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Marieke van Vugt @mvugt.bsky.social · 1d

wisdom about the PhD trajectory www.nature.com/articles/d41...

27 things we wish we’d known when we started our PhDs

Nature’s survey of PhD candidates reveals hard-won wisdom on choosing supervisors, managing mental health and surviving academic culture.

www.nature.com

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Marieke van Vugt @mvugt.bsky.social · 3d

" good mentors are not born—they are built through reflection, training, and community." www.science.org/content/arti...

I didn't think I needed mentorship training—but it reshaped my approach

“I have noticed students are now quicker to ask for help,” this Ph.D. student writes

www.science.org

Marieke van Vugt @mvugt.bsky.social · 5d

"This anti-ageing effect was strongest in expert tango dancers, whose brains were, on average, seven years younger than their chronological age." www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Creative hobbies could slow brain ageing at the molecular level

To keep the mind young, dance the tango.

www.nature.com

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Marieke van Vugt @mvugt.bsky.social · 5d

"Evaluating an AI co-scientist is difficult — their failures are not always obvious, and how ‘good’ a hypothesis is can be subjective." www.nature.com/articles/d41...

A scientist’s guide to AI agents — how could they help your research?

Researchers are increasingly turning to artificial-intelligence tools that can handle complex, multi-step processes.

www.nature.com

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Natalie Peluso 🧠🫁😊 @nataliepeluso.com · 9d

If you've been listening to the excellent @olivia.science and @irisvanrooij.bsky.social on why the embrace of AI is such a bad idea, then you're going to LOVE this take down from @edzitron.com 💣

Ed Zitron @edzitron.com · 9d

Newsletter: This is The Case Against Generative AI, a comprehensive analysis of a financial collapse built on myths I’ll dispel, the markets’ unhealthy obsession with NVIDIA's growth, and the fact that there is not enough money in the world to fund OpenAI.
www.wheresyoured.at/the-case-aga...

The Case Against Generative AI

Soundtrack: Queens of the Stone Age - First It Giveth Before we go any further: This is, for the third time this year, the longest newsletter I've ever written, weighing in somewhere around 18,500 wo...

www.wheresyoured.at

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Chanda Prescod-Weinstein 🌌 @chanda.blacksky.app · 9d

This should be repeated constantly:
"In three years, roughly a tenth of US energy demand will come from data centers alone."

We need to have a real response to this!!
www.nplusonemag.com/issue-51/the...

Large Language Muddle | The Editors

The AI upheaval is unique in its ability to metabolize any number of dread-inducing transformations. The university is becoming more corporate, more politically oppressive, and all but hostile to the ...

www.nplusonemag.com

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Sam Halpert @samhalpert.bsky.social · 9d

I also loved this observation. The tech’s true “innovation” is its utter disregard for efficiency. It “works” bc it accepts the most irresponsibly resource-intensive production method imaginable. What matters is not what it costs but *who* pays. The apotheosis of a culture built around disposability

Not only is the ratio of Al's resource rapacity to its productive utility indefensibly and irremediably skewed, Al-made material is itself a waste product: flimsy, shoddy, disposable, a single-use plastic of the mind.

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Lena Ting @lenating.bsky.social · 9d

Sign the petition to restore eligibility of 2nd year grad students to the NSF GRFP. They are being robbed of the opportunities to advance their innovative science. @chubicki.bsky.social

Jeremy BOO! Yoder 🎃💀🕷️ @jbyoder.org · 9d

We've already got hundreds of students and mentors here, sharing how the sudden policy change has derailed plans. We're looking at formally "delivering" results to NSF leadership tomorrow, please do keep sharing and spreading the word: laurenkuehne.github.io/grfpChanges/

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Vaughan Bell @vaughanbell.bsky.social · 9d

Philosopher of mind John Searle has left the building
dailynous.com/2025/09/28/j...

