Профиль

How can a brain shaped by evolution comprehend the 3.5-billion-yr process that created it? L Dugatkin & @carlbergstrom.com explore how simple rules & historical constraints generated life’s diversity: not perfect, but good enough to endure. @ibe-barcelona.bsky.social ctbergstrom.com/publications...

Si algun dia entrem en contacte amb una altra civilització, els seus cervells seran molt més complexos que els nostres? Potser no. El cervell humà és, en molts sentits, tan extraordinari com és possible imaginar. En parlo al meu assaig d’avui a @ara.cat a.cat

``The nervous system, which probably first evolved as a device to coordinate the behaviour of various cells in multicellular organisms (...) ultimately became able to invent the future''. Always so inspiring to read the great François Jacob. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fran%C3...

Can AI help us experiment with the past? “Historical LLMs” trained on texts from earlier periods could act as simulated way to explore how people thought, reasoned, and behaved across history. A fascinating @pnas.org article: www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/... @manlius.bsky.social @brigan.bsky.social

Why is reading so fundamental to the human mind? In this fascinating paper, @standehaene.bsky.social & Co show how literacy reshapes and connects the brain’s visual and language systems. A timely reminder of what education could lose if LLMs replace reading & writing. www.unicog.org/publications...

Where is Wally? After a while, we found our mini orange cat hiding in the neuroscience part of our library. Good choice of topics.

Four years ago, I co-curated the exhibition BRAIN(S)-CERVELL(S) at the #CCCB in Barcelona: an exploration of matter, minds, and other forms of intelligence. Here is my first sketch of its three spaces. It was a wonderful adventure. www.cccb.org/en/w/exhibit...

Is the human brain really an optimal template for AI? Probably not. The connectome is a compromise among competing objectives, shaped by evolution, development, and biological constraints. Check this @cp-trendscognsci.bsky.social paper www.cell.com/trends/cogni... @brigan.bsky.social

I just learned Peter Schuster passed away. A great colleague from @sfiscience.bsky.social , one of the smartest people I ever met. He made fundamental contributions to the maths of evolution and origins of life. A great inspiration for all. @josepsardanyes.bsky.social www.santafe.edu/people/profi...

How does nature find Turing patterns? Check in @pnas.org this beautful paper led by @imperialcollegeldn.bsky.social Robert Endres on how evolution can search in high-dimensional parameter spaces using oscillations: www.pnas.org/doi/epdf/10.... And here's my comment: www.pnas.org/doi/epub/10....

Why does the unconscious speak in images rather than words? In The Kekulé Problem, Cormac McCarthy turns Kekulé’s dream into a deeper question about language: perhaps speech is not the master of thought, but a recent invader sitting atop an older, image-making mind. nautil.us/the-kekul-pr...

The Kekulé Problem - NautilusWhere did language come from?nautil.us

I have an outstanding PhD candidate: very bright, already first author of her first paper, and co-author of two others from my lab. Yet she is not getting a grant because of academic scores. When a system cannot recognize this kind of talent, the system is failing. What can be done?

We just adopted a new member of the family. This is Wall-E (Wally for short) . A tiny orange cat, apparently very interested in hydrocarbons.

How can an extremely simple equation open the door to virtually infinite complexity? Fifty years ago, Bob May’s classic paper in @nature.com on chaos showed how deterministic rules can generate unpredictability, with deep implications for ecology, physics & beyond. mym.iimas.unam.mx/ramon/docs/M...

The first copy of my new @princetonupress.bsky.social book has just arrived at the office. It explores death in all its forms, from cells to minds, machines, languages and information. A complexity/evolutionary perspective, from Frankenstein to neuroscience. Soon out: www.amazon.com/Endless-Endi...

What kinds of living protocells could be created? In this @royalsocietypublishing.org paper, we made a systematic exploration, from Rashevsky and Turing chemical protocells to Ganti's chemoton, Szostak's ribocells, transduction-driven cells & minimal cells royalsocietypublishing.org/rstb/article...

Is the first artificial cell finally here? In this groundbreaking work lead by @kateadamala.bsky.social the team has been able to create a synthetic cell from scratch, capable of genetically encoded growth and division. An impressive achievement biotic.org/research/spu...

What happens when cells challenge physics instead of merely obeying it? This @natphys.nature.com paper reminds us that life is not just matter arranged in complicated ways, but matter kept away from equilibrium through energy, fluctuations, mechanics and control. www.researchgate.net/publication/...

Academic renewal needs pressure from below and responsibility from above www.timeshighereducation.com/depth/academ...

Academic renewal needs pressure from below and responsibility from aboveHigh-level declarations pledging not to misuse metrics in research assessment are important, but they are far from enough. Senior academics, in particular, must use their influence to ensure instituti...www.timeshighereducation.com

What is a disease? In our new concept paper, we explore how complex networks, statistical physics, phase transitions and attractors allow us to redefine diseases as multiscale, emergent dynamical states. @manlius.bsky.social @guimaguade.bsky.social www.preprints.org/manuscript/2...