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Bob Pellegrino

@kingfunk.bsky.social
129 followers 152 following 26 posts

Assistant Professor at Texas A&M University Human psychophysicist interested in all things smell and texture. 📸: @smellboi24_7

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Reposted by Bob Pellegrino
The Onion @theonion.com · 24/08/2026
Guy Who Sucks At Being A Person Sees Huge Potential In AI theonion.com/guy-who-sucks-at-being…
Guy Who Sucks At Being A Person Sees Huge Potential In AI
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Bob Pellegrino @kingfunk.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
One of the better discussions on how LLMs work and can be used to understand cognition.
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Reposted by Bob Pellegrino
Current Biology @currentbiology.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
Prime cat content brought to you by Current Biology! www.cell.com/current-biol...
cell.com
Signatures of branched-chain fatty acids derived from a kidney reservoir confer stable chemical individuality on domestic cats
Ichizawa et al. show that cats maintain durable chemical individuality in urine through donor-specific branched-chain fatty acid (BFA) profiles stabilized by renal cortical lipid droplets. This kidney...
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Reposted by Bob Pellegrino
Martin Hebart @martinhebart.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
I have been meaning to write a post about a preprint that I'm pretty excited about: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... In neuroscience we often assume that we can learn something general about “the brain” using different species. But is this true? Do monkeys even see the world the way we do?
On the left, an image of a rhesus macaque looking towards its left, and on the right, an AI-generated zoomed-out rendering of a human in the same pose. Both are looking.
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Bob Pellegrino @kingfunk.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
Yeah I still keep up with the philly news
reddit.com
From the cheesesteak community on Reddit: I Ate A Cheesesteak Everyday For A Week Because We Got LeBron
Explore this post and more from the cheesesteak community
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Reposted by Bob Pellegrino
Calle Börstell @cborstell.bsky.social · 04/06/2026
The quote "Actually, Frankenstein is the doctor, the monster is Frankenstein's Monster" but crossed out and replaced with "Actually, ggplot is the function, the package is ggplot 2"
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Ethan Mollick @emollick.bsky.social · 26/05/2026
I wrote a new post on what we need to keep human and what to hand over to AI, with forays into experiments in education, consulting, and the the latest controversy over literary prizes. www.oneusefulthing.org/p/choosing-t...
oneusefulthing.org
Choosing to Stay Human
If you go to your favorite social media site, you will find it full of posts that start to look suspiciously similar to each other:
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Bob Pellegrino @kingfunk.bsky.social · 21/05/2026
Amazing! Yea, I think knowledge of what works plays a big role in cooking. In one chapter, we discuss science as an alternative to the senses when it comes to cooking.
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Bob Pellegrino @kingfunk.bsky.social · 21/05/2026
Please check it out and let us know! Most of the recipes were developed through a cooking class with smell impaired individuals. You can read more here: health.au.dk/en/display/a...
health.au.dk
Cooking school helps patients with loss of smell rediscover the joy of life
Patients with loss of smell completed a five-week cooking program and achieved significant improvements in both their sense of smell and quality of life.
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Bob Pellegrino @kingfunk.bsky.social · 21/05/2026
20% of people have impaired smell. Almost no cookbooks account for that. #LongCOVID #anosmia Rediscovering Flavor, a new type of cookbook, changes that — science, practical guidance, and recipes co-created with smell loss patients. Preorder open now. 🧪 📖 🍽️
amazon.com
Rediscovering Flavor: A Practical Guide for Smell Loss
Rediscovering Flavor: A Practical Guide for Smell Loss: 9783032080554: Medicine & Health Science Books @ Amazon.com
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Reposted by Bob Pellegrino
Johan Lundstrom @odorjohan.bsky.social · 16/05/2026
Hiring a postdoc to do something nobody has done: record oscillatory signals from the human olfactory epithelium in awake humans. PhD in neuroscience, biomedical engineering, or adjacent. Real electrophysiology experience: single-unit, intracranial, or peripheral. Olfactory background optional.
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Bob Pellegrino @kingfunk.bsky.social · 18/04/2026
What did you think of the smells? I think they could be improved and without the visual aid of the elephant body having the smell object printed all of it lol, I’m not sure if I would have got all of them.
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Bob Pellegrino @kingfunk.bsky.social · 18/04/2026
Magical kingdom currently has an elephants statues that project smells as part of a matching game (in Storybook Circus) called Smellephants on parade! You get a sticker for getting them all correct.
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Joel Mainland @jmainland.bsky.social · 17/04/2026
Can we predict what a molecule smells like from its structure? A new exchange in @ChemSenses debates this question. 🧪 @kingfunk.bsky.social
The odor limonene feeding into a neural network to predict the odor.
