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Barrett Davis

@barrettdavis.bsky.social
515 followers 205 following 293 posts

PhD Candidate in Biomedical Engineering · Synaptic Plasticity, Single Molecule Biosensing and Comp Systems Bio · Photographer · Advocate for Cleaner Air

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Reposted by Barrett Davis
Chris Mihos @chrismihos.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
I get really annoyed seeing so many people say "Since everyone uses AI to write papers..." or "Referee reports now are just written by AI..." Look: Everything I have written has, for better or worse, been my own writing. Don't project your cynical expectations on my work. Seriously, screw gen-AI.
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Yale MB&B @yalembb.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
We are excited to announce a tenure-track position in Computational Biophysics and Biochemistry, exploring the intricate molecular and cellular processes and the complex interactions of their macromolecular components! apply.interfolio.com/193444
apply.interfolio.com
Apply - Interfolio {{$ctrl.$state.data.pageTitle}} - Apply - Interfolio
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Alex Holcombe @alexh.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Consequences of the flood of AI manuscripts: "An early-career researcher at an unbranded institution loses the one mechanism that ever let them be read on merit — anonymous review of the work itself, however badly it functioned in practice.
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Barrett Davis @barrettdavis.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
While digging through old photos, came across this vertical panorama (vertorama?) from a research forest last summer. Just as spooky then as now!
Color infrared vertical panorama of a hilly tree clearing. Vehicle tracks seem to disappear into the pink underbrush. White plasticky markers stick up out of the ground, almost like tombstones.
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Barrett Davis @barrettdavis.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
One more from the summer, a hanger-on from my trip to Kankakee Sands. Shot with a 720 nm filter, the grasses around our bison appear with a snow-like quality.
A 720 nm infrared photo of a bison laying in a field, its eyes closed. The bison's brown fur contrasts against snow white grasses and light pink trees in the background.
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Barrett Davis @barrettdavis.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Test shot I liked more than some of my 'intentional' shots this past summer. Self-converted D5100 and a yellow filter. The shutter button's a real squeeze and the ensemble lurches more so than fires, but it does work!
A color infrared photo of a wooden bench surrounded by crimson foliage under bright midday sun. Harsh shadows on the back of the bench contrast with gradient blue skies overhead.
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Barrett Davis @barrettdavis.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Taken earlier this summer. The more subdued colors of 720 nm filter have grown on me a bit.
The Voss sun model / sculpture at Purdue in 720 nm infrared. The sculpture is framed by leaves in the foreground and stands against buildings with silver and gold windows in the background. The image has a desaturated, wintry look to it.
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Reposted by Barrett Davis
Nature @nature.com · 22/09/2026
Nature research paper: Molecular-level observation of the self-assembly of a virus-like particle go.nature.com/4yDE29I
go.nature.com
Molecular-level observation of the self-assembly of a virus-like particle - Nature
Using mass photometry combined with a single-molecule trapping method allows real-time monitoring of the assembly of individual virus-like particles with molecular resolution, enabling observation and quantification of their self-assembly pathways and dynamics.
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Ondrej Zika @ondrejzika.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
🚨 💫 💥 Interested in PhD / Postdoc opportunities in computational psychiatry / cognitive neuroscience? My lab at University College Dublin 🇮🇪 is currently accepting expressions of interest for internally funded PhD/Postdoc applications for positions starting in September 2027 (!). 1/
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Prof Peter Hotez MD PhD DSc(hon) @peterhotezmdphd.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
New paper from UCSF looking at the 250 high confidence autism genes and their mechanisms of interaction in early fetal brain development www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
science.org
Autism mutations rewire protein interaction networks to drive neurodevelopmental pathology
Systematic mapping of protein-protein interaction (PPI) networks and determining how causal mutations rewire them in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) provide a powerful framework for uncovering disease ...
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Reese Richardson @reeserichardson.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
A massive update: At least ~15 companies~ are selling scientists antibodies using faked validation data. We've documented 18,000+ manipulated images on 17,000+ products sold by leading laboratory suppliers including Thermo Fisher, Abcam, Santa Cruz Biotechnology, Millipore Sigma and Bio-Techne. 1/🧵
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Rain Hayes @rainhayes.com · 18/08/2026
Hello, Bluesky! I'm Rain, a California-based photographer specializing in capturing 'invisible' UV and infrared light. I love connecting with smart, creative people in any and every domain. This balloon milkweed seed pod burst open just as I started photographing. 𝐺𝑜𝑚𝑝ℎ𝑜𝑐𝑎𝑟𝑝𝑢𝑠 𝑝ℎ𝑦𝑠𝑜𝑐𝑎𝑟𝑝𝑢𝑠
A balloon milkweed seed pod has burst open and the inner seeds are peeling off and floating away on tufts of fluff.
