Steve Smith
@fmrib-steve.bsky.social
Brain imaging research, Oxford
EiC, Imaging Neuroscience https://bsky.app/profile/imagingneurosci.bsky.social
EiC, Imaging Neuroscience https://bsky.app/profile/imagingneurosci.bsky.social
I'm still confused about the *real* @holland-tom.bsky.social talking about "house cows" all the time.
February 5, 2026 at 10:41 AM
I'm still confused about the *real* @holland-tom.bsky.social talking about "house cows" all the time.
Reposted by Steve Smith
Save the date! FSL Course 2026 is provisionally planned in-person for June 22nd - 26th in Bordeaux, France. More details and the registration link will be posted on the FSL Course website soon.
open.oxcin.ox.ac.uk/pages/fslcou...
open.oxcin.ox.ac.uk/pages/fslcou...
January 27, 2026 at 2:42 PM
Save the date! FSL Course 2026 is provisionally planned in-person for June 22nd - 26th in Bordeaux, France. More details and the registration link will be posted on the FSL Course website soon.
open.oxcin.ox.ac.uk/pages/fslcou...
open.oxcin.ox.ac.uk/pages/fslcou...
three owl species that we saw near Chambal, India
January 18, 2026 at 8:41 AM
three owl species that we saw near Chambal, India
One lovely day in the middle of a cold, grey, wet week. Pond is semi-frozen, sun is shining on the pollarded willows who are growing back red. A few bullrushes are starting to go to seed.
January 14, 2026 at 7:49 PM
One lovely day in the middle of a cold, grey, wet week. Pond is semi-frozen, sun is shining on the pollarded willows who are growing back red. A few bullrushes are starting to go to seed.
Reposted by Steve Smith
My new gig is PI of the CANN group at Trinity College Dublin and University of Oxford (50/50). Funded by the UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship, we'll be recruiting postdocs, PhDs and an RA in Dublin and Oxford soon. So exciting! @oxcin.bsky.social @tcddublin.bsky.social @ox.ac.uk @tcdscss.bsky.social
January 8, 2026 at 8:19 PM
My new gig is PI of the CANN group at Trinity College Dublin and University of Oxford (50/50). Funded by the UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship, we'll be recruiting postdocs, PhDs and an RA in Dublin and Oxford soon. So exciting! @oxcin.bsky.social @tcddublin.bsky.social @ox.ac.uk @tcdscss.bsky.social
Hey Siri, can you remove the scaffolding. But seriously, even with bits of scaffolding, this is the most beautiful building I've seen.
January 8, 2026 at 5:06 PM
Hey Siri, can you remove the scaffolding. But seriously, even with bits of scaffolding, this is the most beautiful building I've seen.
Just got back from India - amazing wonderful country. Some pictures from the "Baby Taj" in Agra.
January 8, 2026 at 4:32 PM
Just got back from India - amazing wonderful country. Some pictures from the "Baby Taj" in Agra.
Easy and quick to use on the UKB RAP. Getting a local copy of one sub-modality from the central store takes a few minutes. Regression across 82K subjects and 2M voxels takes between a few seconds and a couple of hours.
January 7, 2026 at 8:15 AM
Easy and quick to use on the UKB RAP. Getting a local copy of one sub-modality from the central store takes a few minutes. Regression across 82K subjects and 2M voxels takes between a few seconds and a couple of hours.
Plus a tool for easy voxelwise cross-subject regression against variables such as genetics and lifestyle factors.
Also a highly efficient supervoxel version of the data - much smaller and faster to work with, but in general losing no signal or spatial detail, while also denoising.
Also a highly efficient supervoxel version of the data - much smaller and faster to work with, but in general losing no signal or spatial detail, while also denoising.
January 7, 2026 at 8:15 AM
Plus a tool for easy voxelwise cross-subject regression against variables such as genetics and lifestyle factors.
Also a highly efficient supervoxel version of the data - much smaller and faster to work with, but in general losing no signal or spatial detail, while also denoising.
Also a highly efficient supervoxel version of the data - much smaller and faster to work with, but in general losing no signal or spatial detail, while also denoising.
Preprint on PANDORA by Aslan Abivardi:
A massive archive of UK Biobank brain imaging from 82K subjects. For each of 98 sub-modalities (e.g., FA from dMRI), the images are collated into a convenient subjectsXvoxels HDF5 file.
pages.fmrib.ox.ac.uk/pandora/web/
www.medrxiv.org/content/10.6...
A massive archive of UK Biobank brain imaging from 82K subjects. For each of 98 sub-modalities (e.g., FA from dMRI), the images are collated into a convenient subjectsXvoxels HDF5 file.
pages.fmrib.ox.ac.uk/pandora/web/
www.medrxiv.org/content/10.6...