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Bob Pellegrino @kingfunk.bsky.social · 15/04/2026
Howdy Y'all, I'm running a sensory lab now 👀 The lab focuses on smells (duh), textures (🤔), and their interactions using big data approaches to relate the physical to the perceptual. Lab manager posting linked here. Interested in a PhD? Just message me!
tamus.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com
Lab Manager
Job TitleLab Manager Agency Texas A&M Agrilife Research Department Animal Science Proposed Minimum SalaryCommensurate Job LocationCollege Station, Texas Job TypeStaff Job Description About Texas A...
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Reposted by Bob Pellegrino
Ben Young @benyoung.bsky.social · 09/03/2026
Call for chapter proposals - The OUP Handbook of Smell edited by Jessica Freiherr, Andreas Keller, Kathrin Ohla, Laiquan Zou, & Benjamin Young and published by Oxford University Press (under contract). Full details here: philevents.org/event/show/1... Please share widely.
philevents.org
The OUP Handbook of Smell - Call for chapter proposals
Call for chapter proposals - The OUP Handbook of Smell We are seeking chapter proposals of The OUP Handbook of Smell. The handbook will be edited by Jessica Freiherr, Andreas Keller, Kathrin...
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Ambassador Frank Hull @frankiethull.bsky.social · 04/03/2026
i love data, me too meme
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Tobias Ackels @tobiasackels.bsky.social · 01/02/2026
Postdoc position in systems neuroscience! Excited to recruit a postdoc for my lab at the University of Bonn. 🔬 In vivo physiology (Neuropixels, 2P/miniscope) 🐭 Head-fixed & freely moving behaviour 💡 Optogenetics/chemogenetics ⏳ Start: ASAP | Application deadline: 28.02.2026 More info below ⬇️
The research group “Sensory Dynamics and Behaviour” of Prof. Dr. Tobias Ackels at the Institute of Experimental Epilepsy and Cognition Research at the
University Hospital Bonn invites applications for a position as:
Postdoctoral Researcher (m/f/d)
The position is initially limited to three years (TV-L E13/100%),
starting from April 2026 or as soon as possible.
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Jeffrey Perkel (he/him) @jperkel.bsky.social · 02/02/2026
🚨Scientists 🚨: Tired of come-ons from journals & conferences that may or may not be predatory? A new tool called Aletheia-Probe could help. 🧪 By @silverjacket.bsky.social @nature.com www.nature.com/articles/d41...
nature.com
Is this journal legitimate? This tool can help you decide
Aletheia-Probe provides a one-stop shop to help you assess whether journals and conferences are trustworthy or predatory.
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Reposted by Bob Pellegrino
Crawford Kilian @crof.bsky.social · 18/01/2026
A long, absolutely must-read article from Cory Doctorow: www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-i...
theguardian.com
AI companies will fail. We can salvage something from the wreckage | Cory Doctorow
AI is asbestos in the walls of our tech society, stuffed there by monopolists run amok. A serious fight against it must strike at its roots
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Reposted by Bob Pellegrino
bioRxivpreprint @biorxivpreprint.bsky.social · 17/12/2025
High-Fidelity Tuning of Olfactory Mixture Distances in the Perceptual Space of Smell Through a Community Effort www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/20…
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Pablo Meyer @oldbap.bsky.social · 19/12/2025
And the latest from @dreamchallenges.bsky.social
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Bob Pellegrino @kingfunk.bsky.social · 16/01/2026
These bags are already in the wild and underpins recent preprints showing strong perceptual validity: pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC... pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC... Bottom line: jars leak information, bags keep it airtight. #bagboi #bagsrule
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Bob Pellegrino @kingfunk.bsky.social · 16/01/2026
2/3 We’ve built and tested an odor sampling bag system with: - Known concentrations - Closed headspace - Air as the carrier (no solvent confounds) In head-to-head tests, bags produced more reliable results than jars and preserved odorant-specific differences.
