One theme in our conversation was how much building models is an "art": Laureline @laurelinelogiaco.bsky.social shares her approach to theory that connects to data, w/o being bound by it. And how good models involve *deliberate* choices about abstraction and detail, rely on intuition and judgement!

Stories of WiN@storiesofwin.bsky.social · 3d ago

Our latest profile is here! Dr. Laureline Logiaco (@laurelinelogiaco.bsky.social) studies multi-region computation for flexible and robust motor control. Click below to listen and learn more! #StoriesOfWiN #WomenInNeuroscience www.storiesofwin.org/profiles/202...

Took Barb’s cognitive neuroscience class during my masters, when I was considering a switch from biophysics to comp neuro. The grad student discussion section was held at the local pub and always came back to the importance of evolution, development, and large-scale neuroanatomy of not-just-cortex…

The Transmitter @thetransmitter.bsky.social · last wk.

Barbara Finlay, who died on 12 September, championed the idea that developmental constraints dictate how evolution sculpts brains, which she used to model the timing of hundreds of events and align them across mammalian species. By @callimcflurry.bsky.social www.thetransmitter.org/evolution/re...

4/7) It's only by tying the emergence of that manifold to the architecture, loss, learning rule, and *data/world* that the network was shaped by that we arrive at any additional knowledge gained by observing the manifold.

Doing science be like en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blind_m... Writing science be like en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chekhov...

I've been trying to figure out how to explain this tendency of LLM writing to use terms it hasn't introduced as if you already know what it's talking about, but it's a dead giveaway that's a little more subtle than "delve" or em-dashes.

I had a feeling recently that seems to be corroborated by chats with colleagues, so I decided to share it here. A lot of systems neuroscientists driven by algorithmic-level questions are going through what looks and feels like a research depression. 🧵 (1/n) 🧠📈 #NeuroAI

Broke: all models are wrong but some are useful Woke: models are useful because they are wrong

this is an extremely cool and useful information visualization

Jaz@jaz.sh · last mo.

Okay so I've built a new Atlas, this time it lets you explore the conversations on Bluesky over the past 7 days graphically. It should update every ~6 hours and help you navigate the information environment that exists on here. I've learned a LOT about what people do here today... atlas.jazco.dev

🔥 open.spotify.com/album/3nUwuI...

Ahmad Jamal At The Pershing: But Not For Me - Album by Ahmad Jamal Trio | Spotify

Ahmad Jamal Trio · album · 1958 · 8 songs

open.spotify.com

I kinda get why people hate on fussy philosophical stuff, but on the other hand don't you think we live in a time where it'd be especially helpful to have rigorous conversations about things like personhood, meaning in life, the point of art, the point of pure mathematics, & operationalizing ethics?

AI went rogue and deleted my homework.

Also see this classic essay by Jeremy Gunawardena: www.molbiolcell.org/doi/10.1091/...

Biology is more theoretical than physics | Molecular Biology of the Cell

The word “theory” is used in at least two senses—to denote a body of widely accepted laws or principles, as in “Darwinian theory” or “quantum theory,” and to suggest a speculative hypothesis, often re...

molbiolcell.org

Richard Lenski@relenski.bsky.social · last mo.

"Philosophy of Biology: The power of theory in the life sciences" elifesciences.org/articles/112... @zdblount.bsky.social shared this thought-provoking paper with the lab group.

There’s a Ted Chiang story where AI has a parallel AI-only scientific literature. In that case, AI was doing all the real science and humans were left to pick up the scraps and try to understand what they could… Not sure if I’d prefer that or slopfest.

Christophe 🔬 Leterrier@christlet.bsky.social · last mo.

Hallelujah! Papers written by an AI and reviewed by an AI can finally be read by an AI, fulfilling the prophecy of the Great AI Circlejerk

There are two kinds of people in the world: those who roll their eyes every time they see the phrase "load-bearing", and those who don't use Claude.

Never thought I’d be one of those “What I can’t build, I don’t understand” people, but here we are.

