iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Sven Dorkenwald @sdorkenw.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Reposted by Casey Schneider-Mizell

Applications are now open for the San Juan Winter School 2027 on Connectomics and Brain Simulation! Join us to learn how to analyze and simulate connectomes. sjcabs.com

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Casey Schneider-Mizell @csdashm.com · 15/09/2026

The ability to get fresh eyes on one’s writing like that at a moment’s notice is invaluable. So much easier to catch the dumb stuff the eye can’t find right after writing or doing an editing pass.

Casey Schneider-Mizell @csdashm.com · 14/09/2026

I once overheard a set of parents telling their early school age children what the phrase "Everything's coming up Milhouse" meant and it was like watching culture be created.

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Reposted by Casey Schneider-Mizell

Janelia FlyEM @janelia-flyem.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

We're thrilled with the publication of the Male CNS Connectome! www.cell.com/cell/fulltex... Also check out this (growing) collection of companion papers: www.cell.com/consortium/m...

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Reposted by Casey Schneider-Mizell

Max Kozlov @maxkozlov.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

Under pressure, the DOD just released the text of its secret 10-year agreement with the NIH. Here are the biggest revelations from the document 🧵

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Casey Schneider-Mizell @csdashm.com · 11/08/2026

I know this isn’t a new thought, but so many people at the NIH do such vital and transformative work under the most difficult and uncertain conditions, it makes me so angry that this feckless coward coopts the respect those people have earned to lie again and again and again.

Colette Delawalla, PhD @cdelawalla.bsky.social · 29/07/2026

Reposted by Casey Schneider-Mizell

Rand Paul--who doesn't believe in evolution--holding a hearing of Dr. Fauci--a retired, life-long public servant-- while we are *actively* in the midst of SEVERAL disease outbreaks due to unnecessary public health cuts and corporate lobbying shows exactly how unserious Republicans are.

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Casey Schneider-Mizell @csdashm.com · 28/07/2026

Not coincidentally in a period where VC and billionaires are poaching researchers to do connectomics in private, for (in my view) tenuous connections to building AI products.

Casey Schneider-Mizell @csdashm.com · 17/07/2026

I am impressed that I can describe a half-remembered neuroscience paper to Claude, getting a few details wrong and with no authors mentioned, and so far it is 2/2 at both finding the right paper and correcting my recollection.

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Reposted by Casey Schneider-Mizell

Brad Hulse @bradkhulse.bsky.social · 16/07/2026

👇👇👇 And don’t miss the appendix, especially if you’re a fellow bumpologist. They saved some cool ideas for the end. It’s a great read.

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Casey Schneider-Mizell @csdashm.com · 25/06/2026

Just to help sift through the literature, I made a tool for myself where I maintain an interests document, a bunch of RSS feed, and a claude account and it scores titles and abstracts of new papers for me and delivers them in a nice web page. It definitely finds things I wouldn't have read.

github.com

GitHub - ceesem/sieve

Contribute to ceesem/sieve development by creating an account on GitHub.

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Interneuron aficionados — is there any published record of supernumerary axons in wild type cortical interneurons in vivo? They aren't as rare as I would have imagined...

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I'm enjoying the heck out of the World Cup this year, in no small part because every game is happening during my waking hours. But a surprise bonus is how nice it is that every stadium has been stripped of its stupid corporate sponsor name for a few weeks.

I look forward to seeing the work, though! Knowing Janelia, the science will be amazing.

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Also, when I was there, small lab sizes but a common organism and tools made labs quite focused and adjacent but non-overlapping in their fundamental work, making it easy to celebrate all successes. Everyone doing glassfish whole brain imaging has me wary there will be more toes to step on.

Group leaders will land fine, but morale during this transition at the institute is going to be rough. I also worry reduce the impact of the wonderful visitors program and the conference program.

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Casey Schneider-Mizell @csdashm.com · 15/06/2026

The glass fish as model organism seems really cool, but the exclusivity is bizarre to me for so many reasons and a downer to see the promised model of overlapping 15 year topics with take an ironically non-transparent left turn.

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For what it's worth, your view is basically aligned with most people doing connectomics today. I suspect but don't know that many of the neuroscientists trying to acquire data within Flourish are just trying to get while the getting is good using VC money rather than believing in the AI side.

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Casey Schneider-Mizell @csdashm.com · 12/06/2026

My hot take is that not only should we have additional congressional districts, but there should also be psuedodistricts based on things other than geography. Age ranges, gender, income ranges. Each person should have several representatives who each represent different facets of people.

John Tuthill @tuthill.bsky.social · 11/05/2026

Reposted by Casey Schneider-Mizell

Heartbreaking to hear Sean Eddy (@cryptogenomicon.bsky.social) talk about how arbitrary cuts to his lab's NIH funding have decimated his lab Sean's lab has built computational tools that enable so much important biology research also quotes by @jeremymberg.bsky.social www.npr.org/2026/05/11/n...

npr.org

Some researchers say restored federal funding is too little, too late

The Trump administration restored some of the billions of dollars previously frozen or withheld from research institutions and agencies. Some researchers say it's too late to save their work.

