Thought-provoking piece by @lewisgoodall.com. He argues that the US under Trump is no longer from the UK perspective a - military ally (Greenland) - strategic ally (Russia/Ukraine) - political ally (NSS calling for empowering far-right in Europe) - economic ally (tariffs)

Vērts izlasīt vai noklausīties — sevišķi tiem priekšstāvjiem Saeimā, kuri Trampa prezidentūru Latvijai vērtē "ar plusa zīmi". "when we only negotiate bilaterally with a hegemon, we negotiate from weakness. [..] It is the performance of sovereignty while accepting subordination."

This is the most astonishing graph of what the Trump regime has done to US science. They have destroyed the federal science workforce across the board. The negative impacts on Americans will be felt for generations, and the US might never be the same again. www.nature.com/immersive/d4...

I love everything about Cow Tools -- this is peak Current Biology, one of the few journals with a personality.

Wikipedia’s Baltic Battle: Estonian Journalists Warn of Coordinated Pro-Soviet Edits, Lithuania Reports Similar Targeting - The Baltic Sentinel balticsentinel.eu/8394326/wiki...

👀 #newpreprint: 🎮 Real-time Pong gameplay after #spinalcordinjury by learning to control just one motor unit from paralysed muscle - no implants. Co-led by @juangallego.bsky.social and Dario Farina, with work carried out at @imperialcollegeldn.bsky.social. 📄👉🔗 shorturl.at/RYuYG

@taragarnett.bsky.social made the crucial point: the real gains won't come from converting people to veganism, but from many people cutting back on overconsuming meat. The good news that cutting back would save lives from poor health.

Following coverage over the weekend of Sir Paul Nurse's comments that suggested that the only reason that a Fellow should be expelled from @royalsociety.org is scientific misconduct, I have written to him to explain the risks such an attitude poses of increasing sexual harassment in STEM.

Latvia's finest cartoonist @karikaturalv.bsky.social

Feel like this fresh year needs some serious culture change? We got you covered! With @clarekelly.bsky.social @eikofried.bsky.social Anna van 't Veer 📝 rdcu.be/eXja4

🧠 New year, new preprint! Why does motor learning involve multiple brain regions? We propose that the cortico-cerebellar system learns a "map" of actions where similar movements are nearby, while basal ganglia do RL in this simplified space. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Bye bye 2025, a divisive year, with many divisors: 3, 5, 9, 15, 25, 27, 45, 75, 81, 135, 225, 405, 675. Happy 2026 = 2*1013 Just two primes Cheers!

Just published my review of neuroscience in 2025, on The Spike. The 10th of these, would you believe? This year we have foundation models, breakthroughs in using light to understand the brain, a gene therapy, and more Enjoy! medium.com/the-spike/20...

Adam Kampff prioritized spreading knowledge over publishing flashy papers in prestigious journals, but colleagues say his mark on neuroscience was undeniable. The researcher and educator passed away on 9 December. By Lauren Schneider www.thetransmitter.org/systems-neur...

Cat and Ashley work so hard to do justice to both: - the scientific rigor of their fields - the human duties of making those fields serve us equitably, honestly, without distortion or manipulation You have been misled about girls and math ability. Don’t miss this one:

Kamaniņu PK šonedēļ atgriežas krievijas sportisti. Izskatās, ka TV6 viņu braucienus sistemātiski aizstāj ar reklāmām un viņu eksistenci principiāli nepiemin. Lai gan problēmas ignorēšana problēmu nemazina un šāds šķietams protests visdrīzāk ir piliens jūrā, patīkami, ka notiekošo nenormalizējam.

The EU never gets praise even when it acts. There is so much constant EU negging that commentators struggle to praise when it delivers. The EU did what it needed to do. Take the win. Last night was a big step for Ukraine and the European project. First, the EU got the money for Ukraine 1/

We can improve both health and planetary health by shifting to plant-rich, minimally processed foods. This simultaneously reduces disease, emissions, and environmental damage while boosting economic productivity.

I've tried and failed a couple times to write a post explaining how serious this would be. NCAR is globally essential to our climate change response. This can't just be replaced. Every scientist in the world will be doing climate research with one hand tied behind their back for at least a decade

In my case, this painstaking labor in the process through which the science gets done. Science isn't measuring stuff in a lab. It's thinking deeply, extracting the heart of idea from the soup of thoughts running through my mind, molding it, and finding a way to communicate that idea to others.

Adam Kampff’s passion for understanding and explaining the world was unmatched. Living by example and not ever compromising on his dreams, Adam was uncanny in making people realize they can learn and understand anything and everything. Keep his dream alive! In his own words: tinyurl.com/ye29csw3

Also interesting to see the results per million inhabitants. Estonia has a lot going for such a small country! The most "brain gain" is in Switzerland, Netherlands, Norway, and Sweden (the last two are superimposed). The most "brain drain" is in Croatia (HR). Germany & France neither gain nor drain.

"The catch is that the tactic seemed to work regardless of whether the claims were true or false."

Vēl viena svarīga lieta. Mums ir jāmudina vīrieši studēt. Kamēr 57 % sieviešu vecuma grupā 30–34 ir augstākā izglītība, tikai 32 % vīriešu ir augstskolas diploms. Dati rāda arī to, ka sievietēm ar zemāku izglītības līmeni ir mazākas algas par vīriešiem ar tādu pašu izglītības līmeni.

