Dimos Karamanlis @dimokaramanlis@qoto.org

"A concept known as the Szilard point helps to contextualize the issues arising from excessive competition for grants. Named after the Hungarian-born physicist Leo Szilard, who wrote a short story [1] satirizing the bureaucratic nature of scientific funding, this metric describes the threshold at which the total cost of competing for a grant equals (or surpasses) the value of the available funding. These costs are incurred by scientists in writing proposals, by their peers in reviewing them and by the administrative systems that run the process. The question is, which costs more: the research being funded, or the application process itself?"

https://web.archive.org/web/20260115084352/https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-04060-x

[1] https://www.gipsa-lab.grenoble-inp.fr/~pierre.comon/FichiersPdf/theMarkGableFoundation.pdf

1/2

#academia #GrantFunding

Turns out German farmers grew too much potatoes last year, so now all the extra potatoes have to be consumed (the alternative is just burning them for biodiesel).
This means free potatoes for everyone in Berlin!
They accept applications for batches over 1 ton until Monday; and also on Thursday and Friday there will be multiple distribution points across Berlin for picking up smaller amounts for personal consumption, measured in kilos.
https://www.4000-tonnen.de

Faster, clearer, deeper 3D imaging

It’s hard to see deep into tissues – a time-consuming process that can produce blurred images. So, researchers at our Uni, UMG and Lubeck developed an innovative light sheet fluorescence microscopy platform. Now, more detailed scans of fine networks of nerves or blood vessels are possible: https://www.uni-goettingen.de/en/3240.html?id=8057

https://www.uni-goettingen.de/en/3240.html?id=8057

Research in #NatureBiotechnology: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41587-025-02882-8

#RapidHighResolutionImaging #MBExC #Microscopy

(YouTube) The Stanford Artificial Retina Project: "Speak the Language" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZYRE0TXELzE

"Stanford's Artificial Retina Project is advancing next-generation vision restoration by developing a novel retinal implant that can 'speak the language' of the nervous system."

#retina #BCI #NeuroTech #blindness

Vaults. They are cell biology's greatest puzzle! This preprint from Martin Beck's lab shows them docked on ER membranes with a ribosome inside. What on earth is going on there??

#CellBiology #WTFology

https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2025.12.12.693869v1

RE: https://mastodon.online/@neuroinformatics/115643481413121555

I'll be coordinating the "Animals in Motion" track of this summer school, returning to London in August 2026.

Apply to join us for some hands-on learning and collaboration on open-source tools for video behavioural analysis.

https://neuroinformatics.dev/open-software-summer-school

#neuroscience #python #behaviour #ethology