Kevin Mitchell

"Jews don't belong in American society."

Imagine a sitting member of Congress tweeting that. You can't. Thankfully, it'd never happen. And *if* it did, it'd be the end of their career and the biggest story in America.

But Ogles can say this about Muslims without any censure.

"The destruction that Kennedy has wrought in 1 year might take generations to repair, and there is little hope for US health and science while he remains at the helm"

@thelancet.com

www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...

Book cover with a green gradient background for "The Organism–Environment Pairing: A Historical and Philosophical Reappraisal" by Alejandro Fábregas-Tejeda (MIT Press, 2026). The book series label “The Vienna Series in Theoretical Biology” appears at the top. The title is set in large, bold lettering using three colors: white (“The” and “Pairing”), warm yellow (“Organism–”), and bright green (“Environment”). The subtitle appears below in smaller white text, and the author’s name is printed at the bottom. In the lower right, a monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus) rests on clusters of pink milkweed flowers. Behind it, a large pale-green butterfly silhouette fills the background; its outline follows the shape of a red lacewing butterfly (Cethosia biblis). The layered butterflies visually echo the book’s central idea of an organism–environment pairing.

What a joy to finally share the cover of The Organism–Environment Pairing (@mitpress.bsky.social)! The 📗 will be out on May 12 📆! I look forward to the conversations it sparks among scientists, philosophers & historians! mitpress.mit.edu/978026205282... #evosky #histsci #philsci #philsky #booksky 🌱🐋

✨Crepidula fornicata (slipper snail) 🐚 A classic model for spiral cleavage! 🧬 Crepidula embryos reveal how early cell divisions shape body plans and establish left-right asymmetry in spiralian animals 📸 Image by Jake Leyhr #ModelMonday

This is what happens when one of the stupidest people in history is in charge of your government.

Get all sides of every story and be better informed at https://ground.news/AlexOC - subscribe for 40% off unlimited access. For early, ad-free access to videos, and to support the channel, subscribe to my Substack: https://www.alexoconnor.com. To donate to my PayPal (thank you): http://www.paypal.me/cosmicskeptic. - VIDEO NOTES Matthew Cobb is a British zoologist and Emeritus professor of zoology at the University of Manchester. Get his book, "The Idea of the Brain: A History": https://amzn.to/4bcRFCN - LINKS https://loc.closertotruth.com/map - TIMESTAMPS 0:00 The Heart or the Head? 4:13 Medicine in the Ancient World 12:25 Why Don’t We Accept Evidence? 18:34 From Ancient to Modern Understanding 29:29 When Did We Reach a Consensus on the Brain? 37:41 Electricity in the Brain 39:58 Our Metaphors for the Brain 44:15 Is the Brain Segmented or Whole? 01:05:20 Why is Speech Governed by the Left Hemisphere? 01:18:55 Why is the Brain Split Into Two Hemispheres? 01:23:06 Where in the Brain Does Consciousness Originate? 01:32:46 The Ladybug Robot 01:35:08 Back to Consciousness 01:45:27 What is a Neuron? 01:56:04 Why is Smell Connected to Memory So Strongly? 02:02:14 Do London Cab Drivers Have Larger Hippocampi? 02:10:11 The Limits of MRI and CT Scans 02:19:24 Will We Ever Be Able to See Consciousness in the Brain? - CONNECT My Website: https://www.alexoconnor.com SOCIAL LINKS: Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/cosmicskeptic Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/cosmicskeptic Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/cosmicskeptic TikTok: @CosmicSkeptic The Within Reason Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/within-reason/id1458675168 - CONTACT Business email: contact@alexoconnor.com Brand enquiries: David@modernstoa.co ------------------------------------------ The Most Complicated Thing in the Universe: What is the Brain?

Right this is… rather long. Over two hours of me and Alex O’Connor chatting about the brain. I hadn’t heard of Alex before I did this, but he was a terrific interviewer and we had a great time. One of the best interviews I’ve ever had.

Parts of a kiwi bird as fruit

Assistant or Associate Professor (Research and Education) - School of Biosciences - 107106 - Grade 8 or 9 Evidence of a developing track record in publishing work of high academic quality and impact is essential, as is an emerging portfolio (or clear potential) of external research funding. Applicants mus...

The School of Biosciences @unibirmingham.bsky.social is recruiting five Assistant/Associate Professors working across a range of areas, including neuroscience.

Join a vibrant interdisciplinary research environment.

Deadline: 14 April 2026

edzz.fa.em3.oraclecloud.com/hcmUI/Candid...

Turning Idle California Farmland Into A Clean Energy Powerhouse This week’s Current Climate newsletter also looks at how data centers are driving clean energy adoption and Rivian-backed ALSO’s plan to shake up the global e-bike market

In the latest Current Climate newsletter:
☀️Turning idle California farmland into a renewable energy powerhouse
👩‍💻How data centers are driving clean energy adoption
🚲 Rivian-backed ALSO’s plan to shake up the e-bike market #solar #batteries www.forbes.com/sites/curren...