January 7, 2026 at 8:15 AM
Preprint on PANDORA by Aslan Abivardi:
A massive archive of UK Biobank brain imaging from 82K subjects. For each of 98 sub-modalities (e.g., FA from dMRI), the images are collated into a convenient subjectsXvoxels HDF5 file.
pages.fmrib.ox.ac.uk/pandora/web/
www.medrxiv.org/content/10.6...
A massive archive of UK Biobank brain imaging from 82K subjects. For each of 98 sub-modalities (e.g., FA from dMRI), the images are collated into a convenient subjectsXvoxels HDF5 file.
pages.fmrib.ox.ac.uk/pandora/web/
www.medrxiv.org/content/10.6...
photo or it didn't happen !
:-)
:-)
November 17, 2025 at 2:57 PM
photo or it didn't happen !
:-)
:-)
For people using the @ukbiobank.bsky.social UKB RAP cloud system for brain imaging analyses:
In order to make RAP much easier to use, we have created a Docker which is easy to install and gives you a graphical desktop, FSLeyes and the HCP wb_view.
docs.google.com/document/d/1...
In order to make RAP much easier to use, we have created a Docker which is easy to install and gives you a graphical desktop, FSLeyes and the HCP wb_view.
docs.google.com/document/d/1...
Imaging-friendly docker for UK Biobank RAP
An Easy Docker for Brain Imaging Visualisation on UKB RAP Paul McCarthy1 Stephen Smith1 1FMRIB, OxCIN, NDCN, Oxford University, UK Queries: email paul.mccarthy@ndcn.ox.ac.uk and stephen.smith@ndcn....
docs.google.com
October 25, 2025 at 5:06 AM
For people using the @ukbiobank.bsky.social UKB RAP cloud system for brain imaging analyses:
In order to make RAP much easier to use, we have created a Docker which is easy to install and gives you a graphical desktop, FSLeyes and the HCP wb_view.
docs.google.com/document/d/1...
In order to make RAP much easier to use, we have created a Docker which is easy to install and gives you a graphical desktop, FSLeyes and the HCP wb_view.
docs.google.com/document/d/1...
I would consider Aperture Neuro as the next choice?
October 22, 2025 at 2:46 PM
I would consider Aperture Neuro as the next choice?
Hi Micah,
I.N. editors apply same "thresholds" as we *used to* at old journal, but average submissions have improved, so triage rates are lower than they used to be. At I.N. the breakdown is:
43% accept
18% reject resubmit
11% reject after review
29% triage (including 4% triage too-clinical)
I.N. editors apply same "thresholds" as we *used to* at old journal, but average submissions have improved, so triage rates are lower than they used to be. At I.N. the breakdown is:
43% accept
18% reject resubmit
11% reject after review
29% triage (including 4% triage too-clinical)
October 22, 2025 at 2:39 PM
Hi Micah,
I.N. editors apply same "thresholds" as we *used to* at old journal, but average submissions have improved, so triage rates are lower than they used to be. At I.N. the breakdown is:
43% accept
18% reject resubmit
11% reject after review
29% triage (including 4% triage too-clinical)
I.N. editors apply same "thresholds" as we *used to* at old journal, but average submissions have improved, so triage rates are lower than they used to be. At I.N. the breakdown is:
43% accept
18% reject resubmit
11% reject after review
29% triage (including 4% triage too-clinical)
HI Maria - here are some *average* timings at Imaging Neuroscience (of course any individual paper will vary):
- 62 days from initial submission to first major revision decision
- Sending paper to production to final version appearing online: 16 days (includes author proofing time)
- 62 days from initial submission to first major revision decision
- Sending paper to production to final version appearing online: 16 days (includes author proofing time)
October 22, 2025 at 2:06 PM
HI Maria - here are some *average* timings at Imaging Neuroscience (of course any individual paper will vary):
- 62 days from initial submission to first major revision decision
- Sending paper to production to final version appearing online: 16 days (includes author proofing time)
- 62 days from initial submission to first major revision decision
- Sending paper to production to final version appearing online: 16 days (includes author proofing time)
(with apologies to non-UK folks) - we just discovered this *amazing* cheese - semi-hard, with a taste that is a confusingly incredible combination of being both subtle and yet rich and complex.
parkfarm.co.uk/products/mer...
parkfarm.co.uk/products/mer...
Merry Wyfe - A cider washed rind cheese - Bath Soft Cheese
The Merry Wyfe - An award-winning washed-rind cheese made with our Wyfe of Bath curds which are pressed and then washed in cider every other day for four weeks
parkfarm.co.uk
October 21, 2025 at 3:56 PM
(with apologies to non-UK folks) - we just discovered this *amazing* cheese - semi-hard, with a taste that is a confusingly incredible combination of being both subtle and yet rich and complex.
parkfarm.co.uk/products/mer...
parkfarm.co.uk/products/mer...
