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bergelsonlab

@bergelsonlab.bsky.social
7.5K followers 1.5K following 780 posts

Official account for the Bergelson Lab at Harvard, sporadically maintained by the PI:). Just a lab, trying to figure out how babies learn language, somehow caught in the crosshairs of gov't admin battles.

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Reposted by bergelsonlab
Molly White @molly.wiki · 14h
“You are infringing on the time and brainpower of people by pushing "your" content that little/no of your brainpower went into” is such a banger
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Gretchen McCulloch @gretchenmcculloch.com · 06/10/2026
Hey. The fragmentation of the social media landscape has been hard on indie #scicomm 🧪 projects So if you'd like to follow a podcast that's enthusiastic about #linguistics, could you check out @lingthusiasm.com? And if you think your followers might like to, could you give this a repost?
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bergelsonlab @handle.invalid · 19h
Dear JoVe, I'm so glad you're doing this and your guest editor sounds great! I'm a little overextended this capacity but really look forward to seeing this collection and citing it broadly. e
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bergelsonlab @handle.invalid · 22h
honey wake up, the bots are drunk emailing again
screenshot of email, with some clarifying annotation in brackets:

Dear Dr. Bergelson,

In collaboration with our guest editor, [my own work email address] JoVE is producing a PubMed/WoS/Scopus-indexed collection of video articles on Elika. Based on your recent publications, we believe that your group's work would be a valuable addition to this collection.

Authors submit a traditional text manuscript, and JoVE takes care of the filming and video production. Here is a JoVE article from Jack W. Szostak, who is the recipient of the 2009 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine, available here. [<- not actually a link]

Would you be interested in discussing an abstract submission?
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Heleen Slagter @haslagter.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
🚨 Job alert 🚨 Our department @vuamsterdam.bsky.social is hiring an Assistant Professor in Cognitive Neuroscience! Join our lovely community here in beautiful Amsterdam! 🧠🔥 Deadline: October 15 workingat.vu.nl/vacancies/as...
workingat.vu.nl
Vacancy — Assistant Professor in Cognitive Neuroscience
Join the Department of Experimental and Applied Psychology (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam) as Assistant Professor in cognitive neuroscience.
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bergelsonlab @handle.invalid · 05/10/2026
Massive Mazal tov, friend!
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Simon Fisher @profsimonfisher.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
Today marks the 25th anniversary (😯) of our publication on discovery of FOXP2. To commemorate, I’ll repost a few prior threads about the gene. Here’s my explainer of how we tracked down FOXP2 & implicated it in speech/language deficits, in the days before completion of the human genome project.🗣️🧬🧪👇
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Jenna Norton @jenna-m-norton.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
A nice letter to the editor about the importance of NIH research and the Bethesda Declaration community. www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/202...
washingtonpost.com
Opinion | This dementia research shows why the NIH matters
Dementia, ant warfare, college affordability and more, in readers' eyes.
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Mark Histed @markhisted.org · 03/10/2026
Killed. NSF’s SBE was killed, in violation of law. The President does not have the power to choose to kill programs at a whim by defunding them. The imperial presidency was a mistake and we are in a separation of powers constitutional crisis.
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bergelsonlab @handle.invalid · 02/10/2026
💯. Especially for early career folks who likely have lots of pipeline stuff that isn't 'out there' in official forms yet, basic websites with your research products and a bit about you is great for so many possible scientific interactions!
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AAAS Mass Media Fellowship @aaasmassmedia.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Are you ready to try something new and work in #SciComm? Apply now to be a part of the 2027 cohort of @aaas.org #MassMediaFellows! Spend the summer using your STEMM background as a journalist writing the news. English and Spanish language placements available. bit.ly/3KugH6D
The 2027 AAAS Mass Media Science & Engineering Fellowship Application opens on October 1 and closes January 4, 2027.
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bergelsonlab @handle.invalid · 01/10/2026
sounds like cross-cultural variation in perception to me! ;)
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Cambridge Public Health Department @cambpublichealth.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Spread the word: Registration is now open for our 2026 vaccine clinics! To attend, please register online. Bring your insurance card if you have one. www.cambridgepublichealth.org/registration... @cambridgemass.bsky.social @cambridgeday.com @csindie.bsky.social
Schedule for 2026 Vaccine Clinics. 

