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Harris Blankenship

@harrisedwardb.bsky.social
195 followers 657 following 9 posts

interested in neuronal information transfer.

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Reposted by Harris Blankenship
Paul Byrne @theplanetaryguy.com · 03/04/2026
This image of home just came down from the Artemis II crew. Taken after their translunar injection burn, there are aurorae at top right and lower left, and zodiacal light at lower right. Credit: NASA/Reid Wiseman
That's home. That's us.
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Jordan @jordanpfot.bsky.social · 26/03/2026
Might be the greatest opening paragraph of anything ever.
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John Tuthill @tuthill.bsky.social · 24/03/2026
🧵 New preprint led by @bingbrunton.bsky.social, @elliottabe.bsky.social, @lawrencehu.bsky.social We gave a worm brain control of a fly body and it walked What did we learn? Nothing, other than deep reinforcement learning is effective We call it the digital sphinx www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
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Konrad Kording @kordinglab.bsky.social · 26/02/2026
This paper on how the brain may do gradient descent is very cool: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
nature.com
Vectorized instructive signals in cortical dendrites - Nature
Mice learning a neurofeedback brain–computer interface task show neuron-specific teaching signals in cortical dendrites, consistent with a vectorized solution for credit assignment in the brain.
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Prasad Jallepalli, MD, PhD @prasad.bsky.social · 25/02/2026
“These days, if you’re not a mad scientist, you’re not paying attention.” @standupforscience.bsky.social
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Harris Blankenship @harrisedwardb.bsky.social · 25/02/2026
“When you’re 95, you’ll going to wake up from a deep slumber and say, ‘I need to split my HEK cells’.”
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Mr. Dan Zak @mrdanzak.com · 15/01/2026
Stunning photos from Minneapolis, including this one by John Locher for the Associated Press. www.theatlantic.com/photography/...
A family member reacts after a federal immigration officer used a battering ram to break down a door before making an arrest on January 11, 2026, in Minneapolis.
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Ben Ewen-Campen @benforward3.bsky.social · 23/12/2025
Less than a week after they were installed, many of the flex posts on the BU bridge have been destroyed by vehicles. Appreciate the thought but cyclists clearly need more protection at these intersections.
Destroyed flex posts on the BU bridge
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Michael Baym @baym.lol · 12/01/2026
Update: they were literally all mowed down by cars in under two weeks
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Dr. Becca @docbecca.bsky.social · 08/11/2025
Mamdani- style graphic that says “funding for basic science”
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Julia Fine @finejulia6.bsky.social · 04/09/2025
Sack the Quack

In a land not far away,
Doctors toiled night and day
Curing coughs and curing sneezles,
Not to mention mumps and measles.

In this land, there lived a fellow
Who was so jealous he turned yellow.
Although he had a well-known name,
He himself had earned no fame.

“Drat those doctors!” said the man.
“Science is hard to understand!”
Then he had an awful thought,
A thought he liked an awful lot.

He made a sign that said, “BEWARE
VACCINES AND OTHER STANDARD CARE!
INSTEAD, JUST DRINK RAW MILK AND TAKE
IVERMECTIN AND VITAMIN A!”
A mad king happened to see the sign.
He thought, “This is my kind of guy.”
He hired the charlatan then and there
To post more signs up everywhere. 

People weren’t sure what to think.
Was raw milk really safe to drink?!
For a while, some were fooled.
They followed all his random rules.

But soon enough, they realized
He had told them bold-faced lies.
Vaccines were safe; raw milk was not.
The more they learned, the madder they got.
Meanwhile, the doctors got together
And wrote a sternly worded letter.
It said in no uncertain terms,
“This man’s brain is full of worms.”

“For hard work, he does not care.
He would rather poke a bear.
Our nation’s health is under attack.
Enough’s enough—let’s SACK THE QUACK!”

“Yes, indeed!” the people cried.
“Enough’s enough—we nearly died!”
They called their reps. They organized
So no one would fall for the charlatan’s lies.

