Pinned
Replying to @WiringTheBrain
"Free Agents - How Evolution Gave Us Free Will" will be out on October 3rd, from @PrincetonUPress 😊 amazon.com/Free-Agents-Ev…
Kevin Mitchell
127.7K posts
Kevin Mitchell
@WiringTheBrain
Neurogeneticist interested in the relations between genes, brains, and minds. Author of INNATE (2018), FREE AGENTS (2023). kjmitchell.com
- New rule: news stories on vaccination should use a picture of someone with the awful disease, as opposed to a big-ass needle #vaccineswork
- Bertrand Russell's response to fascist Oswald Mosley's entreaties to debate him:
- This lockdown is getting pretty competitive. Did you record an amazing multi-part song with your family like the von Trapps? Did you bake sourdough from cultures rescued from the Egyptian pyramids? Did you film a stop-motion Lego movie with your 3-year-old? No. No you didn't.
- Darwin, on cultivating the habits to combat his own confirmation bias:
- A lot of molecular and cell and developmental biology is concerned with figuring out the "functions" of various proteins. I'm starting to distrust that formulation...
- Gall’s Law: All complex systems that work evolved from simpler systems that worked. A complex system designed from scratch never works, and cannot be patched up to make it work. You have to start over, beginning with a simple system.
- A little reminder that to get from genotypes to phenotypes, you have to go through development...
- PSA: Dopamine is not a reward molecule. That is all.
- Replying to @StuartJRitchieThis is one of those things where people assume their subjective experience is the same as everyone else’s. It isn’t.
- New study finds fecal transplants from concert pianists improve discrimination of musical tones in mice.
- Geneticist version: No. No. No, that's not what heritability means No. Yes, complex traits are complex No. CRISPR won't fix everything No. Epigenetics doesn't mean what you think it means No. Yes, Darwin is still rightNeuroscientist version: No. No. No, you do use all 100% of your brain, both sides of it too No. Yes, consciousness is a complicated problem No. Elon Musk won't fix everything No. AI doesn't work like your brain does No. Yes, dendrites are pretty
- Replying to @AdamRutherfordHmm... should I offer a firm handshake with a veiled threat of violence or pat you on the bottom? So hard to know... So confusing for me...
- For the love of Christ - just read them the fucking story already. It's nice. You can have a snuggle. It makes them go to sleep. Their brains will take care of themselves...How to maximize the brain benefits of storytime for infants bit.ly/2XdrZPN
