New paper! We studied how media, other social pressures, and our senses contribute to how we feel about our bodies by focusing on people with or without visual impairments. This work is open access and free for all to read journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.... @alealisousa.bsky.social

Sociocultural Pressures, Internalization, and Body Esteem in Congenitally Blind, Late-Blind, and Sighted Men and Women - Sara Dell’Erba, Meike Scheller, Alexandra A. de Sousa, Michael J. Proulx, 2024

Introduction: Visual experience has a substantial effect on how individuals construct a template of their own bodies in space. Whether the absence of total or p...

journals.sagepub.com

Spoke on Energetic Constraints on Brain Organization in Human Paleoneurology @fens.org symposium Trajectories and Drivers of Brain Evolution Through Deep Time, Sabadell. Thanks to org @ornellabertrand.bsky.social. Last saw Myotragus balearicus, fossil goat with forward-facing eyes, last millennium.

The University of Exeter is not in budget deficit. Yet are proposing to cut 150 academic jobs. This include my job. Please sign and share the petition, write our Vice Chancellor, to your MP, and get the word out about the act of self harm this university is about to commit. c.org/yKcx6Zr29H

This campaign needs you now

Stop Redundancies at the University of Exeter

c.org

💡 Idea inspired by Telma G. Laurentino 🔗 Further reading: bit.ly/4bSIJTo (EN) bit.ly/4s43ZM2 (PT)

What If Understanding Evolution Could Help Save Us?

I have been fascinated by biodiversity and nature since I can remember, so I took that passion and dedicated my life to the study of…

bit.ly

Delighted to be a co‑author on this new work on feline brain aging 🧠🐱 Great collaboration across institutions!

Brain Evolution News@brainevolutionnews.bsky.social · last mo.

Cats age like humans—could studying their brains reveal healthy aging secrets? phys.org/news/2026-06...

Thrilled to speak at #CorticalEvolution2026 in Bilbao last week on “Energetic Constraints on Brain Organization”. Fascinating talks from behavior to development. Here I am after my talk!

Is AI ruining our skills? Early results are in — and they're not good www.nature.com/articles/d41... (archived at archive.ph/cZZZC) Similar risks for blind people relying on smartglasses for AI scene description, where hybrid skills matter for long-term resilience and agency.

Is AI ruining our skills? Early results are in — and they’re not good

Reliance on artificial-intelligence tools degrades the abilities of physicians and software engineers, studies show.

nature.com

My department has funding for 2-year MByRes studentships (full tuition fees and research allowance) on ecosystem resilience, broadly defined. Apply to do a project with me modelling social-ecological networks. #culturalevolution #socialnetworks ecologyconservation.exeter.ac.uk/masteer-coho...

Nature reports on how labs are teaming up to run a host of huge projects that aim to bring rigour to cognitive science. #cogpsyc 🧪

Can an army of babies and dogs rescue psychology from its reproducibility crisis?

Labs are teaming up to run a host of huge projects that aim to bring rigour to cognitive science.

go.nature.com

The new NIH policy requiring co-authorships with foreign scientists to be reported seems like an opportunity for a mass protest-by-cooperation: if each of us requested permission for each of our co-authorships (1 email per ms), the NIH would be deluged with these and it would convey how absurd it is

tl,dr; Scientists no longer allowed to use federal funding to publish, attend meetings, or talk to the public. They cannot collaborate internationally. Grants can be cancelled for any reason, at any time, political appointees have a final say over what gets funded, and who gets funded.

Science Magazine@science.org · 2mo ago

The White House today announced it plans to make major changes in how the U.S. government manages research funding. https://scim.ag/43HgW4s

From me: Chaco Canyon listed as 'endangered' as tribes, feds spar over drilling

Chaco Canyon listed as 'endangered' as tribes, feds spar over drilling

The Chaco Canyon area was recognized as an endangered historic place as a debate continues over new drilling and mining claims.

azcentral.com

This is the horror cherry on top of the egregious fraud, waste, and abuse sundae. DOGE fired the people who send NIH money to research labs—which is a complicated process—so now even more labs are going to go under. All while Jay Bhattacharya goes on a podcast and says no NIH funding was cut.

Max Kozlov@maxkozlov.bsky.social · 3mo ago

NEW: A serious staffing shortage — of the Trump admin's own making — is delaying the agency's ability to send billions to universities around the country, leaving labs reeling in the meantime. “I thought we were at rock bottom”, a senior NIH official said. “We are below rock bottom now.”

1999. People are “participants” in research [not "subjects"] www.bmj.com/content/318/...

From me: Border wall crews damage 1,000-year-old site as tribe warns of risks www.azcentral.com/story/news/l...

