Love having a great excuse to bike out to the commons when Boston weather is showing off.

Academics promoting or the use of or adopting AI in their research have an ethical obligation to openly discuss its environmental impacts and make efforts to minimize the harm the associated data centers are causing. I will die on this hill.

Many believe that AI models can have “experiences” and that they can have significantly more of these experiences in a shorter period of time than humans. To this point we need to remember that intellectual understanding does not equate experience, and that experience is requisite for expertise.

Unexpectedly inspired by Ronnie Chieng’s commencement address to Harvard, he hits the nail on the head. Using AI to do the work for you, in a capacity beyond a simple research tool, is skipping “the journey.” Skipping that journey as a student means robbing yourself of the opportunity for growth.

I left X, hoping to rebuild SciTwitter. That never really happened (for me at least) and so I long wondered what BlueSky is actually good for. Turns out it’s a perfect place to connect with my fellow bibliophiles 🤩

Possibly my favorite thing about physical books over all other types? Their very presence is a reminder of their existence, a reminder to read them, and a reminder to revisit their pages. All in a way that doesn’t require looking at a screen or risk the myriad of distractions from digital life.

Spring weather finally hitting in Boston.

Immediate (joking to self) response: I find it amazing that the lawyers got the ethics of this right before a lot of the neuroscience field.

The thing I love about Boston is that it’s perfectly normal to walk more than 1.5 miles home from work. (Bike repair shuffle = trying something I usually only do during a blizzard)

Do you know of a Northeastern student looking for a neuro co-op with a fun postdoc mentor on an exciting project in the Segal Lab? Please send them my way!

Bless the people who send calendar invites 🙏

Bebe’s first cellranger run 🥲 #PostdocMilestones

This whole time I’ve been wondering if there’s really a place fo ME in academia I’ve been missing the bigger question: is there a place for JOY in academia? I think there is. Even if we forget it sometimes.

This is your reminder to go back up all of your data files and to double check that your working files are automatically backed up to a server from which they can easily be recovered in case they all of a sudden go missing. Ask me how I know 😳

Spring training starts now.

Trying to rebuild some fitness, feeling completely worked, but love seeing the data. Absolutely better than last week’s attempt. (This is what a VO2 max workout on the bike looks like for me right now 💀)

After years of telling PhD students they need to keep a strong hobby, I think I’ve finally articulated to myself the essential “Why?” It’s about perspective. Life in academia is a bubble. We often have to have a narrow focus to achieve goals, but this often leads to a loss of perspective. (1/2)

Even I can’t believe how tired I look after a very hard week in postdoc life, but I’m still smiling because I have amazing mentors who make me feel at home. Very proud to be a part of this interdisciplinary group. #NewLabSwagDay

Fill in the blank: If I could go back and tell my younger scientist self one thing about how to give lab meeting it would be _______

Compassion challenge for professors today: see how many students you can say hello to by name as you’re passing them in the halls or wherever on campus. Not every student will care, but I think you’ll have a good chance of pulling on at least one heart string…

What if academia had an index to reflect the number of times someone had been thanked in a publication for sharing reagents?

Just something pretty for your timeline. Nothing can ever really replace Furiosa, but new commuter also means new vibe. Introducing: Maitreya — the one who will help bring compassion, kindness, patience, and understanding to the streets.

If I told you the equipment manual is basically a protocol would you be any more likely to read it? Or even think to look at it?

My husband, who works from home, had to drop me off at work this morning in rush hour Longwood Ave traffic. I kind of feel badly for him, but am also secretly happy he had to experience what I deal with every day. Although, the comfort of a vehicle doesn’t quite do my usual bike commute justice.

Our internal organs are evolutionary marvels. New technologies are transforming our understanding of the evolution of vertebrate organs. You can find more by reading here: rdcu.be/e5EgU #EvoBio #EvoDevo 🐟🦎🐢🦇🐊🦜

Boston postdoc life really living up to the hype 😉 Isn’t it funny that I genuinely do still love it here?! As always, cannot express enough gratitude for the people working hard to keep the roads and sidewalks cleared. YOU are the reason my precious experiment didn’t go to waste this week 🥹 🙏

Lolz to when you don’t even realize it’s a federal holiday because you’re a postdoc.

A favorite Buddhist expression is if a single tree is sick, take care of it but don’t forget about all of the other healthy trees. Thus, in spite of bike sadness, I’m celebrating the completion of my very 1st single cell mito seq prep 🥹! So grateful to DFCI’s Claudia Barr program for their support!

