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Reposted by Casey Schneider-Mizell

Davi Bock @dddavi.bsky.social · 1d

I love this piece!

It shows the many ways a connectome can be put to use, AND the many complementary modalities that are needed, beyond the connectome, to answer real questions.

And it makes me feel good about having helped to generate the thing. :)

The Transmitter @thetransmitter.bsky.social · 1d

To celebrate the first anniversary of the release of FlyWire, we asked nine neuroscientists to share how they are using connectome data in their research and what they hope is in store for the future of fly connectomics.

By @franciscorr25.bsky.social

#neuroskyence

bit.ly/3Wx5nt3

How FlyWire is redefining Drosophila research, one year in

Nine Drosophila researchers share how the connectome transformed the field and what additional new tools they would like to see.

bit.ly

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Casey Schneider-Mizell @csdashm.com · 2d

The Galería de las Colecciones Reales is surprisingly big and interesting and did a good job of laying out a somewhat confusing history in a clear manner. Also, the tacos in Madrid are good and real in a way that's not at all usual for Europe.

Casey Schneider-Mizell @csdashm.com · 12d

Really? You have insight into his internal beliefs? And to write this in the context of widespread actions critically damaging science and scientists is just an appalling journalistic decision for a journal that usually does much better.

Reposted by Casey Schneider-Mizell

Sean Carroll @seanmcarroll.bsky.social · 24d

Calling out political extremists for being hypocritical (“they claim to value free speech, but actually try to censor speech they don’t like!”) is like calling out a football team for playing both offense and defense. They’re not trying to embody fixed standards, they’re just trying to win.

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Casey Schneider-Mizell @csdashm.com · 27d

However, the unusual structure makes them clearly doing something specific and atypical, and at least they interact with circuits many people care about.

Do you invest the time to write it up as a description, even without a satisfying conclusion?

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Casey Schneider-Mizell @csdashm.com · 27d

Here's a question:
With EM, you find a super weird cell type (n=2 animals). They have truly unusual characteristics, but it's structure only so you have no idea what they do, what their transcriptomic/molecular properties are, nor do obviously solve any problem that's been posed.

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Casey Schneider-Mizell @csdashm.com · Sep 7

It's not good at everything, but what it helps with saved me probably a week or two of work, much of which I just would have not done, such as less extensive testing. It's hard to believe something so useful can be only 20 bucks a month.

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Casey Schneider-Mizell @csdashm.com · Sep 7

I'm close to releasing a python library that solves some tech debt (and documentation debt) that has been weighing me down for years now. Super excited to start using it, and amazed at how good Claude Code was for catching edge cases, writing tests, and debugging finicky indexing.

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Casey Schneider-Mizell @csdashm.com · Aug 28

The key gap that I see is the ability of right wing media to create a story and keep it in the news. This is how journalism actually penetrates minds widely, and it can be done with standards. It’s this capacity that I don’t see at all on the left or even truth-based journalism in general right now.

Reposted by Casey Schneider-Mizell

Anh Hoang Le, PhD 🏳️‍🌈 @anhhle2702.bsky.social · Aug 26

YO, what's up with all these almost-witchcraft techniques?? In this paper, they develop a way to freeze cells so quickly that it preserves Calcium waves midway!! WHAT??? HELLO??? So now you can do 3D reconstruction of calcium waves with just a normal confocal. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

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Casey Schneider-Mizell @csdashm.com · Aug 21

If you attached your readout and the subsequent feedback loop to something more abstract than motor neurons — MBON activity, for example — do you think you could train the brain to create more arbitrary activity patterns than are possible for the body to perform? And how much more arbitrary?

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Casey Schneider-Mizell @csdashm.com · Aug 19

...to regulatory network motifs and molecular motors. Hudspeth talked about the role of stereocilia in passive and active sensing. The school never directly impacted my research per se, but left so many seeds that I still think about, particularly his talks which were an absolute highlight

Casey Schneider-Mizell @csdashm.com · Aug 19

When I was a second year physics PhD, my advisor suggested I go to this "Physics of Cellular Objects" summer school in Corsica. It consisted of a series of 2-3 day long lectures on how biology used physics to accomplish things from virus capsids and bacterial motility...

The Rockefeller University @rockefeller.edu · Aug 18

We are deeply saddened to share that our friend and colleague Jim Hudspeth passed away on Saturday. We will remember and continue to be inspired by Jim’s integrity, his humility, and his unwavering commitment to discovery.

A. James Hudspeth, neuroscientist who unlocked secrets of hearing, has died - News

A. James Hudspeth, a Rockefeller neuroscientist who discovered how sound waves are converted into electrical signals in the ear's cochlea, died Saturday at his home in Manhattan. A pioneering scientist and dedicated mentor, he was the university's F.M. ...

www.rockefeller.edu

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Reposted by Casey Schneider-Mizell

Davi Bock @dddavi.bsky.social · Aug 14

It was a good experience to step back and briefly take stock of the amazing progress in connectomics since I started working on this stuff (20 years ago!)

thanks as well to @natrevneuro.nature.com for the constructive editorial interactions.

