Reposted by J. Brendan RitchieNicole Bedera @nbedera.bsky.social · 14hEarlier this week, I agreed to interviews with two USA Today journalists. They wrote fantastic articles about the Cornell case that I'm proud to have been a part of. What I did not know is that their employer considers interviews to proprietary and opens up recordings to be used by any journalist. 422990907
Reposted by J. Brendan RitchieApurva Ratan Murty @apurvaratan.bsky.social · 21hExcited to first share @alishdipani.bsky.social 's study. Alish asked a (deceptively) simple Q: Are category-selective units in ANNs actually like category-selective regions in the brain? (why is this imp? read until the end). #neuroskyence #neuroscience #brain #neuroai 1186
Reposted by J. Brendan RitchieWalker Bragman @walkerbragman.bsky.social · 30/09/2026The bullying and harassment that this will enable is the point. This administration wants to make life unbearable for “undesirable” populations. It’s fascist scapegoating 101. thehill.com/homenews/edu...thehill.comEducation Department formally rescinds Title IX protections for LGBTQ studentsThe Education Department announced Monday it has formally rescinded the Biden-era Title IX interpretation that gave sex-based discrimination protections to students on the basis of sexual orientati… 1223499
Reposted by J. Brendan Ritchiehellabores92.bsky.social @hellabores92.bsky.social · 28/09/2026Courage is Contagious. Excellent article by Sylvia Chou. It takes a lot to stand up for the truth when there is a culture of fear but what we lose is so much more if we do not. www.psychologicalscience.org/publications...psychologicalscience.orgNIH Employees Lived in A Culture of Fear, So They Started Keeping ReceiptsSylvia Chou, former NIH program director, says “nobody’s OK” after massive disruptions to funding policies and infrastructure. 12416
J. Brendan Ritchie @jbrendanritchie.bsky.social · 28/09/2026And in the case of the US, it'll also take substantial reform of its political institutions, and the media, during that time. 010
Reposted by J. Brendan RitchieDr Abeba Birhane @abeba.blacksky.app · 24/09/2026over the past few weeks several AI evaluation/cybersecurity experts have explained how what's happening is a result of human incompetence rather than "AI going rogue". I'm begging the media to show a shred of journalistic integrity and stop parroting what altman or amodei say 6437521482
Reposted by J. Brendan RitchieMichelle Greene @mgreenephd.bsky.social · 25/09/2026🚨New paper alert! 🚨 The visual system tunes itself to the statistics of its input. How do individual experiences differently tune vision? In this work, @bjbalas.bsky.social and I examined how one individual difference—height—changes the visual diet and how this affects perception. 1/ 29432
Reposted by J. Brendan RitchieGeorge Monbiot @georgemonbiot.bsky.social · 24/09/2026Here's today's column on the astonishing, ongoing mistreatment of people with #ME/CFS. Please spread it far and wide: the only thing which can break the media's wall of indifference is seeing an article about the issue go viral. Thank you. 1/2 www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...theguardian.comAbandoned, dismissed and gaslighted: there is no excuse for the way ME sufferers have been betrayed | George MonbiotChanges in guidance and science seem to have little impact on millions of devastated lives. It’s a social crisis playing out behind closed doors, says Guardian columnist George Monbiot 17925281729
Reposted by J. Brendan RitchieZhiqing Deng @zhiqingdeng.bsky.social · 23/09/2026🧠Excited to share that our paper has been accepted at PNAS! We found hierarchical plasticity in people born without hands. ❤️Thanks to @striemamit.bsky.social @yuqiliu1179.bsky.social @Florencia Martinez-Addiego www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...pnas.orgExperience-driven plasticity in the secondary somatosensory cortex in people born without hands | PNASIn congenital handlessness, where individuals rely on their feet for compensatory manual functions, reorganization in the primary somatosensory cor... 175
Reposted by J. Brendan RitchieColette Delawalla, PhD @cdelawalla.bsky.social · 21/09/2026Alright, let’s all get on the same page about Vought/NIH/Trump. THEY👏WILL👏STOP👏AT👏NOTHING👏 The goal is to destroy the STEM ecosystem, universities, and democracy as we have known it. PERIOD. The only way to win is to impeach them all…which means we need Congress. HERE’S HOW WE WIN 🧵 141164345
