iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by Daniela Witten

Madelyn Hjort @mmhjort.bsky.social · 06/05/2026

Thrilled to share our work out in @nature.com today! Linking flexibility modeling, single-cell imaging, and targeted optogenetics allowed us to characterize how some prefrontal neurons, and mPFC-VTA neurons in particular, drive contingency degradation behavior. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

nature.com

Prefrontal to ventral tegmental area dynamics drive contingency degradation - Nature

This work provides a mechanistic understanding of how certain prefrontal circuits in the rodent brain permit flexibility to selectively stop learned behaviours through interactions with core subcortic...

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Darren Dahly @statsepi.bsky.social · 17/04/2026

"IJALM" - @danielawitten.bsky.social www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

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Daniela Witten @danielawitten.bsky.social · 17/02/2026

excited to share some big personal news: just read in NYT that side parts are back

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Anna Demming @annademming.bsky.social · 20/01/2026

…“What LLMs are doing are the same types of things that have been done for a long time, but at a much, much larger scale,”- @danielawitten.bsky.social Take note those wielding the funding guillotine – how would we have got here without those prior decades of study in statistics, linguistic theory?…

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Carl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · 29/05/2025

Thank you Gemini. h/t @yonahfreemark.com‬

Google search: is it 2025?

No, it is not 2025. The current date is May 29, 2025.

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Michael Baym @baym.lol · 14/05/2025

Yesterday, the NIH R35 “Outstanding Investigator” grant to fund scientists in my lab studying antibiotic resistance was terminated for reasons not related to the content of the science, or any actions taken by me or members of my lab

A screenshot of the termination notice showing "Outstanding Investigator Grants"

A screenshot of the termination notice with "This award is terminated effective the date of this award, due to unsafe antisemitic actions that suggest the institution lacks concern for the safety and wellbeing of Jewish students." highlighted

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Colin Carlson @colincarlson.bsky.social · 19/04/2025

Academia is cool because if you're doing it right, every paper you published in the last 3 years feels inadequate now that you understand the topic better, but it'll take 3 years to get out the version where you get it more right, and you get to do that until one day you die! Isn't that cool

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Prof Dynarski @dynarski.bsky.social · 10/04/2025

Love the sentiment but wtf is this data graphic

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Jeva Lange 🫎 @jeva.bsky.social · 09/04/2025

Final_Version_of_Tarrifs_actualFINALcopy_version7_USETHISONE.docx

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Hamilton Nolan @hamiltonnolan.bsky.social · 09/04/2025

okay now that you all have gotten a taste of America's rational and predictable new trade policy, everyone who wants to build your new factories here just form an orderly line

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Katie Mack @astrokatie.com · 09/04/2025

The problem with most machine-based random number generators is that they’re not TRULY random, so if you need genuine randomness it is sometimes necessary to link your code to an external random process like a physical noise source or the current rate of US tariffs on a given country.

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Patrick Ness @patricknessbooks.bsky.social · 04/04/2025

I want my government to be boring and competent enough so that I don’t have to think about it every goddamn minute.

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Daniela Witten @danielawitten.bsky.social · 27/03/2025

This is the best thing I have ever read in my life. I love it so much. Great advice for all of us, regardless of career stage and whether we self-identify as procrastinators!! www.nature.com/articles/s41...

nature.com

An open letter to graduate students and other procrastinators: it’s time to write - Nature Biotechnology

Nature Biotechnology - An open letter to graduate students and other procrastinators: it’s time to write

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Arjun Raj @arjunraj.bsky.social · 14/03/2025

It is best to get into a field that is small enough that people are incentivized to support each other's work rather than tear it down.

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Amstat-American Statistical Association @amstatnews.bsky.social · 14/03/2025

This year’s prize Rousseeuw Prize for Statistics honors Yoav Benjamini, Daniel Yekutieli, and Ruth Heller of Tel Aviv University for their pioneering work on the false discovery rate. magazine.amstat.org/blog/2025/03...

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Gary Marcus @garymarcus.bsky.social · 14/03/2025

Have truly lost patience with the New York Times’ editorial coverage of AI, which has basically degenerated into industry cheerleading. They are completely misrepresenting what most academics believe about AGI. I detail some blunders here: open.substack.com/pub/garymarc...

open.substack.com

Hype, Anthropic’s Dario Amodei, the podcasters who love him — and how the New York Times’ commentary on AI has degenerated into industry cheerleading

Real journalists do due diligence

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Coleen Murphy @ctmurphy1.bsky.social · 11/03/2025

A dear friend of mine just had all her funding pulled. All she has ever done is work exceptionally hard to do excellent science and help others do great science. This is heartbreaking

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David A Knowles @davidaknowles.bsky.social · 11/03/2025

Wow. "NIH" canceled my co-mentored (with Dave Sulzer) PhD student's F31 funding. His work is on understanding the genetics and neuroscience of language learning disorders. F31 provides no indirect $ to Columbia, just pays his salary. Not that it should matter, but he's an American citizen. W.T.F.

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Daniela Witten @danielawitten.bsky.social · 19/02/2025

Scientists: which NSF programs had their POs laid off? which NIH study sections have been allowed to proceed? have NoAs for non competing renewals been issued? If it were March 2020 then academic twitter would know the answers. As it is, are we operating in the dark?

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Katie Hinde @mammalssuck.bsky.social · 18/02/2025

I escaped poverty because I am a scientist. And I am a scientist because of the National Science Foundation. A 🧵:

A Lady Professor with brown hair and glasses, wearing a scarf in red, green, yellow, & black, a gift from an incredible lactation consultant, sitting in in front of cactus.

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Derek Beaton @derek--beaton.bsky.social · 12/12/2024

Today I presented on "what is AI?" for family medicine at our hospital. After a smidgen of history I said that the practical definition is this tweet by @danielawitten.bsky.social And it really resonates. such a good definition.

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Daniela Witten @danielawitten.bsky.social · 06/12/2024

This is a serious issue, and I’m worried that in today’s highly polarized climate, it is not receiving the attention it deserves.

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Daniela Witten @danielawitten.bsky.social · 06/12/2024

@nytimes.com fact checkers- what now??!! surely “keeping it real” means “on the real number line” (versus nominal, ie categorical) in this context? these are dark days, the least we can do is over-explain our statistics jokes correctly www.nytimes.com/2024/12/06/b...

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