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Reposted by Casey Schneider-Mizell

Maggie Astor @maggieastor.bsky.social · Aug 12

I cannot emphasize enough that the playbook being used against mRNA vaccines (and vaccines in general) is IDENTICAL to the playbook used to restrict voting rights after the 2020 election: actively sow public distrust, then cite the distrust you sowed as an independent reason for your desired policy

Opinion | Jay Bhattacharya: Why the NIH is pivoting away from mRNA vaccines

As a vaccine for broad public use, mRNA technology has failed to earn the public’s trust.

www.washingtonpost.com

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Casey Schneider-Mizell @csdashm.com · Aug 4

The interneurons continue to surprise!

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Reposted by Casey Schneider-Mizell

Meg Tirrell @megtirrell.bsky.social · Jul 29

A major NIH grant to study ways to restore hearing was terminated by the Trump administration bc it was awarded through a DEI initiative—to a researcher who qualified bc of his own hearing loss www.cnn.com/2025/07/29/h... @manorlaboratory.bsky.social

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Casey Schneider-Mizell @csdashm.com · Jul 17

This is a great opportunity, and as usual Mo is too humble. Not just one synapse at a time, _all_ the synapses at a time!

mojtabart.bsky.social @mojtabart.bsky.social · Jul 17

🧠 Excited by synapse-level brain mapping? Join us at a world-class institute to build molecular tools based on our new #LICONN work — and push the frontier of #MolecularConnectomics. Let’s decode the brain, one synapse at a time.

hhmi.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/Extern...

Research Specialist - Tavakoli Lab

Primary Work Address: 19700 Helix Drive, Ashburn, VA, 20147 Current HHMI Employees, click here to apply via your Workday account. The Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Janelia Research Campus is a pio...

hhmi.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com

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Reposted by Casey Schneider-Mizell

Allen Institute @alleninstitute.org · Jul 14

Want to use the massive MICrONS dataset for your own research? We understand the challenges and we are here to support you. Submit your proposals for our Proofreading and Annotation program: Virtual Observatory of the Cortex (VORTEX) by August 15. microns-explorer.org/vortex

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Casey Schneider-Mizell @csdashm.com · Jul 7

My impression (coming from when David Anderson was working in on "emotional primitives" in flies) was that some had a hard time separating the functional qualities of an emotional state from its perception. "Happy" reads like the experience, but it's also a bunch of other measurable things too.

Casey Schneider-Mizell @csdashm.com · Jun 27

It took me embarrassingly long to realize that the reason the harmonic oscillator is so important is that it’s the first order term of nearly every Taylor expansion, and so is useful almost literally everywhere in physics.

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Casey Schneider-Mizell @csdashm.com · Jun 16

Okay, sounds like the judge today had the same thought.

Scott Delaney @scott-delaney.bsky.social · Jun 16

After ruling, with anger in his voice, Judge Young:

"This represents racial discrimination. And discrimination against America's LGBTQ community. That's what this is. I would be blind not to call it out. My duty is to call it out. And I do so."

Reposted by Casey Schneider-Mizell

Max Kozlov @maxkozlov.bsky.social · Jun 16

🚨 BREAKING: Nearly 4 months the NIH cut its first grants, a judge has ruled that the directives and process that led to cuts are arbitrary and capricious.

"The explanations are bereft of reasoning — virtually in their entirety... unsupported by [facts]."

Each of them are VOID and ILLEGAL, he says.

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Casey Schneider-Mizell @csdashm.com · Jun 16

Even good reporting like this somehow still feels like it underplays that the stated goal underlying the intentional destruction of American science seems to be that there needs to be more prejudice in the system at all levels.

Science Magazine @science.org · Jun 16

After already killing more than 1700 active grants related to politically charged topics, the National Institutes of Health has flagged another roughly 3200 grants for review and possible termination.

Exclusive: NIH documents reveal inconsistencies in grant terminations as agency reviews 3200 more

Evidence of agency’s uneven guidance to employees and role of DOGE could play into legal case against cuts

scim.ag

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Quinta Jurecic @qjurecic.bsky.social · Jun 8

they're doing this because the Insurrection Act sounds cool and edgy but they can't actually justify using the Insurrection Act. it's a silly action by an insecure administration desperately to seem manly and powerful. it should be criticized relentlessly, but it should also be laughed at.

Evan Bernick, a finite mode with a smol hooman and a lorg floof @evanbernick.bsky.social · Jun 8

Which makes me think that this is an effort to claim the insurrection act’s power without invoking the insurrection act’s authority. None of this is necessary, at all, and the governor should say so.

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