Border wall crews damage 1,000-year-old site as tribe warns of risks

Tohono O'odham leaders met with Homeland Security officials about border wall construction, even as workers damage a 1,0000-year-old site.

azcentral.com

A Nature analysis shows that the Trump administration has terminated more than 100 advisory committees to science agencies — and reduced the transparency and independence of those that remain go.nature.com/4cVC2Am

Key US science panels are being axed — and others are becoming less open

A Nature analysis shows that the Trump administration has terminated more than 100 advisory committees to science agencies — and reduced the transparency and independence of those that remain.

go.nature.com

Trump Fires Board Members of Group That Oversees U.S. Science Funding. Gift link: nyti.ms/4u7I3kr

On the ongoing collapse of the United States and US science and engineering: Trump has terminated several members of the independent National Science Board www.engadget.com/science/trum... #NSB #NSF

Trump has terminated several members of the independent National Science Board

The Trump administration sent letters to several members of the National Science Board, informing them that their positions were "terminated, effective immediately."

engadget.com

Trump fires all 24 members of the U.S. National Science Foundation's governing body www.science.org/content/arti...

Trump fires all 24 members of the U.S. National Science Foundation’s governing body

Dismissal of the National Science Board is widely seen as latest move to erase NSF’s independence

science.org

Learning how to work interlibrary loan!!! That was huge in my grad career, it felt like I unlocked the world!

Academics: What are free resources you wish you knew about sooner or ealier in your career? (That are still helpful today.) Anything from paper access, scheduling time, writing help, etc. Not everyone gets access to this knowledge so let's share and spread what is available :) #academia

Simply sticking electrodes into primary visual cortex (V1) to evoke phosphenes ignores the feedback loops from higher visual areas back to V1. A Neuralink Blindsight brain implant will almost certainly perform very poorly. Engineering is one thing, biology/neuroscience another.

This meeting was amazing in 2024!

allen institute@alleninstitute.org · 4mo ago

Applications are open for the Lake Conference on Comparative and Evolutionary Neurobiology - co-hosted with Circuit Neuroscience Basel! 🗓️ Oct. 25-29, 2026 📍 Seattle, WA 🧠 All career stages welcomed. 🔗 https://alleninstitute.org/events/lake-conference-comparative-and-evolutionary-neurobiology-2026/

Applications are open for the Lake Conference on Comparative and Evolutionary Neurobiology - co-hosted with Circuit Neuroscience Basel! 🗓️ Oct. 25-29, 2026 📍 Seattle, WA 🧠 All career stages welcomed. 🔗 https://alleninstitute.org/events/lake-conference-comparative-and-evolutionary-neurobiology-2026/

TONIGHT is ROUND 1 of the Extinction is Forever Division of species lost in recent decades & centuries due to the actions, and inactions, of humans. #HumanImpacts #Anthropocene #2026MMM

a black and white photo of a thylacine eating a snake in a room .

ALT: a black and white photo of a thylacine eating a snake in a room .

media.tenor.com

Thinking on your feet: potentially enhancing phylogenetic tree learning accessibility through a kinaesthetic approach evolution-outreach.biomedcentral.com/articles/10....

Thinking on your feet: potentially enhancing phylogenetic tree learning accessibility through a kinaesthetic approach - Evolution: Education and Outreach

Background Phylogenetics is one of the main methodologies to understand cross-cutting principles of evolution, such as common ancestry and speciation. Phylogenetic trees, however, are reportedly chall...

evolution-outreach.biomedcentral.com

𝗪𝗵𝘆 𝘁𝗮𝗹𝗸 𝗮𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗰𝗼𝗿𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹 𝗲𝘃𝗼𝗹𝘂𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗻𝗼𝘄? Because many of the biggest open questions in neuroscience still revolve around the cerebral cortex — how it emerged, expanded, diversified, and why it differs so much across species. #CorticalEvolution2026

We now describe the cortex in extraordinary detail: cell types, layers, gene expression, developmental programs. Yet description alone doesn’t explain why the cortex is built the way it is — or why evolution took such different paths in different lineages. #CorticalEvolution2026

Importantly, cortical evolution is not just about the past. Many vulnerabilities of the human brain, from developmental disorders to psychiatric disease, may be inseparable from the evolutionary trajectories that shaped cortical expansion and complexity.

𝗘𝘃𝗼𝗹𝘂𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝘃𝗶𝗱𝗲𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗺𝗶𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗱𝗶𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻. Only by comparing species can we distinguish what is conserved from what is derived, what is fundamental from what is contingent, and which features come with hidden costs. #CorticalEvolution2026