iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Dániel Barabási @bdanubius.bsky.social · 04/07/2025

OSNAP! I received an NIH Outstanding Scholars in Neuroscience Award This award makes my heart sing -- between college and PhD I spent a year researching at the NIMH, and loved every minute of the campus and community. Feels full circle to be honored by NIMH post-PhD!

030

Dániel Barabási @bdanubius.bsky.social · 16/06/2025

Guide: barabasi.me/fellowships/ List: docs.google.com/spreadsheets... As always, DM or email with any questions!

010

Dániel Barabási @bdanubius.bsky.social · 16/06/2025

Recent PhD Grad, or planning on defending soon? With current funding uncertainties, postdoc fellowships, often funded by private donations, can provide job stability in the coming years. I put together a short guide and list of fellowships I applied to 👇

120

Dániel Barabási @bdanubius.bsky.social · 27/03/2025

Tragically beautiful article from @harvardmagazine.bsky.social about the absurdity of letting death machines into our cities, and how simple fixes can return "complete" streets to the people. Amsterdam and Copenhagen transformed, what's stopping Boston? www.harvardmagazine.com/2025/03/harv...

harvardmagazine.com

Making Roads Safer for Pedestrians and Cyclists | Harvard Magazine

Working to curb road deaths

000

Dániel Barabási @bdanubius.bsky.social · 10/03/2025

Breast Cancer: nature.com/articles/d41... Pregnancy and the Brain: nature.com/articles/d41... X Chromosome and the Brain: www.nature.com/articles/d41...

010

Dániel Barabási @bdanubius.bsky.social · 10/03/2025

In the vein of Women's History Month and International Women's Day, Nature published a number of fascinating women's health studies recently, including: Hormone cycle's effect on breast cancer treatment. Brain restructuring under pregnancy. X chromosome + brain aging. Links👇

100

Reposted by Dániel Barabási

Sarthak Chandra @sarthakc.bsky.social · 19/02/2025

1/ Our paper appeared in @Nature today! www.nature.com/articles/s41... w/ Fiete Lab and @khonamikail.bsky.social . Explains emergence of multiple grid cell modules, w/ excellent match to data! Novel mechanism for applying across vast systems from development to ecosystems. 🧵👇

nature.com

Global modules robustly emerge from local interactions and smooth gradients - Nature

The principle of peak selection is described, by which local interactions and smooth gradients drive self-organization of discrete global modules.

29832

Dániel Barabási @bdanubius.bsky.social · 05/03/2025

Guide: barabasi.me/fellowships/ Fellowships: docs.google.com/spreadsheets... Please DM me with fellowships I should add!

barabasi.me

Barabási Dániel

022

Dániel Barabási @bdanubius.bsky.social · 05/03/2025

Are you a PhD student thinking about PostDoc options? Fellowships provide early independence, and some early deadlines are in spring and summer! Check out my guide below for navigating the process, plus a curated fellowship list with deadlines, salaries & more.

110

Dániel Barabási @bdanubius.bsky.social · 04/03/2025

We call those the "Four Ss," but unfortunately the title got cut. Also in the paper, the "Four Fs": Feeding, Fleeing, Fighting, and Mating.

020

Dániel Barabási @bdanubius.bsky.social · 27/02/2025

Thanks @harvardmcb.bsky.social‬ for sharing this recap of our work! Click through at the mcb.harvard link, or in my tweetorial below for full text access! bsky.app/profile/did:...

010

Dániel Barabási @bdanubius.bsky.social · 26/02/2025

So while certain elements can be reused, and indeed on different timescales, in many cases the System Two learning is a quick realization, which can be seen in the neural dynamics, where System Three places the knowledge into the animal's repertoire through more extensive synaptic rewiring.

000

Dániel Barabási @bdanubius.bsky.social · 26/02/2025

Thanks for sharing! I distinguish System Two and System Three as follows: System Two, the Eureka Moment, can be implemented dynamically, e.g. a shift in attractor state, with a sprinkle of STDP. But then System Three exists to "deepen the well", like with hippocampal replay.

110

Reposted by Dániel Barabási

Denis Jabaudon @djabaudon.bsky.social · 25/02/2025

Interesting review on the acquisition of motor skills through (1) innate (2) opportunity-based and (3) systematic tuning processes. The framework is compelling although (2) and (3) may I think be the same process at different time scales. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

nature.com

Three systems of circuit formation: assembly, updating and tuning - Nature Reviews Neuroscience

In this Perspective, Barabási, Ferreira Castro and Engert challenge the notion that learning and plasticity primarily drive the assembly of neural circuits. They present a tripartite framework for how...

