Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Spencer LaVere Smith @spencerlaveresmith.bsky.social · 21h

The MIT response is a quick read and well done. I highly recommend checking it out.

MIT does a lot of things right, and has for years.
E.g., standardized tests as a data point for admissions, no legacy admissions, clearly stated values, and standing on principles:
orgchart.mit.edu/letters/rega...

Regarding the Compact | MIT Organization Chart

orgchart.mit.edu

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Spencer LaVere Smith @spencerlaveresmith.bsky.social · 1d

As soon as alternatives can replace animals in a particular application, people do it already. You don't have to pressure them. We are eager to reduce or eliminate animal use.

We need answers. And when research is funded properly, we can get the answers we need faster. And that helps all. (3/3)

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Spencer LaVere Smith @spencerlaveresmith.bsky.social · 1d

The point people need to understand is that we aren't fighting on this. Animal research is done reluctantly. And is well regulated-- much more than agriculture or exterminators, which involve orders of magnitude more animals. (2/3)

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Spencer LaVere Smith @spencerlaveresmith.bsky.social · 1d

Even colleagues who should know better are claiming that we are halting animal research. No, we're not. Now this NYT opinion piece appears (gift link) www.nytimes.com/2025/10/08/o... You can't just move everything to cell culture, organoids, and computers. Even this NYT piece admits that. 1/3

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Spencer LaVere Smith @spencerlaveresmith.bsky.social · 2d

The MacArthur Awards might be my favorite. www.macfound.org/programs/awa... They’ve given about $1 billion over their 44 years. They cover a fascinating cross section of impactful human creativity. Excellent bang for the buck.

MacArthur Fellows - MacArthur Foundation

The MacArthur Foundation supports creative people and effective institutions committed to building a more just, verdant, and peaceful world. In addition to selecting the MacArthur Fellows, we work to ...

www.macfound.org

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Spencer LaVere Smith @spencerlaveresmith.bsky.social · 3d

Still a few weeks left!

Marius Schneider @mariusschneider.bsky.social · 18d

🚨Our NeurIPS 2025 competition Mouse vs. AI is LIVE!

We combine a visual navigation task + large-scale mouse neural data to test what makes visual RL agents robust and brain-like.

Top teams: featured at NeurIPS + co-author our summary paper. Join the challenge!

Whitepaper: arxiv.org/abs/2509.14446

Mouse vs. AI: A Neuroethological Benchmark for Visual Robustness and Neural Alignment

Visual robustness under real-world conditions remains a critical bottleneck for modern reinforcement learning agents. In contrast, biological systems such as mice show remarkable resilience to environ...

arxiv.org

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Reposted by Spencer LaVere Smith

University of California @uofcalifornia.bsky.social · 3d

UC SWEEP IN PHYSICS! Congratulations to @ucberkeleyofficial.bsky.social emeritus professor John Clarke, who won the prize along with @ucsantabarbara.bsky.social professors Michel H. Devoret and John M. Martinis! 💙💛🥇

The Guardian @theguardian.com · 4d

Nobel prize in physics awarded to three scientists for work on quantum mechanics

Trio led experiments demonstrating that bizarre properties of quantum world can translate into measurable effects in the everyday The Nobel prize in physics 2025 has been awarded to British, French and American scientists for their work on quantum mechanics. John Clarke, a British physicist based at the University of California at Berkeley, Michel Devoret, a French physicist based at Yale University, and John Martinis, of the University of California Santa Barbara, share the 11m Swedish kronor (about £871,400) prize announced by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm. Continue reading...

www.theguardian.com

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Reposted by Spencer LaVere Smith

UC Santa Barbara @ucsantabarbara.bsky.social · 3d

Exciting news: #UCSB physicists John Martinis and Michel Devoret have been awarded the 2025 #NobelPrize in Physics. They were lauded for work that, according to the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, "revealed quantum physics in action."

Full story: https://ow.ly/TH7K50X7ULp

UCSB physics professors John Martinis and Michel Devoret win 2025 Nobel Prize in Physics

ow.ly

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Reposted by Spencer LaVere Smith

Dr. Katharine Dickson @metaomicsnerd.bsky.social · 3d

We got some more Gaucho Nobels! #UCSB

UC Santa Barbara celebrates new Nobel Prize winners! UCSB professors John Martinis and Michel Devoret have been awarded the 2025 Nobel Prize in Physics

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Spencer LaVere Smith @spencerlaveresmith.bsky.social · 3d

All three are UC faculty, two of them at UCSB.

UCSB recruited Devoret. www.physics.ucsb.edu/people/miche...

Michel Devoret | Department of Physics | UC Santa Barbara

Devoret’s research focus is on experimental condensed matter physics, particularly “quantronics".

www.physics.ucsb.edu

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Reposted by Spencer LaVere Smith

Drug Monkey @drugmonkey.bsky.social · 4d

🎯

Jeremy Berg @jeremymberg.bsky.social · 4d

6/14

In communicating with some of the scientists affected by grant terminations, it was striking (but not surprising) that many felt abandoned by their institutions and the scientific establishment at large. This was fueled, in part, by the contrast between this acquiescence and the rapid institutional responses, including lawsuits, after the administration had proposed a cap on the rate of reimbursement for so-called indirect costs of research. The scientific establishment had the capacity to push back vigorously when some of their values (financial viability) were threatened but could not seem to muster much energy when other principles were under assault.

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Spencer LaVere Smith @spencerlaveresmith.bsky.social · 9d

Prototype.

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Spencer LaVere Smith @spencerlaveresmith.bsky.social · 12d

Thanks for sharing this.

Another bit of his writing: www.abrahamlincolnonline.org/lincoln/spee...