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Bob Pellegrino @kingfunk.bsky.social · 16/01/2026
1/3 The humble glass jar is a workhorse in olfactory research, but comes w/ hidden problems: - Unknown headspace concentration - Concentration dilution by ambient air These add noise to odor measurements. Our preprint introduces something new, something bag.🧪 @jmainland.bsky.social & Matt Andres
biorxiv.org
Odor Sampling Bags Enable Reliable Delivery of Controlled Odor Concentrations
Precise control of odorant concentration is essential for reliable olfactory research, yet existing odorant delivery methods often suffer from solvent interactions and dilution from ambient air, limiting stimulus consistency in olfactory research. We developed an odor sampling bag system using Nalophan plastic to create a closed headspace with air as the carrier medium, eliminating solvent-related variability and ambient air dilution. In two independent experiments, 15 trained panelists each rated the perceived intensity of seven concentrations of benzaldehyde and 2-heptanone using both gas-sampling bags and glass jars. Bags produced higher maximum perceptual intensities (p < 0.001) and greater test-retest reliability than jars (Experiment 1: r = 0.89 vs. 0.81, p < 0.001; Experiment 2: r = 0.86 vs. 0.72, p < 0.001). Notably, the two tested odorants showed different maximum intensities in bags (p < 0.001) but not jars (p = 0.85), suggesting bags better preserve odorant-specific concentration differences. Photoionization detector measurements confirmed stable headspace concentrations over time, comparable to industry-standard Tedlar bags. This cost-effective approach offers improved stimulus control for olfactory psychophysics research. ### Competing Interest Statement Joel D. Mainland serves on the scientific advisory board of Osmo Labs, PBC and receives compensation for these activities. National Institutes of Health, https://ror.org/01cwqze88, F32 DC020380, T32 DC000014, U19 NS112953, R01 DC017757, R01 DC021663
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Eric Topol @erictopol.bsky.social · 14/01/2026
Superior cf what? Full of ultraprocessed constituents. The relentless and inappropriate marketing of David protein bars Here's a roundup of facts about protein intake and unnecessary preoccupation erictopol.substack.com/p/our-preocc...
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Bob Pellegrino @kingfunk.bsky.social · 14/08/2025
We are only studying perception in this study with modeling informed by past molecular studies that have shown wide-spread inhibition for odor mixtures. One version of that inhibition is competitive binding as you refer to. See this paper: pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31000595/
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Bob Pellegrino @kingfunk.bsky.social · 12/08/2025
This isn’t just theory! These models can replace slow, expensive “omission tests” in flavor chemistry to find the handful of molecules that actually matter in a food’s aroma. For instance, what molecules really make coffee smell like coffee. ☕
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Bob Pellegrino @kingfunk.bsky.social · 12/08/2025
4/5 Using this information, we can predict perceived odor intensity from molecular structure + concentration with high accuracy for both: • Single molecules (RMSE = 7.1 on a 100 point scale) • Complex mixtures (RMSE ~ 7.5)
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Bob Pellegrino @kingfunk.bsky.social · 12/08/2025
3/5 Using a very cool bag system to tightly control the concentration, we measured: • 62 molecules, each at ≥7 concentrations • 260 mixtures (2–10 components) • >7,000 intensity ratings from trained human panels
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Bob Pellegrino @kingfunk.bsky.social · 12/08/2025
2/5 It’s a trick question. At a lower concentration, acetophenone (left molecule, red, smells like urinal cake) is stronger than 2-heptanone (right molecule, green, smells like blue cheese). So concentration ≠ intensity. That’s been a major roadblock for neuroscience and fragrance / food industries
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Bob Pellegrino @kingfunk.bsky.social · 12/08/2025
1/5 Odor intensity isn’t just about concentration! We have a new preprint to prove it: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... In cahoots with @jmainland.bsky.social, @alexkoulakov.bsky.social, Rick Gerkin, Khristina Samoilova and others not on bluesky. 🧪 Which of these molecules smells stronger?
Chemical structure of acetophenone and 2-heptanone
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Bob Pellegrino @kingfunk.bsky.social · 11/08/2025
Hi, I'd like to be added to the feed to post a study: scholar.google.com/citations?us... work place: monell.org/robert-pelle...
scholar.google.com
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Ralph Emilio Peterson @ralphpeterson.bsky.social · 25/07/2025
New preprint!

 tl;dr — We ran around late at night to record wild rats in NYC and figured out how to quantify their behavior and environment. 🧵 w/ Dima Batenkov, @zamakany.bsky.social, Emily Mackevicius www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
biorxiv.org
Computational Urban Ecology of New York City Rats
Urban rats are highly adaptable, thriving in the dynamic and often inhospitable conditions of modern cities. Despite substantial mitigation efforts, they remain an enduring presence in urban environme...
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Bob Pellegrino @kingfunk.bsky.social · 26/06/2025
Sometimes I forget that Todd Rundgren doesn't want to work but just wants to bang on the drum all day.