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Dr. Lucky Tran @luckytran.com · 06/08/2026
Fantastic news! The FDA has approved the first mRNA flu vaccine. Using mRNA technology will make it easier to update each season’s flu vaccine to keep up with new variants.
nytimes.com
F.D.A. Approves Moderna’s mRNA Flu Vaccine (Gift Article)
The agency had initially refused to even review the application but reversed course after a public outcry.
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Arrianna Marie Planey, PhD MA @arrianna-planey.bsky.social · 29/03/2025
Methodological individualism is antithetical to public health practice. The 'public' is not a mere sum of 'individuals.'
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Dr. Lucky Tran @luckytran.com · 27/07/2026
👋 Public Health Communicator from Australia here. One of the reasons Australia punches above its weight in sports is that it prioritizes sports science. It's no surprise that Aussie athletes like the swim team have been consistently masking to prevent themselves getting sick before competitions.
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The BMJ @bmj.com · 21/07/2026
Emergency departments can be as loud as construction sites, but they don’t have to be. Quiet is part of safe care and should be designed into departments, monitoring equipment, and everyday practice, writes @docib.bsky.social www.bmj.com/content/394/...
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Dr Vanessa @hpsvanessa.bsky.social · 18/07/2026
"don't cite what you haven't read" remains the basic entry level academic responsibility; & if your discpline "doesn't have that as a norm" then sorry, your discipline needs reforming for this new world. Citations are structural parts of trust and knowledge building, not trinkets or optional extras
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Magnus Palmblad @magnuspalmblad.bsky.social · 07/07/2026
Tired of AI-generated figures? I asked our talented scientific illustrator Manon Zuurmond to draw some of the instruments and lab equipment we missed in NIH's otherwise fantastic BioArt resource. First batch now available as CC BY. Free for everyone to use in publications: github.com/Center-for-P...
Drawings of various laboratory equipment (liquid chromatography system, mass spectrometers and a centrifuge).
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Tom Forsyth @tomforsyth.bsky.social · 16/07/2026
It's wild that the IP hazard is not instantly disqualifying for most companies. Corporate has extensive lectures and training about IP integrity in every other aspect, but for this they just go "yeah, it's fine, don't worry about it." Can I get that in writing from the head of legal, please?
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Barrett Davis @barrettdavis.bsky.social · 15/07/2026
pausa de hidratación
"Pausa de Hidratación"

James Gandolfini sips espresso outside a New Jersey convenience store in HBO's "The Sopranos"
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Barrett Davis @barrettdavis.bsky.social · 14/07/2026
Pausa de hidratación
"Pausa de Hidratación"

Karolina Wydra extends a bottle of water to the camera as "Zosia" in Apple TV's "Pluribus".
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Barrett Davis @barrettdavis.bsky.social · 14/07/2026
A few more from the Wolf Park, this time swapping out my Yellow 15 for a 720 nm filter. Leaning into the limits of f/5.6 to appreciate the caustics effect here.
Timber misjudges the catch, watching the treat sail by her left eyeTimber howling into the early evening skyA wolf sleeping on a log. Same wolf, perking back up on her log
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Barrett Davis @barrettdavis.bsky.social · 14/07/2026
Visited the local Wolf Park conservation center over this past weekend with both IR and visible camera in tow
Gray wolf "Timber" catches venison treats thrown by her handler, showing off an impressive array of teeth. A channel-swapped full-spectrum (minus yellow) photograph of timber, yawning from a log perch. Similar to how human skin looks in similar photos, her tongue takes on a yellow hue. Timber eyes her handler intently for another treat, revealing her golden eyes.Timber stands in profile to the camera while snacking on a treat.
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Barrett Davis @barrettdavis.bsky.social · 14/07/2026
About ten-minutes worth of silent spectacle over a leafy, moonlight-dappled clearing #Nature #Fireflies #BlueTue #LongExposure
A leafy clearing is illuminated by blue moonlight and yellow-green fireflies.
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Reposted by Barrett Davis
John Tuthill @tuthill.bsky.social · 30/06/2026
My department, Neurobiology and Biophysics at the University of Washington (nbio.uw.edu), is hiring a new tenure-track Assistant Professor, application deadline 09/30/26. It's a broad search — molecular to organismal, all of neuroscience/physiology/biophysics welcome. apply.interfolio.com/187735
NBIO department logo
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Nick DeVito @ndevito1.bsky.social · 29/06/2026
I challenge anyone go try and reproduce some random papers, even those based on open free public datasets, but without the code and/or a detailed description of how the data was obtained and processed, and not become militant about the necessity of code and complete data sharing at a minimum.
