policy of a small, developing nation, some people might wonder which gangster was pocketing the profits.” if our board was getting free holidays because we signed a deal with Diversity, it’d make *at least someone* better off. The whole editorial is, btw, great!

These guys saw it coming ten years ago! pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC...

Yeah collaboration agreements are one major example. While they have great potential purposes, our uni routinely takes 6 months to create them and the end result is always a legal nightmare while the researchers waste time and money, and everyone loses interest by the end.

The travel agency scam is quite the beauty. Staff: "But I can book my flight and hotel *much* cheaper elsewhere!" Response: "Does not compute. Please comply with existing guidelines and follow policy. Refusal to comply may result in premature termination".

Great article. The growing mountain of unnecessary administrative burden and corporatization is slowly strangling UK academia….just as it is in the NHS and Royal Colleges.

This is great Masud -- There was a good description of Chomsky's position on anarchy and authority on the Philosophize This podcast that presaged bullshit jobs -- He argued that authority is required to justify its existence. www.philosophizethis.org/transcript/e...

Thank you Masud for giving voice to the thoughts that many of us have. There are horror stories to share about travel agents contracted by universities. They cost more money & time as you say, and they often put at risk colleagues, especially women, who found themselves in dangerous situation

I had to fill it everyday, make it validate by my boss, validate it with the secretary who was also asking screenshots of it in case of an audit all that to provide to a grant to make their stats on it but all that wasted time was time not spent on actually doing research

a must-read essay on the ever-rising tide of nonsense within universities

Another great piece by Masud Husain about the Brazilish* nightmare that modern academia has become... (* Referring to the Terry Gilliam movie - not to be confused with Brazilian which refers to a South American country and its people)

I've been thinking about this a lot and I am glad someone else (and someone who can put it so brilliantly) has written about this. Is this same in other countries or is this a UK problem? The amount of time it now takes to book travel is outrageous, and you don't have acces to deals or best hotels

"Corporate academia is subverting academic life. It’s destroying academia from within." Neat to have BS jobs & the managerial cadre who make up work to justify their own job linked back to our responsibilities to call it out --we're being distracted while critical thought has seldom been more vital

Why academia is sleepwalking into self-destruction. My editorial @brain1878.bsky.social If you agree with the sentiments please repost. It's important for all our sakes to stop the madness academic.oup.com/brain/articl...

My mum’s been enjoying reading this, so it must be good. Congrats Masud!

A big thank you to all those who have been so positive about my new book. It's about how neurological patients can tell us so much about our selves, how personal and social identities are forged by different cognitive functions, and what it means to belong.

Happy publication to: OUR BRAINS, OUR SELVES – Masud Husain THE CAFE WITH NO NAME – Robert Seethaler THE WARDROBE DEPARTMENT – Elaine Garvey ONE DAY, EVERYONE WILL HAVE ALWAYS BEEN AGAINST THIS – Omar El Akkad BETWEEN BRITAIN – Alistair Moffat PITY – Andrew McMillan uk.bookshop.org/lists/out-to...