Reposted by J. Brendan RitchieConor Browne @brownecfm.bsky.social · 19/09/2026Articles like these are emblematic of the institutional amnesia surrounding Covid-19. A pathogen that emerged less than seven years ago, which can cause fatigue during the acute infection and as a common long-term effect, not even mentioned. Conspicuously absent. www.nbcnews.com/health/menta...nbcnews.comWhy are Americans so tired? CDC report highlights who’s feeling it mostFatigue is one of the most common concerns reported in primary care visits, yet not much attention is given to how often adults in the U.S. are coping with it. 381000352
Reposted by J. Brendan RitchieMark Histed @markhisted.org · 20/09/2026“The arrangement would give Vought, the director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, a direct role in determining how NIH distributes its $48 billion in congressionally-appropriated money.” Bypassing the many checks and balances at NIH on grant funding decisions. 8271193
Reposted by J. Brendan RitchieMark Ungrin @mark-ungrin.bsky.social · 20/09/2026CTV news coverage of the errors in health policy and guidance that leave the public unprotected from aerosol disease transmission and long COVID (with @drdavidkeegan.bsky.social and Kerri Bowser) is up. Great to see so much interest! Below is the UK inquiry cited: #medsky #scisky #cdnpoli #poliskyyoutu.beCOVID health policy still outdated: researchersYouTube video by CTV News 812067
Reposted by J. Brendan RitchieRolling Stone @rollingstone.com · 18/09/2026The Military’s Bogus AI ‘Almost Started a War’ With China Troops were about to board a Chinese ship before the Pentagon realized they had false intel, according to CNN. Read: www.rollingstone.com/politics/pol... 1713372
Reposted by J. Brendan RitchieMark Histed @markhisted.org · 17/09/2026“From a human standpoint, it’s tragic. From a constitutional perspective, it’s absurd: The people elect their representatives to enact legislation, and five unelected judges veto that legislation. Is this really the democratic system our founders envisioned?” 1339
Reposted by J. Brendan Ritchie🇨🇦Joe Vipond🇨🇦 @jvipondmd.bsky.social · 16/09/2026"We had concerns whether the process was being completed in a fair, equitable and consistent manner with the many daily, and sometimes hourly, changes to the processes,” former Elections Alberta staff (resigned in protest)calgaryherald.comCorb Lund requests moratorium on coal, former Elections Alberta staff speak outCorb Lund is seeking a moratorium on coal development until a judicial review of how his group's petition was handled has been completed. 39651
Reposted by J. Brendan RitchieJenna Norton @jenna-m-norton.bsky.social · 16/09/2026The cuts in staff across federal health agencies are staggering. Great analysis from @ourpublicservice.bsky.social. 1 in 5 people gone from NIH. More than 1 in 4 gone from CDC. Nearly 7 in 10 gone from AHRQ. ourpublicservice.org/resource/the...ourpublicservice.orgThe Cost of Cutting American Science: How Federal Cuts Diminish Public Health Capacity 3154109
Reposted by J. Brendan RitchieJody Culham's Lab @culhamari-lab.bsky.social · 15/09/2026Our Annual Review of Vision Science paper on "Bringing Vision Science Closer to the Real World" with @evadeligiannis.bsky.social is officially out and available through open access. www.annualreviews.org/content/jour...annualreviews.orgBringing Vision Science Closer to the Real WorldVision science has demonstrated considerable success in characterizing early- and mid-level visual processes through reductionism and tightly controlled experiments. However, an understanding of high-... 02112
Reposted by J. Brendan RitchieThe Transmitter @thetransmitter.bsky.social · 15/09/2026300 early-career neuroscientists commented on the future of the field in a new survey led by @neuromatch.bsky.social and @thetransmitter.bsky.social. #neuroskyence By Paige Miranda www.thetransmitter.org/science-and-...thetransmitter.org‘High risk, high reward’: How early-career neuroscientists view their futureThe Transmitter and Neuromatch surveyed more than 300 early-career neuroscientists to better understand their unique challenges, career aspirations and support needs. 03713
Reposted by J. Brendan RitchieElliot Murphy @elliot-murphy.bsky.social · 15/09/2026New work out today! The result of a 15 year project to offer genuine linking hypotheses between linguistics and neuroscience: a revised research program, and its first result - a novel neural binding operation ('Meld') capturing core properties of natural language syntax 🧵 arxiv.org/abs/2609.14384arxiv.orgFormal Properties of Language as Constraints on Neural DynamicsWhat must a neural system be capable of to implement language? Current research annotates stimuli with linguistic variables and tests which electrodes, voxels, or language-model layers predict neural ... 26815