142

Dániel Barabási @bdanubius.bsky.social · 25/02/2025

Thanks for sharing!! For anyone interested in a quick recap, see our thread here: bsky.app/profile/bdan...

130

Dániel Barabási @bdanubius.bsky.social · 24/02/2025

Takeaways: • Most innate circuits (System One) are pre-coded genetically. • “Learning” (System Two) can be shockingly rare but potent when it happens. • Ongoing plasticity (System Three) is mostly to stabilize or fine-tune your existing wiring.

100

Dániel Barabási @bdanubius.bsky.social · 24/02/2025

But why do we think we learn? • Human babies are born relatively immature → System One finishes outside the womb. • Language/semantic memory makes us feel like everything is learned. • AI hype around “learning from scratch” feeds the misconception that all brains do the same.

100

Dániel Barabási @bdanubius.bsky.social · 24/02/2025

In this vein, we separate circuit formation into three “systems,” each deployed at different times and contexts: • System One: Developmental Maturation • System Two: Eureka Moments • System Three: Staying Tuned

100

Dániel Barabási @bdanubius.bsky.social · 24/02/2025

We resolve this nature–nurture conflict by proposing that: (1) Critical knowledge for engaging the world is realized by development, (2) Novel information isn’t strictly required for daily competence, and (3) Plasticity mainly provides homeostatic feedback stabilization.

100

Dániel Barabási @bdanubius.bsky.social · 24/02/2025

Dogmatically, circuits assembly has been split into two phases: (1) predetermined, genetically driven coarse wiring of the nervous system. (2) pruning and refinement through interactions with the environment, which is thought to fine-tune mission-critical neural connectivity.

100

Dániel Barabási @bdanubius.bsky.social · 24/02/2025

How much do we *really* learn? In @natrevneurosci.bsky.social‬ with Florian Engert and André Ferreira Castro, we address why most of you humans firmly believe that patterned activity plays a necessary and instructive role in shaping neural circuits.

131

Dániel Barabási @bdanubius.bsky.social · 14/02/2025

Mating proximity blinds threat perception Valentine's Day themed paper: how a dopamine-governed filter during courtship turns off the serotonergic wave that would otherwise force them to abort and flee. www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-…

000

Dániel Barabási @bdanubius.bsky.social · 15/12/2024

🔥🔥🔥 Efficiency, resiliency tradeoff + behavioral reconfiguration of circuits provide clean interpretations of the multi-scale structure of brain activity 🔥🔥🔥

030

Dániel Barabási @bdanubius.bsky.social · 15/12/2024

Not sure why @macshine.bsky.social @drbreaky.bsky.social + co are not posting more about their fantastic paper from last week: "Multiscale organization of neuronal activity unifies scale-dependent theories of brain function" www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...

1185

Dániel Barabási @bdanubius.bsky.social · 10/12/2024

thanks for the shoutout, and love the paper sharing initiative! I failed to fully crost-post mine from twitter last year

010

Dániel Barabási @bdanubius.bsky.social · 03/12/2024

I was part of two (successful) union fights at Harvard, Grad Student and Postdoc. All the best to the @forbesunion.bsky.social team in the coming days!

010

Dániel Barabási @bdanubius.bsky.social · 03/12/2024

Massively humbled to be on the 2025 Forbes Science 30 under 30 List Huge thanks to my mentors, family, friends and collaborators — I would not be here with you all. Now here's to living up to his honor in my next 30 years! #ForbesUnder30

030

Dániel Barabási @bdanubius.bsky.social · 02/12/2024

Hotspot shelters stimulate frog resistance to chytridiomycosis by Waddle et al 🔥 frogs sauna to fight fungal infection 🔥 www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-…

010

Dániel Barabási @bdanubius.bsky.social · 22/11/2024

Are you a graduate student in NeuroAI? Check out this fantastic summer internship at CSHL, where you can work with @tonyzador.bsky.social and the crew. I had a lot of fun in the first cohort, and they've only gotten more GPUs since then :) www.schooljobs.com/careers/cshl...

schooljobs.com

Career Opportunities | Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Careers

1104

Reposted by Dániel Barabási

Tony Zador @tonyzador.bsky.social · 21/11/2024

For senior grad students. Please spread the word!

01212

Dániel Barabási @bdanubius.bsky.social · 15/11/2024

Finishing up your PhD, and looking for a postdoc? Check out my guide on applying for postdoc fellowships: barabasi.me/fellowships/ I also curate a list of fellowships here: docs.google.com/spreadsheets... DMs are open, please send feedback and questions!

barabasi.me

Barabási Dániel

031

Dániel Barabási @bdanubius.bsky.social · 13/11/2023

I keep getting invited to keynote plant conferences, which is slightly less flattering...

