Carlos Brody
carlosbrody.bsky.social
Carlos Brody
@carlosbrody.bsky.social
Neuroscientist, both computational and experimental. Also, parent of a teenager :) . All posts and opinions are in my personal capacity.

professional website: https://brodylab.org
Pinned
we're crowd-sourcing a searchable repository of tangible benefits stemming from federally-funded research. Come enjoy the great stories; or send in an idea; or volunteer to join the team.

publicusaresearchbenefits.com

please share and re-share so we get more great stories in there!
Searchable database of tangible benefits that federally-funded research gave us.
A crowd-sourced site. Health and Well-being. National Security. Prosperity.
publicusaresearchbenefits.com
Reposted by Carlos Brody
Ecstatic to announce our exciting new paper! Rat-mon y Cajal found a new friend to help him learn. Introducing, Dr. Tutor-us!
November 11, 2025 at 2:47 PM
What is it like for a U.S. citizen to be kidnapped by CBP? What are they like, how do they talk when they speed off with you in their car?

Hear it directly from this woman with extraordinary courage and presence of mind, who bravely shamed them and non-violently fought back until they released her.
Watch this. I mean it. Watch it

Need to feed your kids? Fine do that first. But the bathroom? Hold it. Watch this first

Jennifer Moriarty describes being thrown in a Border Patrol vehicle & spending hours driven around by, per Daniel Biss, the Keystone Kops danielbiss.substack.com/p/daniel-bis...
Daniel Biss talks with detained ICE protestor Jennifer Moriarty
In this recording from our live conversation, I spoke with Evanston resident Jennifer Moriarty, who was "grabbed by the neck" and then detained while peacefully protesting against ICE.
danielbiss.substack.com
November 9, 2025 at 4:43 PM
Reposted by Carlos Brody
U.S. Public Research Benefits is a searchable repository that showcases the value of basic science in an easy and accessible format. @baselesspursuit.bsky.social shares how he and his colleagues developed the resource.

#neuroskyence

www.thetransmitter.org/science-and-...
Our searchable repository of useful research can restore trust in federally funded basic science
Called U.S. Public Research Benefits, the database showcases the value of basic science in an easy and accessible format.
www.thetransmitter.org
November 5, 2025 at 2:50 PM
Mark is so right about this.
The NIH institute director firing last Friday is very bad.

I made a video explainer about why.

Stay for last post, w link to @science.org story from @jocelynkaiser.bsky.social

1/4
🧪
October 24, 2025 at 12:13 AM
Don't miss No Kings!

Bring your American flags 🇺🇸 , protesting this lying, cruel, law- and Constitution-breaking administration is the most patriotic thing you can do! 😊🇺🇸
October 17, 2025 at 7:09 PM
No Kings Robert DeNiro
YouTube video by DemCast USA
youtu.be
October 11, 2025 at 8:13 PM
Firm, elegant, and clear "No Way" response to Trump's compact from MIT

"fundamentally, the premise of the document is inconsistent with our core belief that scientific funding should be based on scientific merit alone"

Well said, well done, well led MIT!!!

orgchart.mit.edu/letters/rega...
Regarding the Compact | MIT Organization Chart
orgchart.mit.edu
October 10, 2025 at 2:44 PM
Reposted by Carlos Brody
I am proud of MIT, where our branch of AAUP has voted unanimously to endorse this statement urging MIT leadership and the MIT Corporation to reject the Compact wholesale
docs.google.com/document/d/1...
Letter Regarding Compact
MIT Chapter of the American Association of University Professors October 6, 2025 Statement on the “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education” MIT has been invited by the federal governmen...
docs.google.com
October 7, 2025 at 12:01 AM
Another absolutely astounding "gem" in the compact: abolish units that "belittle" conservative ideas -- while doing it in the name of an "intellectually open campus" 😮‼️

😂 Amazing! apparently no sense of irony (or consistency) whatsoever! 😂

Also completely incompatible with First Amendment.
Excellent analysis of the Trump compact for universities -- read it, recommend it, share it.

Among the big points: take away the law's predictability and fairness, and instead become entirely subjugated to arbitrary whims of the DOJ.

Dangerous and un-American.

balkin.blogspot.com/2025/10/the-...
Balkinization: The Art of Replacing the Law with the Deal
A group blog on constitutional law, theory, and politics
balkin.blogspot.com
October 6, 2025 at 1:51 AM
Excellent analysis of the Trump compact for universities -- read it, recommend it, share it.

Among the big points: take away the law's predictability and fairness, and instead become entirely subjugated to arbitrary whims of the DOJ.

Dangerous and un-American.

balkin.blogspot.com/2025/10/the-...
Balkinization: The Art of Replacing the Law with the Deal
A group blog on constitutional law, theory, and politics
balkin.blogspot.com
October 6, 2025 at 1:11 AM
Reposted by Carlos Brody
Message to university leaders considering signing—or negotiating—the extortion letter.
October 3, 2025 at 1:09 PM
Reposted by Carlos Brody
Federal workers are speaking out on how the Trump regime is harming Americans:

"We stand here today at a moment of the greatest assault of our lifetimes on our freedoms. The US Constitution is being shredded... We are here to call on Congress to stand up and stop it."

youtu.be/uw1KwIBgrCw?...
Mark Histed, NIH Scientist *speaking in personal capacity
YouTube video by Civil Servants Coalition
youtu.be
October 2, 2025 at 2:46 AM
Reposted by Carlos Brody
Comment now! Cutting off student visas is terrible for US competitiveness in key research areas.
September 27, 2025 at 8:55 PM
September 22, 2025 at 1:04 PM
Always exciting when someone reads one's work! Thank you for the interest and the quotes @ulisespereirao.bsky.social

And a shout out here to Adrian Bondy, @juliecharlton.bsky.social and @thomas-zhihao-luo.bsky.social, the wonderful co-first-authors who led the work.