He was best known for his Chinese Room Argument on artificial intelligence and wide-ranging work on the mind and consciousness

John Searle (1932-2025) - Daily Nous

Philosopher John Searle, well-known for his work on philosophy of mind and philosophy of language, has died. John Searle wrote extensively consciousness and the mind, intentionality, and speech act th...

dailynous.com

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Marieke van Vugt @mvugt.bsky.social · 9d

In case anyone is interested: it's possible to follow the live streaming of the upcoming Mind and Life dialogue about Artificial Intelligence for free: www.mindandlife.org/events/minds...
And I am lucky enough to be on the planning committee and a speaker!

Minds, Artificial Intelligence, and Ethics

October 14, 15, and 16, 2025 What is the potential of AI to alleviate suffering, advance equity, and support human and planetary flourishing—and what risks does it pose to health, work, education, pol...

www.mindandlife.org

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Duane Larson 💙 @duanelarson.bsky.social · 9d

RIP philosopher John Searle (1935-2025). I was much influenced by his Speech-Acts and philosophy of mind work. As a theologian lamb among budding philosophical wolves, I took a class with him in my grad years. He was brilliant and caustic, beyond self-confident to insouciant and inhumane. 1/2

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Lauren S. Hallion, Ph.D. @laurenshallion.bsky.social · 16d

United States academic landscape got you down? Apply to join my lab at the University of Regina in Saskatchewan, Canada!

I’m planning to accept a graduate student in Clinical Psychology. Additional information:

https://www.uregina.ca/academics/programs/arts/master-phd-clinical-psychology.html

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Ali Shiravand @alishiravand.bsky.social · 9d

Great initiative:
The Max Planck AI Network PhD Program
ai.mpg.de

Home

ai.mpg.de

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Marcus Ghosh @marcusghosh.bsky.social · 13d

Are #NeuroAI and #AINeuro equivalent?

@rdgao.bsky.social draws a nice distinction between the two.

And introduces Gao's second law:
“Any state-of-the-art algorithm for analyzing brain signals is, for some time, how the brain works.”

Part 1: www.rdgao.com/blog/2024/01...

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Arman Behrad @armanbehrad.bsky.social · 10d

What defines a brain state? 🧠
If you are also interested in answering this question, join us in "Toward a joint definition of neural-behavioral states", #BernsteinConference full-day workshop, Co-orgnized by @neuroprinciplist.bsky.social and I. (1/4)

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Virginie van Wassenhove @virginievanw.bsky.social · 9d

Evenement à diffuser pour la fête de la science en @iledefrance.bsky.social @poncerlab.bsky.social
@bathellierlab.bsky.social @clairewyart.bsky.social

DIM C-BRAINS @c-brains.bsky.social · 9d

Fête de la Science 🧠

Lundi 6 octobre 17h-19h Hôtel de ville de Paris

Comprendre le cerveau et ses maladies : dialogue sur les enjeux éthiques, scientifiques et médicaux.

Avec @clairewyart.bsky.social , @bathellierlab.bsky.social ,...

Inscrivez-vous ici!
docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

Comprendre le cerveau et ses maladies : dialogue sur les enjeux éthiques, scientifiques et médicaux - Formulaire d'inscription

Plongée au cœur des neurosciences : un débat inédit entre chercheurs et représentants de la société civile pour questionner l’avenir de la recherche. Dates de l’événement : 6 octobre 2025, de 17h à 19...

docs.google.com

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Ellen Fitzsimmons-Craft, PhD @fitzsimmonscraft.bsky.social · 9d

We are still recruiting for a postdoc for my lab! This person will play a key role in a new R01 optimizing a self-guided digital intervention for #eatingdisorders. There will be ample opportunities for publishing, contributing to grants, mentoring, etc. Apply by 10/31 for priority consideration.

Ellen Fitzsimmons-Craft, PhD @fitzsimmonscraft.bsky.social · Aug 15

📣 I'm recruiting a postdoc to work on a newly-funded R01 aiming to optimize a digital intervention for #eatingdisorders and contribute to other research in this space! Remote candidates may be considered. Start spring/sum 26 (or sooner!). Pls share!

wustl.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/External/job...

