EckfordLab
@eckfordlab.bsky.social
Information theory for molecular communication, computational biology, and biophysics at York University, Toronto Canada. PI: Prof. Andrew Eckford.
It is very funny to me that The Simpsons more or less destroyed the concept of monorails as public transit in the English speaking world.
December 3, 2025 at 12:30 AM
It is very funny to me that The Simpsons more or less destroyed the concept of monorails as public transit in the English speaking world.
Reposted by EckfordLab
After a long time in the making, my paper on nonequilibrium thermodynamics of Darwinian evolution has been published in Philosophical Transactions B. Updated version: arxiv.org/abs/2112.02809
October 7, 2025 at 9:33 AM
After a long time in the making, my paper on nonequilibrium thermodynamics of Darwinian evolution has been published in Philosophical Transactions B. Updated version: arxiv.org/abs/2112.02809
Reposted by EckfordLab
Here is our new paper that we're really excited about. What makes a cell different from a rock? The answer we argue is the USE of information. But information carries meaning and that changes everything if we want to understand the "physics of life".
journals.aps.org/prxlife/abst...
journals.aps.org/prxlife/abst...
Physics of Life: Exploring Information as a Distinctive Feature of Living Systems
Living systems are defined by their active acquisition and use of information. This Roadmap surveys current research on life's information processes and their importance for the search for life beyond...
journals.aps.org
September 4, 2025 at 11:38 AM
Here is our new paper that we're really excited about. What makes a cell different from a rock? The answer we argue is the USE of information. But information carries meaning and that changes everything if we want to understand the "physics of life".
journals.aps.org/prxlife/abst...
journals.aps.org/prxlife/abst...
Please check out our (open access!) paper in PRX Life: "Physics of Life: Exploring Information as a Distinctive Feature of Living Systems"
journals.aps.org/prxlife/abst...
journals.aps.org/prxlife/abst...
Physics of Life: Exploring Information as a Distinctive Feature of Living Systems
Living systems are defined by their active acquisition and use of information. This Roadmap surveys current research on life's information processes and their importance for the search for life beyond...
journals.aps.org
September 3, 2025 at 6:58 PM
Please check out our (open access!) paper in PRX Life: "Physics of Life: Exploring Information as a Distinctive Feature of Living Systems"
journals.aps.org/prxlife/abst...
journals.aps.org/prxlife/abst...
You laugh but if you're in a pickle, 22/7 varies from pi by less than one part in a thousand.
June 23, 2025 at 1:00 PM
You laugh but if you're in a pickle, 22/7 varies from pi by less than one part in a thousand.
Given that it was sunk,
June 21, 2025 at 5:57 PM
Given that it was sunk,
I have strong opinions about "The Bandwagon". I certainly don't think Shannon was wrong but I think his argument is widely misunderstood, in ways that have held back important applications of information theory. In some ways, I wish he hadn't written it.
A warning:
"Seldom do more than a few of nature’s secrets give way at one time. It will be all too easy for our somewhat artificial prosperity to collapse overnight when it is realized that the use of a few exciting words like information, entropy, redundancy, do not solve all our problems."
"Seldom do more than a few of nature’s secrets give way at one time. It will be all too easy for our somewhat artificial prosperity to collapse overnight when it is realized that the use of a few exciting words like information, entropy, redundancy, do not solve all our problems."
May 30, 2025 at 8:40 PM
I have strong opinions about "The Bandwagon". I certainly don't think Shannon was wrong but I think his argument is widely misunderstood, in ways that have held back important applications of information theory. In some ways, I wish he hadn't written it.
Is there a word for the feeling of frustration when, in the instant between when you decide to click on a link and when you actually click on it, something loads in the background which shifts the page and you end up clicking on something else entirely?
May 24, 2025 at 3:24 PM
Is there a word for the feeling of frustration when, in the instant between when you decide to click on a link and when you actually click on it, something loads in the background which shifts the page and you end up clicking on something else entirely?