Reposted by J. Brendan RitchieBlake Richards @tyrellturing.bsky.social · 14/09/2026This thread is good to read. In my experience, what @michaelhendricks.bsky.social is describing here is not the situation faced by all labs in Canada, but it does describe the situation faced by far too many. And, it's all down to one simple thing: the feds don't find the tri-councils enough! 3133
Reposted by J. Brendan RitchieAlejandra Caraballo @esqueer.net · 14/09/2026Cis people do not understand how much trans people's rights have regressed in just 5 years. 5 years ago, there were none of these restrictions. 19 states banned legal recognition 21 states have bathroom bans 8 states ban gender marker changes on DLs 25 ban gender affirming care for trans youth 11377743638
Reposted by J. Brendan RitchieAlejandra Caraballo @esqueer.net · 12/09/2026A trans man in the UK has been banned in the workplace restrooms after he was forced to use the women's restrooms to comply with the new EHRC guidance. The women complained because he is visibly male and so they told him he can't use any bathroom. 13750941544
Reposted by J. Brendan RitchieJenna Norton @jenna-m-norton.bsky.social · 11/09/2026An excellent piece from a group including fellow Bethesda Declaration signers. Appreciate the call for an increasingly democratic model of shared governance in public research funding. As well as the call for scientists to engage. www.aaup.org/toward-recon...aaup.orgToward the Reconstruction of US Research InfrastructureAcademia must organize now to secure the future of the US academic research enterprise. 04526
Reposted by J. Brendan RitchieMelanie Mitchell @melaniemitchell.bsky.social · 09/09/2026What, an Anthropic researcher states (without evidence) that there is a 10% chance that AI will cause human extinction? Incredible, we have never before heard such a claim! 2027390
Reposted by J. Brendan RitchieGregg Gonsalves @gregggonsalves.bsky.social · 07/09/2026No one. No one. No one can ever say to me again that Jay Bhattacharya was a reasonable pick for NIH Director. He was and is an ideological zealot. This is his doing. Shame on him. Shame on Matthew Memoli, Jon Lorsch, John Powers and the rest of them at NIH. 5282100
Reposted by J. Brendan RitchieCanada's National Observer @nationalobserver.com · 04/09/2026INVESTIGATION: Canada’s National Observer has discovered a network of deceptive, AI-generated websites promoting Albertan separatism. The websites, rather than targeting human readers, are targeting chatbots — trying to influence the answers they provide.nationalobserver.comA US-linked network of fake websites is promoting Alberta separatism to AI chatbotsThe websites present crude, AI-generated slop disguised as the voice of real Albertans. But they're made in Florida — and they're not even targeting Albertans directly. 11256186
Reposted by J. Brendan RitchieJ. Offir, PhD @joffirphd.bsky.social · 08/09/2026🧵My family stopped through NYC (less than 3 miles from ground zero) 2 months after 9/11, & we wore N95s. Strangers were derisive, but it really seemed like common sense. Come to find out: Rep. Jerrold Nadler said he tried to convince Giuliani & Bloomberg "to release www.nytimes.com/2026/09/07/n...nytimes.comAfter 9/11, Documents Suggest New Yorkers Were Misled About Air Quality (Gift Article)New York City officials are making public more than 170,000 pages of documents related to the air quality around the World Trade Center site in the months after the Sept. 11 attacks. 111133
Reposted by J. Brendan RitchieAmanda Hu @amandalhu.bsky.social · 08/09/2026Parents of girls over 12 all over Alberta are now receiving “permission forms” requiring their birth sex as female in order to participate in sports as a result of the Government of Alberta’s “Fairness and Safety in Sport Act”. The more parents who file a challenge in response, the better. 34425220
Reposted by J. Brendan RitchieThe Breakdown AB @thebreakdownab.bsky.social · 07/09/2026From a confirmed source within the Calgary Board of Education... Over 1000 kids across Calgary are being denied an education. Because of UCP changes to the Education Act, over 1000 kids are being denied an education because of delays in immigration processing. Over 1000. 26269196
