Edwin Dalmaijer
@dalmaijer.bsky.social
Cognitive neuroscientist with many interests, including why our stomachs churn when we feel disgust. I also write books on programming; teach Python, statistics, and machine learning; and develop open-source software.
https://www.dalmaijer.org
https://www.dalmaijer.org
The spirit of this is fine: basic research is the foundation for any useful technology. But also important to note that it’s not always physicists! Sometimes it’s a random weirdo in a university basement trying to measure telepathy and accidentally discovering modern electroencephalography.
Every machine in a Hospital that diagnoses your body without cutting you open is based on a principle of Physics, discovered by a Physicist who had no interest in Medicine.
If you think the world doesn’t need Basic Science, or that somehow Science has failed you, think again.
#sciencematters
If you think the world doesn’t need Basic Science, or that somehow Science has failed you, think again.
#sciencematters
November 25, 2025 at 12:50 PM
The spirit of this is fine: basic research is the foundation for any useful technology. But also important to note that it’s not always physicists! Sometimes it’s a random weirdo in a university basement trying to measure telepathy and accidentally discovering modern electroencephalography.
Isn't "nah, mate, on paper we just rent this thing we seem to own" the exact type of thing First Brands just got in trouble for? Love to see these kinds of innovative stress tests of the financial sector. Glad we all learned a lot since 2008.
"It seems like a marvel of financial engineering: Meta is building a $27 billion data center in Louisiana, financed with debt, and neither the data center nor the debt will be on its own balance sheet."
AI Meets Aggressive Accounting at Meta’s Gigantic New Data Center
Favorable treatment off the balance sheet hinges on some convenient assumptions.
www.wsj.com
November 24, 2025 at 1:13 PM
Isn't "nah, mate, on paper we just rent this thing we seem to own" the exact type of thing First Brands just got in trouble for? Love to see these kinds of innovative stress tests of the financial sector. Glad we all learned a lot since 2008.
Very cool findings on socially transmitted knowledge across generations of orangutan. What a great day for ape papers!
Our New Paper is out in Nature Human Behaviour: 🚨 Culture is critical in driving orangutan diet development past individual potentials! 🦧 www.nature.com/articles/s41.... See 🧵
Culture is critical in driving orangutan diet development past individual potentials - Nature Human Behaviour
Howard-Spink et al. develop an empirically based model of orangutan diet development, which suggests that social learning is vital for orangutans to acquire varied diets.
www.nature.com
November 24, 2025 at 12:22 PM
Very cool findings on socially transmitted knowledge across generations of orangutan. What a great day for ape papers!
WOW! What an AMAZING new preprint by @csarabian.bsky.social et al. on disgust and fear processing in chimpanzees. Responses are less accurate and slower for visually induced disgust, and initially better but ultimately worse for disgusting smells.
FOUR experiments! Read it! doi.org/10.1101/2025...
FOUR experiments! Read it! doi.org/10.1101/2025...
Dissecting disgust and fear in chimpanzees: From facilitation to disruption of cognitive processes
Disgust and fear are defensive emotions that evolved to address different types of threat. Disgust reduces pathogen exposure through avoidance, whereas fear promotes vigilance and escape from predator...
doi.org
November 24, 2025 at 10:31 AM
WOW! What an AMAZING new preprint by @csarabian.bsky.social et al. on disgust and fear processing in chimpanzees. Responses are less accurate and slower for visually induced disgust, and initially better but ultimately worse for disgusting smells.
FOUR experiments! Read it! doi.org/10.1101/2025...
FOUR experiments! Read it! doi.org/10.1101/2025...
Stepped away from my desk for a bit, and noticed that I could somehow hear my music in a different room. Tried to figure out how it was carrying over, only to realise I was vibing on the reverberations of the kitchen extractor fan.
Does not reflect well on my taste in music.
Does not reflect well on my taste in music.
November 20, 2025 at 1:04 PM
Stepped away from my desk for a bit, and noticed that I could somehow hear my music in a different room. Tried to figure out how it was carrying over, only to realise I was vibing on the reverberations of the kitchen extractor fan.
Does not reflect well on my taste in music.
Does not reflect well on my taste in music.
By-effect of Cloudflare being down (www.cloudflarestatus.com ): can't access some papers, as many publishers use it to screen traffic. OOPS!
Ironically, copies that people uploaded to their personal websites are still accessible. Who would've thought THOSE copies would be the most robust?!
Ironically, copies that people uploaded to their personal websites are still accessible. Who would've thought THOSE copies would be the most robust?!
Cloudflare Status
Welcome to Cloudflare's home for real-time and historical data on system performance.
www.cloudflarestatus.com
November 18, 2025 at 2:31 PM
By-effect of Cloudflare being down (www.cloudflarestatus.com ): can't access some papers, as many publishers use it to screen traffic. OOPS!
