Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Kevin Mitchell

CatWoman @catwomanresists.bsky.social · 10h

😂😂😂😂👇🏼😂😂😂😂😂

4 17 36

Reposted by Kevin Mitchell

Jonathan Basile @jonothingeb.bsky.social · 2d

Our conference on Dialectical Biology, the Marxist tradition represented by the work of Richard Lewontin, is this weekend! Join us Friday to Sunday, online or in Toronto, register here: ihpst.utoronto.ca/events/diale...

Help spread the word if you can!

8 19

Reposted by Kevin Mitchell

The Daily Show @thedailyshow.com · 8h

The following is REAL footage from Portland, 2025. Viewer discretion is advised.

1.3K 14K 34K

Kevin Mitchell @wiringthebrain.bsky.social · 7h

Got something in the works… 😉

1

Kevin Mitchell @wiringthebrain.bsky.social · 8h

Sorry for your loss, Dennis

Reposted by Kevin Mitchell

Bartosz Radomski @bartoszradomski.bsky.social · 8h

Almost 800 views and 180 unique visitors in just the last three days. It’s amazing to see such interest in our project :))

1 1

Kevin Mitchell @wiringthebrain.bsky.social · 8h

Cheers Bartosz, it was fun. Great questions! Sorry I couldn’t be there in person…

1 1

Reposted by Kevin Mitchell

Keith Wooo-schmann Wilson 👻 @keithwilson.eu · 10h

Tell me you don't understand #science without saying you don't understand science… 🤦‍♂️🤦‍♀️🤦🙈 #Trumpland #TrumpDerangementSyndrome

Justin Baragona @justinbaragona.bsky.social · 12h

Besides linking Tylenol in pregnant women to autism, RFK Jr. now says circumcision is part of the reason why kids are autistic.

"Children who are circumcised early have double the rate of autism, and it's highly likely because they're given Tylenol. None of this is positive..."

1 3 3

Reposted by Kevin Mitchell

Dave Baltrus 🦦 @surtlab.bsky.social · 10h

What the fuck are we even doing here?!?!?!

Justin Baragona @justinbaragona.bsky.social · 12h

Besides linking Tylenol in pregnant women to autism, RFK Jr. now says circumcision is part of the reason why kids are autistic.

"Children who are circumcised early have double the rate of autism, and it's highly likely because they're given Tylenol. None of this is positive..."

1 11

Reposted by Kevin Mitchell

Allen Institute @alleninstitute.org · 10h

1M+ people live with SYNGAP1-related conditions, which can include severe seizures.

For the first time in mice models, gene therapy has reversed symptoms, even after onset.

🧠📈 Dive deeper into how they did it: alleninstitute.org/news/scienti...

9 36 130

Reposted by Kevin Mitchell

Margaret Mitchell @mmitchell.bsky.social · 10h

"Experimenter bias" refers to a mistake in scientific studies where the experimenter wants to see something, and so unconsciously designs protocols to prove what they want to see. RFK here provides an example, Let me explain what we might see based on this. 🧵

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 12h

RFK Jr on Tylenol and autism: "It is not proof. We're doing the studies to make the proof."

1 27 83

Reposted by Kevin Mitchell

Ward Q. Normal (he/him) @wardqnormal.bsky.social · 12h

Every day, Pope Leo gets closer to writing an encyclical entitled "In Particular, Fuck That Fucking Piece Of Shit JD Vance."

2 9 67

Reposted by Kevin Mitchell

Dawei Bai @daweibai.bsky.social · 13h

Happy to share that our BBS target article has been accepted: “Core Perception”: Re-imagining Precocious Reasoning as Sophisticated Perceiving
With Alon Hafri, @veroniqueizard.bsky.social, @chazfirestone.bsky.social & Brent Strickland
Read it here: doi.org/10.1017/S014...
A short thread [1/5]👇

2 32 72

Reposted by Kevin Mitchell

Chaz Firestone @chazfirestone.bsky.social · 12h

This is a big one! A 4-year writing project over many timezones, arguing for a reimagining of the influential "core knowledge" thesis.