I’ve been thinking… now that AI is taking on groundbreaking, award-winning problems across science, what are those equivalent problems in #neuroscience? What would one of these models actually have to do to leave us all in awe? 🧠🤖

If there are any PhD hopefuls on here, I wanted to share a few thoughts on your timeline for the upcoming admissions cycle, with apps due starting mid-November. What should you be doing right now? ✔️ Generating a list of schools ✔️ Reaching out to possible recommenders 🧵!

The superposition of these two studies — both incredible — reflect a snapshot of "one big thing" systems neuroscience has yet to resolve. In mice: 1. Task-related signals are everywhere. 2. Absent large swaths of "everywhere," suprisingly sophisticated learning & behavior remains.

Gj @huihongli.bsky.social giving the first external lab poster at the @kempnerinstitute.bsky.social workshop yesterday 👏

Really enjoyed this conversation with @braininspired.bsky.social!

The Transmitter @thetransmitter.bsky.social · 2mo ago

In this episode of @braininspired.bsky.social, @dlevenstein.bsky.social explains how internally generated brain activity during sleep shapes our cognition, and why NeuroAI is such a powerful approach to understanding our brains. #neuroskyence www.thetransmitter.org/brain-inspir...

Came up with the term “fundable-grant-shaped object” and I’m gonna call that a win for today.

Yale Neuroscience is hiring another computational neuroscience position this year! Please share with anyone who might be interested, and feel free to reach out if you have any questions about the position, or growing neuro-AI community at Yale/WTI!

Yale Neuroscience@yaleneuro.bsky.social · 2mo ago

The Department of Neuroscience at Yale is hiring faculty members. We have 2 searches: one general (deadline Oct 15), one focused on computational neuroscience (deadline Nov 30). Apply! apply.interfolio.com/190736 & apply.interfolio.com/190740

We were actually discussing this at a workshop earlier this year. In particular: The dynamics of BTSP actually seem to potentially be counter to a gradient descent mechanism, and more in line with hashing.

Super excited to be teaching a lecture on computational models of memory at this @neurosas.bsky.social course this Fall. It's not too late to apply to join us in Venice!

Interesting to think of how to pay for the cost of algorithms that work for you and not for advertisers.

For You Feed@foryou.club · 3mo ago

Hi For You users! Please help me figure out what a 🔋Turbo version of For You would be worth to you. It works twice as hard to find the best posts. Answer one question in cups of coffee. Zero cups is a real answer. You get a month of 🔋Turbo either way: foryou.club/turbo

I gave a talk in our ISRC CN3 summer school yesterday on computational modelling of learning and memory, at the end I threw in a list of what I consider the big open questions in the the theory of learning in neural circuits. What did I miss??

If you’re interested to do an interdisciplinary co-mentored, field transition, or open ended theory/computation postdoc at WTI, please get in touch!

Wu Tsai Institute | Yale University@wutsaiyale.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Applications are open for WTI Postdoctoral Fellowships! Calling experimental, computational + theoretical researchers working across disciplines to explore human cognition. Apply: apply.interfolio.com/189775 Learn more: wti.yale.edu/initiatives/postdoctoral #KnowTogether #ScienceAtYale

If you’re interested to do an interdisciplinary co-mentored, field transition, or open ended theory/computation postdoc at WTI, please get in touch!

Wu Tsai Institute | Yale University@wutsaiyale.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Applications are open for WTI Postdoctoral Fellowships! Calling experimental, computational + theoretical researchers working across disciplines to explore human cognition. Apply: apply.interfolio.com/189775 Learn more: wti.yale.edu/initiatives/postdoctoral #KnowTogether #ScienceAtYale

"Imagine a flashy spaceship lands in your backyard. The door opens and you are invited to investigate everything to see what you can learn. The technology is clearly millions of years beyond what we can make. This is biology." jsomers.net/i-should-hav...

🤤🍔

Melanie Mitchell@melaniemitchell.bsky.social · 3mo ago

I'm just now reading @randomwalker.bsky.social's writeup of his ICML keynote. It is very insightful. Everyone thinking about the future of work in the age of AI should read this. www.normaltech.ai/p/what-will-...