And did the people succeed in their task?
That’s up to you. That’s why we ask:
Pick up the phone, sit back, relax,
And tell your Congressman: “SACK THE QUACK!”
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amy brown 👻 @amybrown.xyz · 22/08/2025
this iconic advertising copywriter named Kathy Hepinstall Parks died over the weekend and I wanted to share something from her website I thought Bluesky would like
Why should I write better when a machine can do it for me?
Because actually no one can do it for you, because your voice is unique among all the people on earth. Siri never petted a horse's neck. Alexa has never been ghosted by the captain of the football team. But you have lived, your heart is beating, you have suffered, and you have something important to say. It's a human's job, to use words, and whatever job you give to a machine, that part of your brain goes dark. Maybe it's worth it when it comes to remembering phone numbers and directions, but when that part of your brain that uses words goes dark, that's a vast area that's very close to your soul. Don't let some internet platform convince you that what you have to say and create isn't worthwhile. Words are the echo of your soul. Honing that echo matters.
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Harris Blankenship @harrisedwardb.bsky.social · 22/08/2025
Congratulations to our fearless leader @mikebeckstead.bsky.social on his much deserved recent promotion to full professor! His days of assisting or associating have come to a close.
Newly anointed full professor holds cake storying his past appointments.
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Ian L Morgan @ianlmorgan.bsky.social · 22/08/2025
When science is politicized like this, the American people suffer.
vox.com
The Supreme Court hands down some incomprehensible gobbledygook about canceled federal grants
My brain hurts.
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Miles Howard @milesperhoward.bsky.social · 25/06/2025
This is a Hall of Fame reader comment on a very reactionary op-ed about Zohran Mamdani's victory that was published in my local paper today.
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Addgene @addgene.bsky.social · 20/06/2025
New plasmid kit available from the Jeffrey Lewis Lab! The Expanded CRISPEY Kit can be used to create genomic edits in Saccharomyces cerevisiae using CRISPR/Cas9 cleavage coupled with directed homologous recombination using an in vivo expressed repair template. twp.ai/4iobNo
twp.ai
Addgene: Expanded CRISPEY Kit
Use the Expanded CRISPEY Kit for CRISPR-based gene editing of S. cerevisiae.
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Anonymous @youranoncentral.bsky.social · 19/06/2025
“The homegrowns are next” 🇺🇸 #StopICE
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Harris Blankenship @harrisedwardb.bsky.social · 15/06/2025
#NoKings signage in Talkeetna, Alaska (population 997) today.
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Nature Neuroscience @natneuro.nature.com · 12/06/2025
Mouse retrosplenial cortex encodes spatial hypotheses with well-behaved recurrent dynamics, which can combine these hypotheses with incoming information to resolve ambiguities @jvoigts.bsky.social www.nature.com/articles/s41...
nature.com
Spatial reasoning via recurrent neural dynamics in mouse retrosplenial cortex - Nature Neuroscience
Using a spatial reasoning task in mice, the authors show that retrosplenial cortex encodes spatial hypotheses with well-behaved recurrent dynamics, which can combine these hypotheses with incoming inf...
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Nature Neuroscience @natneuro.nature.com · 10/06/2025
Multiday imaging of CA1 neurons during learning reveals that the representation stabilizes as the number of readily retrievable, information-rich and stable place cells increases, and suggests novel mechanisms of hippocampal memory formation www.nature.com/articles/s41...
nature.com
Formation of an expanding memory representation in the hippocampus - Nature Neuroscience
Multiday imaging of CA1 neurons during learning reveals that the representation stabilizes as the number of readily retrievable, information-rich and stable place cells increases and suggests novel me...
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Stand Up for Science! @standupforscience.net · 11/06/2025
If you missed the brave and articulate Jenna Norton - one of the hero researchers at #NIH who signed the Bethesda Declaration - on #NPR yesterday, check her extraordinary interview here. one.npr.org?sharedMediaI... #StandUpForScience #BethesdaDeclaration #SaveNIH #StopTrump #KillTheBill
one.npr.org