Zināšanu jomā Latvija ieņem pēdējo vietu Eiropas Savienībā. Latvijā četri no pieciem absolventiem izglītības, veselības un labklājības, humanitāro zinātņu un mākslas jomā ir sievietes. Eksaktajās zinātnes tikai katrs trešais absolvents ir sieviete. Šai atšķirībai būtu jābūt zemākai.

Great culture can save lives. Literally. Amazing letter in today’s @thetimes.com about Tom Stoppard

Nature Sci Rep publishes incoherent AI slop. eLife publishes a paper which the reviewers didn't agree with, making all the comments and responses public with thoughtful commentary. One of these journals got delisted by Web of Science for quality concerns from not doing peer review. Guess which one?

Here's a seven-point peace plan:

Ja ir izdevība, iesaku apmeklēt ekskursiju Liepājas teātrī: www.bilesuparadize.lv/lv/performan... Mums šopavasar bija gods iepazīt Liepājas teātra aizkulises tieši Ainas Kareles vadībā. Ļoti interesanti un sirsnīgi. Individuāliem apmeklētājiem ekskursija pieejama reizi mēnesī.

Here's the crux of the problem, all the solutions to this disaster now lie in the past, any and every action that might have changed the present would have looked too much, too soon And this, "What makes this moment so fraught is that neither officials nor citizens seem to know where the line is"

Imagine, if you will, that NASA updated its website to suggest gravity might not exist, prompting CalTech and CERN to release statements saying, "With great sadness, we can no longer recommend listening to NASA." This is what's happening in epidemiology.

Mans #108: brūnie griķi. Bez tiem klātos sūri gan ikdienā, gan ceļojot. Brūno griķu pagatavošana ūdenī bez vārīšanas ir mans iecienītākais life hack. Valstis, kuru veikalu plaukti aprobežojas ar zaļajiem griķiem, don't know what they're missing.

EXCELLENT graphic on the drain of scientific publishing! zenodo.org/records/1759...

Vispirms sagrābs medijus, pēc tam – demokrātiju. www.lsm.lv/raksts/arpus...

Shameless plug: For a year, I've been working on a series about the vast systems that underlie life in most of the world. Built up over generations, these systems are the cathedrals of our time--but all too few of us know anything about them, and they're all at risk of failing. Here's the latest:

We wrote the Strain on scientific publishing to highlight the problems of time & trust. With a fantastic group of co-authors, we present The Drain of Scientific Publishing: a 🧵 1/n Drain: arxiv.org/abs/2511.04820 Strain: direct.mit.edu/qss/article/... Oligopoly: direct.mit.edu/qss/article/...

aicinu atbalstīt aicinājumu Saeimai izstradāt Manabalss.lv līdzfinansēšanas mehānismu no valsts budžeta līdzekļiem manabalss.lv/i/3815

Mani pārsteidza AS regulārās atsauces uz "lielo konservatīvo mandātu", jo pirms 2022.gada vēlēšanām biju viņus uztvērusi kā drīzāk centrisku spēku. Biju kļūdījusies. Vērtējot tā laika Partiju šķirotavas atbildes, AS nudien nonāk vienā bariņā ar NA un ZZS. 👉 zanemit.github.io/party-plotti... 1/3

New preprint: Neural manifolds that orchestrate walking and stopping Here we develop a new theory for neural generation of walking and how it can stop- Next we test the theory using Neuropixels probes in the lumber spinal cord of freely moving rats. See more: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

According to the police, around 10,000 people took to the streets of Riga tonight to protest against the (so far unsuccessful) attempts to withdraw Latvia from the Istanbul Convention.

Te vietā atgādināt jau hrestomatizējušos amerikāņu rakstnieka Sinklēra Lūisa(Sinclair Lewis) citātu: "Kad fašisms ienāks Amerikā, tas būs ietīts karogā un nesīs krustu." To der pielāgot arī LV norisēm. Un tieši par to arī būs šodienas protests - pret neofašistiskām pazīmēm varas izpausmēs. >>>

💡Platforma www.manabalss.lv parakstus reģistrē pēc personas koda, tāpēc viens cilvēks nevar parakstīties vairākas reizes – arī tad, ja izmanto vairākas internetbankas un pārlūkprogrammas. 👉🏻 Skaidrojam: rebaltica.lv/2025/11/par-...

Ļoti precīzi.

After receiving a petition signed by more than 62,000 citizens President Edgars Rinkēvičs has exercised his constitutional right to return the law on Latvia’s withdrawal from the Istanbul Convention to the Parliament for reconsideration. Big protests in support of Convention planned on Nov 6.

Viens no Austrijas lielajiem laikrakstiem par Latvijas soli izstāties no SK: "Nekādu Eiropas Savienībai raksturīgo brieduma pazīmju."

"Pasaule, kurā arī citas valstis izstājas no konvencijām un organizācijām, līdzko dalība tajās šķiet apgrūtinoša, ir pasaule, kurā Latvija nevar izdzīvot." satori.lv/article/spek...

Monologs par to, ka "sabiedrība" (=AS deputāti) tagad pirmo reizi lasa SK... Šo apliecinājumu, ka AS ciniski pārstāv savas, nevis valsts intereses, ir jāatceras vēlēšanās, tomēr šobrīd mūsu interesēs, šķiet, nav viņus kaunināt. Lai vairāk šādu pārbēdzēju! Lai otrreizējai caurlūkošanai būtu jēga!

For a country of just 1.86m people, this is huge. And the number of signatures keeps growing, having now exceeded 54,000.