Michael Hochberg

@kostchristian.bsky.social has an open PhD position as a part of #SPP2389 !
#microsky #mevosky

From MRI to Ozempic: breakthroughs that show why fundamental research must be protected Nature - In these financially straitened times, funders must recognize that great discoveries often arise from work that was looking for something completely different.

Funders must recognise that great discoveries often come from studies that seeks to advance knowledge for its own sake

go.nature.com/3X5lbUg

Examples of some recent papers from graduate students in my group - a full list of recent papers and preprints can be found here (https://scholar.google.co.uk/citations?hl=en&user=pTdxVdIAAAAJ) and profile of the group here: https://egioxford.web.ox.ac.uk/members

The annual Wytham Field Team Photo!

Celebrating a successful field season with great food & good company - May 2025

Front view of the Life & Mind Building, which opened in Oct 2025: The new home of Biology at Oxford

Interested in a PhD in ornithology? Funding available for projects at the interface of ecology, behaviour & evolution from Oct '26 working on long-term population studies of tits at Wytham, based in @biology.ox.ac.uk in the new Life & Mind Building in Oxford
www.findaphd.com/phds/project...

A cartoon/ digital drawing summarising the findings of the paper "Defensive fungal symbiosis on insect hindlegs" by T. Nishino et al published in 2025. On the top left, a female Megymenum gracilicorne bug shows off symbiotic organs on the hind legs where she carries Ascomycota fungi. These were previously assumed to be Tympanal organs in these bugs but only females had them?; that didnt make a whole lot of sense to the authors...To the right of the bug is a row of eggs lying side by side. The paper shows that the bugs deposit the symbiotic fungi on the egg surface after egg-laying. Next on the image, fungal conidia grow on the egg surface. The eggs are pinkish in colour. A few fungi wear sunglasses like they are body guards. The paper shows that they protect the eggs from Trissolcus brevinotaulus, a parasitoid wasp, that likes to lay its eggs inside the developing bug's eggs. There are two wasps in this cartoon "eyeing" the fungi and looking frustrated. Eggs turn from whitish to pinkish within 10-days because they are reflecting the body colour of the nymph within the eggs.

Had to draw a cartoon for this fascinating finding!
Defensive fungal symbiosis on insect hindlegs: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
#SymbioSky

Looking forward to this binge

Three Bicentenary research fellowships on offer at @officialuom.bsky.social @fbmh-uom.bsky.social for exceptional ECRs with <3y postdoc experience

3yrs salary + £30k pa research expenses

Do you have a great idea & want to join @mermanchester.bsky.social?

www.bmh.manchester.ac.uk/research/sup...

Today my @nytimes.com colleagues and I are launching a new series called Lost Science. We interview US scientists who can no longer discover something new about our world, thanks to this year‘s cuts. Here is my first interview with a scientist who studied bees and fires. Gift link: nyti.ms/3IWXbiE

Could major evolutionary transitions arise "from within" -- through internal innovation rather than merger? The case for autogenic transitions in individuality is developed here: philsci-archive.pitt.edu/26847/

We need more of this

UChicago Microbiology is searching for tenured or tenure-track faculty working in host-pathogens interactions, viral and bacterial pathogenesis, and emerging infectious diseases. Come join our vibrant Department! microbiology.uchicago.edu
Apply here apply.interfolio.com/174404

not if you sum it !

AI and the future of scholarly publishing (part 1) | Royal Society The focus for this year's Peer Review Week is 'Peer Review and the Future of Publishing'. We speak with Denisse Albornoz, Science Policy adviser in the Royal Society’s Data team, about the policies th...

This blog post discusses the policies that will likely evolve as #AI technology continues to advance, and its impact on #PeerReview and the scholarly publishing landscape becomes more pronounced. Read more: royalsociety.org/blog/2023/09... #PRW2025

A new study published in #RSOS has uncovered a potential driver behind the aggressive spread of #glioblastoma, one of the deadliest forms of #BrainCancer. Read more: royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...

Here’s How Quantum Computing Could Change the World The emerging technology promises better medicine, faster internet and more sustainable food production. It also comes with some big risks.

Practical quantum computing just around the corner? Two interesting reads: www.wsj.com/articles/her... www.wsj.com/articles/psi...

Will humans and AI coevolve in the future? As interdependencies grow, the two could come to function not merely as interacting agents, but as an integrated evolutionary individual. Check this paper in @pnas.org by @mkhochb.bsky.social & P Rainey @sfiscience.bsky.social www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

What future does AI hold? With @paulbrainey.bsky.social, we hypothesize that human-AI coevolution is leading to the emergence of a new evolutionary unit of selection. Science fiction or looming fact? Read our paper and judge for yourself. www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Very good point. Individual intelligence (i.e., Flynn effect) may or may not beget collective intelligence. Suspect this depends on context, environment, and scale.

What makes intelligence unique? Not surprisingly, no single, simple answer! Progress is however possible on the question if we view intelligence in an information framework. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

YouTube video by AI Upload Ex-OpenAI Scientist WARNS: "You Have No Idea What's Coming"

Despite the title, I found these interviews informative, particularly those with Eric Schmidt. Main take-aways: AI moving fast, increasing dependence, semi-predictable future. www.youtube.com/watch?v=79-b...

unbelievable to say the least

jealous

yeast cool - and the shirt's probably full of it after a wear to two

Incredible, but AI is your enemy. Unless I actually see you penciling, I can't be sure that you are the author of this portrait. Come 2030 or thereabouts, original work and AI creation will be indistinguishalbe (clearly I'm not an AI just yet).

Welcome !!!

Simple chemistry helps explain the origin of life, new study suggests Scientists have figured out how proteins may have been created on early Earth.

Simple and very cool (or rather hot) wapo.st/4mWQ740

20/ My hope is that this study will generate interest in intelligence. Can intelligence help understand system organization, behavior and evolution? Will intelligence help in understanding human collective behavior and society? Perhaps most importantly, what is the future of our coevolution with AI?

19/ I have made a preliminary attempt at listing some abilities and the types of systems in which they can be found. There is clearly a LOT to be discussed here, but I believe this is in the right direction.

18/ Understanding the under-the-hood abilities and their interrelations will be central to understanding intelligence, quantifying it, and at some point, developing a theory of intelligence. This is the next step!

17/ The indicators proposed are based on bulk information. They do not say ANYTHING about the nature of information, nor how it was acquired. Thus, my framework is not explicit about what is “under-the-hood”, i.e., the nuts and bolts of intelligence.

16/ Thus, intelligence needs to contextualized, that is, relative to something: the agent’s own ability, the complexity of the task, or to a benchmark (a standardized estimate of complexity). Complex contexts can be equated with goal “difficulty”.