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Max Kozlov @maxkozlov.bsky.social · 27/06/2026
NIH grants have been under political scrutiny since early 2025. But what does the screening process actually look like? What is being flagged? I spent a month digging into leaked docs and emails. We've published the 235-word list that are being flagged by an internal AI tool. And so much more. 🧵
nature.com
Inside the new political screening that’s stalling NIH grants
Mandatory reviews by top health officials and checks for 235 disfavoured terms have left hundreds of vetted grant applications in administrative limbo.
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Itai Yanai @itaiyanai.bsky.social · 24/06/2026
🔥 Published today, and just in time for summer conferences, here are your guidelines for presenting badly www.nature.com/articles/s41... rdcu.be/fqa92
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Peter Kok @peterkok.bsky.social · 24/06/2026
I am recruiting a postdoctoral researcher and a PhD student, funded by a new ERC grant. The grant focuses on the role of the hippocampus in visual perception, using 7T fMRI (hippocampal subfields, cortical layers) and MEG+iEEG. The intended start dates for both positions are in early 2027. 🧠🟦 1/3
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Christophe 🔬 Leterrier @christlet.bsky.social · 23/06/2026
10/10 no n̶o̶t̶e̶s̶ prompt
inpreparation.substack.com
Opinion: I Was Not Allowed To Type Prompts Into ChatGPT During My Chalk Talk And This Is Discrimination
By Dr. Rachel Simmons, Postdoctoral Fellow, Stanford University
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Jason Koebler @jasonkoebler.bsky.social · 15/06/2026
New: Researchers have quantified how easy AI search is to manipulate. Just 13 words buried in a random Reddit comment can poison AI search results. They suggest this is not easy to stop: "The way you can attack these systems is so much dumber than you think it is" www.404media.co/it-is-trivia...
404media.co
It Is Trivially Easy to Use Reddit to Manipulate AI Search, Research Suggests
"We show that a tiny snippet—just 13 words—of retrieved text on a UGC website like Reddit, Wikipedia, Quora, or Facebook can change AI agents to output spam / scam content pretty consistently."
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Michael Okun @michael-okun.bsky.social · 10/06/2026
I’ve officially resigned as Associate Editor for Frontiers in Systems Neuroscience. It used to be a reputable journal, but became a case study in how forced automation destroys academic integrity. 👇
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Reese Richardson @reeserichardson.bsky.social · 05/06/2026
The Thermo Fisher situation keeps getting worse. We've now collected 450+ problematic images presented as verification data in TF's antibody catalog. This includes: 🖌️ Dozens more images with duplications or painting 🖨️ Hundreds of blots that all share the same background (behold slideshow below)
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Barrett Davis @barrettdavis.bsky.social · 04/06/2026
Easy meals for the bird, fewer bugs for the bison. Aerochrome-inspired shots from this past weekend's visit to Kankakee Sands. Shot on a full spectrum digital camera with a yellow filter. #fullspectrum #infrared #wildlife #bison
An aerochrome-inspired digital color infrared image of a bison standing in a pink field. A small bird stands atop the bison. The bison licks the inside of its nose (gross!).A panoramic crop of the same bison standing in a pink field. Now looking head-on to the camera. The bird remains posed atop the bison. A small pink tree stands on a distant hill.
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Barrett Davis @barrettdavis.bsky.social · 03/06/2026
Creating multiple data tables within one spreadsheet is a data crime, and you should *not* do it Great resource from @carpentries.carpentries.org h/t @cbahlai.bsky.social datacarpentry.github.io/2015-03-09-I...
datacarpentry.github.io
Formatting data tables in Spreadsheets
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Barrett Davis @barrettdavis.bsky.social · 02/06/2026
Thankful the sun decided to pop out from behind the clouds for this shot on Sunday 📍Kankakee Sands, Indiana #infrared #photography #wildlife #nature
A color infrared photo of a bison standing in a light coral-pink field. Two vermillion trees dot an overlook on the horizon.
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Michael Hobbes @michaelhobbes.bsky.social · 25/05/2026
Some of us just don't like getting colds
obert W Malone, MD
@RWMaloneMD
Did some airplane travel this week- the number of people back to wearing masks over hantavirus and Ebola is truly shocking.
I feel sad for the people who live their lives in fear over over-hyped, extremely rare diseases. 
People, so fearful that they can't go out in public or travel without masks...