Postdoctoral Research Associate - Psychological & Brain Sciences

Position Summary This position will primarily support the implementation of a newly funded National Institute of Mental Health R01 grant focused on optimizing a digital chatbot intervention for eating...

wustl.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com

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Marieke van Vugt @mvugt.bsky.social · 9d

Looks fascinating!

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Jorge Morales @jorge-morales.bsky.social · 9d

🚨🚨🚨 The Subjectivity Lab is looking for a lab manager! The position is available immediately. We want someone who can help coordinate our large sample fMRI study, plus other behavioral work. Because *gestures at everything* the job was approved only now (ends in June 2026). Great opportunity! 🧵 1/4

Laboratory Technician

About the Opportunity SUMMARY The Subjectivity Lab, directed by Jorge Morales, and housed in the Department of Psychology at Northeastern University is excited to invite applications for a full-time L...

northeastern.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com

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Saloni @scientificdiscovery.dev · 13d

Great article by @deenamousa.com on why AI hasn't replaced radiologists. If anything, demand for them has actually risen.

www.worksinprogress.news/p/why-ai-isn...

Three things explain this. First, while models beat humans on benchmarks, the standardized tests designed to measure AI performance, they struggle to replicate this performance in hospital conditions. Most tools can only diagnose abnormalities that are common in training data, and models often don’t work as well outside of their test conditions. Second, attempts to give models more tasks have run into legal hurdles: regulators and medical insurers so far are reluctant to approve or cover fully autonomous radiology models. Third, even when they do diagnose accurately, models replace only a small share of a radiologist’s job. Human radiologists spend a minority of their time on diagnostics and the majority on other activities, like talking to patients and fellow clinicians.

Artificial intelligence is rapidly spreading across the economy and society. But radiology shows us that it will not necessarily dominate every field in its first years of diffusion — at least until these common hurdles are overcome. Exploiting all of its benefits will involve adapting it to society, and society’s rules to it.

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Olivia Guest · Ολίβια Γκεστ @olivia.science · Jul 9

People asked me often over the years... now it's over but finally sharing it: Course manual — including readings, instructions on how to write essays and give presentations — for the course AI as a Science that I taught from 2020/21 to 2024/25 in the School of AI. doi.org/10.5281/zeno...

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Richard D. Morey @richarddmorey.bsky.social · 10d

Another awesome video from Numberphile. I’m not going to spoil it, but I will say it is very relevant if you teach research methods (it not just statistical in a narrow sense) youtu.be/VwIKKBL4ldQ?...

We have statistical evidence that people are mildly psychic

YouTube video by Stand-up Maths

youtu.be

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The Distributed AI Research (DAIR) Institute @dairinstitute.bsky.social · 12d

"“AI isn’t magic; it’s a pyramid scheme of human labor,” said @adiod.bsky.social , a researcher at the Distributed AI Research Institute based in Bremen, Germany. “These raters are the middle rung: invisible, essential and expendable.”

www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

How thousands of ‘overworked, underpaid’ humans train Google’s AI to seem smart

Contracted AI raters describe grueling deadlines, poor pay and opacity around work to make chatbots intelligent

www.theguardian.com

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Alina Studenova @studenova.bsky.social · 12d

Simulations are fun! Especially with the right tools😉.
@willenjoy.bsky.social and I (with support from Mina Jamshidi) made a toolbox for simulating EEG/MEG data
meegsim.readthedocs.io
I put together a quick simulation using it for this short clip. Took me 10 minutes (no, really!)
#brainmovies

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Conrad Hackett @conradhackett.bsky.social · 12d

🧪Science has saved many lives!

Synthetic nitrogen fertilizer: Estimated 2.3 billion lives saved
Blood groups/storage leading to blood transfusions: 1.1 billion
High yield wheat: 245 million
Penicillin: 203M
Insulin: 200M
Chlorinated water: 177M
ourworldindata.org/data-insight...

Chart listing scientists whose work saved many people’s lives. The estimates are taken from the web publication Science Heroes.

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