Adrian is on the job market!
Friday’s AIND JC lead by Shawn Olsen and I on the Brody lab preprint ran 90+ min, unusual. Nice paper, spirited discussion. Make a clear argument that to grasp behavior we need multiregional, multi-neuron, simultaneous single-trial data. Below quotes from the paper.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Brain-wide coordination of decision formation and commitment
Neural correlates of a subject’s upcoming choice in decision making tasks are remarkably widespread throughout the brain, but how these brain-wide signals are coordinated remains unknown. Do brain reg...
www.biorxiv.org
September 20, 2025 at 11:44 PM
Life is a crazy rollercoaster these days! Yesterday I was all proud of people in my lab, like @thomas-zhihao-luo.bsky.social and @timkimd.bsky.social and the paper they posted about.

Today? -- gah 😳🤯 straight corruption!

Up & down like that All. The. Time!

Breathe deep, everyone. It's a marathon
Omg that second highlight. Just straight corruption.
The H1-B visa thing is, like everything else in the Trump administration, set up to carve up exceptions for friends and punish enemies. It’s the authoritarian thru-line that stitches everything together.
September 20, 2025 at 2:03 PM
What happens in your brain when you make up your mind?

Postdoc (soon faculty at U. of Utah) @thomas-zhihao-luo.bsky.social and ex-grad student (now Shanahan Fellow at Allen Institute) @timkimd.bsky.social have some answers in this new paper out in Nature!

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

🧵 1/6
September 19, 2025 at 1:01 PM
The First Amendment and a Free Press are fundamental to freedom and to making America a great country.

Threatening to take away broadcast licenses for criticizing the president is a direct attack on the First Amendment. We have to speak up, be active, defend it.

www.nytimes.com/2025/09/18/u...
Trump Pressures Broadcasters Over Critical Coverage, Escalating Attack on Speech
www.nytimes.com
September 19, 2025 at 10:46 AM
The Trump administration's assaults on great American successes, like this one, leave many of us scientists bewildered and not knowing how to respond.

But inaction is not an option. If you don't know what to do, put time and effort into figuring out what to do.

www.nytimes.com/2025/09/14/m...
How the Trump Administration Is Dismantling America’s Cancer-Research System
www.nytimes.com
September 15, 2025 at 1:16 AM
This rule would have meant I couldn't do my Ph.D. in America.

I did do it in America. Became a professor. 12 thriving U.S. labs are now headed by trainees from my research lab. Like me, they are all working hard to enrich American knowledge and society.

With this self-harming rule, none of that.
Trump admin planning to change student visas from lasting for duration of academic program to fixed 4-yr term, and then much harder to renew
Could destroy US ability to attract global talent, particularly those seeking advanced degrees in STEM. The median time to complete a PhD is 5.7 yrs per NSF.
Trump Deals A New Immigration Blow To International Students
Trump officials have proposed a new rule limiting international students to fixed periods of entry, making a U.S. education more precarious.
www.forbes.com
August 29, 2025 at 11:48 PM
As of today, I am a US citizen! 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸 I am very excited. 🎊

This wonderful country has given me a family, a career, and a community I love.

First duty as a patriotic citizen? 🇺🇸 Speak up to defend our Democracy, our Constitution, and our science, all under grave threat.
August 29, 2025 at 11:45 PM
Reposted by Carlos Brody
Having to spend time ironing can put a wrinkle in other plans, which is why wash and wear cotton has become so popular. But did you know that the basic chemistry to create these fibers was developed thanks to public funding?

Learn more here:
publicusaresearchbenefits.com/examples/202...
The chemistry research that gave us wash-and-wear cotton fabrics
Research from USDA chemistry laboratory made cotton fabric permanently wrinkle resistant
publicusaresearchbenefits.com
June 9, 2025 at 7:38 PM
Reposted by Carlos Brody
The same National Science Foundation that the President’s budget wants to cut in half. In half! We should triple it.
June 8, 2025 at 9:00 PM
Reposted by Carlos Brody
Reminder: Nobel-prize winning PCR (1983), used in basically all genetic tech today, was only possible because of extremophile bacterium discovered in 1964 in Yellowstone funded by a small ~$80k NSF grant with no obvious application at the time. #science 🧪
www.richmondscientific.com/how-a-discov...
How a discovery in Yellowstone National Park led to the development of PCR - Richmond Scientific
A discovery in Yellowstone National Park led to the development of PCR, the gold-standard COVID-19 tests used to fight the global pandemic.
www.richmondscientific.com
June 8, 2025 at 9:09 PM
Reposted by Carlos Brody
Some types of tumors are incredibly hard to treat because they mix with healthy tissue instead of forming isolated blobs. Federally funded scientists at Stanford used the immune system's own defenses to treat these tumors.

Learn more here:
publicusaresearchbenefits.com/examples/202...
Breakthrough treatment gives new hope for a rare childhood Brain Cancer
NIH funding supported a novel treatment for rare childhood Brain Cancer
publicusaresearchbenefits.com
June 6, 2025 at 6:35 PM