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Kevin Mitchell

@wiringthebrain.bsky.social
56K followers 2.3K following 4.1K posts

Neurogeneticist interested in the relations between genes, brains, and minds. Author of INNATE (2018) and FREE AGENTS (2023)

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Reposted by Kevin Mitchell
eolaí the artist @eolai.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
An Irish #painting "To The Beach" came as much from a love of places where people could be avoided, because people, they're the worst. Specifically this is that part of south Mayo protected by Killary harbour, the ocean and the mountains, as you look across to north Connemara. #SpéirGhorm #ArtYear
Landscape format in loose painterly acrylics on canvas panel. By a patch of gravel in the foreground, is an open gateway between concrete posts in a dry stone wall through which we see a view down into a green field, following a stone track, with grass down the middle, to a five-bar gate to another field of brighter green surrounded by stone walls. Beyond it lower down is the yellow of the beach. Past that a maroon hill slopes down from the left and the glassy blue-grey ocean is on the right with a couple of dark long slim islets of maroon. Along the horizon is a low ridge of mid-blue hills with hints of beach edging in a few places, and behind it are gentle mountains of paler blue-lilac. Sky is loose and wild mixtures of greys with a few touches of orange and of green. Photo was taken before my signature was added.
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Elizabeth Jacobs, PhD @elizabethjacobs.bsky.social · 5h
I said at the time, “Milhoan wants to experiment on the people of the United States by seeing what happens as vaccination coverage plummets and infectious diseases spread. “This is so dangerous as to approach criminality”. And here we are, with RFK Jr. conducting his experiment on Americans.
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Brandon Bishop @brandontbishop.bsky.social · 6h
Which is nearly synonymous with stopping basic research in the US.
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Shannon Vallor @shannonvallor.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
So glad that this quote can be added to my forthcoming article on AI and Epistemic Dispossession because I had to say that they will absolutely be using AI to erase science and history but I didn’t yet have the ‘he admit it’ smoking gun
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Dan Baldassarre @evornithology.bsky.social · 7h
Just a quick reminder that the Vietnamese Crested Argus exists. Critically endangered and restricted to humid forests of Laos and Vietnam, it is widely considered to have a huge-ass tail. 📷 Robin Arnold, eBird
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What Is It Like to Be a Philosopher? @whatisitliketobeaphilosopher.com · 6h
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Hannah Daly @hannahdaly.ie · 6h
I am cancelling a class for my BSc Sustainability students next week to take part in a strike action. What readings should I assign them on the theme of collective action?
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Hannah Daly @hannahdaly.ie · 6h
"if you are reading this online, you are using a data centre" is a really poor excuse to make Ireland such a hub for data centres that they're threatening the stability of our power grid, driving up fossil gas use and greenhouse gas emissions. www.irishtimes.com/opinion/2026...
irishtimes.com
Debate: Should we put a pause on data centre development? Lynn Boylan vs Malcolm Byrne
Our electricity grid is under pressure, leading to calls for a moratorium on data centres
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Kevin Mitchell @wiringthebrain.bsky.social · 14h
Or... we could fund Natural Intelligence upskilling by finally funding higher education properly
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Joanna Bagniewska @joannabagniewska.com · 8h
I think most academics relate and celebrate. 🧪 #academicsky
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Jeremy Berg @jeremymberg.bsky.social · 8h
From a discussion of updating a department website...
A photo with baby Yoda and adult Yoda with the caption "Could it be time for a new photo?"
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Nick Holmes @thehandlab.bsky.social · 8h
"You're absolutely right: I incorrectly described a Chinese cargo in the Middle East as 'nuclear' when in fact it was 'unclear'. You deployed the Navy Seals. That's on me." "Is there another cargo that I can help you with? Or perhaps I can declare intercontinental thermonuclear war for you?" #LLM
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Jennifer Ouellette @jenlucpiquant.bsky.social · 8h
RFK Jr. thinks AI will free us from the "tyranny" of medical facts, expertise arstechnica.com/health/2026/...
arstechnica.com
RFK Jr. thinks AI will free us from the "tyranny" of medical facts, expertise
AI is far from a perfect resource. But it seems to hallucinate less than Kennedy.
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Bat1K Genome Project @bat1kgenomes.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Where did bats come from?🦇🌍 After decades of debate, the biggest bat genome + fossil study ever done has an answer - and it’s not where anyone expected! 🤩OUR PHASE 1 FLAGSHIP is out today in nature! doi.org/10.1038/s415... A thread 🧵
doi.org
Reference genomes and fossils revise bat family phylogeny and biogeography - Nature
An updated phylogeny of bats is presented, based on new genome assemblies and many ancient fossils and including all known bat families.
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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 8h
seen on my porch this morning
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Dr Panti Bliss-Cabrera @pantibliss.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
What is happening in Waterford?? Did the worst people in the world (billionaires) all get a memo about Waterford? Did their computer tell them to set up there?