October 14, Cambridge Senior Center
October 15, King Open School 
October 21, Reservoir Church
October 28, Community Art Center
October 30, Cambridge Community Center

Visit to learn more:  https://www.cambridgepublichealth.org/registration-now-open-for-the-cambridge-public-health-departments-2026-vaccine-clinics/
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Ingo Rohlfing @ingorohlfing.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Excel now supports multiple values in a single cell | Microsoft Community Hub techcommunity.microsoft.com/blog/excelbl... Who wouldn't love an additional challenge in processing spreadsheets?
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Veronica Lewis, M.Ed. 👩‍🦯 @veron4ica.com · 30/09/2026
I'm recruiting volunteers for a study on reading statistics equations with low vision, which will take place across several Zoom sessions from Oct to Nov 2026. Participants must have low vision/visual impairment and be 18 or older. Learn more at forms.cloud.microsoft/r/925LMZgGzn #PhDSky #EduSky
forms.cloud.microsoft
Microsoft Forms
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bergelsonlab @handle.invalid · 30/09/2026
hey #CogSciSky, wake up, a new class demo just dropped
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bergelsonlab @handle.invalid · 30/09/2026
You don’t have to rub it in, Neil
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bergelsonlab @handle.invalid · 30/09/2026
0/4
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bergelsonlab @handle.invalid · 29/09/2026
for my Clinical Psych folks especially! Stomp and shout! [yes i can both think the nih's notion of what a clinical trial is is wrong (RIP BESH mess) AND think they should allow clinical trials in K awards, i hold multitudes]
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Jenna Norton @jenna-m-norton.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
A great overview of how the Trump admin cultivated fear inside NIH to force compliance, even with harmful, unethical & unlawful orders. Also covers origins of the Bethesda Declaration community. From my friend & co-organizer Dr. Wen-Ying Sylvia Chou. www.psychologicalscience.org/publications...
psychologicalscience.org
NIH Employees Lived in A Culture of Fear, So They Started Keeping Receipts
Sylvia Chou, former NIH program director, says “nobody’s OK” after massive disruptions to funding policies and infrastructure.
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Prof Gavin Yamey MD MPH @gavinyamey.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Another study finds no link between taking acetaminophen (Tylenol) during pregnancy & autism or ADHD The study examined data from 7 meta-analyses involving more than 3 million participants I wish RFK Jr & Trump would stop terrorizing people about this drug onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
Prenatal exposure to paracetamol and the risk of autism and attention‐deficit/hyperactivity disorder: An umbrella review and meta‐meta‐analysis
This meta-meta-analysis synthesizes evidence on prenatal paracetamol exposure and neurodevelopmental outcomes. Crude analyses suggest small associations with autism and ADHD, but these attenuate subs...
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bergelsonlab @handle.invalid · 24/09/2026
screaming into the void: if u write w/interest ab our work, i try hard to reply, even if we don't have openings. but if u write, i reply, & then u write again w/in a few wks as if we've never emailed bc u're just using AI to make 100 emails seem tailor written...everyone loses. STOP IT. be a human.
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Ben de Bivort @debivort.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Hello friends, the Harvard Life Science departments have banded together to hire a new colleague working at the intersection of Life Sciences and AI. Could be primarily an experimentalist, or could be primarily a compute/theorist. academicpositions.harvard.edu/postings/16773
academicpositions.harvard.edu
Tenure-Track Professor in Life Science and AI
The Life Sciences Departments in Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences seek to recruit a tenure-track professor whose research is at the interface of AI and life sciences, from methodological developme...
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Natalie Brito @nataliebrito.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
My department is looking to hire 3 new faculty members! Please share widely. Assistant Professor - Cognitive: apply.interfolio.com/193975 Assistant Professor - Social Psychology: apply.interfolio.com/193979 Associate/Full Professor - Mental Health: apply.interfolio.com/193984
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Jenna Norton @jenna-m-norton.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Update on Vought’s #ScienceDeathPanels: The administration is reportedly backing away from the promised EO that would have furthered political oversight at NIH. Looks like our advocacy has worked (for now). www.nytimes.com/2026/09/23/u... When we fight, we win!
nytimes.com
Trump Backtracks on Plan for New Controls on N.I.H. Grants (Gift Article)
