Scientists and other experts were preparing an assessment of the health of nature in the US when Trump returned to the White House. He canceled the report. The researchers went ahead and compiled it on their own. This week, they released a 868-p draft for public comment and scientific review.

Here's a striking visual illusion - the 9 purple dots. Focus your eyes on the top left dot. That one is more purple than the others, right? Now try another dot... that one becomes the purple one! pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41744429/

1. Take a look at this chart. That black line? Technically, it's the decline in the percentage of Americans who move each year—from about one in five to less than one in thirteen. But it's more than that. You're looking at the decline of the American dream.

Can we PLEASE stop calling them “hallucinations.” A hallucination is a false sensory perception. LLMs don’t *perceive* anything. These are “CONFABULATIONS.” Thank you for your attention to this matter.

A popular press recap of all the cool stuff that @schmidtocean.bsky.social recently found off the coast of Argentina Deep-sea explorers film massive animal drifting through darkness in South Atlantic Ocean | Discover Wildlife share.google/99B8UnGPRL7y...

Somebody created an Reddit clone exclusively populated by personal digital agents and let them interact with each other. It’s bonkers, fascinating and terrifying in equal measure. www.forbes.com/sites/amirhu...

Found some relevant wisdom in buzsaki's brain from inside out: "We need a societal version of the homeostatic compensatory mechanism of non-rem sleep to combat the intrinsic drive of technological development and global economy towards widening the gap between the two tails [of wealth]. [...

In response to announcement that he will be a new CBS contributor, Andrew Huberman tweeted “I’ve always gone issue-by-issue on health & science, spoken to experts w/a range of takes & presented where I see the center of (data) mass pointed. I’ll do the same with @CBSNews”. In Sept he posted this:

This page aggregates a number of community groups that are involved www.standwithminnesota.com

Even when there’s no accountability, the record matters. Credit to the Wikipedia editors maintaining this page.

High-frequency bursts facilitate fast communication for human spatial attention. doi.org/10.1038/s415... #neuroscience

If you are a resident of California, the state now has a portal where you can demand deletion of your personal data from 500+ registered data brokers with a single request form, for free. consumer.drop.privacy.ca.gov

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...

Join planet wild missions. This is my favorite one of this year If you join, use my referral code: 9GTMDK #planetwild youtu.be/rYVGalSJz0k?...

Now that I got newyorker for the sacks piece, there's other cool stuff to read Why A.I. Didn’t Transform Our Lives in 2025 www.newyorker.com/culture/2025...

Adrian Tchaikovsky is pushing the envelope of sci fi. He explores evolution, other minds, sentience, and complexity science. My favorite is "children of time" on a civilisation of jumping spiders, but I see he has way more books to explore nautil.us/what-we-misu...

“How comedy was destroyed by an anti-reality doomsday cult” It’s super insightful into Joe Rogan’s cult of comedy and his role in MAGA . Fun little Christmas documentary youtu.be/ewvRS3NwIlQ?...

Incredible piece on Oliver Sacks. If you were ever awed at his supposedly true stories (I remember being stunned by the account of the autistic twins who rattled off large prime numbers), read this. He told wonderful stories, but they were in large part fiction. www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...

Every day that RFK Jr. remains HHS Secretary endangers the lives of millions. Enough is enough. Congress has the power stop him. We applaud @rephaleystevens.bsky.social for taking action, and we're calling on our other reps. to do the same! Join us in the fight: standupforscience.net/impeach-rfkjr

The 2025 recap that matters

“Why AlexNet Died in AI but Lingers in Neuroscience — Through the Lens of Popper and Kuhn” - by K Kar AlexNet “is not the champion; it is the instrument.” medium.com/@kohitij_716...

YouTube channels are being bought en masse by private equity firms. Over time, this will diminish the quality and deter indie producers. Be aware of which channels you are paying attention to. www.youtube.com/watch?v=VRwB...

LLMs give people with delusional belief systems a way to organise those beliefs. The model fills in gaps, supplies connective tissue, and wraps the madness in formal language. It doesn't make the claims more credible to us, it just tidies them up.

