Great talking to Patrick Jack at Times Higher Education about my starting a group at the LMB in Cambridge, UK — people and institutions over here are getting things done.
I've been amazed how quickly my capital equipment purchases are being processed — that's how you make the science go faster!
Connectomics is in an incredible exciting phase — it really feels like we are seeing breakthroughs every few months, now.
This is built on decades of hard work and creative thinking, of course. Still, it is difficult not to feel as if even greater things are in the air.
E11's self-correcting neuron barcoding technology PRISM is getting us closer to scalable connectomics — this will enable connectomics research we've been dreaming of for decades 🌈🧠🔬
The Molecular Brain Mapping group at the MRC-LMB is hiring! 🌈🧠
I'm looking for people who are excited about developing multimodal analysis and visualization tools to capture the "hidden connectome," in a highly intersectional environment exploring ideas in meta-science.
mrc.tal.net/vx/mobile-0/...
The Molecular Brain Mapping group at the MRC-LMB is hiring! 🌈🧠
I'm looking for people who are excited about revealing the many molecular layers of the "hidden connectome" with expansion microscopy, in a highly intersectional environment exploring ideas in meta-science.
mrc.tal.net/vx/mobile-0/...
This is why I really appreciate Katalin Karikó's "Breaking Through" — her account is full of hardship.
Most fascinating: her love for science and unquenchable curiosity never fade from her account — the hardship is the point, not something she ever let hold her back.
Vielen Dank! Freu mich drauf dass wir uns bald in Göttingen bei der Expansion Microscopy Konferenz wieder treffen werden 🙂
The cat is officially out of the bag!
The LMB is home to a unique community of outstanding connectomics scientists — I'm so excited about adding my own molecular and expansion microscopy expertise to the mix!
This is going to be the most exciting journey of my scientific career — more soon! 🌈🧠
It is concerning how much fundamental scientific infrastructure is at the whim of, ultimately, disinterested third-party funders.
I don't know how to solve this, but scientific independence should become a movement. We need long-term stability.
www.thetransmitter.org/community/ha...
Many of you in #AcademicBsky in the northern hemisphere might not know the dire state of Australian academia. This essay by Andrew Dean is a fair snapshot of the state of the sector.
Thinking today especially of academics in some Aus unis facing mass job cuts ~ 3,000 jobs on the chopping block now.
I'd hate to lose Google Scholar because the whole Google ecosystem is just so prevalent and convenient. But I do think we have plenty of alternatives and fallback solutions — arguably, Google Scholar it may not even be the best aggregator/search for academics and manuscripts right now.
🚀 Today we're launching the 'Night Science Institute', a non-for-profit organization to lead a cultural shift in science! You may say we're dreamers 😉, but we think we're not the only ones. Perhaps today you will join us to make the Day Science and Night Science parts of the process live as one!
A rare opportunity to work directly with the inventor of LICONN at Janelia!
Mojtaba is pushing the frontier of the exciting new field of molecular connectomics, which promises to change how we map the brain.
If you want to understand the brain and build the technology to do so, get in contact!
What you describe there indeed sounds awful. I think that's what could make an in-house writer so valuable, though — you get the direct interaction and ability to do collaborative work. The authors of the article makes exactly that point, too — in contrast to outsourcing to an agency, for example.
I agree with you! This is not just a valid worry — it's a necessary one!
In practice, however, I have found that collaborative writing (and thinking!) can enhance the product without relinquishing accountability.
I feel this way both from my experience in science and creative writing.
It seems we are thinking about very different things, here. You are talking about ghostwriting. That's not the same as working with a writer. If a collaborator or a student contributes ideas and writing to a grant, that must be acknowledged. Same with any other arrangement.
I don't know, I think we are similar. You don't want to outsource your writing, and I don't want to outsource my writing, either — I love writing!
I just don't see why it's problematic to do that. I think there's many valid ways of being a scientist.
I don't quite follow why this is problematic. I know a lot of people who would love doing that job. I once considered applying for just such an in-house writer position, myself.
Two scientists hold up blindly executed drawings of each other.
Woodstock.Bio2 in Prague and the woods of Bohemia was super fun!
I tried to capture the smile of @chaichinta.bsky.social as best I could in this blind drawing game xD
ERC Starting Grant window will be moved from 2–7 years after PhD to 0–10 years! 🥳
This is obviously great but also slightly bizarre... I'm currently too old for an ERC Starting Grant but will be young enough again by 2027 — thank you for planning on making me feel young again in my late 30s, ERC 😆
E11 Bio is launching Volara: an open-source Python library for block-wise processing of large volumetric microscopy datasets! 🧪🔬
Volara features block-wise task abstractions, making scalable image processing more accessible, robust, and repeatable.
Read more: e11.bio/blog/volara
I personally like Synaptophysin for this purpose. The manuscripts below might be good resources — both compile data on localization and behavior of dozens of GFP-tagged synaptic proteins.
www.embopress.org/doi/full/10....
pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...
I see the debate around THAT "research is becoming less disruptive" paper has reignited.
Many reject its findings on the basis of flawed metrics. And, fair point.
But this paper is not the only clue. I'm surprised there aren't more scientists who feel the truth of this in their bones.
This is one of those reviews where I kept thinking for some time "damn, I wish there was a good round-up of the extant literature..." — well, now we have one :D
Very well curated resource on combining expansion microscopy and optical super-resolution techniques!
Maybe the most underestimated accelerator of research is sustaining a phase of deliberation before diving into a project.
Once a project is started, it takes on a life of its own that makes course corrections difficult — and stopping pretty much impossible.
So we better chose the project wisely.
As always, change happens one decision at a time. Any time someone makes a choice that goes against received wisdom but aligns with their personal values, we are one step closer to revolutionizing the system. I live in hope.
I've often contemplated the fact that the basic technology stack that enabled expansion microscopy existed for easily >30 years (probably more like 50).
Makes you wonder what other breakthroughs are just waiting for someone to connect the dots.
Signed. A shocking number of times, when I had to solve an expansion microscopy engineering problem, simply looking towards Western blotting provided the solution.
A Canada goose faces off against a bald eagle in Burlington, Ontario. Photograph: Mervyn Sequeira.
I always knew the Canadians are not to be trifled with, and only conciliatory up to a point — and, important lesson: America isn't the irresistible force of nature it sometimes seems to be 😜
