Jeffrey C. Erlich @jerlich@qoto.org

Scientists! Have you read Gopen and Swan's 1990 classic "The science of scientific writing"? If not, you are in for a treat.

It's here, albeit weirdly formatted: https://www.americanscientist.org/blog/the-long-view/the-science-of-scientific-writing.

And if you prefer good pagination, check out this scan of the pre-web version: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1R9urPA7NWC5qdBqkCTim10tzwRYaLZC3/view?usp=share_link

Not bad at all, #chatGPT, not bad!
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RT @bardmital
Asked #ChatGPT to rewrite the lyrics of "Blowing in the wind" as if it is about a scientist applying for grants...
https://twitter.com/bardmital/status/1617980584558743552

My project right now is #BikeHopper, an open-source directions app for transit+bikes.

https://github.com/bikehopper/bikehopper-ui

It uses #OpenStreetMap and a modified version of GraphHopper.

Two main benefits over other trip planning apps:
1. Bike-on-bus, bike-on-train etc. options
2. Tries really hard to find low-stress routes, avoiding main roads

Yesterday at a staff meeting we discussed how we often signal that we work at unconventional hours (sending emails in the weekend) but we do not signal when we do not work in regular hours to compensate. So just logging in to say I am bouldering this whole morning with a childhood friend.

#CogSci #CognitiveScience #psychology #OpenScience

In the 2023/2024 academic year, we're launching a new Master's in Cognitive Science at the University of Rijeka. It's an interdisciplinary research-intensive course in English, pedagogically innovative, comparatively cheap (both for EU and non-EU students), accredited, and in beautiful Rijeka!

https://cogsci.uniri.hr/

A nine-month investigation undertaken by the Guardian, Die Zeit and SourceMaterial found that 90% of rainforest offsets from the world's biggest provider are worthless "phantom credits". Bought by the likes of Disney, Shell, easyJet and Gucci, it seems they may even do more harm to our environment than good.

Videos taken by residents in Peru showed forced evictions, and their homes cut down with chainsaws for an offset project.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/jan/18/revealed-forest-carbon-offsets-biggest-provider-worthless-verra-aoe

@bwyble @kendmiller @strangetruther @achristensen56 @NicoleCRust @DrYohanJohn

I'm more of a splitter when it comes to the brain's infrastructure. But anatomy is like the road-and-highway system. It says where traffic *could* go, not where it flows from moment to moment.

Cortical function, IMHO, will be about emergent properties and highly interactive dynamics that have less respective for boundaries and splits.

That is not to say that infrastructure isn't important. It's foundational

"Can a large language model be conscious?
Can a #LLM think?"

Join us
Fri Jan 20, 4 PM ET
at the #LearningSalon
to listen to & discuss with prominent philosopher of mind
David Chalmers @davidchalmers42

John Krakauer, @melaniemitchell , Claire & I are excited to discuss with David!

https://crowdcast.io/e/learningsalon/58

* The #LearningSalon is an online interdisciplinary forum, with brief talks & 2-hour discussions on #neuroscience #AI #psychology #philosophy

THREAD: Falls are a major public health problem — a top-20 cause of death in the US. Wonder what scientists are doing about that? @yunluzhu & colleagues in my lab developed powerful new tech to understand balance & evaluate therapeutics.
https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.01.07.523102v1
Want to know more / watch neat movies? 1/9

#mastopiece #neuroscience #balance #drosophila #celegans #zebrafish

Thx for boosting (we’re trying to outdo that other place)!

Love this new (to me at least!) text at @biorxivpreprint , pointing to #preprint peer reviews where available!

@tmcurley i wrote a blog post some time ago about modeling rankings with the exploded logit distribution in Stan: https://bruno.nicenboim.me/2021/03/21/a-simple-way-to-model-rankings-with-stan/

We are excited to announce that Cognitive Computational Neuroscience (CCN) 2023 will take place this year in Oxford from August 24 - 27, 2023. The conference will take place at the Examination Schools – more information can be found here:
www.venues.ox.ac.uk/our-venues/examination-schools/.

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Confirmed speakers for this year's CCN include Stan Dehaene, Helen Barron, Cate Hartley, Jay McClelland and Tim Kietzmann TimKietzmann@neuromatch.social

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We also want to note that the paper submission period will be earlier this year than in previous years: abstract submissions will open end of January, and will close March 31.

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For the most up-to-date information about CCN 2023, including reminders about deadlines, join our mailing list (https://mail.securecms.com/mailman/listinfo/ccneuro-announce) and also follow us here on Twitter (https://twitter.com/CogCompNeuro) or Mastodon (https://mastodon.social/@CogCompNeuro@qoto.org)

Please boost!!

Are you an #editor with expertise in #neuroscience? Come join our team!
This might be the right next step for you -we are looking for our next Neurobiology Section Manager, key position in the @PLOSBiology team

Apply at http://plos.io/3kh5ARD (considered upon receipt)
#careers

One of my favorite visuals on #git #workflow. Creds to @NikkiSiapno

Sloan Foundation calling for letters of inquiry - any #HigherEducation institution looking to establish #OpenSource Program Offices. Up to $750k in funding, deadline 15 February 2023 https://sloan.org/programs/digital-technology/ospo-loi

By @NeuroMinded !
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RT @brembs
"we have conceded the curation and dissemination of scientific knowledge to those for whom science will be their second priority and who value important results over rigorous process."
Says former Nature editor:
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30709550/
#openscience
https://twitter.com/brembs/status/1612345698954919936

Visual cortex is affected by sounds. Does this mean it is multisensory? Does it represent sounds?

Today in Nature #Neuroscience (https://doi.org/10.1038/s41593-022-01227-x) Célian Bimbard and team find otherwise.

Sound-evoked activity in visual cortex was similar across neurons. Even neurons in hippocampus. It persisted after we cut fibers from auditory cortex!

This activity was predicted by… subtle body movements evoked by the sounds. It reflects brainwide state and behavior signals.

#NeuroNewPaper

Antidote: Read Meng's instant classic "Statistical Paradises and Paradoxes in Big Data" to learn about the magical powers of probabilistic sampling and the big data paradox: The bigger the data, the surer we fool ourselves. When in doubt, trust theory.
https://statistics.fas.harvard.edu/files/statistics-2/files/statistical_paradises_and_paradoxes.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwjP9oTL97D8AhW3MzQIHT6JAR0QFnoECBQQAQ&usg=AOvVaw3kG1o8TiFNnu072sG6OT7B