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Casey Schneider-Mizell @csdashm.com · 24/04/2026

It's also lost when the people who did the last refactor leave too. I actually find that having the agents write down the detailed rationale for design decisions before they launch into coding is one of the things agents are vastly more willing to do than humans.

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Casey Schneider-Mizell @csdashm.com · 03/04/2026

Yeah, that must be. The lights along the coast of the Mediterranean and the Canary Islands just west of the African coastline.

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Reposted by Casey Schneider-Mizell

Ann Leckie @annleckie.com · 03/04/2026

Seeing discussion elsewhere about whether The Rich should be able to access public services for free even tho they're rich, and like, why are we so focused on whether people "deserve" things?

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Casey Schneider-Mizell @csdashm.com · 23/03/2026

It's the last time your age will the cube of an integer for a long time, so enjoy all the 3*3*3 themed events you can muster.

Casey Schneider-Mizell @csdashm.com · 12/03/2026

Which is to say, theoretical neuro development is absolutely neuroscience!

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Casey Schneider-Mizell @csdashm.com · 12/03/2026

One of the big lessons from going to SfN for the first time is realizing that neuroscience spans about 10x more subjects than any one neuroscientist focuses on.

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Casey Schneider-Mizell @csdashm.com · 06/03/2026

Airlines should be required to show you a big warning banner when you select flights on Daylight Savings transition days.

Casey Schneider-Mizell @csdashm.com · 06/03/2026

I’m sure there’s where my gourmand-ness started, exactly

Casey Schneider-Mizell @csdashm.com · 06/03/2026

Okay but what about Chef Boyardee Ravioli?

Casey Schneider-Mizell @csdashm.com · 04/03/2026

Consider this my plea to ping me if I know you and you're going to be there too!

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Casey Schneider-Mizell @csdashm.com · 04/03/2026

Looking forward to heading off to Cosyne next week, and excited to be part of a two day workshop about connectomics, with day one being about species comparison and day two about using data for constraining models. alleninstitute.github.io/connectomics...

alleninstitute.github.io

Workshop – Synapses at Scale - COSYNE 2026

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Reposted by Casey Schneider-Mizell

Michael D. Green, PhD @michaeldgreen.phd · 26/02/2026

Below is the response to my question. The funny part of his response is that my research needed a control arm. My study actually did have a control arm (about 80% of the sample never reported discrimination). So the answer itself makes me even more confused.

Michael Green 50:10
My name is Michael Green. I recently finished my PhD in Population Health Sciences at Duke University, and I'm a recipient of an F99/K00, award from the National Institute on Aging. That program is designed to support early career scientists with their PhD and into a postdoc. I'm a black man in his late 20s who come from a family where a lot of people stopped going to their doctor for preventative care because they felt like they weren't being listened to. By the time they came back, it was often too late. My grant focused on studying how patient reported discrimination in healthcare settings is associated with cardiovascular and cognitive health outcomes. It was peer reviewed score competitively and awarded in August of 2024. In July 2025 NIH told me my grant needed to be renegotiated to remove what they called DEl activities. They gave me a week to rewrite 70 pages of work. I asked for specifics on what was flagged, and I received none. So I moved the word black from my grant and references to evidence on why black adults report feeling mistreated in healthcare settings. I didn't change my scientific approach at all, just the language. I didn't have a learning moment from the process, because I still don't know what a DEl activity is.
The context of my grant, no one told me. It's now late February. I'm unemployed. I have no health insurance. I haven't received a paycheck since I graduated in December 2025, and out of the 69 recipients of this award at NIA, I'm the only one who has ever had to change the title of their grant beyond punctuation and spelling.
Brinda Adhikari 51:42
Okay, so Jay, what would you say to Michael Green in that situation?
Jay Bhattacharya 51:47
I'd say that he didn't take advantage of the opportunity to rethink his grant. Like, we gave him the opportunity, and he didn't take advantage of it, right? So he again, I didn't know this grant specifically, but, like, I'll tell you, like, based on the title, what I hear is a gra…

Jay Bhattacharya 51:47
I'd say that he didn't take advantage of the opportunity to rethink his grant. Like, we gave him the opportunity, and he didn't take advantage of it, right? So he again, I didn't know this grant specifically, but, like, I'll tell you, like, based on the title, what I hear is a grant where it has as a premise, something that, in principle, couldn't have a control group.
And so does bad science. So I, you know, I do again-
Brinda Adhikari 52:09
So what would have made us better?
Jay Bhattacharya 52:11
Just okay for let me just finish Brinda. So I think if, if I say that, I provisionally, because, again, I've not read his grant so, but based on that 90 second snippet, he had the opportunity to be more specific about his hypotheses, make them actually scientific, give them give make arguments for control groups. We gave him that opportunity, and he didn't take it. That's what I'd say.
Brinda Adhikari 52:35
Let me ask you, you know, is it worthwhile? Because I know that one of the things you have talked a lot about is improving health outcomes. Do you believe that there is scientific merit to studying the role that discrimination plays in health outcomes?
Jay Bhattacharya 52:56
What do you mean by discrimination?
Brinda Adhikari 52:58
That if a- that when a patient goes to a doctor, and the doctor has, you know, is, is treating black patients differently than other patients, that that can lead to poor health outcomes, and that's worthwhile to study.
Jay Bhattacharya 53:11
So Brinda, so you, you said earlier that there that minorities may have different health, you know, biology or other things, doctors ought to take that into account, right?
Tom W. Johnson -- WSITY 53:23
Yeah, wait,
Brinda Adhikari 53:24
Wait, wait, I guess what I'm saying is, Are are you denying that-
Jay Bhattacharya 53:29
I'm not denying, don't put words in my mouth Brinda
Brinda Adhikari 53:31
I'm asking. I'm just asking a question. Are you denying that black Americans face dis…