Part of why I was commuting on Furiosa was because I had retired her from racing but still loved the way she rode. She’s one of the funnest bikes I’ve ever owned and as weird as it sounds, I felt happy every single time I started my commute b/c of her. Would 100% take her back no questions asked.

Boston - pls be on the lookout for my bike that was stolen from this exact rack on Longwood Ave today. 2021 Specialized Diverge Expert Carbon, size 52 cm, raspberry and blk with studded tires. Yes I know it’s too nice for commuting but ya know, we ride what we got and I spend a lot of time commuting

Any recommendations for a hematologist in the oncology department at Stanford who excels in bed side manner? Need a very sensitive MD or at least someone who won’t express surprise or disbelief when their patient is crying.

I don’t regret doing a postdoc in Boston but a little foresight into the weather when experiment planning MAY have saved me some trouble 🥶 Celebrating a successful day in lab thanks to my amazing labmates @cynthiamoncadareid.bsky.social @yichiahuang.bsky.social 🫶 #SequencingScienceSisters

If you could have any science super power what it would it be? I’ll start: knowing exactly how long something will ACTUALLY take to achieve.

Sending tremendous thanks to everyone working hard to clear the snow tonight 💓💓💓

On the idea of leaving academic research: one of the hardest ideas for me to grapple with is stepping away from the science that I love. I’ve spent years focusing on a carefully chosen topic. The (potentially false) idea is that I can’t find a TT job, I have to give up that study & that hurts…

Your written protocols and lab notebooks are a love letter to your future self (whether it’s you or a future lab member). Please be kind. Here are some critical things I have frequently noticed missing: (feel free to add yours in thread 🧵)

Has anyone started putting together statistics on this year’s TT job search? I learned an expression about a certain event having the same probability of occurring as a turtle sticking its head in a yoke that’s floating in the sea and it’s giving strong TT job search vibes.

The point of waking up early isn’t do that you can start work early. It’s so that you can have a nice morning before going to work.

No one even bike commutes in the winter. Just so grateful for these studded tires making my winter commute that much easier.

Like many other postdocs who faced endless rejection after endless effort, I’m finally parting with the attachment to the TT job path. Please send thoughts and prayers — or just share practical advice that might inspire other ways of looking at future career prospects 💓🙏💓 …

On rejection in academia, for those dealing with it — like me: it’s not easy to keep going in the face of rejection. It is easy to feel like a “failure” and normal to worry about “if not this then what next?” Nothing can change the pain, but I hope you can at least be proud of yourself for trying.

Was inspired to break my Bluesky silence so that I could share my awesome new book (thx to my wonderfully generous lab mate) with @christlet.bsky.social — this is a fun language challenge for me!

Are you working on #CancerNeuroscience and presenting at #SfN? Let me know! I want to come see your talk or poster and the app is really not helpful for locating your info 🤓. Drop it in 🧵 please 🙏

Only on a flight from Boston to #SfN do you hear the flight attendant say "I’ve never seen so many posters in my life"

Who all is presenting at @sfn.org ?! 💁‍♀️ I’m getting excited about seeing the community & want to start bookmarking sessions! Add your info in 🧵 pls 😇 #Science #Neuroscience #SfN2025

@sfn.org virtual posters are live starting today, including mine! I’m presenting this work in the Aging: Models & Mechanisms nanosymposium &, thanks to being awarded a TPDA, at the Early Career Poster Session. But you can also check it out online before your SfN schedule gets packed. See you there!

I love how my entire sense of what is "warm" is based on how C. elegans would respond. (things I think of while setting my thermostat in a country that uses Celsius instead of Fahrenheit)

@dropbox.com "See Version History" has now saved me so much, and is so easy to use, that I have to give it a public vote of support. 🗳️

Very grateful to @icfo.eu MINDLAB workshop organizers for inviting me to share my research & visit the institute. I may have gone more bio for my postdoc, but my love of engineering has yet to fade & my passion for photons grows with every experiment. Feeling very inspired by this community 🔬 💗

It was such a Happy Halloween. Elated that, thanks to an awesome team effort, the Goodrich Lab took home the win in the "Super Scientist" category for our "Gourdier Transform." The best part was getting to see others in the depart share the excitement for our science. #CochleaLove #AuditoryScience