Led by @daweibai.bsky.social, we argue that much of our innate knowledge of the world is not "conceptual" in nature, but rather wired into perceptual processing. 👇

Screenshot of a paper abstract:

“Core knowledge” refers to a set of cognitive systems that underwrite early representations of the physical and social world, appear universally across cultures, and likely result from our genetic endowment. Although this framework is canonically considered as a hypothesis about early emerging conception — how we think and reason about the world — here we present an alternative view: that many such representations are inherently perceptual in nature. This “core perception” view explains an intriguing (and otherwise mysterious) aspect of core-knowledge processes and representations: that they also operate in adults, where they display key empirical signatures of perceptual processing. We first illustrate this overlap using recent work on “core physics”, the domain of core knowledge concerned with physical objects, representing properties such as persistence through time, cohesion, solidity, and causal interactions. We review evidence that adult vision incorporates exactly these representations of core physics, while also displaying empirical signatures of genuinely perceptual mechanisms, such as rapid and automatic operation on the basis of specific sensory inputs, informational encapsulation, and interaction with other perceptual processes. We further argue that the same pattern holds for other areas of core knowledge, including geometrical, numerical, and social domains. In light of this evidence, we conclude that many infant results appealing to precocious reasoning abilities are better explained by sophisticated perceptual mechanisms shared by infants and adults. Our core-perception view elevates the status of perception in accounting for the origins of conceptual knowledge, and generates a range of ready-to-test hypotheses in developmental psychology, vision science, and more.

4 38 95

Kevin Mitchell @wiringthebrain.bsky.social · 10h

😂

Reposted by Kevin Mitchell

Standplaats Kraków @standplaatskrk.pl · 5d

A woodcut style ink drawing of a Tardigrade: "Just because I can survive harsh conditions doesn't mean I should have to."

(If anyone knows the artist, I'd love to make (a version) of this available for sale and can only find tumblr replies via tineye.)

5 430 1.2K

Reposted by Kevin Mitchell

John Rogers @johnrogers.bsky.social · 11h

ME: Now Mom, just remember, there's a lot of disinformation and AI in your social feed and your friends' Facebook.
MOM: I know! My friend sent me this crazy post where someone used AI to make an image of a giant frog fighting Army troops!
ME: ... okay, no, that one's ... goddamit, Portland.

22 700 2.7K

Reposted by Kevin Mitchell

ClutchScience (Jen Phillips) @clutchscience.bsky.social · 12h

THAT’S NOT HOW IT WORKS

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 12h

RFK Jr on Tylenol and autism: "It is not proof. We're doing the studies to make the proof."

3 17 65

Reposted by Kevin Mitchell

Kevin Mitchell @wiringthebrain.bsky.social · 19h

In a debate on free will last night one of the speakers said we obviously can't have it because the gut microbiome has so much control over our behavior! 🤪

11 4 50

Kevin Mitchell @wiringthebrain.bsky.social · 13h

Flattery is a hell of a drug! 😅

1 1

Kevin Mitchell @wiringthebrain.bsky.social · 13h

Yeah. If you're not worried (about that and more generally) you're not paying attention.

1

Kevin Mitchell @wiringthebrain.bsky.social · 13h

Either I unfailingly ask "excellent" and "exceptionally perceptive" questions or chatGPT really likes blowing smoke up my ass... 😅

Must be the former...

4 14

Kevin Mitchell @wiringthebrain.bsky.social · 13h

This is it. Last chance...

Radley Balko @radleybalko.bsky.social · 16h

Nothing remotely resembling an insurrection is happening anywhere in the country. Any violence associated with protest has been isolated, mild, and, in nearly every case, instigated by federal law enforcement. If we let Trump get away with calling dissent an insurrection, our republic is over.

BREAKING: Trump Admin 'Seriously' Considering Using the Insurrection Act, Reports NBC

President Trump is "seriously" considering invoking the Insurrection Act in order to more easily deploy National Guard troops to major cities as part of crime crackdown, NBC reported on Wednesday

www.mediaite.com

1 2 4

Reposted by Kevin Mitchell

Radley Balko @radleybalko.bsky.social · 16h

Nothing remotely resembling an insurrection is happening anywhere in the country. Any violence associated with protest has been isolated, mild, and, in nearly every case, instigated by federal law enforcement. If we let Trump get away with calling dissent an insurrection, our republic is over.

BREAKING: Trump Admin 'Seriously' Considering Using the Insurrection Act, Reports NBC

President Trump is "seriously" considering invoking the Insurrection Act in order to more easily deploy National Guard troops to major cities as part of crime crackdown, NBC reported on Wednesday

www.mediaite.com

110 1.2K 3.2K

Reposted by Kevin Mitchell

Gurdon Institute, University of Cambridge @gurdoninstitute.bsky.social · 15h

A Nobel-winning scientist of great modesty and humour, John Gurdon died on 7 Oct. Not only did he make a discovery that laid the foundations for stem cell research, he also created one of the best environments for research at the Wellcome/CRUK Gurdon Institute wellcome.org/news/sir-joh...

Sir John Gurdon, 1933-2025 | Wellcome

A Nobel-winning scientist of great modesty and humour, John Gurdon died on 7 October. He made a discovery that opened up the field of cloning research, and created one of the best environments for res...

wellcome.org

3 26 95