@albertcardona@mathstodon.xyz
@albertcardona@mathstodon.xyz avatar

albertcardona

@albertcardona@mathstodon.xyz

How does the brain work? Someday, we'll figure it out.
Group Leader, MRC LMB, and Professor, University of Cambridge, UK.
#neuroscience #Drosophila #TrakEM2 #FijiSc #CATMAID #connectomics #connectome #vEM #iNaturalist #entomology
Born at 335 ppm.
Brains, signal processing, software and entomology: there will be bugs.

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albertcardona, to Neuroscience
@albertcardona@mathstodon.xyz avatar

"Compensatory enhancement of input maintains aversive dopaminergic reinforcement in hungry Drosophila", by Meschi et al. 2024 (Scott Waddell's la).
https://www.cell.com/neuron/fulltext/S0896-6273(24)00325-8

#neuroscience #Drosophila #dopamine

albertcardona, to Neuroscience
@albertcardona@mathstodon.xyz avatar

"CRASH2p: Closed-loop Two Photon Imaging in Freely Moving Animals", by McNulty et al. 2024 (Marc Gershow's lab).

https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.05.22.595209v1

The new version of Mirna Skanata & Marc Gershow's 2-photon acusto-optics neuron activity tracking microscope.

#neuroscience #Drosophila

albertcardona, to android
@albertcardona@mathstodon.xyz avatar

Turns out all the "unremovable" Samsung apps from the android Galaxy A14 can be uninstalled after all. It's convoluted, but worth it: far snappier – far more responsive, less memory usage.

  1. Enable developer options.
  2. Under developer options, enable USB debugging.
  3. connect to a laptop via USB.
  4. Install "adb" (Android Debug Bridge) in the laptop, a command like tool. In Ubuntu 22.04, do "sudo apt install adb". There are packages online for other operating systems.
  5. Discover which apps to remove. Not trivial, but there are various lists of Samsung "bloatware" online.
  6. Then, use adb to discover which packages to remove. For example:

$ adb shell pm list packages | grep facebook

.. and then remove them:

$ adb shell pm uninstall --user 0 com.facebook.services
$ adb shell pm uninstall --user 0 com.facebook.system
$ adb shell pm uninstall --user 0 com.facebook.appmanager

Likewise for Microsoft cruft.

  1. If no apps match the search, then use the "App List" (installable via F-Droid store) to list all user apps or system apps (from a toggle on the top-right menu), which lists all apps by name and with the package name under it.

An app that I removed that indeed drops some possibly valuable services but which greatly improve UI responsiveness:

$ adb shell pm uninstall --user 0 com.sec.android.daemonapp

The above removes the built-in weather app and various widgets. But suddenly the phone doesn't stall randomly and the UI is snappier than ever.

  1. If you regret uninstalling a package, it can be reinstalled with adb.

BTW don't forget to re-enable using only 1 background thread every time the OneUI is updated. Samsung overwrites that setting.

lana, to random
@lana@mstdn.science avatar

Overleaf, primarily used to write scientific papers, encouraging its users to use AI text. What could go wrong! I am even less open to reviewing papers now. Waiting for Evilsevier to release its "AI for peer reviewers" tool so that we can live in the most boring world ever for a few years. Just until the next generation, with better BS detectors than us, start doing real science again

albertcardona,
@albertcardona@mathstodon.xyz avatar

@lana

For the life of me I cannot understand of what use is to delegate writing to a machine. Writing is rewriting, because writing is thinking, is the process of composing one's thoughts, of organising what one wants to say, and putting it down, with references and pointers to data sheets and figures. Delegate writing to a machine and all purpose is lost. As if writing was pointless busywork. Perhaps that's what it is to spammers in search of the small percent of readers who will become marks.

albertcardona, to random Catalan
@albertcardona@mathstodon.xyz avatar

Crane fly o’clock.

futurebird, to random
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

I guess I just think that those questions children ask, that come from seemingly nowhere— that pure kind of curiosity: is really important, it’s precious. And I wish that it wasn’t so common for adults to stop asking questions like that. I spend a lot of time thinking about the sort of experiences that cause the endless stream of questions to dry up— (it is not because we suddenly have all the answers we need, though that is what some people seem to think it is)

albertcardona, (edited )
@albertcardona@mathstodon.xyz avatar

@futurebird

When one asks questions of the curiosity kind, all too often the receiving adults find themselves having to question their beliefs. They don't like that. They get upset and retaliate, or at best, dismiss the questions as childish. Soon a young adult learns to stop asking questions. And to ignore their inner voice.

