Eddie Lee
@spintheory.bsky.social
Scientist studying how Life uses information and how information elucidates Life. At Complexity Science Hub. Former NSF GRFP, SFI postdoc, Austrian Science Fund ESPRIT. PoETs Lab. Associate Editor ACM Social Computing.
https://eddielee.co
https://eddielee.co
#Schumpeter on #creative #destruction. Note the mention of #globalization and ref to #biology:
"The opening up of new markets, foreign or domestic, and the organizational development from the craft shop and factory to such concerns as U.S. Steel illustrate the same process...
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"The opening up of new markets, foreign or domestic, and the organizational development from the craft shop and factory to such concerns as U.S. Steel illustrate the same process...
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November 17, 2025 at 1:02 PM
#Schumpeter on #creative #destruction. Note the mention of #globalization and ref to #biology:
"The opening up of new markets, foreign or domestic, and the organizational development from the craft shop and factory to such concerns as U.S. Steel illustrate the same process...
(1/2)
🧪🦋
"The opening up of new markets, foreign or domestic, and the organizational development from the craft shop and factory to such concerns as U.S. Steel illustrate the same process...
(1/2)
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This is nuts
“The prohibited activities would include joint research, co-authorship on papers, and advising a foreign graduate student or postdoctoral fellow. The language is retroactive, meaning any interactions during the previous 5 years could make a scientist ineligible for future federal funding.”
U.S. Congress considers sweeping ban on Chinese collaborations
Researchers speak out against proposal that would bar funding for U.S. scientists working with Chinese partners or training Chinese students
www.science.org
November 14, 2025 at 1:35 PM
This is nuts
A fun read about group selection on culture, not genes 🧪
What changes when humans change: individuals with genes, or groups with culture?
In this month's Q&A, I talk with @twaring.bsky.social about his argument that humans are going through an evolutionary transition: groups are the new individual, and culture is the new genome. 🧪
In this month's Q&A, I talk with @twaring.bsky.social about his argument that humans are going through an evolutionary transition: groups are the new individual, and culture is the new genome. 🧪
The individual isn't what it used to be
Tim Waring thinks human evolution is shifting from genetic and individual to cultural and collective
www.reviewertoo.com
November 13, 2025 at 5:31 PM
A fun read about group selection on culture, not genes 🧪
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Last month's Q&A with @spintheory.bsky.social dug into the ~physics~ of polarization in the US Senate and what it has to do with the simple neural network models that sparked the AI boom:
Politicians talk big. But what if (with a bit of physics) you could let their votes speak for themselves?
In this Q&A, I chat with @spintheory.bsky.social about what his mathematical maps of US Senate politics reveal about polarization — with a surprising link to the physics foundations of AI 🧪⚛️
In this Q&A, I chat with @spintheory.bsky.social about what his mathematical maps of US Senate politics reveal about polarization — with a surprising link to the physics foundations of AI 🧪⚛️
November 10, 2025 at 2:02 PM
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🍁A call for PhD positions in complex systems relevant to ecology
#Ecosystems, #ecology, and #forests as an example are marvelous examples of #complex systems. In collaboration with our colleagues at BOKU, we are also interested in applicants who want to study these topics! Applications due soon!
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Ready to tackle the world’s most complex challenges?
We are looking for #PhD candidates eager to apply large-scale data analysis, quantitative models, and complexity science to shed light on pressing global issues.
csh.ac.at/education/gr...
We are looking for #PhD candidates eager to apply large-scale data analysis, quantitative models, and complexity science to shed light on pressing global issues.
csh.ac.at/education/gr...
November 7, 2025 at 6:52 PM
🍁A call for PhD positions in complex systems relevant to ecology
#Ecosystems, #ecology, and #forests as an example are marvelous examples of #complex systems. In collaboration with our colleagues at BOKU, we are also interested in applicants who want to study these topics! Applications due soon!
🧪🦋🌳
🧪🦋🌳
Ready to tackle the world’s most complex challenges?
We are looking for #PhD candidates eager to apply large-scale data analysis, quantitative models, and complexity science to shed light on pressing global issues.
csh.ac.at/education/gr...
We are looking for #PhD candidates eager to apply large-scale data analysis, quantitative models, and complexity science to shed light on pressing global issues.
csh.ac.at/education/gr...