It is actually an incredibly frustrating time to be a theoretical neuroscientist right now imo, for this reason

“If I could substitute one word for cognition, it would be flexibility …. Flexibility is what cognition is all about”

Mattias Kranz actually trained an octopus to play the piano -- the video is hilarious www.youtube.com/watch?v=PcWn...

Going to SfN? Check out our lab's presentations! We have a talk on Sat afternoon (1:15 pm, SDCC Rm 11, NANO004.02) by @dhasemusic.bsky.social and two posters on Wed afternoon (PSTR469.20 / OO3 and PSTR469.21 / OO4) by @ayakahach.bsky.social and Jonathan Shor.

We’re hiring! Our new resume portal is live, and we’re looking for top talent in NYC to help build this administration and deliver on our affordability agenda. Could that be you? Apply using the link below. transition2025.com/apply

New discovery: A brain wave sweeps across the cortex like radar, scanning a mental image in working memory to read it out. #neuroscience

Mushroom in the Wild Playing Keyboard youtu.be/NbP2DgDp890?...

ive been drowning in all the negative news this past few months and i tried to channel some of those reactions into something creative. I remixed a song from my old band that we released in 2019, that i think applies even more today on.soundcloud.com/rAldHC73GCpB...

“Trump is breathing hard trying to catch up with Stalin. Someone must have told him that the ussr was brought down by jokes. He employed Secret Police and snitches to hunt down jokers. Trump’s Stalinist effort will fail because Trump was always a joke.“ andreicodrescu.substack.com/p/2c3917c8-8...

Donate to my campaign to make Laura Loomer’s day worse: secure.actblue.com/donate/abu-bluesky

Interested in consciousness? Join the club. And join us tomorrow (noon on Zoom) for the first seminar of the MIT Consciousness Club. sites.google.com/view/mit-con...

Dr. Susan Monarez: “I could have stayed silent, agreed to the demands, and no one would have known. What the public would have seen were scientists dismissed without cause and vaccine protections quietly eroded…I would have lost the one thing that cannot be replaced: My integrity.”

A sperm whale surfacing with a giant squid in its mouth. I love seeing things like this. Reminds me of the raw and beautiful savagery of nature.

For our scientists. By @ellecordova.bsky.social

Perceptual Bias in Motion Discrimination is Related to Asymmetric Interhemispheric Alpha Traveling Waves doi.org/10.1002/advs... #neuroscience

Here's the schedule for the MIT Consciousness Club this year: sites.google.com/view/mit-con.... I'm looking forward to it! (Rooms will be announced soon; and we're currently working on a zoom option for those who would like to join online)

Noise canceling headphones are a game changer for living in NYC. I can't believe it took me this long. I'm not anymore distracted and jumpy by every loud noise. Are there any negative consequences?

The rumors are true! #CCN2026 will be held at NYU. @toddgureckis.bsky.social and I will be executive-chairing. Get in touch if you want to be involved!

𝗖𝗼𝗴𝗻𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗶𝘀 𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗿𝗴𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗯𝗿𝗮𝗶𝗻 by Earl K Miller, Scott L Brincat, Jefferson E Roy This promises to be a must read One day we should create an online journal club to just read these kinds of papers! #neuroskyence doi.org/10.1016/j.co...

How do you train an octopus to play the piano? Any animal researchers here? youtu.be/iwntrLCW-J0?...

I just un-installed chrome and got a different browser and it feels like I have a brand new computer running at light speed

Journals should implement dark mode

"The worst trend on the internet right now" rage bait and outrage marketing www.youtube.com/watch?v=if-I...

Read news, op-eds, and analysis, not AI summaries. Create your own art (even if it's messy) or hire an artist to do it. Do your own homework. Talk to people, not chatbots. Keep your thinking and skills sharp and cherish our messy humanity. That's the new punk rock.

The Titan documentary shows yet another instance of too much confidence leading to disasterous results. Is this a symptom of too much unchecked power in our culture or is it has always been happening across the ages?

I found this post really useful in understanding the latest of AI safety. The conclusion: there's not enough being done to keep up with the fast pace of AI development. Current LLM have potential for misuse and misalignment but also mistakes and reward hacking.. www.neuroai.science/p/why-im-mor...