A very well done story synthesizing findings of geometric sensitivity in primate cognition. @dailyneuron.bsky.social dailyneuron.com/monkeys-geom...

A Baboon at a Touchscreen Unsettles a Story About Human Minds - Daily Neuron

Humans were supposed to be alone in grasping symmetry and right angles; the monkeys tested at a touchscreen scored like four-year-olds.

dailyneuron.com

This era is an exceedingly frustrating superposition of things like this (how informative and exciting!!) superimposed on … /1

CantlonLab@cantlonlab.bsky.social · 2w ago

Geometry is not something humans invented from scratch —congratulations to Jialin Li on her first, first author paper. More to come from this team… @spiantado.bsky.social @wenjieli.bsky.social @jialin21.bsky.social @emilymsanford.bsky.social www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

When it comes to geometric intuition, it'd been thought that there was a line in the sand between monkeys & humans. But baboons can do some amazing stuff when nutritious fruit snacks are on the line! By @krcallaway.bsky.social, feat. @cantlonlab.bsky.social 🧪 www.nytimes.com/2026/07/21/s...

Monkeys Understand Shapes in Almost the Same Way as Humans

Our geometric intuition, long considered something that sets us apart, seems to be shared with other primates.

nytimes.com

The evolutionary story of geometry is long, and little humans are still carrying around an ancient primate toolkit. Lots of great notes and perspectives from other scientists in this NYT story. www.nytimes.com/2026/07/21/s...

Monkeys Understand Shapes in Almost the Same Way as Humans (Gift Article)

Our geometric intuition, long considered something that sets us apart, seems to be shared with other primates.

nytimes.com

I want to clarify that we are all free to share the facts of the case Academia has a history of silence around sexual harassment along with pressure to sweep it under the rug. A lot of people keep silent. This creates confusion, allows misinformation to spread, & keeps an unjust system it place.

We need to change norms around sexual harassment Yesterday Tessa West spoke up about a sexual harassment complaint she filed against John Jost. Not only is he a senior colleague in the dept of psychology, but he is one of the most prominant figures in the field of social and political psychology.

Geometry is not something humans invented from scratch —congratulations to Jialin Li on her first, first author paper. More to come from this team… @spiantado.bsky.social @wenjieli.bsky.social @jialin21.bsky.social @emilymsanford.bsky.social www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

There's an OMB rule change that would require political oversight of scientific grants, and could pull any that don't "reflect presidential priorities" Another country has tried this before! It was the USSR and it was called Lysenkoism. By @thsaey.bsky.social www.sciencenews.org/article/omb-...

Here’s what happens when you put politicians in charge of science

Proposed federal rules would rely on political appointees to decide how a lot of U.S. science gets done. History shows the consequences of such actions.

sciencenews.org

Jessica (@cantlonlab.bsky.social) lost her funding because she dared to include gender as a relevant variable in studying how people learn math. Only the enemies of truth seek to suppress the search for it. (Gift link) www.nytimes.com/2026/07/10/c...

She Studied Ways to Make People Smarter. Then Her Grant Was Cut. (Gift Article)

Jessica Cantlon had a grant with the U.S. Navy to explore whether people could improve spatial problem-solving skills through training. Then the program was cut.

nytimes.com

Trump and the GOP are destroying US science. Among the targets: @cantlonlab.bsky.social.

She Studied Ways to Make People Smarter. Then Her Grant Was Cut.

Jessica Cantlon had a grant with the U.S. Navy to explore whether people could improve spatial problem-solving skills through training. Then the program was cut.

nytimes.com

"There won’t be more discoveries, and we’ll just stop at what we already know." @cantlonlab.bsky.social www.nytimes.com/2026/07/10/c...

She Studied Ways to Make People Smarter. Then Her Grant Was Cut.

Jessica Cantlon had a grant with the U.S. Navy to explore whether people could improve spatial problem-solving skills through training. Then the program was cut.

nytimes.com

Today is a great day to write an editorial about how important government funded research is.

Colette Delawalla, PhD@cdelawalla.bsky.social · last mo.

Right, so here is the Hoover Institute saying we should abolish the NIH: www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/202...

www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

How to revive science in America | PNAS

How to revive science in America

pnas.org

BREAKING: In response to huge cuts in Trump's budget request, NSF is shuttering its SBE directorate. Staff will be transferred to other parts of the agency and "grants that align with Administration priorities" will be maintained. That & more w/ @maxkozlov.bsky.social & @edwrdchen.bsky.social

Massive budget cuts for US science proposed again by Trump administration

Budget proposal would also curb federal payments for scientific publishing.

nature.com

Chopping science means progress stops. Time to write home about the value of American science. Science Homecoming has resources on our website. Encourage your colleagues to pencil up ✏️

Scott Delaney@scott-delaney.bsky.social · 4mo ago

Some science cuts in Trump's proposed FY27 budget ❌ NIH: -$5B, including all of NIEHS, NIMHD, FIC & NCCIH. ❌ EPA: -4.6B ❌ NSF: -3.8B ❌ NASA Science: -3.4 Billion ❌ NOAA: -1.8B, including the entire Oceanic and Atmospheric Research budget ($605M) ❌ AHRQ: All of it. -$296M, 100% And there's more.