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Dean Buckley @deanbuckley.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
there has been remarkably little interest from the Irish press in the takeover of Mount Melleray by a private American university owned by a billionaire with close ties to Opus Dei that recently experienced a major outbreak of measles and has a statue of Charlie Kirk being embraced by Jesus
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Philipp Radler @radler92.bsky.social · 13h
The first paper of my PostDoc in Christa Schlepers group (@archaea-vienna.bsky.social) on the dynamics of Asgard archaea is now out in Nature! www.nature.com/articles/s41... This was a great team effort and I am looking forward to uncover the complex behavior of these cells further!
nature.com
Dynamic protrusions mediate crawling motility in Asgard archaea - Nature
Anoxic live-cell imaging shows actin-dependent crawling motility and dynamic protrusions in Asgard archaea, providing insights into cellular innovations that may have contributed to eukaryotic evoluti...
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Archaea Biology Vienna @archaea-vienna.bsky.social · 13h
Our paper on the dynamics of Asgard archaea (Promethearchaeota) is now out in Nature! Huge thanks to the reviewers for helping make the manuscript stronger. www.nature.com/articles/s41... Two “Lokis” stained for Lokiactin (FastAct, magenta), reaching toward each other to celebrate 🎉 #archaea
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neurosock @neurosock.bsky.social · 10h
I was just trying to understand better the theory. Link to the paper: doi.org/10.1038/s41...
nature.com
Rarely categorical, highly separable representations along the cortical hierarchy
Nature - Cortical circuits prioritize diversity over categorical structure, supporting a computational regime geared towards high-dimensional, highly separable neural representations.
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neurosock @neurosock.bsky.social · 10h
Mix. selectivity is everywhere in cortex: from vis. to PFC This paper relates to Cover's theorem but the typical explainer kind of sucks I'll try to explain how the theory relates to the paper, and the importance of "weird" neurons A🧵with my toy model and notes: #neuroskyence #compneuro #NeuroAI
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Alexey Tolchinsky @tolchinsky.bsky.social · 9h
Hofstadter's analogy and Freud's free associations. www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8m7... These two are surprisingly similar in my head. Just to follow Hofstadter, I had the experience of analogy in my head. Here's how he playfully defines it
youtube.com
Analogy as the Core of Cognition
YouTube video by Stanford
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Jake Wintermute @synbio1.bsky.social · 9h
“AI can’t possibly know everything about biotech because some of it is tacit knowledge you can only experience first hand.” The tacit knowledge:
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The Author, Séamas O'Reilly @seamas.bsky.social · 10h
If you're in my GP's office any time soon, prepare yourself for what many are calling the greatest mnemonic of all time. Come for E and P, but sit down and clap for I.
A screen in my GP's office advertising a mnemonic of signs to spot SEPSIS.

S slurred speech of confusion 
E extreme shivering or muscle pain 
P passing no urine all day
S severe breathlessness
I ot feels like you are going to die
S skin mottled or discoloured
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Imperfect Cognitions @imperfectcognitions.com · 15h
What happens if two psychiatrists assess the same patient? On today's post, Mateo Boberg, Julie Nordgaard and Mads Gram Henriksen explore how reliable psychiatric diagnoses are in the 21st century. imperfectcognitions.... #newresearch #phisky #philpsy
imperfectcognitions.blogspot.com
The Reliability of Psychiatric Diagnosis
A blog about imperfect cognitions, such as delusional beliefs, distorted memories, confabulatory explanations, and implicit biases.
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Jeremy Berg @jeremymberg.bsky.social · 12h
My quote of the day We've become, now, an oligarchy instead of a democracy. I think that's been the worst damage to the basic moral and ethical standards to the American political system that I've ever seen in my life. Jimmy Carter
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Nature @nature.com · 12h
Nature research paper: Spatiotemporal clonal architecture of the newborn mouse forebrain go.nature.com/4xRHqwU
go.nature.com
Spatiotemporal clonal architecture of the newborn mouse forebrain - Nature
Clonal barcoding across the newborn mouse forebrain reveals developmental principles whereby glutamatergic neurons and astrocytes remain locally derived, whereas widely dispersed GABAergic (γ-aminobutyric acid-producing) lineages link neurons with oligodendrocyte precursor cells.
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Thibaut Brunet @thibautbrunet.bsky.social · 12h
Pre-eukaryotic ancestry of actin-based cell crawling 🤯 An instant must read
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Den M @mousketeer.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Here's a mad idea. Fund education. By building schools. Paying teachers. SNAs. Providing books. Supplies like... oh.. paper... pencils... . Ensure every child has an appropriate school place. No parent has to financially support the school. Wouldn't that be incredible.
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Kevin Mitchell @wiringthebrain.bsky.social · 14h
Or... we could fund Natural Intelligence upskilling by finally funding higher education properly
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Iñaki Ruiz-Trillo @multicellgenome.bsky.social · 14h
#Evolution can innovate without inventing. Cell type families can retain ancient regulatory “vocabularies”, while individual cell types evolve by reshuffling how those motifs are combined. @natecoevo.nature.com New cell types from old regulatory words. We like this! doi.org/10.1038/s415...
