Anne Urai
@anne-urai.bsky.social
Academic nomad | Doubtful decision-maker | Climate worrier | Assistant Professor @ Leiden University, views very obviously mine | https://anneurai.net/
For example, in the US about 2/3 of people are worried about climate change. But do you know how many are activated? 8%. That’s a gap of nearly 60% who are worried but don’t know what to do. Science causes this “lack of efficacy”. And efficacy is *directly correlated* with willingness to act.
Le Guin on the idea that there is a secret to getting good at writing.
Started reading and was then happily surprised to see @neurograce.bsky.social's name in this piece! www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...
‘Kids are participants in the work of justice’: how US children are being folded into activism
Children-centered organizing is on the rise in New York as families navigate ICE in neighborhoods, the Iran war and climate crisis
theguardian.com
Come work with me, Janna, Jonas, and Bart at Leiden University :). #MentalHealth #Psychology #PsychSciSky #academicsky
Eiko Fried@eikofried.bsky.social · last mo.1/ We have a PhD position open on 'Mental Disorders as Harmful Stable States'. If you know students interested in the intersection of mental health & statistical modeling (EMA & time series), please encourage them to apply. www.academictransfer.com/nl/jobs/3621...
#3 of #booksIveRead: Walden Two by BF Skinner. Thanks @stepalminteri.bsky.social for the tip!
Anne Urai@anne-urai.bsky.social · 2mo agoday 2 of #booksIveRead: The Light Eaters by Zoë Schlanger www.goodreads.com/book/show/19... Not only shows a beautiful tour of work at the intersection of botany and cognitive science, but also an exciting portrait of science changing its mind and implications for big questions about the mind 🌿
Everybody in the "climate space" (which means everyone on earth...) needs to understand these mind-blowing figures. Google's "total electricity consumption jumped from 31 terawatt hours (TWh) in 2024 to 43 TWh in 2025." In ONE year. The AI corporate arms race is eating the world.
Ketan Joshi@ketanjoshi.co · last mo.NEW BLOG FOR YOU Google's energy consumption numbers in their new climate report are mind-blowing. 2 years ago they flipped from linear to exponential growth, and their climate impact is blowing out, too. A WILD testament to the obscene bloat and waste of GenAI: ketanjoshi.co/2026/07/01/g...
What does it take to do science at scale? The International Brain Laboratory shows how large-scale scientific collaborations can be supported and how the model itself can be improved: https://bit.ly/44f83zq #science #neuroscience
Come be my colleague! 🚀 We’re hiring an Assistant Professor in Perceptual and Cognitive Neuroscience: werkenbij.uva.nl/en/vacancies... The UvA is a wonderfully collaborative, inspiring place to do science—if you love brains and perception, and working with great colleagues, please do apply!
Vacancy — Assistant Professor in Perceptual and Cognitive Neuroscience
<p><span>Are you passionate about neuroscience and eager to contribute to groundbreaking research on neuronal mechanisms of perception and cognition? The Faculty of Science at the University of Amster...
werkenbij.uva.nl
knock knock, it's the 90s. What software should I use for a simple listserv, ideally avoiding Big Tech?
Funny, but... also not.
Veep: Nervous Laughter Reaction
ALT: Veep: Nervous Laughter Reaction
static.klipy.com
Dr Michele V@micheleveldsman.bsky.social · last mo.“I have done all of the things that one is supposed to do to earn a tenure-track position. And I have done approximately 85% of them by typing prompts into a large language model and then moderately editing the output.” 🤣🤣🤣 brilliant 👌🏽 open.substack.com/pub/inprepar...
It's not "the new normal": this heatwave shows that we're never going to have "normal" again - by @mjflepage.bsky.social www.newscientist.com/article/2531...
If you aren't terrified by this heatwave, you should be
The extreme heat currently being felt in Europe isn’t the new normal – much worse is to come, and we are doing far too little to adapt, says Michael Le Page
newscientist.com
Voor het eerst code rood vanwege extreme hitte in Nederland. Scholen dicht. Kans op uitdroging en hitteberoertes. Let op kwetsbare ouderen, jonge kinderen en huisdieren. De klimaatcrisis is geen grap.
When reality surpasses fiction! Top: fictional forecast for August 2050, broadcast by French TV in 2014 to warn about the consequences of global warming. Bottom: Real French forecast for yesterday, June 22, 2026.