Reposted by J. Brendan RitchieMark Histed @markhisted.org · 04/09/2026Right. Vought and Bhattacharya tried to gut NIH in 2025 via stopping spending (Fed Reg bans) and rescission. That failed. Now in 2026, they’re still using bureaucracy inside the agency to try to slow spending. But they need a new way to get the leftover money (meant for science!) out of NIH. 1/ 4201106
Reposted by J. Brendan RitchieJenna Norton @jenna-m-norton.bsky.social · 04/09/2026Unlawfully stealing from our future health to fund a war that never should have happened. democrats-appropriations.house.gov/news/press-r...democrats-appropriations.house.govDefense Officials Attempt to Raid NIH Funds to Cover Department of Defense ActivitiesHouse Appropriations Committee Ranking Member Rosa DeLauro (D-CT-03) has learned that officials at the Department of Defense (DoD) are working to divert billions of dollars from the National Institute... 16740
Reposted by J. Brendan RitchieAbbey @abbeyarletto.bsky.social · 02/09/2026This is what living next door to a 30 megawatt data center sounds like. 61372994264
Reposted by J. Brendan RitchiePaul Taylor @afni-pt.bsky.social · 31/08/2026Have you ever felt like something was missing from your #fmri results? Have you been worried about potential reproducibility issues? Well, this new @natmethods.nature.com article with 40+ coauthors shows how the simple change to transparent thresholding helps both. Go Figure! rdcu.be/B4tikBETdQZa 19151
Reposted by J. Brendan RitchieIt's ME(Jaime) @exceedhergrasp1.bsky.social · 01/09/2026Excellent; well worth a read. 🧪 www.insidehighered.com/opinion/care...insidehighered.comGrad Students Wonder if Academia Is Worth Saving (opinion)It’s not just the federal government that’s telling grad students their work doesn’t matter. 33913
Reposted by J. Brendan RitchieMcSweeney's @mcsweeneys.net · 29/08/2026"This is a paradigm shift. It’s like Plato’s cave. You sit in a dark room, watch images projected on a screen, and then stay there and enjoy more images. That’s what Plato’s cave is all about. At least, that’s what I’ve gathered from the modules." www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/our...mcsweeneys.netOur University Does Not Require Books, Paper, or Human Knowledge“Such a radical shakeup in learning has never happened before, as far as I know. Is there even a way to learn about whether or not something has happened bef... 05817
Reposted by J. Brendan RitchieGrace Lindsay @neurograce.bsky.social · 30/08/2026This paper shows how measures and constructs in psychology get introduced but rarely reused. Would love to see a similar analysis done on methods of analyzing neural data. A Fragmented Field: Construct and Measure Proliferation in Psychology" Anvari et al., 2025 journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/... 719442
Reposted by J. Brendan RitchieRob Mok @robmok.bsky.social · 30/08/2026📢 Announcing the 11th CiNet Conference: "From Biological to General Artificial Intelligence: Computational and Experimental Approaches to Understanding and Modeling the Brain" 5–7 October 2026, CiNet, Osaka, Japan Organized by yours truly & Shinji Nishimoto #neuroskyence #psychscisky #mlsky 🧠🤖 1/ 43017
Reposted by J. Brendan RitchieVictoria Bosch @initself.bsky.social · 28/08/2026Are brains and artificial neural networks converging onto universal representations? There is a seductive idea making the rounds in NeuroAI / machine learning: train systems well enough, and they all converge on the same representation of reality (i.e. a unique world model). We have thoughts™ 1/ncell.comThe Umwelt Representation Hypothesis: rethinking UniversalityRecent studies reveal striking representational alignment between artificial neural networks (ANNs) and biological brains, leading to proposals that all sufficiently capable systems converge on univer... 818176
Reposted by J. Brendan RitchiePressProgress @pressprogress.ca · 25/08/2026Sold a Lie: Emails Reveal Government and College Assured International Students they Would be Eligible for a Post-Graduation Work Permit Despite Rule Changes. Now, students are facing removal orders from Canada after an ICE-like CBSA raid at their protest in Calgary pressprogress.ca/sold-a-lie-e...pressprogress.caSold a Lie: Emails Reveal Government and College Assured International Students they Would be Eligible for a Post-Graduation Work Permit Despite Rule Changes.Now, students are facing removal orders from Canada after an ICE-like CBSA raid at their protest in Calgary 57342