Democrats and Republicans in Congress opposed the creation of a commission with the power to veto federal research awards.
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Martin Zettersten @mzettersten.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Our department at UC San Diego is hiring a new tenure-track Assistant Professor. Open area, research addressing foundational issues in cogsci using modern computational methods. I love my department, and you will too. Apply!! apol-recruit.ucsd.edu/JPF04633 #cogscisci #cogsci #DevPsyc #PsychSciSky
apol-recruit.ucsd.edu
Assistant Professor in Cognitive Science
University of California, San Diego is hiring. Apply now!
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bergelsonlab @handle.invalid · 22/09/2026
this semester I'm aiming high. My goals include once, JUST ONCE, printing all the docs I need for my seminar that week 1) to the right printer 2) with the right number of copies 3) double sided 4) without jamming the stapler or running out of staples pray for me, I'm 0/3 for far. #AcademicSky
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Kristian G. Andersen @kgandersen.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
"White House Moves to Take Control of N.I.H. Grants" [everybody up in arms, as they should be, but for those who have been paying close attention, this has pretty much already happened - the realization just hasn't sunk in yet] www.nytimes.com/2026/09/20/s...
nytimes.com
White House Moves to Take Control of N.I.H. Grants (Gift Article)
Federal officials are drafting an executive order that would place grants under review by an outside panel, the latest effort to redirect billions of dollars in research spending.
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bergelsonlab @handle.invalid · 20/09/2026
reviewer 2: so uh, tell me about your filtering process bc that is a truly unexpected result me: ikr??
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bergelsonlab @handle.invalid · 18/09/2026
CLANG, BASH, ruby, python, 🍺. whatever's happening inside my computer right now seems like a helluva party
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bergelsonlab @handle.invalid · 17/09/2026
it's giving How is Babby Formed
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Elena Tenenbaum @elenatenenbaum.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
New RISE Study currently recruiting baby siblings. Please help us spread the word! - For babies aged 11 - 13 months - ***Must have an older biological sibling with ASD*** - Living in the United States - Primary language spoken in the home is English childrenhelpingscience.com/studies/f785...
childrenhelpingscience.com
How do babies learn about their world? Baby Siblings - Children Helping Science
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Mary Lewis @profmarylewis.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Excellent oped in @theharvardcrimson.bsky.social by my @harvard.edu colleague Jill Lepore. www.thecrimson.com/article/2026...
But of course, the machine conversation is not free. It comes at the cost of our common life together as teachers, learners, and researchers, colleagues, mentors, and friends. Not to mention, supervising student researchers is our job.
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Gautam Kamath @gautamkamath.com · 16/09/2026
Nihar Shah did a heroic experiment for TMLR: he spent 20-25 hours over two weeks interviewing authors of seemingly low-quality submissions about their own papers. He confirmed what we all suspected: people submitting these papers have *no idea* what is going on in them.
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Carl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · 16/09/2026
Short thread: 18 months ago, as part of their assault on higher ed, Trump/DOGE/Vought terminated my friend Kelton Minor's NIH Director's award that would have allowed him to take a faculty position there. Without the funds, Columbia ultimately rescinded the position. Kelton moved to Denmark.
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bergelsonlab @handle.invalid · 16/09/2026
academia in 2026 is a huge mess but right now i have the privilege of a tiny seminar that excludes AI & the students are DOING THE WORK & want to talk & have thoughtful Qs as they dip their toes in a new field & they're brilliant & creative & IT IS AMAZING. small scope learning, from humans, yes plz
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Costa Samaras @costasamaras.com · 13/09/2026
This will be bad for: - the students - the research progress - the universities - the towns the universities are in - the companies hiring students - the states the universities are in - the national economy - national security - the country - the world
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bergelsonlab @handle.invalid · 13/09/2026
Just proposed bringing apples and honesty to a gathering instead of apples and honey and actually sometimes typos are the change we need to see in the world just saying
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M.J. Crockett @mjcrockett.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