November 7, 2025 at 4:45 PM
#Ecosystems, #ecology, and #forests as an example are marvelous examples of #complex systems. In collaboration with our colleagues at BOKU, we are also interested in applicants who want to study these topics! Applications due soon!
🧪🦋🌳
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Highlighting this Simons postdoc fellowship again. Looking for junior postdocs who might team up with Brian Enquist and me.
Keywords include nonlinear dynamics, reaction diffusion, population dynamics, metabolic scaling.
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Keywords include nonlinear dynamics, reaction diffusion, population dynamics, metabolic scaling.
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This is a great Simons foundation #postdoc opportunity for theorists with incipient interest. If you’re interested in working in quantitative laws of life in ecosystems, please message me.
Due date Dec. 4.
Note the 3 years w/in PhD condition.
#ecology #physics #maths
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Due date Dec. 4.
Note the 3 years w/in PhD condition.
#ecology #physics #maths
🧪🦋
Postdoc Opportunity - Interested in plant scaling, quantitative botany, or theoretical plant biology? join our group to explore how plant form, function & scaling principles connect across levels of organization
www.simonsfoundation.org/grant/simons-postdoctoral-fellowships-in-plant-biology🧪🌾🌐
www.simonsfoundation.org/grant/simons-postdoctoral-fellowships-in-plant-biology🧪🌾🌐
October 29, 2025 at 10:15 AM
Highlighting this Simons postdoc fellowship again. Looking for junior postdocs who might team up with Brian Enquist and me.
Keywords include nonlinear dynamics, reaction diffusion, population dynamics, metabolic scaling.
🧪🦋🌳
Keywords include nonlinear dynamics, reaction diffusion, population dynamics, metabolic scaling.
🧪🦋🌳
“the progress of culture consists only in the ever-increasing permeation of all of life by artistic purposes.”
- Klimt
- Klimt
October 28, 2025 at 10:04 AM
“the progress of culture consists only in the ever-increasing permeation of all of life by artistic purposes.”
- Klimt
- Klimt
Reposted by Eddie Lee
Wow. Harvard nuking its PhD programs
- Science PhD admissions reduced by more than 75%
- Arts & Humanities reduced by about 60%
- Social Sciences by 50–70%
- History by 60%
- Biology by 75%
- The German department will lose all PhD seats
- Sociology from six PhD students to zero
- Science PhD admissions reduced by more than 75%
- Arts & Humanities reduced by about 60%
- Social Sciences by 50–70%
- History by 60%
- Biology by 75%
- The German department will lose all PhD seats
- Sociology from six PhD students to zero
Harvard FAS Cuts Ph.D. Seats By More Than Half Across Next Two Admissions Cycles | News | The Harvard Crimson
The Faculty of Arts and Sciences slashed the number of Ph.D. student admissions slots for the Science division by more than 75 percent and for the Arts & Humanities division by about 60 percent for th...
www.thecrimson.com
October 21, 2025 at 5:11 PM
Wow. Harvard nuking its PhD programs
- Science PhD admissions reduced by more than 75%
- Arts & Humanities reduced by about 60%
- Social Sciences by 50–70%
- History by 60%
- Biology by 75%
- The German department will lose all PhD seats
- Sociology from six PhD students to zero
- Science PhD admissions reduced by more than 75%
- Arts & Humanities reduced by about 60%
- Social Sciences by 50–70%
- History by 60%
- Biology by 75%
- The German department will lose all PhD seats
- Sociology from six PhD students to zero
This is a great Simons foundation #postdoc opportunity for theorists with incipient interest. If you’re interested in working in quantitative laws of life in ecosystems, please message me.
Due date Dec. 4.
Note the 3 years w/in PhD condition.
#ecology #physics #maths
🧪🦋
Due date Dec. 4.
Note the 3 years w/in PhD condition.
#ecology #physics #maths
🧪🦋
Postdoc Opportunity - Interested in plant scaling, quantitative botany, or theoretical plant biology? join our group to explore how plant form, function & scaling principles connect across levels of organization
www.simonsfoundation.org/grant/simons-postdoctoral-fellowships-in-plant-biology🧪🌾🌐
www.simonsfoundation.org/grant/simons-postdoctoral-fellowships-in-plant-biology🧪🌾🌐
Simons Postdoctoral Fellowships in Plant Biology
Simons Postdoctoral Fellowships in Plant Biology on Simons Foundation
www.simonsfoundation.org
October 21, 2025 at 3:40 PM
Reposted by Eddie Lee
One of the most fascinating points from the Q&A:
Polarization isn't just about what we believe. It's about what we choose to make into a political issue.