Ironically, copies that people uploaded to their personal websites are still accessible. Who would've thought THOSE copies would be the most robust?!
Ironically, copies that people uploaded to their personal websites are still accessible. Who would've thought THOSE copies would be the most robust?!
Reposted by Edwin Dalmaijer
Intrigued by animal innovation and avian cognition? My PI Dr. Megan Lambert is advertising a new shiny PhD position studying innovation in kea parrots! Info attached 🤩🦜
For inquiries: [email protected]
For inquiries: [email protected]
November 11, 2025 at 10:20 AM
Intrigued by animal innovation and avian cognition? My PI Dr. Megan Lambert is advertising a new shiny PhD position studying innovation in kea parrots! Info attached 🤩🦜
For inquiries: [email protected]
For inquiries: [email protected]
For a rapper, @suryagayet.bsky.social has been prolific in vision science. Nevertheless, it’s exciting to hear a new music release!
(Language warning: all in Dutch. Although so far less profane than some of his earlier work 😜)
(Language warning: all in Dutch. Although so far less profane than some of his earlier work 😜)
Most of you know @suryagayet.bsky.social as a successful visual-attention researcher. But he also had an active #music career as a #rap artist. And like Jay-Z before him, he has briefly come out of retirement with a new album. Check it out—it's very good! 🎤🎶 open.spotify.com/album/7HrnAB...
Drijfzand
open.spotify.com
November 12, 2025 at 10:44 AM
For a rapper, @suryagayet.bsky.social has been prolific in vision science. Nevertheless, it’s exciting to hear a new music release!
(Language warning: all in Dutch. Although so far less profane than some of his earlier work 😜)
(Language warning: all in Dutch. Although so far less profane than some of his earlier work 😜)
Cognition as yeast action.
How “intelligent” is a slime mold? When it solves mazes, it might not be thinking:it’s obeying physics. Our new paper with
@jordiplam.bsky.social shows how it follows a least action principle,letting physics do the job arxiv.org/pdf/2511.08531
@drmichaellevin.bsky.social @docteur-drey.bsky.social
@jordiplam.bsky.social shows how it follows a least action principle,letting physics do the job arxiv.org/pdf/2511.08531
@drmichaellevin.bsky.social @docteur-drey.bsky.social
November 12, 2025 at 9:52 AM
Cognition as yeast action.
Reposted by Edwin Dalmaijer
A recent redesign of OSF by @cos.io led to widespread access failures. What began as a few broken download links became for me a total disappearance of eight years of DOI-registered work. What happened, how was it resolved, and what it reveals about trust and infrastructure in open science
Open Science needs reliable infrastructure – Ven Popov
After OSF’s October 2025 redesign, I discovered that eight years of DOI-linked preprints and materials were silently hidden by an automated spam flag. What happened, how it was resolved, and what it r...
venpopov.com
November 6, 2025 at 6:13 PM
A recent redesign of OSF by @cos.io led to widespread access failures. What began as a few broken download links became for me a total disappearance of eight years of DOI-registered work. What happened, how was it resolved, and what it reveals about trust and infrastructure in open science
Reposted by Edwin Dalmaijer
More useful material for the @royalsociety.org’s bio of their esteemed fellow. Though I’m still struggling to understand how a society that claims to value scientific rigour continues to honour someone who spreads so much disinformation.
Vital piece of investigative reporting from Sky. They've uncovered the X algorithm which feeds users extremist right wing material from the moment they join the site. It is a far-right radicalisation engine, by design.
news.sky.com/story/the-x-...
news.sky.com/story/the-x-...
Elon Musk is boosting the British right - and this shows how
Elon Musk is boosting the British right - and this shows how
news.sky.com
November 6, 2025 at 7:56 AM
More useful material for the @royalsociety.org’s bio of their esteemed fellow. Though I’m still struggling to understand how a society that claims to value scientific rigour continues to honour someone who spreads so much disinformation.
Reposted by Edwin Dalmaijer
I am hiring PhD candidates to study the psychology of attention & technology use at @tilburg-university.bsky.social.
We're looking for motivated & curious scholars with expertise in cognitive psychology and statistics, and offer a friendly work environment with great terms & benefits.
tiu.nu/22989
We're looking for motivated & curious scholars with expertise in cognitive psychology and statistics, and offer a friendly work environment with great terms & benefits.
tiu.nu/22989
October 23, 2025 at 3:04 PM
I am hiring PhD candidates to study the psychology of attention & technology use at @tilburg-university.bsky.social.