I pity them, I worry for their mental health, I even worry for our country that has so many guillible people - but these poor fools are not my enemy.
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Barrett Davis @barrettdavis.bsky.social · 26/05/2026
A few more shots from a recent photo walk. All patterns captured in camera. #photography #invisible #bnw #abstract
A low contrast black and white image of a metal sundial sculpture, roughly shaped like an eagle's claw. One talon is coated in black dots. A black and white photo of a concrete balustrade, coated in black dots. Differences in reflectivity give the appearance that a metal rail is now transparent.A black and white photo of two benches, in front of the balustrade. Dots sweep across part of the image. The benches are rendered in white. An abstract black and white closeup image of a mundane object, rendered almost unrecognizable, save for what structure is betrayed by black dots.
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Barrett Davis @barrettdavis.bsky.social · 25/05/2026
Experimenting with a new technique, patterns captured in camera #invisible #fullspectrum #photography #bnw
A low-contrast, black and white image of a very large head sculpture. The sculpture is half-covered in black dots.
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Michael Lin, MD PhD @michaelzlin.bsky.social · 20/05/2026
The Lin Lab is hiring! We're seeking motivated postdocs for projects on voltage imaging and optogenetics in the brain. If you're excited to develop new methods to undersatand and correct brain diseases, working together with other neuroscience labs at Stanford, drop us a line!
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Linsey Marr @linseymarr.bsky.social · 14/05/2026
It's widely accepted that hantavirus transmits from rodent excreta to humans via inhalation of aerosolized virus, so I don't understand why we're so reluctant to acknowledge the inhalation route for human-to-human transmission. www.nytimes.com/2026/05/14/h...
nytimes.com
Hantavirus Doesn’t Spread Easily, but Officials May Be Downplaying Risks
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Julia Lazzari-Dean @jlazzaridean.bsky.social · 12/05/2026
We invented “triplet tumbling microscopy” (TTM) to track protein-protein interactions in living cells! Tag your protein with GFP and see it interact with *untagged* binding partners www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
A cartoon overview of triplet tumbling microscopy, comparing data from bound and unbound samples.
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Amanda Hu @amandalhu.bsky.social · 11/05/2026
Medical misogyny is bad for everyone, actually
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Barrett Davis @barrettdavis.bsky.social · 10/05/2026
late afternoon hikes #photography #nature #sunbeam
A fallen tree stands emerges from a leafy meadow punctuated with pastel blue flowers. A light ray streams from out of frame.
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T. Ryan Gregory 🇨🇦 @tryangregory.bsky.social · 08/05/2026
It would be good if the experience of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic had resulted in an updated procedure for communicating about outbreaks. Brief thoughts on what still happens vs. what would be better for rebuilding trust in public health. 🧵
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Monica Potts @monicapotts.bsky.social · 08/05/2026
Happy Friday: opinion writing should be supported by evidence.
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Andrew G. York @andrewgyork.bsky.social · 29/04/2026
Meet MagLuc: a magnetically-controlled luminescent protein. This is a foundational tool for remote control of biological processes, also known as "magnetogenetics". Can you tell when the magnetic field turns on and off? From @mariaingaramo.bsky.social and the team at @nonfictionlabs.bsky.social
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Barrett Davis @barrettdavis.bsky.social · 27/04/2026
Interesting application of computer vision and optical trapping to isolate CTCs from crowded, diverse volumes @therealscientwist.bsky.social pubs.rsc.org/en/content/a...
pubs.rsc.org
MaGIC-OT: an AI-guided optical tweezers platform for autonomous single-cell isolation in microfluidic devices
Automating the isolation of rare cells such as circulating tumour cells (CTCs) within crowded microfluidic environments remains a bottleneck in liquid biopsy workflows. Optical tweezers offer contact-...
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Barrett Davis @barrettdavis.bsky.social · 27/04/2026
Andrew McNeil sharing some fantastic new #aerochrome photos taken around Vancouver Island, BC #Infrared #IR #Film #Photography www.youtube.com/watch?v=g1q3...
youtube.com
I Shot the Most Expensive Film in the World on Vancouver Island
YouTube video by Andrew McNeil
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Dr Peter Prinsley MP @peterprinsleymp.bsky.social · 21/04/2026
The Tobacco and Vapes Bill is one of the most important - and too often overlooked - pieces of legislation in decades. Creating a smoke-free generation means fewer cancers, less pressure on the NHS, and longer, healthier lives. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
bbc.co.uk
Smoking ban for people born after 2008 in the UK agreed
The "landmark" legislation aims to stop anyone born after 1 January 2009 from taking up smoking to create a smoke-free generation.
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