tedpavlic, to random
@tedpavlic@mas.to avatar

It's unavoidable that grad students will use LLM's to help them with their writing/proofreading and possibly even help jump start some of their reasoning. Rather than preaching total abstinence, this 3-page article outlines safer ways to use (and not use) these tools.
https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acsnano.3c01544

image/jpeg
image/jpeg

albertcardona,
@albertcardona@mathstodon.xyz avatar

@tedpavlic Was published over a year ago. Wondering whether the authors would update any of their advice.

albertcardona, to Neuroscience Catalan
@albertcardona@mathstodon.xyz avatar

“A Connectome of the Male Drosophila Ventral Nerve Cord”, by Takemura et al. 2024

https://elifesciences.org/reviewed-preprints/97769

albertcardona, to uk
@albertcardona@mathstodon.xyz avatar

#SilentSunday #UK

professorhank, to climate
@professorhank@sfba.social avatar

Say goodbye to 2C: https://www.columbia.edu/~mailings/2023/Acceleration.2023.11.10.pdf

albertcardona,
@albertcardona@mathstodon.xyz avatar

@professorhank

The optimism, 15 years ago:
"... and long-term stabilisation at 350 parts per million of CO2 equivalent"

ploum, (edited ) to random
@ploum@mamot.fr avatar

The kind of professor I’m trying to be at university:

EDIT: just to clarify, this is a screenshot found offline, not from one of my student. I’m more direct as I tell my students that "piracy is sharing knowledge and sharing knowledge is ethical and what I’m paid to do so please use libgen.rs and sci-hub"

albertcardona,
@albertcardona@mathstodon.xyz avatar

@muratk5n @ploum

That was a scam site drawing books from libgen.

albertcardona,
@albertcardona@mathstodon.xyz avatar

@codebyjeff @ploum

The ToR browser is really helpful here. All they seized was a domain name, not the actual server. Accessing alternative domain names that lead to the same server remains possible. Via ToR in particular.

albertcardona,
@albertcardona@mathstodon.xyz avatar

@umps @muratk5n @ploum

libgen doesn't charge. b-ok.cc attempts to charge you, and the book collection is the same. I don't know it for sure though.

albertcardona, to Neuroscience
@albertcardona@mathstodon.xyz avatar

"When and why does motor preparation arise in recurrent neural network models of motor control?"

"we modelled the motor cortex as an input-driven dynamical system, and we asked what the optimal way to control this system to perform fast delayed reaches is. We find that delay-period inputs consistently arise in an optimally controlled model of M1."

Cool findings from the lab of fellow colleague Guillaume Hennequin.

Schimel et al. 2024 https://elifesciences.org/reviewed-preprints/89131

albertcardona, to random
@albertcardona@mathstodon.xyz avatar

Current biases and trends in scientific journalism. Study from a sample of Nature articles:

"we found a skew toward quoting men in Nature science journalism. However, quotation is trending toward equal representation at a faster rate than authorship rates in academic publishing. Gender disparity in Nature quotes was dependent on the article type. We found a significant over-representation of names with predicted Celtic/English origin and under-representation of names with a predicted East Asian origin in both in extracted quotes and journal citations but dampened in citations."

"Analysis of science journalism reveals gender and regional disparities in coverage" by Davidson and Greene, 2024 https://elifesciences.org/reviewed-preprints/84855

#ScientificPublishing

albertcardona, to random
@albertcardona@mathstodon.xyz avatar

"workers are not simply scaled-down versions of queens that have lost their wings."

"Instead workers have a distinct thorax architecture with an enlarged muscle system to strengthen the neck and increase the range of motion of the head ... appears to be a key adaptation to allow ants to lift and carry objects or prey that are many times their own weight"

Commentary by Diethard Tautz 2014 https://elifesciences.org/articles/02088 on Keller et al. 2014 https://elifesciences.org/articles/01539

#ants #entomology

jon, to random
@jon@gruene.social avatar

For the first time since 1992 (when I was 12) I’m completely disinterested by the UK General Election.

Sunak and the Tories will lose, Labour in uninspiring, the Lib Dems weedy, Greens weak and SNP weakened, and Reform simply grim. And Brexit is the elephant none of them will touch.