Jay Bhattacharya 53:29
I'm not denying, don't put words in my mouth Brinda
Brinda Adhikari 53:31|
I'm asking. I'm just asking a question. Are you denying that black Americans face discrimination at higher rates when they're in a medical system.
Jay Bhattacharya 53:41
What do you mean by discrimination?
Dr. Mark Abdelmalek -- WSITY 53:44
So for example, that, let's say, you know, they they, somebody goes in and they have pain.
Jay Bhattacharya 53:49
Mark, are you saying that doctors are racist? Is the hypothesis that doctors are racist?
Dr. Mark Abdelmalek -- WSITY 53:52
I'm not saying that doctors are racist. I'm saying that-
Jay Bhattacharya 53:54
We're saying is the hypothesis that you're putting forward the doctors are racist? Be specific about the hypothisis.
Dr. Mark Abdelmalek -- WSITY 53:59
Yeah let's be specific. His hypothesis, if you the study-Jay Bhattacharya 54:02
I mean, we don't know his hypothesis-
Dr. Mark Abdelmalek -- WSITY 54:04
Well, just in general, the hypothesis is, we just want to understand what factors are associated with poor health outcomes. For example, is that a legitimate hypothesis?
Jay Bhattacharya 54:16
That's vague, but yeah, I want to know why people have bad health outcomes. We should definitely that's something we interested in studying, but Dr. Mark Abdelmalek -- WSITY 54:22
that's a research question.
Jay Bhattacharya 54:23
That's a that's a vague research question. I want something specific. Okay, here's some specific, conceptual right?
Dr. Mark Abdelmalek -- WSITY 54:29
Here's something specific. Okay, you go to the doctor, and we've heard this that, you know, black women aren't really given the same attention as, you know, say, non black women in terms of pain scores. Or, you know, sometimes

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Reposted by Casey Schneider-Mizell

Colin Carlson @colincarlson.bsky.social · 27/02/2026

In what world is it even helpful to treat this guy like he's not a vicious, churning, petty, malignant, Internet-rotted psychopath

Brinda Adhikari 51:42

Okay, so Jay, what would you say to Michael Green in that situation?

Jay Bhattacharya 51:47

I’d say that he didn’t take advantage of the opportunity to rethink his grant. Like, we gave him the opportunity, and he didn’t take advantage of it, right? So he again, I didn’t know this grant specifically, but, like, I’ll tell you, like, based on the title, what I hear is a grant where it has as a premise, something that, in principle, couldn’t have a control group. And so does bad science. So I, you know, I do again-

Brinda Adhikari 52:09

So what would have made us better?

Jay Bhattacharya 52:11

Just okay for let me just finish Brinda. So I think if, if I say that, I provisionally, because, again, I’ve not read his grant so, but based on that 90 second snippet, he had the opportunity to be more specific about his hypotheses, make them actually scientific, give them give make arguments for control groups. We gave him that opportunity, and he didn’t take it. That’s what I’d say.

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Casey Schneider-Mizell @csdashm.com · 23/02/2026

This seems important when thinking about all of the people (especially academics) who stayed in Epstein's orbit. Not that all would agree in the details per se, but that they were not repulsed by deeply held misogyny, expressed in so many different ways

Casey Schneider-Mizell @csdashm.com · 20/02/2026

From @bdpedigo.bsky.social: a super efficient, highly reliable, and very generalizable method for mesh structure classification, applied here to spine detection across basically every synapse onto a cell in the MICRoNS dataset.

Mesh analysis pipeline showing feature extraction and spine classification.

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Casey Schneider-Mizell @csdashm.com · 17/02/2026

Sometimes I would like Teams to compute the net dollars spent on a meeting, estimated from a job-title-averaged equivalent hourly wage of everyone in the room.

Mark Histed @markhisted.org · 04/02/2026

Reposted by Casey Schneider-Mizell

There are lessons from WaPo’s destruction for science too. Public funding (via NIH, NSF &c) built in the US a science superpower in large part b/c of democratic values: agencies are accountable to the public through Congress, not controlled by whims of a billionaire. Autocratic control…

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Casey Schneider-Mizell @csdashm.com · 01/02/2026

So that gives them predicted muscle activations for any actor footage, which they can transfer to the equivalent but distinct muscle array under a Na'vi facial mesh. Also, there's some interesting bits in there about the difference in modeling muscles in soft tissue rather than hard joints.