010

Reposted by Dániel Barabási

Venki Murthy @neurovenki.bsky.social · 01/11/2023

Two more tenure-track (or tenured in one case!) positions at Harvard, through the Kempner Institute - in Computer Science and in Applied Math! Please spread the word. Deadlines on Dec 15, 2023. 🧪 academicpositions.harvard.edu/postings/12963 academicpositions.harvard.edu/postings/12964

academicpositions.harvard.edu

Tenure-track or Tenured Professor in Computer Science and Kempner Institute Investigator

The Computer Science area of the John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) and the Kempner Institute for the Study of Natural and Artificial Intelligence at Harvard University ...

047

Dániel Barabási @bdanubius.bsky.social · 01/11/2023

#221: Scalable genetic screening for regulatory circuits using compressed Perturb-seq by Yao et al Compute twice, measure once? How sparse sensing can get you more insight with fewer scRNA experiments. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

000

Dániel Barabási @bdanubius.bsky.social · 31/10/2023

#220: A d factor? Understanding trait distractibility and its relationships with ADHD symptomatology and hyperfocus by Han Zhang et al A link between a general predictor of distractibility and hyperfocus, both on work and distractions. journals.plos.org/plosone/arti...

journals.plos.org

A d factor? Understanding trait distractibility and its relationships with ADHD symptomatology and h...

People differ substantially in their vulnerability to distraction. Yet, many types of distractions exist, from external stimulation to internal thoughts. How should we characterize individual differen...

000

Dániel Barabási @bdanubius.bsky.social · 31/10/2023

#219: Multi-donor human cortical Chimeroids reveal individual susceptibility to neurotoxic triggers by Antón Bolaños et al Multiplexing developmental perturbation testing in organoid cultures! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

biorxiv.org

Multi-donor human cortical Chimeroids reveal individual susceptibility to neurotoxic triggers

bioRxiv - the preprint server for biology, operated by Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, a research and educational institution

000

Dániel Barabási @bdanubius.bsky.social · 25/10/2023

#216: Learning spatio-temporal patterns with Neural Cellular Automata by Richardson, Antal, Blythe, Schumacher Intricate training methods allow NCAs to learn custom morphologies and transitions. arxiv.org/abs/2310.14809

000

Dániel Barabási @bdanubius.bsky.social · 25/10/2023

#215: A marmoset brain cell census reveals regional specialization of cellular identities by fenna krienen et al Massive resource on cell type identities and distributions across a nonhuman primate's brain! science.org/doi/10.1126/...

012

Dániel Barabási @bdanubius.bsky.social · 25/10/2023

#214: Spatial enhancer activation determines inhibitory neuron identity by Elena Dvoretskova et al Beautiful study combining diverse omics practices to understand PN vs IN differentiation. biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

000

Dániel Barabási @bdanubius.bsky.social · 25/10/2023

I'm not familiar with this assumption! But the work seems to indicate that modularity does emerge from simple wiring constraint rules, especially when task structures have overlapping solutions/approaches.

010

Dániel Barabási @bdanubius.bsky.social · 21/10/2023

Five years of work reduced down to one button press. My research wouldn't be possible without modern tech, but moments like these I miss the loss of physicality in administrative processes.

000

Dániel Barabási @bdanubius.bsky.social · 20/10/2023

#213: GRouNdGAN: GRN-guided simulation of single-cell RNA-seq data using causal generative adversarial networks by Zinati, Takiddeen, Emad Eerie, but inspiring, how learnable the mapping is from regulatory network dynamics to gene expression biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

021

Dániel Barabási @bdanubius.bsky.social · 20/10/2023

#212: Growing Brains: Co-emergence of Anatomical and Functional Modularity in Recurrent Neural Networks by Liu, Khona, Fiete, Tegmark I wonder if this could be paired with network growth to find minimal modules + then scale them up! arxiv.org/abs/2310.077...

1114

Reposted by Dániel Barabási

Florence Bansept @florencebansept.bsky.social · 19/10/2023

🔔 Postdoc alert! 📣 Join my group in 🌞 beautiful Marseille 🌞 for a fully funded 2-year #postdoc position! You'd like to develop mathematical models of the gut microbiome? 🦠 📈 Contact me! You know people who might? Help me spread the news! 🙏 Full job description 👉 web.evolbio.mpg.de/~bansept/ass...

web.evolbio.mpg.de

042

Dániel Barabási @bdanubius.bsky.social · 17/10/2023

#211: Tardigrades dramatically upregulate DNA repair pathway genes in response to ionizing radiation by Clark-Hachtel, Hibshman, De Buysscher, Goldstein Powerful study: the DNA repair genes provided up to 1000x survival when transferred to E Coli! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

020