Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

bioRxiv Neuroscience @biorxiv-neursci.bsky.social · 13d

Combinatorial protein barcodes enable self-correcting neuron tracing with nanoscale molecular context https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.09.26.678648v1

5 7

David A. Markowitz @davidamarkowitz.bsky.social · Sep 1

bsky.app/profile/nyti...

The New York Times @nytimes.com · Aug 31

In @nytopinion.nytimes.com

“There is bipartisan agreement in the United States that Sudan is suffering both genocide and famine — and also, apparently, a bipartisan consensus to do little about it,” our columnist @nickkristof.bsky.social writes.

Opinion | In Sudan, No One Doubts That This Is Genocide

Both the Biden and Trump administrations have described Sudan as suffering genocide. And no one’s done much about it.

nyti.ms

David A. Markowitz @davidamarkowitz.bsky.social · Sep 1

Update From Doctors Without Borders: "This is one of the worst situations I have seen” ... "It really is quite unique in terms of the volume of affected people, the level of suffering and also the underfunding of the international response” www.ft.com/content/d331...

‘We watch the graveyards from space’: satellites track Sudanese city under siege

Paramilitary forces have cut off El Fasher, the military government’s final stronghold in the western Darfur region

www.ft.com

1 2

The New York Times @nytimes.com · Aug 31

In @nytopinion.nytimes.com

“There is bipartisan agreement in the United States that Sudan is suffering both genocide and famine — and also, apparently, a bipartisan consensus to do little about it,” our columnist @nickkristof.bsky.social writes.

Opinion | In Sudan, No One Doubts That This Is Genocide

Both the Biden and Trump administrations have described Sudan as suffering genocide. And no one’s done much about it.

nyti.ms

14 64 170

David A. Markowitz @davidamarkowitz.bsky.social · Aug 21

Wow, VERY interested to see this paper!

1

John Tuthill @tuthill.bsky.social · Aug 21

agree w davi. we can operantly condition an adult fly to control a cursor with motor neuron firing rates (paper in prep), but a fly is not going to reach an equivalent level of dexterity with totally new effectors. might be more plastic if you could hook it up during metamorphosis.

2 1 4

David A. Markowitz @davidamarkowitz.bsky.social · Aug 21

Settle a debate for me: If you could hook up a fruit fly brain to a completely new set of end effectors, could it learn to use them for goal-directed behavior? To what extent is an insect brain evolutionarily specialized for controlling its body? #FlyBCI

2 1

E11 Bio @e11bio.bsky.social · Aug 12

How to make frontier AI models safer and accelerate drug discovery with the connectome. We are featured in this
@ifp.bsky.social article by @adammarblestone.bsky.social & @andrewcpayne.bsky.social

ifp.org/mapping-the-...

Mapping the Brain for Alignment | IFP

How to map the mammalian brain’s connectome to solve fundamental problems in neuroscience, psychology, and AI robustness

ifp.org

1 1

David A. Markowitz @davidamarkowitz.bsky.social · Aug 6

The latest on this humanitarian catastrophe, one of several happening in the world right now, yet strangely neglected in the public discourse: www.theglobeandmail.com/world/articl...

Starvation spreading in Sudan as aid convoys blocked by siege, UN says

Situation is worsening in El Fasher, which is enduring a daily bombardment of artillery shelling and drone attacks by RSF fighters

www.theglobeandmail.com

1 1

David A. Markowitz @davidamarkowitz.bsky.social · Aug 6

There is a famine currently affecting 640k children in Sudan, driven by military action funded by a key US ally in the Middle East. It's been widely reported in the media since 2023. Yet no condemnation by public figures, no demonstrations in the US. Why does no one care?

2 4

David A. Markowitz @davidamarkowitz.bsky.social · Aug 4

Amazing work

Wei-Chung Allen Lee @darbly.bsky.social · Aug 3

How is the nervous system organized to coordinate behavior? To approach this massive question, a team led by @asbates.bsky.social, @jasper-tms.bsky.social, @mindyisminsu.bsky.social, & Helen Yang present the BANC: a Brain and Nerve Cord connectome.

Preprint: doi.org/10.1101/2025...

🧪#Neuroskyence

3

Wei-Chung Allen Lee @darbly.bsky.social · Aug 3

How is the nervous system organized to coordinate behavior? To approach this massive question, a team led by @asbates.bsky.social, @jasper-tms.bsky.social, @mindyisminsu.bsky.social, & Helen Yang present the BANC: a Brain and Nerve Cord connectome.

Preprint: doi.org/10.1101/2025...

🧪#Neuroskyence

4 59 130

Sam Rodriques @sgrodriques.bsky.social · Dec 19

FutureHouse is launching an independent postdoctoral fellowship program for exceptional researchers who want to apply our automated science tools to specific problems in biology and biochemistry, in collaboration with world-leading academic labs. 1/

1 25 49

Kanaka Rajan @kanakarajanphd.bsky.social · Jul 2

(1/7) New preprint from Rajan lab! 🧠🤖
@ryanpaulbadman1.bsky.social & Riley Simmons-Edler show–through cog sci, neuro & ethology–how an AI agent with fewer ‘neurons’ than an insect can forage, find safety & dodge predators in a virtual world. Here's what we built

Preprint: arxiv.org/pdf/2506.06981

3 32 94

David A. Markowitz @davidamarkowitz.bsky.social · Jun 4

Shortly after MICrONS demonstrated initial scale-up of volume EM, I think in 2017, I desperately tried to convince NSF bio division leadership (then Olds and Deshler) to launch a mid-scale infrastructure project focused on comparative connectomics across species. They were interested, but no budget.

