David A. Markowitz
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davidamarkowitz.bsky.social
David A. Markowitz
@davidamarkowitz.bsky.social
1.1K followers 460 following 100 posts

https://www.markowitz.bio/

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David M. Markowitz is a communication professor at Michigan State University who specializes in the study of language and deception. Much of his work focuses on how technological channels impact the encoding and decoding of messages. His work has captured the attention of magazines and outlets in popular culture; he writes articles for Forbes magazine about deception. Much of his research has utilized analyses of linguistic and analytic styles of writing, for example, Markowitz's work on pet adoption ads was referenced in a website featuring tips on how to write better pet adoption ads. .. more

Psychology 29%
Sociology 17%
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davidamarkowitz.bsky.social
David A. Markowitz @davidamarkowitz.bsky.social · Dec 13
We're at the threshold of understanding intelligence itself. The convergence of neuroscience and AI has created an unprecedented opportunity — but our research ecosystem isn't built to seize it.

We need a new model that matches the scale of our ambition... 🧵

Reposted by David M. Markowitz

sgrodriques.bsky.social
Sam Rodriques @sgrodriques.bsky.social · 7d
Today, we're announcing Kosmos, our newest AI Scientist, available today. Kosmos makes fully autonomous scientific discoveries at scale by analyzing datasets and literature, and is the most powerful agent for science so far. Beta users estimate that Kosmos does 6 months of work in a single day.

davidamarkowitz.bsky.social
David A. Markowitz @davidamarkowitz.bsky.social · 13d
As this widely reported genocide plays out in real time and Arab nations express growing horror, it's sad to see the continued apathy toward it in the West. Silence on both left and right wing social media. No demonstrations, no boycotts... www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/10...
‘A true genocide’: RSF kills ‘at least 1,500 people’ in Sudan’s el-Fasher
Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Turkiye, Jordan and Qatar express alarm as more evidence emerges of mass killings by paramilitary forces in Sudan's in el-Fasher.
www.aljazeera.com

Reposted by David M. Markowitz

maxhodak.bsky.social
Max Hodak @maxhodak.bsky.social · 23d
Very excited that the clinical trial results for our PRIMA retinal prosthesis are published today in the New England Journal of Medicine! This is the first time that patients who are blind due to photoreceptor loss have been able to intuitively see again.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_qT...
A global mission to restore vision | PRIMA by Science
YouTube video by Science
www.youtube.com

Reposted by David M. Markowitz

thetransmitter.bsky.social
The Transmitter @thetransmitter.bsky.social · 23d
Applying new tools to entire brains, starting with C. elegans, offers the opportunity to uncover how molecules work together to generate neural physiology, and how neurons generate behavior, write @kordinglab.bsky.social and @eboyden3.bsky.social.

#neuroskyence

bit.ly/48EzEO8
Whole-brain, bottom-up neuroscience: The time for it is now
Applying new tools to entire brains, starting with C. elegans, offers the opportunity to uncover how molecules work together to generate neural physiology and how neurons work together to generate…
bit.ly

Reposted by David M. Markowitz

biorxiv-neursci.bsky.social
bioRxiv Neuroscience @biorxiv-neursci.bsky.social · Sep 28
Combinatorial protein barcodes enable self-correcting neuron tracing with nanoscale molecular context https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.09.26.678648v1

davidamarkowitz.bsky.social
David A. Markowitz @davidamarkowitz.bsky.social · Sep 1
bsky.app/profile/nyti...
nytimes.com The New York Times @nytimes.com · Aug 31
In @nytopinion.nytimes.com

“There is bipartisan agreement in the United States that Sudan is suffering both genocide and famine — and also, apparently, a bipartisan consensus to do little about it,” our columnist @nickkristof.bsky.social writes.
Opinion | In Sudan, No One Doubts That This Is Genocide
Both the Biden and Trump administrations have described Sudan as suffering genocide. And no one’s done much about it.
nyti.ms

davidamarkowitz.bsky.social
David A. Markowitz @davidamarkowitz.bsky.social · Sep 1
Update From Doctors Without Borders: "This is one of the worst situations I have seen” ... "It really is quite unique in terms of the volume of affected people, the level of suffering and also the underfunding of the international response” www.ft.com/content/d331...
‘We watch the graveyards from space’: satellites track Sudanese city under siege
Paramilitary forces have cut off El Fasher, the military government’s final stronghold in the western Darfur region
www.ft.com

Reposted by Marc Lynch, David M. Markowitz

nytimes.com
The New York Times @nytimes.com · Aug 31
In @nytopinion.nytimes.com

“There is bipartisan agreement in the United States that Sudan is suffering both genocide and famine — and also, apparently, a bipartisan consensus to do little about it,” our columnist @nickkristof.bsky.social writes.
Opinion | In Sudan, No One Doubts That This Is Genocide
Both the Biden and Trump administrations have described Sudan as suffering genocide. And no one’s done much about it.
nyti.ms

davidamarkowitz.bsky.social
David A. Markowitz @davidamarkowitz.bsky.social · Aug 21
Wow, VERY interested to see this paper!