I used to love this time of year, hearing from students applying to work in my lab. No more. Every day a fresh batch of nearly identical emails with nonsensical remixes of the text on my lab website. It makes me so sad.
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Jake Quilty-Dunn @quiltydunn.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
New paper, co-authored with Justin Wood, in @cp-trendscognsci.bsky.social: The Nativist-Empiricist Debate Is Broken We argue that radical nativism and radical empiricism are compatible and, in some cases, both plausibly true. So something is wrong. 🧵 Author share link here, valid til Oct 31:
authors.elsevier.com
Please wait whilst we redirect you
All content on this site: Copyright © 2026 Elsevier B.V., its licensors, and contributors. All rights are reserved, including those for text and data mining, AI training, and similar technologies. For all open access content, the relevant licensing terms apply.
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Eiko Fried @eikofried.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
Ever since this happened, I have never given journals sole ownerhip of my supplemental materials .. eiko-fried.com/blog/supplem...
eiko-fried.com
Supplementary materials fail | Eiko Fried
A few months ago, we published a new paper Fried, E. I., van Borkulo, C. D., Cramer, A. O. J., Boschloo, L., Schoevers, R. A., & Borsboom, D. (2017). Mental disorders as networks...
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bergelsonlab @handle.invalid · 11/09/2026
Thanks @jorgelingo.bsky.social! still feels weird to fund grads in areas their PIs can’t be nsf funded in (to be clear the solution is to fund sbe!)
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bergelsonlab @handle.invalid · 10/09/2026
Maybe? No clue
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bergelsonlab @handle.invalid · 10/09/2026
RIP SBE. One point of confusion maybe someone can clarify? SBE is not listed as one of the directorates for the GRFP, but e.g. psychology is still an eligible major field of study per the appendix here www.nsf.gov/funding/oppo.... so where's that $ come from?
nsf.gov
NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP)
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Consortium of Social Science Associations (COSSA) @cossa.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
Over the summer the National Science Foundation (NSF) took several actions that appear to further the Administration’s plans to shut down the Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences Directorate (SBE). Read more and act now ➡️ cossa.org/nsf-skips-sb...
cossa.org
NSF Skips SBE Funding Opportunity, Limits GRFP Eligibility | COSSA
Over the summer the National Science Foundation (NSF) took several actions that appear to further the Administration’s plans to shut down the Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences Directorate…
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Jenna Norton @jenna-m-norton.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
But there are no banned words, right? 🙄
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bergelsonlab @handle.invalid · 09/09/2026
and here I am telling my trainees to always watch out for unexpected NAs
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bergelsonlab @handle.invalid · 09/09/2026
cool! i wonder if these kinds of individual differences might end up relevant in some way for which individuals find mirror therapy helpful for phantom limb stuff! [this is way out of my lane so feel free to tell me that's banananas:)]
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Jared Medina @jaredmedina.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
New paper in iScience. In the mirror box illusion, you see the reflection of one hand where your other, hidden hand should be. Over time, people report feeling the hidden hand where they see it, not where it is. We found that the qualia of this illusion differ across individuals.
Figure showing five types of time course for the mirror box illusion. Each row shows a series of mirror box diagrams over time, with perceived hand position in red. Sometimes participants abruptly feel their hand is where the mirror reflection is (abrupt trials). Other times they feel a gradual shift from the actual toward the reflected position (gradual trials). Some trials fall in between (intermediate trials). On other trials, they feel their hand is at the reflected location as soon as they open their eyes (immediate trials). And sometimes they experience no illusion, perceiving the hand where it actually is.
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Jenna Norton @jenna-m-norton.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
NIH to continue discussing only the top 1/3 of applications. This is a disservice to the research community. Fewer applications will get the higher quality of review from discussion. Applicants will get less nuanced feedback from review. grants.nih.gov/grants/guide...
grants.nih.gov
NOT-OD-26-114: Continuation of Modifications to Peer Review Practices
NIH Funding Opportunities and Notices in the NIH Guide for Grants and Contracts: Continuation of Modifications to Peer Review Practices NOT-OD-26-114. NIH
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