😅

Which of these 15 AI challenges for cell biology is most urgent? Hilbert’s 23 problems steered math for a century. Our @CellCellPress paper, led by Andrea Califano, proposes 15 for biology, each with a real-world test of AI predictions. doi.org/10.1016/j.cell…

The complex questions confronting humanity demand an interdisciplinary approach

go.nature.com/4z1D3A6

In @naturemethods: Researchers in the @VaziriLab have redesigned an entire imaging system from the ground up to develop a new microscopy platform that enables imaging of neuronal activity at single-cell resolution at unprecedented tissue depth.

🔗: bit.ly/48kiCDk

Join us Nov. 4 for "Comparative Neuroscience: Lessons from Biodiversity," our Fall symposium! What can we learn from the differences and similarities across the diversity of nervous systems that have evolved? picower.mit.edu/events/picower… @MITBiology #neuroscience

@sethblackshaw and I co-edited a special issue of Curr Opin Genet Dev on Lineage Specification in Development. Its 15 reviews, now online, cover how cells acquire their identities: lineage tracing, gene regulation, evolution. Free editorial: authors.elsevier.com/a/1nyIW,LqAZjE…

Happily recruiting postdocs to work on how complex behavior is wired in the brain and encoded in the genome, with continued support from the NIH.

for example: nature.com/articles/s4146…

to apply, go here: tinyurl.com/BioSci-GT

RT @sapinker: "Evolution does not need a rebuild, and The Selfish Gene is not outmoded. It remains...a page-turner." Nathaniel Comfort's mi…

RT @sapinker: Scientists & science journalists decry the public's rejection of science, but are oblivious to the major cause: the perceptio…

Single-cell atlases give us marker genes. Where are they expressed in the embryo? 🐟🧬🔬

gene2fish shows 53,595 in situ images of 8,263 zebrafish genes side by side, in one gene × stage grid. Free, in the browser. Led by Vera Janssen at @biohub 🧵

two open faculty positions relevant to Biological Sciences at Georgia Tech, one in genomics, one in ecology:

tinyurl.com/GT-eco-coasts

tinyurl.com/GT-BioSci-Geno…

We've refreshed our website! With a bold new look, smarter search, and clearer navigation, it's now easier to find relevant grant opportunities, upcoming events, and in-depth information about our researchers.

Visit simonsfoundation.org to explore.

#science #math #funding

Should you do a PhD? What would it give you? Here are some advantages to consider:

1. It’s a loophole in the universe where you’re encouraged to dedicate your time to something just because it’s interesting, even if it is totally niche and no one will ever make money out of it.

2. You’ll be surrounded by smart people.

3. It’s a gym for the brain - you’ll develop critical thinking and planning skills (extra important in the age of brain rot)

4. You might get to travel and see the world.

…

786. Some jobs require having a PhD.

RT @sapinker: David Deutsch (@DavidDeutschOxf) and I discuss AGIs and subjectivity on the Joe Walker Podcast (@JosephNWalker):

David Deuts…

Our work with José-Alain Sahel's team and @GenSightBio on optogenetic vision restoration is now published in @NEJM

The treatment was safe in all 10 participants, with visual improvements in several patients.

📄 doi.org/10.1056/NEJMoa…

#Blindness #Optogenetics #IOBBasel

New preprint from the lab!

We built an atlas of functional ensembles across the zebrafish hindbrain, linking whole-hindbrain activity to behavior, structural organization, and molecular features.
A few highlights below 🧵

biorxiv.org/content/10.648…

Thanks to everyone sharing in this moment!
I’m so grateful to my trainees & collaborators…
dlab.stanford.edu/group-members
(pic: optogenetics conference chairs, Tuscany)

Reading for all those asking:

for technical details: dlab.stanford.edu

for everyone: deisseroth.org/projections

Language is not fundamental to human consciousness. In terms of evolution, it arrived only recently on our timeline.

Consciousness evolved over millions of years through sensory awareness, emotion, and the embodied survival instincts of our tribal past; our capacity for empathic y. Syntactic language only emerged around 100,000 years ago.

This is exactly why Large Language Models (LLMs - so called AI) are the wrong pathway to true artificial consciousness.

They try to replicate the late-stage "output layer" of human intelligence without building the foundational, embodied awareness that actually generates it.

Statistical text prediction is a mirror of thought, not the spine, the guts, the nerves and the subconscious, empathic ability to connect with other living beings. LLMs can never feel, let alone think.

We have been sold a trick, not a pathway to superintelligence. LLMs are fraudulent. Their capabilities have already peaked and we are being sold lies about their future potential. Lies with the goal of companies reaching IPO and tricking investors out of hundreds of billion$.

Published today in @Nature: A study shows that fish swimming in schools can avoid danger just by seeing their neighbors escape. The researchers imaged the brain activity of translucent glassfish swimming in a virtual reality environment. go.ucsd.edu/4AvZKyg

What if any dataset, any size, any number of dimensions, opened in a browser tab from a link? 🔬🧪💻

Luxar is out today: write it in Python, share it as a link, explore it in any browser. Open source. 🧵 @biohub