Maybe if we're lucky I'll get some of my neuroscience friends to talk to me about it too but I have to limit their psychic damage

It's been a minute (hello Mastodon, it's me) but I thought you might want to know that @grimalkina and I had some thoughts on a recent preprint about LLMs and brains.

Our latest episode episode is live and yes, a little spicy. 🔥

https://www.changetechnically.fyi/2396236/episodes/17378968-you-deserve-better-brain-research

A couple of days ago @analog_ashley and a few friends put on a science storytelling event at UCSD. Seeing the love and care put into this event really warmed my heart: they coached speakers with multiple rounds of writing workshops and feedback, and Ashley brought her "backyard brains" kits to do scrappy neuroscience with the crowd in theme with her story about creating long-distance labs during the pandemic that students could do in their bedrooms ❤️ theme was appropriately: Adaptation!

@grimalkina @analog_ashley
I cannot convey how much I resonated with the latest Change, Technically episode on math anxiety! I was homeschooled, my wife is defending her Ph.D. thesis tomorrow (!), we have both seen many of the patterns of math anxiety you talk about... I was just nodding (and sometimes smh along with you) the whole time. It's so hard and complex and I love that you embrace that.

Thank you for another thoroughly researched episode!

https://www.changetechnically.fyi/2396236/episodes/16876929-who-s-afraid-of-math
#math #STEM #education #teaching #psychology #neuroscience #podcast

You want help understanding how science funding works so we can defend it? @analog_ashley has your back. Here is her entire lesson breakdown for how to teach about science funding, complete with slides, data, and a compassionate and student-centered approach.

https://www.thetransmitter.org/how-to-teach-this-paper/how-to-teach-students-about-science-funding/

New Change, Technically episode is out: WHO'S AFRAID OF MATH?

We tackle *math anxiety,* @analog_ashley teaches me about vulnerable circuits in the brain and being vulnerable about teaching, and I read a HECK of a lot of science to bring you this episode.

I hope you enjoy our deep dive into math anxiety, what we know about it, what we can do about it, and why we think you shouldn't feel bad if math makes you feel bad ❤️

https://www.changetechnically.fyi/2396236/episodes/16876929-who-s-afraid-of-math

@grimalkina this is so motivating that I am currently looking into printing custom rubber ducks for next year

Some of you may recall that I told Ashley about rubber ducking. Now she has bought a fleet of small rubber ducks for her entire coding in biology class so every student gets one (all typically students who have never programmed/are often very intimidated by learning to code). They're pretty excited.

This may be my biggest contribution to the future of coding.

@shom @grimalkina thank you!!! in our last class i asked if anyone had their duck with them and several students raised them up into the air, it was so delightful.

@doppelgrau @grimalkina i was pleasantly surprised (and also simultaneously mortified) at how much 150 ducks cost me

@magsol @grimalkina yesssss do it! this was super fun; i'm going to ask students to report back on what they talked to their duckies about (with pictures, obviously)

I’m only on episode 4 of “Change, Technically” with @grimalkina and @analog_ashley and I’ve already cried twice and and cheered out loud in my car a few times. If you’re in software, infrastructure, or use either professionally you should be listening to this. https://www.changetechnically.fyi/

New "Change, Technically" episode from @analog_ashley and @grimalkina https://www.changetechnically.fyi/2396236/episodes/16381126-the-magic-of-little-boxes

Submit your abstracts for the #SNUFA #SpikingNeuralNetworks conference by tomorrow The conference is free, online and usually has around 700 highly engaged participants. Talks are selected by participant interest.

Please do signal boost this!

https://snufa.net/2024/

#compneuro #neuroscience

@yvonnezlam got it, thank you!

If you listened to our #ChangeTechnically episode and are still wondering what's going on with dopamine, check out this (and many other!) articles in @thetransmitter: https://www.thetransmitter.org/dopamine/reconstructing-dopamines-link-to-reward/

@yvonnezlam oh interesting, do you happen to remember this scholar's name?

@yvonnezlam thanks for sharing. i figured my family wasn't alone in this 😔

@maxpool @avehtari @djhsu

cc @grimalkina i think you're going to love this!!!

The piranha problem: Large effects swimming in a small pond.
Christopher Tosh, Philip Greengard, Ben Goodrich, Andrew Gelman, @avehtari, @djhsu
2 Apr 2024
https://arxiv.org/abs/2105.13445

In a lot of social science research, small, random factors are reported as having large effects on social and political attitudes and behavior (social priming, hormonal levels,parental socioeconomic status, weather, ...). Studies have claimed to find large effects from these and other inputs.

The results show that it would be extremely unlikely to have all these large effects coexisting—they would have to almost exactly cancel each other out.

#socialScience #replicationCrisis #statistics #quantitative #research #science #scientificMethod