Thiago Carvalho @cyrilpedia@social.cleverlibre.org

Looking for feedback on some new thoughts about Big Ideas in brain/mind research.

I've spent quite a long time researching and thinking about the history of brain/mind research in terms of the Big Ideas that have emerged. Pre-1960, it's pretty easy to list the big ideas that researchers had reached consensus around. Since 1960, that's harder to do. There's plenty of consensus around new facts (like umami is supported by receptor X on the tongue), but it's difficult to regard the things that brain researchers agree on as new, big ideas. At first, I (mis)interpreted this as a paucity of new ideas, but I no longer think that's correct - I've found a ton. Instead, I now believe that they are there but we haven't arrived at consensus around them.

I'm wondering: Why might have researchers arrived at more consensus around Big ideas introduced 1900-1960 vs 1960-2020? Obviously there's the filter of history and the fact that it takes time to work things out. But is there more to it than that? For example, have the biggest principles already been discovered? And so we are left with more of a patchwork quilt?

A sample of big ideas pre-1960ish with general consensus
*) Nerve cells exist (it's not a reticulum)
*) Neurons propagate info electrically and then chemically between them
*) DNA > RNA > Protein is a universal genetic code or all living things
*) Explaining behavior needs intermediaries between stimuli and responses (cognitive maps/minds)

A sample of big ideas with no general consensus introduced post-1960ish:
*) Cortical function emerges from repetitions of a canonical element
*) The brain is optimized for goal-directed interactions with the environment in a feedback loop (prediction/embodiment/free energy)
*) The brain is a complex system with emergent properties that cannot be understood via reductionist approaches
*) Fine structural detail in the brain (the connectome) matters for brain function

I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Out today in Nature Human Behaviour: "A systematic review and meta-analysis of the evidence on learning during the COVID-19 pandemic" with @betthaeuser and Anders Bach-Mortensen https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-022-01506-4

Reading in (online) journal club:

Jansson and Wu @NatureRevMicro@twitter.com

Soil viral diversity, ecology and climate change

#soil #SoilHealth #virus #biodiversity #ClimateChange #ecology
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41579-022-00811-z#Sec3

@DarrenObbard

"Approximately a quarter of eukaryotes are infected with the bacterium Wolbachia." !!!!!

"we show that Wolbachia infection supports fly development and buffers against nutritional stress. Wolbachia infection across several fly genotypes and a range of nutrient conditions resulted in reduced pupal mortality, increased adult emergence, and larger size."

Lindsey et al. 2023 https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.01.20.524972v1

Wow. #Drosophila #Wolbachia

Preprints are a great way to get community feedback on your research. To support discussion of preprinted work, ASAPbio & @PREreview_@twitter.com will host journal clubs for #preprints not yet submitted to a journal. Propose your preprint & get feedback on your work: https://buff.ly/3iQX7UA

"The paper costume prints are mostly made from real costumes (with the exception of the long dress, which is a smaller scale model) , worn by actors in a film project and subsequently smashed, inked and printed on cotton paper."
Colograph by Madalena

#Print #Prints #Printmaking #Colograph

https://madalenaparreira.com/Colographs

Iris Lähdeniemi and Jennifer Devlin develop a reproducible and rapid tumour-lung colonisation model to study an aggressive subset of non-small cell lung #cancer (NSCLC):

https://journals.biologists.com/bio/article/11/12/bio059623/285932/Development-of-an-adenosquamous-carcinoma

#NSCLC #Carcinoma #Histopathology #Metastasis #PreclinicalModel #Science #BiologyOpen #Biology #AcademicMastodon

#PhD offer jointly between me in #Grenoble and Matteo Rauzi in #Nice: "#mechanics driving #tissue folding", an exciting #computational #physics and #biology project.

We will use (viscoelactic) #shells and (living) #fly embryos to understand a change of shape that is fundamental to #life.

http://liphy-annuaire.univ-grenoble-alpes.fr/pages_personnelles/jocelyn_etienne/epithelium_en/

#drosophila #biophysics @academicjobs

Good morning BSDB people

Why not celebrate the end of this interminable January by nominating someone for an award?

You have ONE MORE DAY to send in nominations for the Cheryll Tickle Medal for outstanding achievements by a mid-career female developmental biologist, and the Beddington Medal for best PhD thesis.

Deadline for both: 31st Jan, which somehow seems to be TOMORROW

Please spread the word!

http://bsdb.org/awards/the-beddington-medal/

http://bsdb.org/awards/the-cheryll-tickle-medal/

https://igsad.de/9-phd-positions-available-in-the-research-unit-on-physiological-causes-and-consequences-of-genome-instability-1-230.html

🧬 ❌ 🧬 ❌
"Physiol. Consequences of Genome Instability"

Looking for your enthusiasm and your imagination!

📣 9 positions for PhD applicants are available within the novel research consortium FOR 5504.

Send us your application and join us in !

Email to: schumacher-office[at]uni-koeln.de

Please re-toot! 🙏

#Science #PHDstudent #PhDposition #DNA #DNAdamage #Genome #GenomeStability
@UniKoeln
@CECAD
#KidneyResearch #Ciliopathies #Cilia #CellBiology

Assistant Professor of Plant Pathology (Potato Pathology)

Washington State University Position
Apply by March 8, 2023
https://www.bspp.org.uk/job/washington-state-university-pullman-washington-usa-213-assistant-professor/
#plantscijobs
@plantscijobs

Multiple PhDs and Postdoctoral Funded Positions at The Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research in Cologne, Germany
ByAgristok
https://agristok.net/2023/01/28/multiple-phds-and-postdoctoral-funded-positions-at-the-max-planck-institute-for-plant-breeding-research-in-cologne-germany/
#PlantSciJobs
@plantscijobs

Andrei and his father, Arseny Tarkovsky, Moscow, 1947