We're looking for motivated & curious scholars with expertise in cognitive psychology and statistics, and offer a friendly work environment with great terms & benefits.
tiu.nu/22989
We're looking for motivated & curious scholars with expertise in cognitive psychology and statistics, and offer a friendly work environment with great terms & benefits.
tiu.nu/22989
Delighted to see another validation of MouseView.js, this time to test its usability for biases to alcohol-related stimuli. It was reliable, and captured overt attentional bias in those with high problematic drinking scores. For more info, read the paper by Thulin et al.: doi.org/10.1016/j.ps...
October 17, 2025 at 7:28 AM
Delighted to see another validation of MouseView.js, this time to test its usability for biases to alcohol-related stimuli. It was reliable, and captured overt attentional bias in those with high problematic drinking scores. For more info, read the paper by Thulin et al.: doi.org/10.1016/j.ps...
Reposted by Edwin Dalmaijer
📈🧠 We're looking for brains! 🧠📈
Postdoc + PhD positions are available to help pioneer fetal MEG with optically pumped magnetometers, measuring prenatal responses to sound and light to understand how we start making sense of the world even before we're born. 🐣
Please get in touch to hear more!
Postdoc + PhD positions are available to help pioneer fetal MEG with optically pumped magnetometers, measuring prenatal responses to sound and light to understand how we start making sense of the world even before we're born. 🐣
Please get in touch to hear more!
October 8, 2025 at 2:27 PM
📈🧠 We're looking for brains! 🧠📈
Postdoc + PhD positions are available to help pioneer fetal MEG with optically pumped magnetometers, measuring prenatal responses to sound and light to understand how we start making sense of the world even before we're born. 🐣
Please get in touch to hear more!
Postdoc + PhD positions are available to help pioneer fetal MEG with optically pumped magnetometers, measuring prenatal responses to sound and light to understand how we start making sense of the world even before we're born. 🐣
Please get in touch to hear more!
Found myself nodding along to the first post, and being pleasantly surprised by the data in the rest of this thread.
Everyone knows that temporal contiguity is important for associative learning. As the interval between a cue (e.g., a light) and an outcome (e.g., shock) gets longer, the conditioned response (e.g., freezing to the tone) is acquired less quickly.
October 10, 2025 at 12:19 PM
Found myself nodding along to the first post, and being pleasantly surprised by the data in the rest of this thread.
Learned a new obscure thing about Python today! Imagine p is a NumPy array and n is an integer:
p = p/n is C-contiguous
p /= n is not
🤯
p = p/n is C-contiguous
p /= n is not
🤯
October 9, 2025 at 3:42 PM
Learned a new obscure thing about Python today! Imagine p is a NumPy array and n is an integer:
p = p/n is C-contiguous
p /= n is not
🤯
p = p/n is C-contiguous
p /= n is not
🤯
Reposted by Edwin Dalmaijer
It's that time of year when many start thinking about applying for PhDs. If you're applying for a UK PhD position, here is a blog post I wrote a while back that might be helpful
#cognition #psychscisky #neuroskyence #psychjobs
#cognition #psychscisky #neuroskyence #psychjobs
How to get PhD funding in the UK
It is that time of year again. The leaves are turning golden, red, and orange (or just brown), the nights are drawing in, and there is a chi...
aidanhorner.blogspot.com
October 6, 2025 at 6:03 PM
It's that time of year when many start thinking about applying for PhDs. If you're applying for a UK PhD position, here is a blog post I wrote a while back that might be helpful
#cognition #psychscisky #neuroskyence #psychjobs
#cognition #psychscisky #neuroskyence #psychjobs
Excited to see Swift enter her academic era: "Actually Romantic" is about peer review. Chorus:
"But it's actually sweet
All the time you've spent on me
It's honestly wild
All the effort you've put in
It's actually scholarship
I really got to hand it to you
No man has ever reviewed like you do"
"But it's actually sweet
All the time you've spent on me
It's honestly wild
All the effort you've put in
It's actually scholarship
I really got to hand it to you
No man has ever reviewed like you do"
Happy new Taylor Swift album day, for those who celebrate! (Which now includes the postgraduates who work in the offices opposite mine.)
October 3, 2025 at 9:57 AM
Excited to see Swift enter her academic era: "Actually Romantic" is about peer review. Chorus:
"But it's actually sweet
All the time you've spent on me
It's honestly wild
All the effort you've put in
It's actually scholarship
I really got to hand it to you
No man has ever reviewed like you do"
"But it's actually sweet
All the time you've spent on me
It's honestly wild
All the effort you've put in
It's actually scholarship
I really got to hand it to you
No man has ever reviewed like you do"
Happy new Taylor Swift album day, for those who celebrate! (Which now includes the postgraduates who work in the offices opposite mine.)
October 3, 2025 at 9:07 AM
Happy new Taylor Swift album day, for those who celebrate! (Which now includes the postgraduates who work in the offices opposite mine.)