Reposted by David M. Markowitz

tuthill.bsky.social
John Tuthill @tuthill.bsky.social · Aug 21
agree w davi. we can operantly condition an adult fly to control a cursor with motor neuron firing rates (paper in prep), but a fly is not going to reach an equivalent level of dexterity with totally new effectors. might be more plastic if you could hook it up during metamorphosis.

davidamarkowitz.bsky.social
David A. Markowitz @davidamarkowitz.bsky.social · Aug 21
Settle a debate for me: If you could hook up a fruit fly brain to a completely new set of end effectors, could it learn to use them for goal-directed behavior? To what extent is an insect brain evolutionarily specialized for controlling its body? #FlyBCI

Reposted by David M. Markowitz

e11bio.bsky.social
E11 Bio @e11bio.bsky.social · Aug 12
How to make frontier AI models safer and accelerate drug discovery with the connectome. We are featured in this
@ifp.bsky.social article by @adammarblestone.bsky.social & @andrewcpayne.bsky.social

ifp.org/mapping-the-...
Mapping the Brain for Alignment | IFP
How to map the mammalian brain’s connectome to solve fundamental problems in neuroscience, psychology, and AI robustness
ifp.org

davidamarkowitz.bsky.social
David A. Markowitz @davidamarkowitz.bsky.social · Aug 6
The latest on this humanitarian catastrophe, one of several happening in the world right now, yet strangely neglected in the public discourse: www.theglobeandmail.com/world/articl...
Starvation spreading in Sudan as aid convoys blocked by siege, UN says
Situation is worsening in El Fasher, which is enduring a daily bombardment of artillery shelling and drone attacks by RSF fighters
www.theglobeandmail.com

davidamarkowitz.bsky.social
David A. Markowitz @davidamarkowitz.bsky.social · Aug 6
There is a famine currently affecting 640k children in Sudan, driven by military action funded by a key US ally in the Middle East. It's been widely reported in the media since 2023. Yet no condemnation by public figures, no demonstrations in the US. Why does no one care?

davidamarkowitz.bsky.social
David A. Markowitz @davidamarkowitz.bsky.social · Aug 4
Amazing work
darbly.bsky.social Wei-Chung Allen Lee @darbly.bsky.social · Aug 3
How is the nervous system organized to coordinate behavior? To approach this massive question, a team led by @asbates.bsky.social, @jasper-tms.bsky.social, @mindyisminsu.bsky.social, & Helen Yang present the BANC: a Brain and Nerve Cord connectome.

Preprint: doi.org/10.1101/2025...

🧪#Neuroskyence

Reposted by David M. Markowitz

darbly.bsky.social
Wei-Chung Allen Lee @darbly.bsky.social · Aug 3
How is the nervous system organized to coordinate behavior? To approach this massive question, a team led by @asbates.bsky.social, @jasper-tms.bsky.social, @mindyisminsu.bsky.social, & Helen Yang present the BANC: a Brain and Nerve Cord connectome.

Preprint: doi.org/10.1101/2025...

🧪#Neuroskyence

Reposted by Frances H. Arnold, David M. Markowitz

sgrodriques.bsky.social
Sam Rodriques @sgrodriques.bsky.social · Dec 19
FutureHouse is launching an independent postdoctoral fellowship program for exceptional researchers who want to apply our automated science tools to specific problems in biology and biochemistry, in collaboration with world-leading academic labs. 1/

Reposted by David M. Markowitz

kanakarajanphd.bsky.social
Kanaka Rajan @kanakarajanphd.bsky.social · Jul 2
(1/7) New preprint from Rajan lab! 🧠🤖
@ryanpaulbadman1.bsky.social & Riley Simmons-Edler show–through cog sci, neuro & ethology–how an AI agent with fewer ‘neurons’ than an insect can forage, find safety & dodge predators in a virtual world. Here's what we built