Reposted by Steve Smith
I often think about the fact that all the universities in 🇨🇦 together did not produce 11 Nobel Prizes in that period (or since). Not from a lack of brilliance, but from a lack of steady funding and the insistence on significant teaching loads and mind-numbing committee memberships for all faculty.
Sometimes I think about how from 1935-1975ish, Bell Labs produced an insane amount of revolutionary science and technology, including 11 Nobel Prizes, the transistor, UNIX, C, the laser, the solar cell, information theory, etc. The secret? Provide scientists with ample, steady, no-strings funding.
sites.stat.columbia.edu
October 4, 2025 at 10:22 PM
I often think about the fact that all the universities in 🇨🇦 together did not produce 11 Nobel Prizes in that period (or since). Not from a lack of brilliance, but from a lack of steady funding and the insistence on significant teaching loads and mind-numbing committee memberships for all faculty.
I think your scanner's A2D scaling is set a little high :-)
September 7, 2025 at 7:56 AM
I think your scanner's A2D scaling is set a little high :-)
We had published a similar plot in the early UKB brain imaging paper from @fmrib-karla.bsky.social - so this is just a quick update on that. My how the y axis has grown up!
www.nature.com/articles/nn....
www.nature.com/articles/nn....
August 23, 2025 at 4:32 AM
We had published a similar plot in the early UKB brain imaging paper from @fmrib-karla.bsky.social - so this is just a quick update on that. My how the y axis has grown up!
www.nature.com/articles/nn....
www.nature.com/articles/nn....
Yes and maybe:
It's easy to screen them out (ignore those associations) given that all the non-brain-imaging variables are organised into nice categories.
One might also want to include body size variables as confounds, (though we do by default already use overall head size as a confound).
It's easy to screen them out (ignore those associations) given that all the non-brain-imaging variables are organised into nice categories.
One might also want to include body size variables as confounds, (though we do by default already use overall head size as a confound).
August 22, 2025 at 1:21 PM
Yes and maybe:
It's easy to screen them out (ignore those associations) given that all the non-brain-imaging variables are organised into nice categories.
One might also want to include body size variables as confounds, (though we do by default already use overall head size as a confound).
It's easy to screen them out (ignore those associations) given that all the non-brain-imaging variables are organised into nice categories.
One might also want to include body size variables as confounds, (though we do by default already use overall head size as a confound).
Latest processing of UK Biobank brain imaging data - now with 82,000 usable first-scan datasets. Correlating brain IDPs with 13,000 non-imaging variables gives a rich manhattan-stye plot. 324,000 Bonferroni-significant associations.
August 22, 2025 at 11:35 AM
Latest processing of UK Biobank brain imaging data - now with 82,000 usable first-scan datasets. Correlating brain IDPs with 13,000 non-imaging variables gives a rich manhattan-stye plot. 324,000 Bonferroni-significant associations.
Reposted by Steve Smith
Many UK universities likely to walk away from journal agreements after publishers put forward proposals with “year-on-year price rises” rather than cheaper deals demanded by national negotiators, @davidprosser.bsky.social tells @jgro-the.bsky.social www.timeshighereducation.com/news/busines...
‘Business-as-usual’ offers from publishers raise walk-away fears
Disappointing offers which ‘miss financial reality’ faced by UK higher education have heightened speculation that institutions will ditch proposed deals
www.timeshighereducation.com
August 20, 2025 at 9:01 AM
Many UK universities likely to walk away from journal agreements after publishers put forward proposals with “year-on-year price rises” rather than cheaper deals demanded by national negotiators, @davidprosser.bsky.social tells @jgro-the.bsky.social www.timeshighereducation.com/news/busines...
Reposted by Steve Smith
Where is the money going? In the case of for-profit publishers it's very clear:
Your open access fees fund corporate profit margins.
Profit margins for large academic publishers can far exceed those of household names like Amazon and Apple.
chart source: bit.ly/4leULKi
#scipub #academicsky
Your open access fees fund corporate profit margins.
Profit margins for large academic publishers can far exceed those of household names like Amazon and Apple.
chart source: bit.ly/4leULKi
#scipub #academicsky
July 3, 2025 at 12:49 PM
Where is the money going? In the case of for-profit publishers it's very clear:
Your open access fees fund corporate profit margins.
Profit margins for large academic publishers can far exceed those of household names like Amazon and Apple.
chart source: bit.ly/4leULKi
#scipub #academicsky
Your open access fees fund corporate profit margins.
Profit margins for large academic publishers can far exceed those of household names like Amazon and Apple.
chart source: bit.ly/4leULKi
#scipub #academicsky
How about if the journal inserts a hidden message into a paper sent for review, with instructions to the LLM to write a coded message in the review, so the journal can tell if LLM was used by the reviewer?
July 6, 2025 at 1:16 AM
How about if the journal inserts a hidden message into a paper sent for review, with instructions to the LLM to write a coded message in the review, so the journal can tell if LLM was used by the reviewer?