🔊 Listen Now: NIH scientists sign Bethesda Declaration to protect biomedical science through Trump administration
Here & Now from WBUR on NPR One | 6:30
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CLaE @claeneuro.bsky.social · 08/06/2025
Nature Neuroscience Spatial reasoning via recurrent neural dynamics in mouse retrosplenial cortex www.nature.com/articles/s41...
nature.com
Spatial reasoning via recurrent neural dynamics in mouse retrosplenial cortex - Nature Neuroscience
Using a spatial reasoning task in mice, the authors show that retrosplenial cortex encodes spatial hypotheses with well-behaved recurrent dynamics, which can combine these hypotheses with incoming inf...
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Carl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · 04/06/2025
This is your health on MAGA.
nytimes.com
Here Are the Nearly 2,500 Medical Research Grants Canceled or Delayed by Trump (Gift Article)
Some cuts have been starkly visible, but the country’s medical grant-making machinery has also radically transformed outside the public eye.
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Dannagal Goldthwaite Young @dannagal.bsky.social · 03/06/2025
Kudos to @amartinezla.bsky.social on NPR for squeezing this line in real quick this am: “Polls will soon close in South Korea, where the country is voting in a snap election for a new president. That’s what South Koreans do when a former president tries to overturn the constitution.” I see you.
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Ed Yong is offline @edyong209.bsky.social · 30/05/2025
I urge everyone to read Unbreaking’s new page on everything the govt is doing to destroy & diminish medical research funding. It’s the best thing I’ve read on this topic: @lizneeley.bsky.social & co have such done an incredible job. unbreaking.org/issues/medic...
unbreaking.org
Medical Research Funding — Unbreaking
How the administration is breaking the government, and what that means for all of us.
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Mina Kimes @minakimes.bsky.social · 30/05/2025
Musk should be asked about this in every interview he does now and forever. To ignore it is a dereliction of duty. www.nytimes.com/2025/05/30/o...
There is one place, however, where Musk, with the help of his minions, achieved his goals. He did indeed shred U.S.A.I.D. Though a rump operation is now operating inside the State Department, the administration says that it has terminated more than 80 percent of U.S.A.I.D. grants. Brooke Nichols, an associate professor of global health at Boston University, has estimated that these cuts have already resulted in about 300,000 deaths, most of them of children, and will most likely lead to significantly more by the end of the year. That is what Musk’s foray into politics accomplished.
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Brian Lovett @lovettbr.bsky.social · 28/05/2025
The HMMER fell. 😞
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Brian Lovett @lovettbr.bsky.social · 28/05/2025
I cannot stress enough that what government scientists are going through is not being fully reported. They are quite literally preventing science from happening already. 👏
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𝕊𝕦𝕟𝕕𝕒𝕖 𝔾𝕦𝕣𝕝 @sundaedivine.lol · 26/05/2025
“He tried to kill his own Vice President. Do you think he cares about you?” -Barack Obama
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boehninglab @boehninglab.com · 23/05/2025
youtu.be/KBmdxv29tog?...
youtu.be
A message from MIT President Sally Kornbluth
YouTube video by Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
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bergelsonlab @bergelsonlab.bsky.social · 23/05/2025
sadly relevant on the daily
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Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 20/05/2025
WARREN: Can POTUS legally tell the IRS to change someone's nonprofit status? BILLY LONG: I'm not able to answer WARREN: You can't read these words and tell me what those words say?! LONG: I can read the statute and I did WARREN: Then tell me what they mean!
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Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 20/05/2025
HASSAN: What is habeas corpus? NOEM: Habeas corpus is a constitutional right that the president has to be able to remove people from this country HASSAN: That's incorrect
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Cathy Gao-Howard MD MS @catgaohow.bsky.social · 18/05/2025
Northwestern has not received any NIH funds since March. No written communication about why or what can be done. Thank you Ben Singer for raising awareness at #ATS2025