1 2

David A. Markowitz @davidamarkowitz.bsky.social · May 26

The writing's on the wall that the future of neuroscience is team science. The key question is how to balance support for "top-down" vs "bottom-up" collaborative research efforts. I agree teams of early career researchers deserve greater agency. Thoughtful piece by @neuralreckoning.bsky.social 👇

The Transmitter @thetransmitter.bsky.social · May 26

Large-scale projects run the risk of stifling scientific independence. Instead, let’s explore alternative mechanisms of collaboration, writes @neuralreckoning.bsky.social.

#neuroskyence

www.thetransmitter.org/funding/neur...

Neuroscience needs to empower early-career researchers, not fund moon shots

Large-scale projects run the risk of stifling scientific independence. Instead, let’s explore alternative mechanisms of collaboration.

www.thetransmitter.org

1 3 14

The Transmitter @thetransmitter.bsky.social · May 26

Large-scale projects run the risk of stifling scientific independence. Instead, let’s explore alternative mechanisms of collaboration, writes @neuralreckoning.bsky.social.

#neuroskyence

www.thetransmitter.org/funding/neur...

Neuroscience needs to empower early-career researchers, not fund moon shots

Large-scale projects run the risk of stifling scientific independence. Instead, let’s explore alternative mechanisms of collaboration.

www.thetransmitter.org

3 44 130

David A. Markowitz @davidamarkowitz.bsky.social · May 14

This 👇 is a major advantage of optical circuit mapping approaches over non-destructive (i.e. non FIB) serial section EM. Fewer failure modes that prevent tracing across distinct imaging volumes.

Viren Jain @stardazed0.bsky.social · May 14

An important addition to the Nature paper, beyond what was shown in the 2024 preprint, is 12 rounds of iterative imaging and sectioning of a LICONN volume, achieving 205 microns in axial extent (native scale) with manual tracing of axons: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Viren Jain @stardazed0.bsky.social · May 14

An important addition to the Nature paper, beyond what was shown in the 2024 preprint, is 12 rounds of iterative imaging and sectioning of a LICONN volume, achieving 205 microns in axial extent (native scale) with manual tracing of axons: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

1 2 9

David A. Markowitz @davidamarkowitz.bsky.social · May 8

For example, in my experience with Claude 3.7 Sonnet, type errors are particularly common when passing matrices around.

1

David A. Markowitz @davidamarkowitz.bsky.social · May 6

GD requires so much data to train foundation models, however. Data we don't have in neuroscience. People are trying, but what if the time required to collect all the physiology data needed to "properly" train a whole brain model is O(decades)? (or longer)

1 1

David A. Markowitz @davidamarkowitz.bsky.social · May 6

50/50 would be the best odds I've had on anything I've tried for the last 10 years 😉 I'd be stoked to test this hypothesis in a "small" system with well-characterized dynamics, like STG. If that works, move to more complex systems.

3 6

David A. Markowitz @davidamarkowitz.bsky.social · May 6

bsky.app/profile/davi...

David A. Markowitz @davidamarkowitz.bsky.social · May 6

It's not obvious to me that getting "all the parameters correct" is the right goal to set for a mechanistic model. At a molecular level, brains are highly dynamic and parameters are constantly in flux. Maybe there is a very large space of parameterizations that recapitulate the same dynamics?

1 1

David A. Markowitz @davidamarkowitz.bsky.social · May 6

It's not obvious to me that getting "all the parameters correct" is the right goal to set for a mechanistic model. At a molecular level, brains are highly dynamic and parameters are constantly in flux. Maybe there is a very large space of parameterizations that recapitulate the same dynamics?

1 1

David A. Markowitz @davidamarkowitz.bsky.social · May 6

If dynamics are fully determined by system parameters (structure + cellular+molecular properties), shouldn't the model exhibit "normal" function if initialized to any reasonable activity state? Why do we need to observe any physiology in advance?

1 2

David A. Markowitz @davidamarkowitz.bsky.social · May 6

If dynamics are fully determined by system parameters (structure + cellular+molecular properties), shouldn't the model exhibit "normal" function if initialized to any reasonable activity state? Why do we need to observe any physiology in advance?

2 2

David A. Markowitz @davidamarkowitz.bsky.social · May 5

The answer, I am convinced, is yes, and all the technologies needed to deeply phenotype a whole brain exist today. This is a viable path to whole brain emulation, with no physiology or behavioral experiments required.

3 4

David A. Markowitz @davidamarkowitz.bsky.social · May 5

Thought problem: If you could deeply phenotype a whole brain - mapping all ultrastructure and connectivity, plus in situ proteomics, metabolomics and transcriptomics - would that be sufficient to constrain a model of its function under all conditions? What's the minimal data needed for emulation?

3 1 7

David A. Markowitz @davidamarkowitz.bsky.social · May 5

Gratified by today's news of a $155M seed round for DNA data storage newco Atlas, built on technologies developed under the IARPA MIST program. It validates my "if we de-risk it investors will come" thesis. Also means my public service has now driven >$1B of economic activity 🙂

1

David A. Markowitz @davidamarkowitz.bsky.social · Apr 16

I've said it publicly before and I'll say it again: science awards that preferentially recognize individuals are an anachronism. This just doesn't reflect how much of today's impactful science gets done. 4/

3 12