Can safely way this is the craziest and coolest study I have led. We chart the evolution of sheeppox virus, finding it in the Eurasian steppe ~3700 years ago, and also in a LOT of parchment from medieval Europe (made from a range of animals skins!) #aDNA

I am very excited to be presenting our work using awake infant fMRI and developmentally inspired deep neural networks to better understand the visual features that the developing brain encodes infants view objects at #CNS2026 in Vancouver this week!

a raccoon standing in an aisle at the library

what is he doing here? he can’t even read

Disorder Drives One of Nature’s Most Complex Machines | Quanta Magazine Every second, hundreds to thousands of molecules move through thousands of nuclear pores in each of your cells. A new high-definition view reveals the machine in action.

Behold the inner channel of the nuclear pore complex in all its messy glory. New high-def microscopy is revealing its intricacies like never before. @yaseminsaplakoglu.bsky.social reports: www.quantamagazine.org/disorder-dri...

Civil Servants Demand: Impeach Russell Vought The Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought is the central architect driving the destruction of your government. Russell Vought created lawlessness in every part of the Trump administ...

Get Vought out!! actionnetwork.org/forms/civil-...

How Congress can restore the independence of US science Members must go beyond reinstating US government research spending and re-establish decentralized governance at the National Institutes of Health and other agencies.

The most impt change at #NIH and to US science this year is bigger than grant cancellations— it’s how the agency is governed.

For 75 years NIH has been largely independent of presidential control. That’s changed this year. New piece from me and @nataliebaviles.bsky.social in @nature.com
🧪

Looking forward to #COSYNE2026 in Lisbon this week! 😊 Who's going? www.cosyne.org/schedule-2026

Close-up of a scallop with its shell partially open, revealing bright orange inside. The scallop's shell is ridged with a line of tiny, vivid blue eyes along the edge. It rests on a sandy seabed.

Did you know that bay scallops have up to 200 eyes? 🤯

Made of guanine crystals, these small, mirror-like eyes behave like reflecting telescopes or concave mirrors—allowing scallops to see clearly close up and far away at the same time!

Not good - JAMA article finding decline in Hep B vaccination rates 2023-2025 jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...

Cor, sure would feel great right now if we were self-sufficient in renewable energy, and laughing at all the rubes reliant on global oil supplies. We'd have a bit of a swagger in our step today.

A sign with the NSF logo upside down on the floor with other construction debris

Seen on the Hill last week, no notes

We suggest 3 linked principles to build these models:

(1) models grounded in cellular & evolutionary biology
(2) molecular constraints to reduce the solution space
(3) synthetic biology & cis-regulatory perturbations to generate training data & test predictions

We argue for a return to causal GRN models

Using representation learning to capture the emergent logic of gene regulation without needing to model every molecular interaction

Think Marr's levels of analysis, applied to developmental biology

Gene regulatory networks: from correlative models to causal explanations Nature Reviews Genetics - In this Perspective, Maizels and Briscoe discuss the limitations of current models of gene regulatory networks and outline solutions to harness data abundance without...

New Perspective form Rory Maizels & me: "Gene regulatory networks: from correlative models to causal explanations"

Gene regulatory networks are supposed to give us mechanistic explanations of development, so why are we drowning in 'hairballs' of statistical correlations?

rdcu.be/e7zx7

'One year of failure.' The Lancet slams RFK Jr.'s first year as health chief In a scathing review, the top US medical journal's editorial board warned that the "destruction that Kennedy has wrought in 1 in office might take generations to repair."

In a scathing review, the top US medical journal's editorial board warned that the "destruction that Kennedy has wrought in 1 in office might take generations to repair."

If an official commits an impeachable offense and nobody acts to impeach, it is no longer an impeachable offense.

People who oppose impeachment as “pointless” because it seems unlikely to result in removal do not understand this very simple point and seem unwilling to even try to understand it.

Oh, this one's a classic:

One shoe, two shoe,
Stop blowing up brown children with my fucking healthcare money, you murderous ghouls.

I do not like it in a dump.
I do not like it by a trump.
I do not like it over there.
I do not like it anywhere.

Keynote speakers: Devon Bailey (University of Johannesburg), Louise Barrett (University of Lethbridge), Ali Boyle (LSE), Melina Gastelum Vargas (UNAM), Michael Kirchhoff (University of Wollongong), Yukie Nagai (University of Tokyo)

Call for abstracts for ISPSM’s 4th annual online conference. Philosophers working on any science of the mind (broadly construed) are welcome to submit. We particularly encourage submissions from underrepresented groups in the field.

It’s that time again! Delighted to announce the call for abstracts for ISPSM 2026 and our keynote speakers! ✨

Dates: 4-6 November 2026

Link for submissions: tinyurl.com/ISPSM-abstra...

Deadline for submissions: 31/07/2026

#philsky

Recent social experience alters song behavior in Drosophila Roemschied et al. show that recent social experience reshapes how male Drosophila deploy their innate courtship song. By perturbing female feedback during singing, they reveal usage learning that alte...

Courtship behavior in Drosophila does not follow a fixed & innate motor pattern. By optogenetically perturbing social interactions, scientists of Mala Murthy's lab discovered that ♂️🪰 adjust their courtship strategy ("usage learning").
www.cell.com/current-biol...

New paper out!!!
Such as humans and rats, we showed that birds visual system (🐣) is tuned to specific pixel correlations from hatching: royalsocietypublishing.org/rspb/article...

I understand why Putin wants to destroy America, and I can guess why Trump is helping him do it. But I'll never figure out why Congress is letting him get away with it.