Reposted by J. Brendan RitchieNIH Vigils @nihvigils.bsky.social · 26/08/2026“It’s an elegant arrangement. It converts coercive state action into private editorial decisions, distributes moral injury across thousands of individual scientists each making a defensible compromise, and leaves executive power free to deny with curious vigor that censorship is occurring at all.”sciencedirect.comInside the meat locker: anticipatory self-censorship and pressure on the vocabulary of American scienceThe U.S. federal grant terminations of 2025 have had a chilling effect on American science. Grantees whose awards have been renegotiated under threat … 2118
Reposted by J. Brendan RitchiePieter T. L. Beck @ptrbck.bsky.social · 25/08/2026We have written a statement in support of Ghent Uni's decision to suspend Nathan Cofnas. We resist attempts to frame this as a punishment for "whistleblowing" or censorship of "controversial research". We invite all academics who share our views to sign our letter. forms.gle/qwN8xzEM5C7Q...forms.gleOpen letter on the suspension of Nathan Cofnas at Ghent UniversityWe, colleagues of Nathan Cofnas - supported by many colleagues internationally - want to respond to the negative and incorrect framing of Ghent University’s decision to suspend Nathan Cofnas. With th... 421493642
Reposted by J. Brendan RitchieProPublica @propublica.org · 25/08/2026The Pentagon has never received a passing grade on a comprehensive financial audit. One thing is clear: Vast sums are funneled into costly weapon systems that chronically come in over budget.propublica.orgThe $1 Trillion Black BoxThe U.S. military budget is vast and opaque. Projects touted as engineering marvels end up facing years of delays and ballooning costs. ProPublica has launched a series to report on the Pentagon’s spe... 20031111300
Reposted by J. Brendan RitchieCarl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · 24/08/2026If you just happened to pick this week to start yelling about the importance of academic freedom, I sure hope you did more than watch silently for the past 18 months as the Trump administration assaulted everything from mRNA vaccine research to gender studies to the very idea of having universities. 152092441
Reposted by J. Brendan RitchieJeremy Pober @jpober.bsky.social · 22/08/2026Belgian university regulations prohibit the dissemination of views that promote racial inequality, which makes them the first uni system to incorporate Popperian intolerance of intolerance. I understand why people have reservations about this kind of rule, but... 3265
Reposted by J. Brendan RitchieAlejandra Caraballo @esqueer.net · 20/08/2026I've never seen such an effort to censor a document as I have the Amnesty International report on gender critical groups because of JK Rowling. They removed the report from the Wayback Machine and now I got a DMCA strike on my Google Drive for having it. It was deleted and removed from my account. 229114205344
Reposted by J. Brendan RitchieMatthias Nau @matthiasnau.bsky.social · 19/08/2026🚨 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 Apply: workingat.vu.nl/vacancies/as...workingat.vu.nlVacancy — Assistant Professor in Cognitive NeuroscienceJoin the Department of Experimental and Applied Psychology (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam) as Assistant Professor in cognitive neuroscience. 16348
Reposted by J. Brendan RitchieMark Histed @markhisted.org · 19/08/2026“I am bracing for something bad to happen… It’s hard to pile up all this risk, then for all of it to come to nothing: landmines avoided until a Democratic administration takes over and clears all of them. The odds of that strike me as dim.” I share @brianbeutler.bsky.social ‘s feelingoffmessage.netSomething Very Bad Is Going To HappenPeople should know. 47927
Reposted by J. Brendan RitchieMichael E. Mann @michaelemann.bsky.social · 18/08/2026You don't say... www.ms.now/news/frame-u...ms.nowWhistleblower says probes into antisemitism at colleges were ploys to harass and strip millionsA former Justice Department lawyer says the Trump investigations squeezed Ivy League universities for millions before they were even concluded. A top Democrat is demanding answers. 361296385
Reposted by J. Brendan RitchieDr. Lucky Tran @luckytran.com · 17/08/2026US child vaccination rates have plunged since before the pandemic, with kindergarten classrooms in more than 70% of counties now lacking herd immunity against measles. 46345632309