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Lynn Jolicoeur @lynnjolicoeur.bsky.social · 16/05/2025
"I'm still in shock. I know that there have been political issues around Harvard in recent weeks, but antibiotic resistance isn't one of them." My conversation with Harvard microbiologist @baym.lol, one of many researchers there who just lost millions in fed. grants. www.wbur.org/news/2025/05...
wbur.org
Antibiotic research at Harvard lab threatened by federal funding cuts
Microbiologist Michael Baym studies antibiotic resistance at Harvard Medical School. He lost millions in federal funding this week.
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J. Offir, PhD @joffirphd.bsky.social · 12/05/2025
This about sums it up.
Jon Adams cartoon showing people running in the street from what looks like a laser weapon being shot from the sky. One person is saying to another, "I really don't mind the government’s new death ray, because it hasn't hit me yet."
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MwahahahahahadScientist @mads100tist.bsky.social · 01/08/2024
#science 🧪
A lab pipette with THIS MACHINE KILLS FASCISTS written on it
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Harris Blankenship @harrisedwardb.bsky.social · 10/05/2025
Five years ago, I joined @mikebeckstead.bsky.social’s lab as a wide-eyed, clueless 22-year-old. Yesterday, I closed my doctoral chapter with even wider eyes, more questions than answers, and a few extra letters behind my name.
Three academics standing, two in garb
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Stacey D. Smith @iochromaland.bsky.social · 05/05/2025
On Friday, my son stayed home from school because he had a sore throat and wasn’t feeling well. He went with my husband to his office for the morning while I handled our daughter. When he came back at lunch, he was not interested in eating, saying his throat hurt too much. 1/n
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Harris Blankenship @harrisedwardb.bsky.social · 03/05/2025
I did not have “Be a scientist during a dystopian, anti-science administration” on my life-long bingo card.
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Peter Sagal @petersagal.bsky.social · 29/04/2025
While you highlight it, please note is the product of local journalism, which has been carrying a lot of the burden in an environment where national outlets simply can't cover everything everywhere all at once. Support your local journalists!
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Randall Munroe @xkcd.com · 25/04/2025
PhD Timeline xkcd.com/3081
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MIT Press @mitpress.bsky.social · 08/04/2025
We're disappointed to see Ben Barres's powerful book "The Autobiography of a Transgender Scientist" among the ~400 titles removed from the Naval Academy Library. Needless to say, we're proud to have published his book and will keep it — and his memory — alive.
thereader.mitpress.mit.edu
The Coming Out of a Transgender Scientist
"I know that I am making the right decision because whenever I think about changing my gender role, I am flooded with feelings of relief."
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jp flores (he/him) @jpflores.rbind.io · 05/03/2025
Quick shoutout to the labs, departments, and scientists cancelling / rescheduling lab meetings, seminars and more to give students and others the chance to defend science for @standupforscience.bsky.social
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bioRxiv Neuroscience @biorxiv-neursci.bsky.social · 03/03/2025
Parallel gene expression changes in ventral midbrain dopamine and GABA neurons during normal aging www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/202…
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Nadine Smith @nadinesmith.bsky.social · 28/02/2025
Clay Bennett nails it.
A tiny trump figure in a chair next to a towering Zelensky captures the puny spirit of Trump's cowardice and Russian capitulation.
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Michael Deistler @deismic.bsky.social · 28/02/2025
Together with @dendritesgr.bsky.social, we’ll be hosting a tutorial on constructing and optimizing biophysical models (via Jaxley & DendroTweaks) 🚀 Join us in Florence if you like dendrites, biophysics, or optimization!
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Cian O'Donnell @cianodonnell.bsky.social · 25/02/2025
Some politicians are labeled as "all tactics, no strategy" imo neuroscience is "all hypotheses, no theory" In this sense, I disagree with the article. All neuroscientists do is test hypotheses! It's just that these are typically based on vague mental theories, rather than formal maths theories
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