1/ Over 1000 schools are closed due to dangerous heat, and millions of parents are now sat at home, feeling worried and powerless about their children’s future Yet there’s lots parents can do and this is an important moment, so please share this thread with your friends and loved ones 🧵
More than 1,000 schools shut or closing early as extreme heat warning extended - live updates
The red alert, in place for parts of England and Wales until 23:59 on Thursday, means the weather carries a risk to life.
bbc.co.uk
🔥 Last week I shared my new paper in PLOS Climate on climate advocacy and activism by scientists 🥼 This research is close to my heart. I first undertook my PhD at 29, moving from Ireland, to understand how to motivate action on climate change. 1/4
Dr Samuel Finnerty@samuelfinnerty.bsky.social · 2mo agoShould scientists advocate for climate action? Our new review @plosclimate.org finds there is no single answer. The effects of scientist advocacy depend heavily on context, including who is speaking, what they are advocating for, and who is listening. Open access: journals.plos.org/climate/arti...
Wie het meest consumeert, richt ook de meeste schade aan. De tien procent van de wereldbevolking die het meeste consumeert, veroorzaakt jaarlijks tot 5.700 miljard dollar aan milieuschade, blijkt uit nieuw Leids onderzoek.
Top 10 procent consumenten veroorzaakt miljarden aan milieuschade
Wie het meest consumeert, richt ook de meeste schade aan. De tien procent van de wereldbevolking die het meeste consumeert, veroorzaakt jaarlijks tot 5.700 miljard dollar aan milieuschade, blijkt uit ...
universiteitleiden.nl
1/ We work hard to factor "noise" out of behavior. But the brain doesn't. Strip away noise and you may miss what the brain evolved to do I wanted to share this pre-Bluesky paper where we found premotor (M2) corticostriatal circuits encode a broad history of behavior, beyond just action + reward 👇
Information normally considered task-irrelevant drives decision-making and affects premotor circuit recruitment - Nature Communications
Prior experience is used by the brain to guide adaptive behaviour during decision making. Here, the authors show that mice also selectively use information learned through recent and longer-term exper...
nature.com
Happy to share my @heinekenprizes.bsky.social Young Scientist Award in the Social Sciences! Thanks to @unileiden.bsky.social @leidenpsychology.bsky.social for the nomination. More on my research and dreams for the future of academia 👇 www.universiteitleiden.nl/en/news/2026...
Anne Urai receives 2026 Heineken Young Scientists Award for Social Sciences
How do people make choices, and what happens in our brains when we do? Anne Urai investigates how our brains process information and use it to make decisions. In applying the resulting insights to cur...
universiteitleiden.nl
The Group for Neural Theory is celebrating its 20th birthday this week with a party in Paris! gnt20.github.io One thing we’re celebrating is its remarkable training record A thread…
Hivemind, help! We are starting a new study on group behavior with oTree/Heroku and need to switch to a different server (since Heroku is US-based). Who use oTree for online studies & knows alternatives (e.g. Scalingo/Digital Ocean/Cloud provider) for online studies at NL universities (esp. Leiden)?
day 2 of #booksIveRead: The Light Eaters by Zoë Schlanger www.goodreads.com/book/show/19... Not only shows a beautiful tour of work at the intersection of botany and cognitive science, but also an exciting portrait of science changing its mind and implications for big questions about the mind 🌿
I'm starting a new series: #booksIveRead The Invention of Nature, by Andrea Wulf en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Inv... Life and work of Alexander von Humboldt, who shaped the way we think of complex systems in ecology + human's place in nature - reverberating through science and environmentalism today
The Invention of Nature - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
What can universities learn about ties with tobacco industries, especially in the context of current debates re: fossil fuel dissociation? Now out in @plosclimate.org: www.universiteitleiden.nl/en/news/2026...
What can universities learn from their ties with the tobacco industry?
Researchers from Leiden University and Solid Sustainability Research have published a new study in PLOS Climate on the links between Dutch universities and the tobacco industry. Through this work, the...
universiteitleiden.nl
Reminder: Early registration deadline is TODAY. 🗓
CogCompNeuro@cogcompneuro.bsky.social · 3mo ago📢 Registration for #CCN2026 is now open! Join us August 3–6, 2026 at NYU, New York City for the 9th Annual Conference on Cognitive Computational Neuroscience. 🗓 Early registration: May 28 🗓 Standard registration: July 15 🗓 Onsite Register: 2026.ccneuro.org/meeting-regi...
Excellent news! Nature is expanding Registered Reports to all the fields in which they publish! A great result by all those proposing this strong solution to publication bias and selective reporting (and getting expert feedback before data collection)! www.nature.com/articles/d41...