Reposted by Edwin Dalmaijer
Thames Water creditors offering to save their own skins with 25% debt write off while carrying on polluting your rivers for the next 15 years?!
NO NO NO
Special Administration NOW. Cut the debt by 50%, invest every penny of your bills in stopping sewage
www.theguardian.com/business/202...
NO NO NO
Special Administration NOW. Cut the debt by 50%, invest every penny of your bills in stopping sewage
www.theguardian.com/business/202...
Thames Water creditors ask for up to 15 years’ leniency from river pollution rules
Lenders say a ‘full return to legal, regulatory and environmental compliance’ under new rescue plan would not be completed until at least 2035-2040
www.theguardian.com
October 3, 2025 at 6:38 AM
Thames Water creditors offering to save their own skins with 25% debt write off while carrying on polluting your rivers for the next 15 years?!
NO NO NO
Special Administration NOW. Cut the debt by 50%, invest every penny of your bills in stopping sewage
www.theguardian.com/business/202...
NO NO NO
Special Administration NOW. Cut the debt by 50%, invest every penny of your bills in stopping sewage
www.theguardian.com/business/202...
Reposted by Edwin Dalmaijer
Term has started here, so I'm once again inundated with emails addressed "Sir" (used in UK secondary schools), "Mr" (same), and "heyyyyy" (??). Seems this brief blog for new students is still relevant: www.dalmaijer.org/2022/03/how-...
Feel free to use, if you find yourself in the same position!
Feel free to use, if you find yourself in the same position!
How to email your lecturer / professor – Quantitative Exploration of Development (Q.E.D.)
www.dalmaijer.org
October 1, 2025 at 2:54 PM
Term has started here, so I'm once again inundated with emails addressed "Sir" (used in UK secondary schools), "Mr" (same), and "heyyyyy" (??). Seems this brief blog for new students is still relevant: www.dalmaijer.org/2022/03/how-...
Feel free to use, if you find yourself in the same position!
Feel free to use, if you find yourself in the same position!
Term has started here, so I'm once again inundated with emails addressed "Sir" (used in UK secondary schools), "Mr" (same), and "heyyyyy" (??). Seems this brief blog for new students is still relevant: www.dalmaijer.org/2022/03/how-...
Feel free to use, if you find yourself in the same position!
Feel free to use, if you find yourself in the same position!
How to email your lecturer / professor – Quantitative Exploration of Development (Q.E.D.)
www.dalmaijer.org
October 1, 2025 at 2:54 PM
Term has started here, so I'm once again inundated with emails addressed "Sir" (used in UK secondary schools), "Mr" (same), and "heyyyyy" (??). Seems this brief blog for new students is still relevant: www.dalmaijer.org/2022/03/how-...
Feel free to use, if you find yourself in the same position!
Feel free to use, if you find yourself in the same position!
All-around clever stats person @bignardi.bsky.social has come up with a clever way to estimate reliability for many measurement models. Informative thread; worth a read!
New preprint with @rogierk.bsky.social @paulbuerkner.com - we introduce "relative measurement uncertainty" - a reliability estimation method that's applicable across a broad class of Bayesian measurement models (e.g., generative-, computational- and item response theory-models osf.io/h54k8
OSF
osf.io
October 1, 2025 at 11:44 AM
All-around clever stats person @bignardi.bsky.social has come up with a clever way to estimate reliability for many measurement models. Informative thread; worth a read!
Reposted by Edwin Dalmaijer
Mental and metabolic health are closely linked - but what drives this connection? In our new theory paper, we (w/ @camillanord.bsky.social & @hugofleming.bsky.social g.bsky.social) propose dysregulation of interoceptive energy allostasis as a key mechanism.
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... 🧵 1/n
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... 🧵 1/n
An interoceptive model of energy allostasis linking metabolic and mental health
Interactions between metabolic interoception and regulation may drive comorbidity between mental and metabolic ill-health.
www.science.org
September 25, 2025 at 10:39 AM
Mental and metabolic health are closely linked - but what drives this connection? In our new theory paper, we (w/ @camillanord.bsky.social & @hugofleming.bsky.social g.bsky.social) propose dysregulation of interoceptive energy allostasis as a key mechanism.
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... 🧵 1/n
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... 🧵 1/n
Such a lovely talk, and I’m glad our admin upgraded the venue as there was standing room only! I particularly enjoyed Aidan’s perspective on hippocampal and non-hippocampal encoding as independent processes, and flexibility of memories within that space. (I also enjoyed the brief Mario Kart break.)
September 24, 2025 at 2:49 PM
Such a lovely talk, and I’m glad our admin upgraded the venue as there was standing room only! I particularly enjoyed Aidan’s perspective on hippocampal and non-hippocampal encoding as independent processes, and flexibility of memories within that space. (I also enjoyed the brief Mario Kart break.)