As I’m still a UK citizen I will vote, but it’s with less determination than ever before.

albertcardona,
@albertcardona@mathstodon.xyz avatar

@jon

If I may: Greens are weak because people don't vote for them. Perhaps it's time to give them a strong chance – seems to be the only party still saying Brexit was a terrible mistake.

albertcardona,
@albertcardona@mathstodon.xyz avatar

@jtwcornell91 @jon

Therefore: the Greens are weak because people don't work for them ...

SusiArnott, to climate
@SusiArnott@mastodon.green avatar

albertcardona,
@albertcardona@mathstodon.xyz avatar

@SusiArnott

https://streetartutopia.com/2024/04/10/politicians-discussing-climate-change/


guygaechter, to Signal German
@guygaechter@chaos.social avatar

If you only read one article this year, it has to be THIS by @Mer__edith, the president of #signal :

"AI is a marketing term, not a technical term of art. [...]
This is also why it’s imperative that we recognize mass surveillance – and ultimately the surveillance business model – as the root of the large-scale tech we’re currently calling “AI”."

https://www.helmut-schmidt.de/aktuelles/detail/die-rede-der-zukunftspreistraegerin

#privacy #surveillance #ai #bigtech

via

albertcardona,
@albertcardona@mathstodon.xyz avatar

@guygaechter @Mer__edith

"Make no mistake – I am optimistic – but my optimism is an invitation to analysis and action, not a ticket to complacency."

Outstanding.

avsm, to random
@avsm@recoil.org avatar

Whoever the genius is loudly playing "things can only get better" while the PM is speaking live on every British TV channel, I applaud you

albertcardona,
@albertcardona@mathstodon.xyz avatar

@avsm Has to do with protesting Brexit, I am told. The last 5 years will go down in history as infamy.

steveroyle, to random
@steveroyle@biologists.social avatar

What's the rule? Three crashes of Word and it's time to go home? I'm on two.

#LifeOfPI

albertcardona,
@albertcardona@mathstodon.xyz avatar

@steveroyle

In such cases, I write latex or markdown and then pandoc to DOCX, then copy-paste into the funding agency's tabulated template.

Because actual writing in MSWord is infuriating, particularly when aggravated by a straightjacket template that keeps complaining and moving text around.

Gabriel_aughey, to random
@Gabriel_aughey@drosophila.social avatar

Journal that charges £9000 for publishing an article gives advice for how to spot predatory publishers...🤔 https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-024-01437-2

albertcardona,
@albertcardona@mathstodon.xyz avatar

@Gabriel_aughey

"Not like that."

RolfAE, to Leipzig German

Last week there was a discussion in Leipzig city council about a seed library. A concept is now to be developed with partners!

I'm already looking forward to seeing online in the future where such seed libraries exist.

http://seedlibraries.weebly.com/

I also have a lot of questions: e.g. Does anyone know of a study on the effect of such seed libraries?

albertcardona,
@albertcardona@mathstodon.xyz avatar

@PaulWermer @RolfAE @straphanger

Just read a fantastic one, on the work of John Letts, from 2001:

"No one had excavated a thatched roof before."

"Before systematic crop breeding, cereals evolved into local land races. Different soils, slope, shading and drainage gave endless possibilities for adaptation. With variety in the seed stock, crops would grow differently even across a single farm. Whatever the weather or diseases, something would always flourish."

"Old thatch provides an opportunity to study this lost diversity. Letts often finds a mix of bread wheat, English rivet wheat - not grown commercially for more than a century - rye, oats and barley. He has also found 35 different weeds, from corn cockle and cornflower - now vanished from English farms - to yellow rattle and cow wheat."

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2001/may/17/technology2

albertcardona,
@albertcardona@mathstodon.xyz avatar

@IanSudbery @PaulWermer @RolfAE @straphanger

On time: 5 minutes to mix, and 5 minutes to roll the dough into baguettes some hours later. Actual total work time is 15 to 20 minutes tops. One just has to plan around the waiting times.

On cooking cost: depends on the efficiency of your oven and how many you bake at once. In our case, our electric oven when used during the day can draw from solar panels.

On baguette cost: a lot of the weight is water. A 500g bread loaf does not have 500g of flour, nowhere near. Closer to half of that; water loss during cooking is not that great.

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