I don't know who needs to hear this, but "label created" is not "shipped".
May 21, 2025 at 2:43 PM
I don't know who needs to hear this, but "label created" is not "shipped".
The tariffs applied to Canadian goods are, from the words of the president himself, an explicit threat to Canadian sovereignty.
Accordingly, while they are in effect, I will not use Canadian grant funds to travel to the United States, and I think my Canadian colleagues should do likewise.
Accordingly, while they are in effect, I will not use Canadian grant funds to travel to the United States, and I think my Canadian colleagues should do likewise.
February 1, 2025 at 5:19 PM
The tariffs applied to Canadian goods are, from the words of the president himself, an explicit threat to Canadian sovereignty.
Accordingly, while they are in effect, I will not use Canadian grant funds to travel to the United States, and I think my Canadian colleagues should do likewise.
Accordingly, while they are in effect, I will not use Canadian grant funds to travel to the United States, and I think my Canadian colleagues should do likewise.
Reviewer [after we added pages of material in response to their comments in the last round]: The paper is now too long
Same reviewer in this round: Please add a tutorial on linear algebra to the model section.
Same reviewer in this round: Please add a tutorial on linear algebra to the model section.
January 22, 2025 at 3:13 PM
Reviewer [after we added pages of material in response to their comments in the last round]: The paper is now too long
Same reviewer in this round: Please add a tutorial on linear algebra to the model section.
Same reviewer in this round: Please add a tutorial on linear algebra to the model section.
If you notify me that the order has shipped, but when I check the tracking link it says "label created", then you are a bad person.
January 21, 2025 at 7:18 PM
If you notify me that the order has shipped, but when I check the tracking link it says "label created", then you are a bad person.
Hot off the press: I am pleased to announce that the 2nd edition of our foundational textbook, Molecular Communication, has now been published by Cambridge University Press!
www.cambridge.org/ca/universit...
www.cambridge.org/ca/universit...
Molecular Communication | Communications, information theory and signal processing
www.cambridge.org
December 20, 2024 at 12:49 PM
Hot off the press: I am pleased to announce that the 2nd edition of our foundational textbook, Molecular Communication, has now been published by Cambridge University Press!
www.cambridge.org/ca/universit...
www.cambridge.org/ca/universit...
I really need to enable offline syncing of my overleaf projects
Just like I tell myself during every outage
Just like I tell myself during every outage
December 3, 2024 at 1:58 PM
I really need to enable offline syncing of my overleaf projects
Just like I tell myself during every outage
Just like I tell myself during every outage
Guest blog post on the @cambridgeup.bsky.social Fifteen Eighty Four blog: "Small talk: Exchanging messages at the nanoscale with molecular communication"
cambridgeblog.org/2024/11/smal...
cambridgeblog.org/2024/11/smal...
Small talk: Exchanging messages at the nanoscale with molecular communication - Fifteen Eighty Four | Cambridge University Press
The ability to sense and manipulate the body at the level of individual cells has long been a vision for the future of medicine, as well as a staple of science fiction. When it is finally realized, th...
cambridgeblog.org
November 19, 2024 at 12:22 PM
Guest blog post on the @cambridgeup.bsky.social Fifteen Eighty Four blog: "Small talk: Exchanging messages at the nanoscale with molecular communication"
cambridgeblog.org/2024/11/smal...
cambridgeblog.org/2024/11/smal...
🚨🚨🚨Molecular Communication, 2nd edition🚨🚨🚨
We've been working on this for a while ... finally coming out this June!!!
www.cambridge.org/core/books/m...
We've been working on this for a while ... finally coming out this June!!!
www.cambridge.org/core/books/m...
March 25, 2024 at 2:41 PM
🚨🚨🚨Molecular Communication, 2nd edition🚨🚨🚨
We've been working on this for a while ... finally coming out this June!!!
www.cambridge.org/core/books/m...
We've been working on this for a while ... finally coming out this June!!!
www.cambridge.org/core/books/m...