Sharing a country....
Lincoln articulated it well.
"I look upon that enactment not as a law, but as violence from the beginning."
" [...] I do not doubt their candor. But they never vote that way."

Abraham Lincoln's 1855 Letter to Joshua Speed

www.abrahamlincolnonline.org

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Reposted by Spencer LaVere Smith

Anna Devor @annadevor.bsky.social · 12d

Chris Xu talks to Neurophotonics about the 'toy land of optics' and how to channel positive vibes! Thank you Tianyu Wang for conducting this fantastic interview!
www.spiedigitallibrary.org/journals/neu...
#Neurophotonics #Neuroscience #Neuroimaging #BrainImaging #OpticalImaging #Microscopy

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Reposted by Spencer LaVere Smith

Michael Beyeler @mbeyeler.bsky.social · 14d

👁️🧠 New preprint: We demonstrate the first data-driven neural control framework for a visual cortical implant in a blind human!

TL;DR Deep learning lets us synthesize efficient stimulation patterns that reliably evoke percepts, outperforming conventional calibration.

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Diagram showing three ways to control brain activity with a visual prosthesis. The goal is to match a desired pattern of brain responses. One method uses a simple one-to-one mapping, another uses an inverse neural network, and a third uses gradient optimization. Each method produces a stimulation pattern, which is tested in both computer simulations and in the brain of a blind participant with an implant. The figure shows that the neural network and gradient methods reproduce the target brain activity more accurately than the simple mapping.

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Reposted by Spencer LaVere Smith

Tom Kash @superkash.bsky.social · 14d

8th grade trip to DC chaperoning is done. Kids were great. Lots of highlights for me... But I really enjoyed seeing the FDR memorial.

A photo taken at the FDR memorial which says we must scrupulously guard the civil Rights and civil liberties of all citizens whatever their background we must remember that any oppression or injustice any hatred is a wedge designed to attack our civilization.

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Reposted by Spencer LaVere Smith

Rita Strack @ritastrack.bsky.social · 15d

Now 3/4 of the way through the @picoquant.bsky.social single-molecule meeting, and I want to share some takeaways and observations (in no particular order of importance)! If you're here, please feel free to add to this thread!

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Reposted by Spencer LaVere Smith

Dan Levenstein @dlevenstein.bsky.social · 18d

Bet: this flavor of same-stimulus, same-task, compare-behavior, compare-physiology is the future of model testing and theory development in neuroscience.

Marius Schneider @mariusschneider.bsky.social · 18d

🚨Our NeurIPS 2025 competition Mouse vs. AI is LIVE!

We combine a visual navigation task + large-scale mouse neural data to test what makes visual RL agents robust and brain-like.

Top teams: featured at NeurIPS + co-author our summary paper. Join the challenge!

Whitepaper: arxiv.org/abs/2509.14446

Mouse vs. AI: A Neuroethological Benchmark for Visual Robustness and Neural Alignment

Visual robustness under real-world conditions remains a critical bottleneck for modern reinforcement learning agents. In contrast, biological systems such as mice show remarkable resilience to environ...

arxiv.org

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Reposted by Spencer LaVere Smith

Marius Schneider @mariusschneider.bsky.social · 18d

🚨Our NeurIPS 2025 competition Mouse vs. AI is LIVE!

We combine a visual navigation task + large-scale mouse neural data to test what makes visual RL agents robust and brain-like.

Top teams: featured at NeurIPS + co-author our summary paper. Join the challenge!

Whitepaper: arxiv.org/abs/2509.14446

Mouse vs. AI: A Neuroethological Benchmark for Visual Robustness and Neural Alignment

Visual robustness under real-world conditions remains a critical bottleneck for modern reinforcement learning agents. In contrast, biological systems such as mice show remarkable resilience to environ...

arxiv.org

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Spencer LaVere Smith @spencerlaveresmith.bsky.social · 19d

Innovative. This is China? The t-shirt says “izakaya”, right? This establishment seems like an interesting blend of cultures.

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Reposted by Spencer LaVere Smith

UC Santa Barbara @ucsantabarbara.bsky.social · 21d

Tell me you go to #UCSB without telling me.

Blue on residential housing that says “Wash sand off of your feet before you enter.”

Bikes parked by residential housing at UCSB.

Surfboard racks outside of residential housing at UCSB

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Spencer LaVere Smith @spencerlaveresmith.bsky.social · 21d

Now available: updated Google Maps from the areas of the Palisades and Eaton fires (01/2025). Over 16,000 homes and other structures destroyed. #2 and #3 most in CA history (since at least the 1940s). en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palisad... en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eaton_F... (before/after images)

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Spencer LaVere Smith @spencerlaveresmith.bsky.social · 21d

I published a paper in Nature Methods. They invoiced us for $10,690.00. It was extra expensive because I wanted it to be open access. US taxpayers fund it, and they also funded the research.

It's nice to have other outlets like NBDT, which is free. nbdt.scholasticahq.com/for-authors

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Spencer LaVere Smith @spencerlaveresmith.bsky.social · 22d

The info has been out there, and it was phased in this year.

There are some concerns, and we'll have to see how things shake out.
drugmonkey.wordpress.com/2025/08/27/t...

Regardless, I appreciate the work that good people put into this. I'm optimistic that it is an improvement.
(3/3)

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Spencer LaVere Smith @spencerlaveresmith.bsky.social · 22d

So many good lines in the guidance materials too.

Looking forward to this next study section.

I assume Noni Byrnes and Mike Lauer were key in this effort. The NIH lost them both this year. I hope they are doing well. I appreciate all of the current NIH employees keeping the ship running!
(2/3)

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