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Robert Saunders @robertsaunders.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
It’s a mark of the corruption of our whole way of thinking about the world that trying to meet a planetary emergency is routinely described as “ideological”, while continuing to accelerate it is presented as “pragmatic” and “economic”.
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Denise J. Cai, Ph.D. @denisejcai.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
NEW: The anterior hypothalamic nucleus acts like a volume knob for stress, scaling the brain’s response to threatening events 🧠 Read the Cai Lab's latest paper, led by @zachtpennington.bsky.social, in @nature.com 🎉 www.nature.com/articles/s41... More: bsky.app/profile/did:...
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Mia Farrow @miafarrow.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
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Michael Warburton @michaelwarburton.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
She escaped her Nazi husband (disguising herself as her own maid became a Hollywood star, then co-developed a radio guidance system for Allied torpedoes - the principles of which are incorporated into today’s Bluetooth & GPS technology. BOMBSHELL: THE HEDY LAMARR STORY (2017)
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Claire Willett @clairewillett.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
nothing they value or aspire to or revere about Masculinity™️ is the behavior of wise, mature, grounded adult men. it’s what little boys think is cool about being an adult man and they were allowed never to grow out of that
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Elizabeth Jacobs, PhD @elizabethjacobs.bsky.social · 21h
A fifth measles death in Pennsylvania. Entirely preventable.
theguardian.com
Pennsylvania reports fifth measles-related death of the year amid outbreak
Measles outbreak in the state has now reached 39 counties, with 943 confirmed cases and 176 hospitalizations
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Fergal @fergalc.bsky.social · 22h
This is just a sentence that gets progressively more fabulous with each word
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Joanna Bryson @j2bryson.bsky.social · 15h
86% of Palestinians in #Gaza are displaced.
theguardian.com
New Google Maps images reveal massive scale of devastation in Gaza
Satellite imagery shows further destruction of homes, businesses and places of worship since fragile ceasefire
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Tuomas Pernu @tuomaspernu.bsky.social · 17h
They have been made real by the American people. They can be made unreal the same way.
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Bill Mauldin @billmauldin.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Walk any older cemetery and notice the many graves of young children
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ProPublica @propublica.org · 30/09/2026
RFK Jr. has been transforming a government that long championed vaccines into one that questions their safety. This is what could happen over the next 25 years if shots are unavailable even to the people who want them. (Published March)
projects.propublica.org
The Horrors That Could Lie Ahead if Vaccines Vanish
Researchers at Stanford University modeled how many people could die or be disabled in 25 years if vaccines for polio, measles, rubella or diphtheria were no longer available.
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Kevin Mitchell @wiringthebrain.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
How are any of these people real?
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Garrett M. Graff @vermontgmg.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
We don’t spend enough time talking about just how WEIRD all these people are. This is just an incredibly weird and insecure thing to say. Imagine any other SecDef ever being this weird and insecure?!
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Arnaud Martin @evolvwing.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Cell Press giving a rather biased, pro-eugenics platform to self-proclaimed "Biotech Barbie", former a Thiel Fellow who briefly married He Jiankui, and fails to properly frame the debate on germline editing. Partly bonkers, partly important, check out this thread 🤯
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Robert Reich @rbreich.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
The U.S. has withdrawn its last troops from Iraq, 23 years after a Republican president launched a war of choice based on lies that cost trillions of dollars, killed hundreds of thousands of people, and unleashed regional chaos. History doesn't repeat, but it often rhymes.
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Charles C Roseman @evoroseman.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Have you ever gotten a mysterious review that dinged your paper for not engaging with the extended evolutionary synthesis (EES) that left you wondering what the EES is all about? Are you curious about what the EES can do for your evolutionary research program? 2/7
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Charles C Roseman @evoroseman.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
If you are in the greater Washington DC area on Friday 6 November and have an afternoon to spare, I’m giving a talk at George Mason University. I’d love to see you there. (baboon skull diagram from Theibault et al. 2026) 1/7
Poster for a talk by Charles Roseman entitled "Spencer's Long Shadow: Why we should abandon the extended evolutionary synthesis" featuring a diagram of baboon skulls from Thiebault et al. 2026, some clipart mice, and a picture of the speaker whose father came in second in an uglyman contest.
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Kim Weeden @weedenkim.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Trump's effort to rebrand AI as SI doesn't go far enough. It should be called Super Human Intelligence Technology. We'd get more accurate news headlines, like: "Under Trump, Government Turns to SHIT" or "SHIT Heads Visit White House"
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Scare Smith 💀 @evilgalprods.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
FATALITY
A tweet from Joyce Carol Oates: overall takeaway from the Curtis Yarvin profile is that there must be millions of smart-aleck show-offy kids who annoy their teachers and go on to annoy other adults through their lives with their “contrarian” pose that hardens to a carapace over their faces; until, as adults, they still harbor a delusion that, if there is a king, or a fuhrer, he’d be impressed with the guys motor mouth and appoint him to his cabinet rather than deleting him with a negligent swipe of his wrist as Stalin did routinely.
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