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Nature Reviews Psychology @natrevpsychol.nature.com · 18/06/2025
Distinguishing performance gains from learning when using generative AI Comment by Lixiang Yan, Samuel Greiff, Jason M. Lodge & Dragan Gašević go.nature.com/3FJqTq3
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Bob Pellegrino @kingfunk.bsky.social · 28/05/2025
Large language models (LLMs) can mirror human thinking in vision and language, but can they smell and taste? New study with @rbrainengineer.bsky.social show stochastic LLMs rate creative flavor pairings like humans, prioritizing novelty over taste. #AI #creativity #foodscience
sciencedirect.com
Automating chemosensory creativity assessment with large language models
Chemosensory creativity, the ability to innovate using taste and smell, is a crucial yet understudied aspect of human ingenuity. This study explores t…
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ACOG @acog.org · 27/05/2025
ACOG is deeply disappointed by HHS’s move to drop COVID-19 vaccine recommendations in pregnancy. The science is clear: COVID-19 remains dangerous in pregnancy and vaccination protects both patients and newborns. The vaccine is safe and protects families. Read our full statement: buff.ly/OGue7sO
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Steve Munger @stevenmunger.bsky.social · 20/05/2025
Regular smell and taste testing could aid early detection of impairments that negatively impact health, safety, and quality of life, and could also reveal underlying disease. But how do we get there? This new whitepaper is out today:
doi.org
Towards Universal Chemosensory Testing: Needs, Barriers and Opportunities
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Bob Pellegrino @kingfunk.bsky.social · 10/05/2025
One of the few bands I’ve been listening to since the 90s and still putting out great stuff
m.youtube.com
Lust For Gold
YouTube video by Starflyer 59 - Topic
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Joel Mainland @jmainland.bsky.social · 08/05/2025
With a contemporary smartphone, capturing, transmitting, and replicating sounds and visuals is a breeze, yet replicating scents remains elusive. If you want to change this, consider joining the 2025 DREAM Olfaction Challenge at www.synapse.org/Synapse:syn6.... @oldbap.bsky.social
synapse.org
DREAM Olfactory Mixtures Prediction Challenge 2025
'DREAM Olfactory Mixtures Prediction Challenge 2025' (Synapse ID: syn64743570) is a project on Synapse. Synapse is a platform for supporting scientific collaborations centered around shared biomed...
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Eric Topol @erictopol.bsky.social · 14/04/2025
Most people haven’t heard of this test, which is available in the US. It accurately predicts Alzheimer’s (not just if there’s a risk, but when). It is modulated by exercise and likely other lifestyle factors. Here’s (almost) everything we know about it erictopol.substack.com/p/the-breakt...
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Kadjita Asumbisa @kasumbisa.bsky.social · 15/04/2025
Excited to share the sequel to our 2022 paper! In this follow-up, we show that the stable head direction (HD) signals we reported in blind mice rely on stereo olfaction—that is, the comparison of odor info. between the two nostrils. Link: www.nature.com/articles/s41... 🧵highlights below
nature.com
Stereo olfaction underlies stable coding of head direction in blind mice - Nature Communications
Stereo olfaction involves comparing odor differences between the two nostrils. Here, using neuronal recordings and a behavioral test, the authors demonstrate that blind mice use stereo olfaction to fo...
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Patrick Forcelli @paf1984.bsky.social · 22/03/2025
Very proud of this paper, which spans three decades of work. (1/17) onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
Piriform cortex is an ictogenic trigger zone in the primate brain
Objective Area tempestas, a functionally defined region in the anterior piriform cortex, was identified as a crucial ictogenic trigger zone in the rat brain in the 1980s. However, whether the primat...
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Stand Up for Science! @standupforscience.net · 12/02/2025
Welcome to the Bluesky account for Stand Up for Science 2025! Keep an eye on this space for updates, event information, and ways to get involved. We can't wait to see everyone #standupforscience2025 on March 7th, both in DC and locations nationwide! #scienceforall #sciencenotsilence
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Bob Pellegrino @kingfunk.bsky.social · 07/03/2025
New video tracking suite for social behavior + large dataset to benchmark other tracking suites.
cell.com
Mapping the landscape of social behavior
Computer vision and machine learning approaches map a multi-scale social behavioral landscape, revealing ASD signatures and establishing an atlas of rodent sociality.
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Eric Topol @erictopol.bsky.social · 27/02/2025
Today's @usatoday.com front page First US death from measles in 10 years First child to die from measles in 22 years in the US All of this fully preventable
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Ben Young @benyoung.bsky.social · 30/01/2025
One more day to get your paper in.
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Eric Topol @erictopol.bsky.social · 30/01/2025
Learning the language of life with A.I. @science.org In today's essay, I review the phenomenal progress in foundation models of DNA, RNA, proteins, ligands, cells, their interactions, the Virtual Lab, and the aspiration for the Virtual Cell www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
science.org
Learning the language of life with AI
In 2021, a year before ChatGPT took the world by storm amid the excitement about generative artificial intelligence (AI), AlphaFold 2 cracked the 50-year-old protein-folding problem, predicting three-...
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Dinu F Albeanu @dinanthos.bsky.social · 14/01/2025
Interested in understanding how things work? In particular the tools you use to study the brain? Join us at TENSS 2025 where we brainstorm ideas, build and debug microscopes, electrophysiology and behavior rigs amidst the picturesque Transylvanian hills! tenss.ro Apply by: February 16th!
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