As I’ve somehow become a “senior postdoc” (a moniker that I’ve attempted to elude for years with diminishing credibility), I’ve been reflecting on all the things I wish I knew when I started. Mistakes I’ve made, lessons I’ve learned, regrets I’ve heard from other senior postdocs. That reflection has led to this post, another installment in my series which could be entitled Practical Advice for … Continue reading
In my last post I started to explain why our perception of reality isn’t a faithful representation of the real world. If you haven’t already, go read that post to learn about how we only perceive a small part of the world, and what we do perceive is highly distorted. This follow-up post discusses another way that our brains fool us: categorization. There are a … Continue reading
Every morning as you groggily enter consciousness, you immediately start to experience the world. You hear your phone alarm blaring next to you, you feel the soft covers on your body, you open your eyes to the familiar sight of your bedroom ceiling. As you climb out of bed and go about your day, you continue to take in the world through your senses. Your … Continue reading
What’s up, brain enthusiasts? I wrote a real post today that I’d really like you to read, but I thought I’d also write up this separate mini-post so we can get the awkwardness out of the way first. **Here follows a semi-personal random interlude that you can feel free to ignore** I know, I haven’t posted about actual brain stuff in like a zillion years. … Continue reading
Columbia University, where I work, is a fantastic place to do science. But like at most other institutions, gender bias is a pervasive issue. I’ve repeatedly called out various seminar series at Columbia for having an absurdly skewed gender ratio (favoring men, of course). lol the @Columbia @ZuckermanBrain Neurotheory seminar speaker lineup has fewer women than people named Michael: https://t.co/anJdThKkKo — Anita Devineni (@BrainsExplained) October … Continue reading
Recently I was on a panel for PhD students about “How to get a postdoc”. It made me realize that many grad students don’t know much about the process of obtaining and choosing a postdoctoral position, and that I have a lot of knowledge to share that could be helpful. So here I’ve written up my thoughts and advice about how to get a postdoc … Continue reading
Welcome to a special year-end Brain Bits! Today I’ll discuss some of my favorite brain-related research from 2017. *Note: “Best of” = random papers that I liked. Apologies to the authors of all the other awesome 2017 papers that are not mentioned here! How the brain creates an internal compass My favorite neuroscience story of the year was the discovery of the mechanism that … Continue reading
So I just got back from the fruit fly neurobiology meeting at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. It was a week filled with posters and talks, reunions and awkward introductions, wine and lobster, disco balls and a dance party reminiscent of your high school prom. After the last meeting two years ago I wrote all about what this quirky fly extravaganza is really like (posted here), … Continue reading
Anyone who knows me knows that I’m a runner. No, not like I just like to run. I am a runner. It is at the essential core of my identity. If I had a choice, I would spend all day, every day, running outside on secluded trails, far away from my lab experiments. The happiest day of my life wasn’t when I graduated or published … Continue reading
Migrating birds and butterflies fly thousands of miles in the autumn to escape cold winter temperatures, then return home in the spring. Salmon swim hundreds of miles from the ocean through rivers until they reach the spawning ground where they were born. During World Wars I and II, pigeons were trained to deliver messages between distant military units or to communicate with spies behind enemy … Continue reading