Preprint: arxiv.org/pdf/2506.06981

davidamarkowitz.bsky.social
David A. Markowitz @davidamarkowitz.bsky.social · Jun 4
Shortly after MICrONS demonstrated initial scale-up of volume EM, I think in 2017, I desperately tried to convince NSF bio division leadership (then Olds and Deshler) to launch a mid-scale infrastructure project focused on comparative connectomics across species. They were interested, but no budget.

davidamarkowitz.bsky.social
David A. Markowitz @davidamarkowitz.bsky.social · May 26
The writing's on the wall that the future of neuroscience is team science. The key question is how to balance support for "top-down" vs "bottom-up" collaborative research efforts. I agree teams of early career researchers deserve greater agency. Thoughtful piece by @neuralreckoning.bsky.social 👇

Reposted by David M. Markowitz

thetransmitter.bsky.social
The Transmitter @thetransmitter.bsky.social · May 26
Large-scale projects run the risk of stifling scientific independence. Instead, let’s explore alternative mechanisms of collaboration, writes @neuralreckoning.bsky.social.

#neuroskyence

www.thetransmitter.org/funding/neur...
Neuroscience needs to empower early-career researchers, not fund moon shots
Large-scale projects run the risk of stifling scientific independence. Instead, let’s explore alternative mechanisms of collaboration.
www.thetransmitter.org

davidamarkowitz.bsky.social
David A. Markowitz @davidamarkowitz.bsky.social · May 14
This 👇 is a major advantage of optical circuit mapping approaches over non-destructive (i.e. non FIB) serial section EM. Fewer failure modes that prevent tracing across distinct imaging volumes.
stardazed0.bsky.social Viren Jain @stardazed0.bsky.social · May 14
An important addition to the Nature paper, beyond what was shown in the 2024 preprint, is 12 rounds of iterative imaging and sectioning of a LICONN volume, achieving 205 microns in axial extent (native scale) with manual tracing of axons: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Reposted by David M. Markowitz

stardazed0.bsky.social
Viren Jain @stardazed0.bsky.social · May 14
An important addition to the Nature paper, beyond what was shown in the 2024 preprint, is 12 rounds of iterative imaging and sectioning of a LICONN volume, achieving 205 microns in axial extent (native scale) with manual tracing of axons: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

davidamarkowitz.bsky.social
David A. Markowitz @davidamarkowitz.bsky.social · May 8
For example, in my experience with Claude 3.7 Sonnet, type errors are particularly common when passing matrices around.

davidamarkowitz.bsky.social
David A. Markowitz @davidamarkowitz.bsky.social · May 6
GD requires so much data to train foundation models, however. Data we don't have in neuroscience. People are trying, but what if the time required to collect all the physiology data needed to "properly" train a whole brain model is O(decades)? (or longer)

davidamarkowitz.bsky.social
David A. Markowitz @davidamarkowitz.bsky.social · May 6
50/50 would be the best odds I've had on anything I've tried for the last 10 years 😉 I'd be stoked to test this hypothesis in a "small" system with well-characterized dynamics, like STG. If that works, move to more complex systems.

davidamarkowitz.bsky.social
David A. Markowitz @davidamarkowitz.bsky.social · May 6
bsky.app/profile/davi...
davidamarkowitz.bsky.social David A. Markowitz @davidamarkowitz.bsky.social · May 6
It's not obvious to me that getting "all the parameters correct" is the right goal to set for a mechanistic model. At a molecular level, brains are highly dynamic and parameters are constantly in flux. Maybe there is a very large space of parameterizations that recapitulate the same dynamics?

davidamarkowitz.bsky.social
David A. Markowitz @davidamarkowitz.bsky.social · May 6
It's not obvious to me that getting "all the parameters correct" is the right goal to set for a mechanistic model. At a molecular level, brains are highly dynamic and parameters are constantly in flux. Maybe there is a very large space of parameterizations that recapitulate the same dynamics?

davidamarkowitz.bsky.social
David A. Markowitz @davidamarkowitz.bsky.social · May 6
If dynamics are fully determined by system parameters (structure + cellular+molecular properties), shouldn't the model exhibit "normal" function if initialized to any reasonable activity state? Why do we need to observe any physiology in advance?

davidamarkowitz.bsky.social
David A. Markowitz @davidamarkowitz.bsky.social · May 6
If dynamics are fully determined by system parameters (structure + cellular+molecular properties), shouldn't the model exhibit "normal" function if initialized to any reasonable activity state? Why do we need to observe any physiology in advance?