Some issues divide, others unite. The Senate is voting on more polarizing issues and, predictably, getting more divided outcomes.
Polarization isn't just about what we believe. It's about what we choose to make into a political issue.
Some issues divide, others unite. The Senate is voting on more polarizing issues and, predictably, getting more divided outcomes.
@spintheory.bsky.social used statistical physics to study 50 years of #Senate votes, and accidentally recreated the network architecture that won the 2024 Nobel in Physics. He finds #polarization is more complex than R vs D. Read the Q&A with @elisecutts.bsky.social 👉 shorturl.at/TD3bN
Political (neural) networking
A Q&A with Eddie Lee on physics and polarization in the Senate
shorturl.at
October 20, 2025 at 9:17 AM
One of the most fascinating points from the Q&A:
Polarization isn't just about what we believe. It's about what we choose to make into a political issue.
Some issues divide, others unite. The Senate is voting on more polarizing issues and, predictably, getting more divided outcomes.
Polarization isn't just about what we believe. It's about what we choose to make into a political issue.
Some issues divide, others unite. The Senate is voting on more polarizing issues and, predictably, getting more divided outcomes.
The well-deserved #NobelPrize in #Economics this year reminds us how important (and really how little is known) about the dual forces of #innovation and #obsolescence as we discuss in our #arXiv #preprint.
arxiv.org/abs/2505.05182
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arxiv.org/abs/2505.05182
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Synthesis of innovation and obsolescence
Innovation and obsolescence describe the dynamics of ever-churning social and biological systems, from the development of economic markets to scientific and technological progress to biological evolut...
arxiv.org
October 20, 2025 at 7:05 PM
The well-deserved #NobelPrize in #Economics this year reminds us how important (and really how little is known) about the dual forces of #innovation and #obsolescence as we discuss in our #arXiv #preprint.
arxiv.org/abs/2505.05182
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1/n
arxiv.org/abs/2505.05182
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1/n
October 19, 2025 at 9:48 PM
Stapledon's #Star Maker from 1937: a journey through #space, #time, and the Universe's end with an #emergent, #collective, #cosmic consciousness, and acclaimed as "one of the most brilliant, inventive, and daring [SF] books" (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Ma...).
Certainly imaginative and strange 🧪🦋
Certainly imaginative and strange 🧪🦋
Star Maker - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
October 19, 2025 at 7:56 PM
Stapledon's #Star Maker from 1937: a journey through #space, #time, and the Universe's end with an #emergent, #collective, #cosmic consciousness, and acclaimed as "one of the most brilliant, inventive, and daring [SF] books" (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Ma...).
Certainly imaginative and strange 🧪🦋
Certainly imaginative and strange 🧪🦋
"It might interest you to know that the philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer wrote in 1905 that 'the amount of noise that anyone can bear undisturbed stands in inverse proportion to his mental capacity and therefore be regarded as a pretty fair measure of it.'
journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
An exchange of letters on the role of noise in collective intelligence - Daniel Kahneman, David C Krakauer, Olivier Sibony, Cass Sunstein, David Wolpert, 2022
journals.sagepub.com
October 17, 2025 at 12:40 PM
"It might interest you to know that the philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer wrote in 1905 that 'the amount of noise that anyone can bear undisturbed stands in inverse proportion to his mental capacity and therefore be regarded as a pretty fair measure of it.'
journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
Reposted by Eddie Lee
Politicians talk big. But what if (with a bit of physics) you could let their votes speak for themselves?
In this Q&A, I chat with @spintheory.bsky.social about what his mathematical maps of US Senate politics reveal about polarization — with a surprising link to the physics foundations of AI 🧪⚛️
In this Q&A, I chat with @spintheory.bsky.social about what his mathematical maps of US Senate politics reveal about polarization — with a surprising link to the physics foundations of AI 🧪⚛️
Political (neural) networking
A Q&A with Eddie Lee on physics and polarization in the Senate
www.reviewertoo.com
October 16, 2025 at 2:19 PM
Politicians talk big. But what if (with a bit of physics) you could let their votes speak for themselves?
