John Pearson
@jmxpearson.bsky.social
1.3K followers 810 following 260 posts
Computational neuroscience, neuroML, natural behavior. I charge more for miracles. PI @ pearsonlab.github.io. @dukemedschool.bsky.social.
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jmxpearson.bsky.social
Okay, long-overdue introduction. I’m a computational neuroscientist at Duke, where my lab (pearsonlab.github.io) does theory “bottom up”: we try to start by modeling data and build toward principles.
Pearson Lab at Duke University
pearsonlab.github.io
Reposted by John Pearson
phillipisola.bsky.social
Over the past year, my lab has been working on fleshing out theory + applications of the Platonic Representation Hypothesis.

Today I want to share two new works on this topic:

Eliciting higher alignment: arxiv.org/abs/2510.02425
Unpaired learning of unified reps: arxiv.org/abs/2510.08492

1/9
Reposted by John Pearson
debbysilver.bsky.social
I am thrilled to share our latest story led by the incredibly talented Brooke D’Arcy and Camila Musso. We discover a rich world of local gene expression in radial glia, essential neural and glial precursors, and develop a new method for sub-cellular mRNA manipulation. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Reposted by John Pearson
junoryleejournalism.com
David Simon, creator of ‘The Wire’, being interviewed by Ari Shapiro (NPR)
SHAPIRO: OK, so you've spent your career creating television without Al, and I could imagine today you thinking, boy, I wish I had had that tool to solve those thorny problems...
SIMON: What?
SHAPIRO: ...Or saying...
SIMON: You imagine that?
SHAPIRO: ...Boy, if that had existed, it would have screwed me over.
SIMON: I don't think Al can remotely challenge what writers do at a fundamentally creative level.
SHAPIRO: But if you're trying to transition from scene five to scene six, and you're stuck with that transition, you could imagine plugging that portion of the script into an Al and say, give me 10 ideas for how to transition this.
SIMON: I'd rather put a gun in my mouth.
Reposted by John Pearson
schreinerdrew.bsky.social
....and a mother-nightingale has been observed to give lessons in singing to a young bird, from which spectacle we might obviously infer that the song of the bird was not equally congenital with mere voice, but was something capable of modification and of improvement" (2/2)
Reposted by John Pearson
schreinerdrew.bsky.social
Add birdsong learning to the list of things Aristotle *did* think about:
"Of little birds, some sing a different note from the parent birds, if they have been removed from the nest and have heard other birds singing..." (1/2)
wiringthebrain.bsky.social
Is there anything Aristotle *didn't* already think about?
inverting-vision.bsky.social
Aristotle noticed that when bees returned to the hive, they shook or "danced" in front of a group. Millennia later, scientists debated whether it was a form of "language" amid shifts in scientific methods and philosophies in the 20th century.

#histsci 🗃️ #bees

daily.jstor.org/the-bee-danc...
Reposted by John Pearson
dlevenstein.bsky.social
Come do a postdoc at the Wu Tsai Institute!

WTI fellows have freedom to work with anyone at the institute, and preference is given to applicants who want to work on interdisciplinary projects with multiple faculty mentors.

If you’re interested to work with me, please reach out!
wutsaiyale.bsky.social
📣 Calling experimental, computational, or theoretical researchers!

WTI's Postdoc Fellowships application is now open, offering a competitive salary, structured mentorship, world-class facilities + more: wti.yale.edu/initiatives/...

Apply by November 10: apply.interfolio.com/174525

#KnowTogether
Reposted by John Pearson
wutsaiyale.bsky.social
📣 WTI is hiring faculty positions! Are you interested in advancing our understanding of the brain + how it gives rise to cognition?

Two calls are open:

Open-rank search, Neurocomputation, deadline: 12.1.25
Senior search, Neurodevelopment, rolling review

🔗 wti.yale.edu/opportunities

#KnowTogether
Reposted by John Pearson
dlevenstein.bsky.social
The Wu Tsai Institute at Yale is hiring another faculty member in neurocomputation. Come work with us in a growing community at the interface of neuroscience and AI!

More info below 👇
wutsaiyale.bsky.social
📣 WTI is hiring faculty positions! Are you interested in advancing our understanding of the brain + how it gives rise to cognition?

Two calls are open:

Open-rank search, Neurocomputation, deadline: 12.1.25
Senior search, Neurodevelopment, rolling review

🔗 wti.yale.edu/opportunities

#KnowTogether
Reposted by John Pearson
crozell.bsky.social
Please share widely! If you work in any area related to the brain and policy, please consider applying to be our colleague here at Georgia Tech. This could include (but is not limited to) neuroethics or brain/mental health policy.
aarondlevine.bsky.social
The Carter School of Public Policy at Georgia Tech invites applications for multiple open-rank tenured and/or tenure-track faculty positions with a focus on science, technology and innovation policy.

careers.hprod.onehcm.usg.edu/psc/careers/...

#AcademicSky #PolicySky @appam.bsky.social
Reposted by John Pearson
nicolasmathevon.bsky.social
Ultrasonic signals support a large-scale communication landscape in wild mice. See our paper here:
www.cell.com/current-biol...
@currentbiology.bsky.social #bioacoustics
Reposted by John Pearson
janelia-flyem.bsky.social
We're very proud to be releasing the complete male fly CNS connectome!

It's the product of a huge team effort here at Janelia in partnership with the Cambridge Fly Connectomics group (@jefferis.bsky.social and colleagues), plus invaluable collaborators.

More soon...
www.janelia.org/project-team...
Male CNS Connectome
A team of researchers has unveiled the complete connectome of a male fruit fly central nervous system —a seamless map of all the neurons in the brain and nerve cord of a single male fruit fly and the ...
www.janelia.org
Reposted by John Pearson
mmitchell.bsky.social
This post about Waffles that’s going viral doesn’t credit (what I believe to be) the source, Bravo Coolee, on Twitter a few years ago. Just wanna shout out the original. Still viral thru another person’s rewrite today.
Twitter screenshot from  @BravoCoolee

“Twitter is the only place where well articulated sentences still get misinterpreted. 

You can say “I like pancakes” and somebody will say “So you hate waffles?’

No bitch. Dats a whole new sentence. Wtf is you talking about.
Reposted by John Pearson
kevinjkircher.com
Sometimes I think about how from 1935-1975ish, Bell Labs produced an insane amount of revolutionary science and technology, including 11 Nobel Prizes, the transistor, UNIX, C, the laser, the solar cell, information theory, etc. The secret? Provide scientists with ample, steady, no-strings funding.
sites.stat.columbia.edu
Reposted by John Pearson
frogandtoadbot.bsky.social
“Now we have no more cookies to eat,” said Toad sadly. “Not even one.”

“Yes,” said Frog, “but we have lots and lots of will power.”

“You may keep it all, Frog,” said Toad. “I am going home now to bake a cake.”
Reposted by John Pearson
dmgreene.bsky.social
Dwayne has his job back because we organized for it. We fight or we die. Join AAUP today www.aaup.org/join