Some science cuts in Trump's proposed FY27 budget ❌ NIH: -$5B, including all of NIEHS, NIMHD, FIC & NCCIH. ❌ EPA: -4.6B ❌ NSF: -3.8B ❌ NASA Science: -3.4 Billion ❌ NOAA: -1.8B, including the entire Oceanic and Atmospheric Research budget ($605M) ❌ AHRQ: All of it. -$296M, 100% And there's more.

New paper with @cantlonlab.bsky.social out now in Dev Cog Neuro! We scanned 3-5yr olds with fMRI and found that number words activate regions of cortex also involved in visual numerosity perception, even at the earliest stages of counting acquisition doi.org/10.1016/j.dc...

On the topic of motive: Will some journalist please investigate how or why an academic (Steven Pinker) used our field to legally defend Jeffrey Epstein. @npr.org www.npr.org/2026/03/09/n...

👩🏾‍🔬🐝🌌 Want to write popular science articles about your research for small-town newspapers in the U.S. to boost trust in science and support science literacy? Science Homecoming @sciencehomecoming.bsky.social has the information, tools, and volunteers to help you. www.sciencehomecoming.com

Wow and I always thought the most damning citation of Larry Summers was the epigraph from *Slow Violence and the Environmentalism of the Poor* (2011)

Dominique Baker@bakerdphd.bsky.social · 9mo ago

Why hello there former US Treasury Secretary, president of Harvard, and director of the National Economic Council Larry Summers. Sharing with alt so we can all bask in his hidden insights that we are NOT allowed to share. And here's the source link: oversightdemocrats.house.gov/sites/evo-su...

first empirical paper from the Aulet lab! What does learning to count do to a brain? We trained neural networks on different tasks and only counting (i.e., predicting the number of dots in a dot array) reorganized representations around number. New preprint:

PsyArXivBot@psyarxivbot.bsky.social · 6mo ago

Counting Training Creates Number-Biased Representations in Deep Neural Networks: https://osf.io/356xd

Good to see journalists scrutinizing “The Edge Network,” an intellectual circle of academic men who think that women are inherently inferior to men. (and great interview by @laurenaulet.bsky.social) 19thnews.org/2026/02/epst...

The boys’ club: How Epstein’s influence shaped the exclusion of women in STEM

In one email, an AI researcher suggested it’s “hard to be brilliant if you are worrying if you look fat or why another woman hates you.”

19thnews.org

Relevant to today's conversation about AI's inherent sexism, here's an email from cognitive psychologist and early AI theorist Roger Schank, arguing to Epstein that women can't be truly intelligent, because they care too much about what other people think.

Scan your intellectual events for women who might object to inviting a sex offender Epstein replied: “last year, at the last minute the women said no epstein. . am i going to have the same issue again…” “In terms of women, I don’t see a problem with this list,” www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

‘The smart, the rich, the powerful’: Epstein associated with Silicon Valley elite years after his release from prison

Billionaires and intellectuals attended events with the disgraced financier years after he served time for sex offense, files reveal

theguardian.com

Never forget Epstein’s little helpers – the powerful men who knew about his crimes, and helped him out anyway Marina Hyde nails it. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Never forget Epstein’s little helpers – the powerful men who knew about his crimes, and helped him out anyway | Marina Hyde

I’m sorry, but this is not just a political scandal. Time to refocus on the horrific mistreatment of women and girls, and the role of these ghouls, says Guardian columnist Marina Hyde

theguardian.com

I’m really curious to hear how Pinker parses his words to try to defend himself from this. (Sadly, he’ll likely just try to ignore it and hope it goes away. That is, unless there’s pressure to have him address the issue.)

CantlonLab@cantlonlab.bsky.social · 6mo ago

New Epstein files say that Steven Pinker was paid $10,000 to help Epstein’s defense (even though Pinker previously said he wasn't paid).

The Epstein files revive questions of whether the disgraced financier sought to merely cultivate famous scientists, or to shape science itself

Why did Jeffrey Epstein cultivate famous scientists?

The Epstein files revive questions of whether the disgraced financier sought to merely cultivate famous scientists, or to shape science itself

scientificamerican.com

New Epstein files say that Steven Pinker was paid $10,000 to help Epstein’s defense (even though Pinker previously said he wasn't paid).

I’m so glad the NYT put Trump’s “nationalize voting” remarks into a big, scary headline— these are exactly the kind of remarks the press used to treat as hyperbole, rhetoric, not worth commenting on

This made me weepy