In this Q&A, I chat with @spintheory.bsky.social about what his mathematical maps of US Senate politics reveal about polarization — with a surprising link to the physics foundations of AI 🧪⚛️
In this Q&A, I chat with @spintheory.bsky.social about what his mathematical maps of US Senate politics reveal about polarization — with a surprising link to the physics foundations of AI 🧪⚛️
“INFORMATION THEORY AND STATISTICAL MECHANICS” by E.T. Jaynes is a real classic in #complexity and #complex systems 🧪🦋
October 5, 2025 at 10:37 AM
“INFORMATION THEORY AND STATISTICAL MECHANICS” by E.T. Jaynes is a real classic in #complexity and #complex systems 🧪🦋
A lovely quotation from Han Kang…
As the snow lands on the wet asphalt, each flake, seems to falter for a moment. Then, like a trailing sentence at the close of a conversation…
As the snow lands on the wet asphalt, each flake, seems to falter for a moment. Then, like a trailing sentence at the close of a conversation…
September 28, 2025 at 8:24 PM
A lovely quotation from Han Kang…
As the snow lands on the wet asphalt, each flake, seems to falter for a moment. Then, like a trailing sentence at the close of a conversation…
As the snow lands on the wet asphalt, each flake, seems to falter for a moment. Then, like a trailing sentence at the close of a conversation…
Stifter: “genuine freedom, demands the most self-control, the constraint of one’s desires… The foremost, and only enemies of freedom, therefore are all these people who are possessed by powerful desires and urges, which they wish to gratify by any means”
September 7, 2025 at 6:58 PM
Stifter: “genuine freedom, demands the most self-control, the constraint of one’s desires… The foremost, and only enemies of freedom, therefore are all these people who are possessed by powerful desires and urges, which they wish to gratify by any means”
Reposted by Eddie Lee
The latest issue of Scientific American is the 180th anniversary, and they have a series of articles about "180 degree turnarounds" in science. Here's mine on RNA.
August 26, 2025 at 7:08 PM
The latest issue of Scientific American is the 180th anniversary, and they have a series of articles about "180 degree turnarounds" in science. Here's mine on RNA.
Reposted by Eddie Lee
#1: 🎡 Vienna in the early 1900s was the center of the intellectual world, the fourth largest city in Europe, and home to “dazzling coteries of thinkers.” ...
August 7, 2025 at 11:57 AM
#1: 🎡 Vienna in the early 1900s was the center of the intellectual world, the fourth largest city in Europe, and home to “dazzling coteries of thinkers.” ...
What a great and fun video on echolocation!
🍎🧪🎢🧬 Any excuse to share this masterpiece: Mustached Bats Vs The Doppler Effect
Congratulations Tom!
Congratulations Tom!
August 6, 2025 at 10:24 PM
What a great and fun video on echolocation!
A new paper out on arxiv today: "Collective contributions to #polarization in #political #voting"
arxiv.org/abs/2508.02496
#physics #complexity 🧪🦋
arxiv.org/abs/2508.02496
#physics #complexity 🧪🦋
Collective contributions to polarization in political voting
Politics around the world exhibits increasing polarization, demonstrated in part by rigid voting configurations in legislatures. The crux of polarization is separation along a unidimensional ideologic...
arxiv.org
August 5, 2025 at 8:46 AM
A new paper out on arxiv today: "Collective contributions to #polarization in #political #voting"
arxiv.org/abs/2508.02496
#physics #complexity 🧪🦋
arxiv.org/abs/2508.02496
#physics #complexity 🧪🦋
July 31, 2025 at 5:06 PM
Another call for scientists looking to move to #Europe:
www.researchireland.ie/funding/glob...
#academicsky
🧪
www.researchireland.ie/funding/glob...
#academicsky
🧪
Global Talent Ireland - Research Ireland
Global Talent Ireland aims to attract exceptional mid-career and established researchers from across the globe to Ireland. Researchers funded through this programme are required to transfer their rese...
www.researchireland.ie
July 31, 2025 at 11:00 AM
Another call for scientists looking to move to #Europe:
www.researchireland.ie/funding/glob...
#academicsky
🧪
www.researchireland.ie/funding/glob...
#academicsky
🧪