Hannah Payette Peterson
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hpp.xyz
Hannah Payette Peterson
@hpp.xyz
Biologist/neurotech VC, artist πŸ”¬πŸ§  Building a network of scientific and creative thinkers | http://linkedin.com/in/hpayettepeterson | www.hpp.xyz | Berlin ↔️ Boston
Pinned
Pondering the cosmic implications of the octopus πŸ™ & what this strange creature can teach us about the diversity of possible minds in the universe ✨ So I wrote this.
πŸ§ͺ #philsci #neurosky #neuroscience
The Octopus: A Case Study in Alien Intelligence
What these evolutionary outliers can teach us about alternative minds
medium.com
Reposted by Hannah Payette Peterson
My article on the likely influence of the experiments of polymath Thomas Young on the early abstract art of Hilma af Klint is now published & open access at Leonardo / MIT Press πŸŽ‰ direct.mit.edu/leon/article...
April 6, 2025 at 2:19 PM
Excited to see Europe prioritizing scientific funding! πŸ§ͺπŸ‡ͺπŸ‡Ί
β€œScience has no passport, no gender, no ethnicity, no political party.”

EC President Ursula von der Leyen, announcing a €500M initiative to attract top global talent.

In a fractured world, science remains a unifying force – rooted in diversity, driven by curiosity, and shared by all humanity.
May 7, 2025 at 12:15 AM
Hard to beat biology in terms of complexity 🧠 πŸ§ͺ
Neural networks are loosely inspired by the brain, but that’s where the similarities end. Incorporating the astounding cellular diversity and network complexity of the human brain could make AI better. @yaseminsaplakoglu.bsky.social reports: www.quantamagazine.org/ai-is-nothin...
AI Is Nothing Like a Brain, and That’s OK | Quanta Magazine
The brain’s astounding cellular diversity and networked complexity could show how to make AI better.
www.quantamagazine.org
May 1, 2025 at 4:54 PM
Same reason I follow opto-/magneto-/chemogenetics. Nanoparticles are new to me, so I need to do a deeper diveβ€”a quick search hasn't led me to much info about their tech. Fair points about founder & investor; not familiar with either. Curiosity β‰  conviction for sure, & always appreciate your thoughts
April 18, 2025 at 11:12 PM
Absolutely fair concernsβ€”I’m reserving judgment too. What grabbed me is the nanoparticle angle: a possible non‑surgical path to deep‑brain I/O. I'm interested in creative approaches & alternative form factors to invasive neuromodulation devices/BCIs, since I think these will only get us so far
April 18, 2025 at 11:11 PM
Catch these two paintings of mine in the show "Little Things" at @olbluegallery.bsky.social, opening April 18
#sciart
April 6, 2025 at 8:15 PM
Reposted by Hannah Payette Peterson
Vaccination against shingles might also prevent dementia, such as that caused by Alzheimer’s disease, according to a study of health records from around 300,000 people in Wales.

https://go.nature.com/446nriQ
Does shingles vaccination cut dementia risk? Large study hints at a link
Analysis of nearly 300,000 people finds an association between the shingles jab and a lower rate of dementia β€” but questions linger.
go.nature.com
April 2, 2025 at 8:01 PM
Interesting paper about a new thermogenetic switchβ€”Melt enables precise control of cell behavior using small temperature changes. A potential alternative to optogenetics that doesn't require getting light inside tissue πŸ’‘ Could be huge for neurotech, particularly noninvasive neuromodulation 🧠 πŸ§ͺ
A temperature-inducible protein module for control of mammalian cell fate - Nature Methods
The Melt (Membrane localization using temperature) protein translocates to the plasma membrane upon temperature shift. Melt variants with a range of switching temperatures enable straightforward therm...
www.nature.com
February 8, 2025 at 1:06 PM
Just keep swimming 🐟

Maybe they’re migrating. Maybe they’re just being pulled along. Hard to tell the difference sometimes πŸͺ

("Endless Orbit / Accretion Fish". Oil, acrylic and silver leaf on canvas, 70x60 cm)
February 2, 2025 at 9:35 PM
Great to see this promising research coming out of Berlin 🦾 Gene therapy is such an exciting field right now 🧬πŸ§ͺ @naturecomms.bsky.social paper here: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Developing a CRISPR therapy for muscular dystrophy
Researchers at the Experimental and Clinical Research Center in Berlin are developing a targeted treatment for muscular dystrophy with the help of gene-editing. Preclinical research led by the Spuler ...
www.mdc-berlin.de
January 7, 2025 at 5:12 PM
Reposted by Hannah Payette Peterson
THIS IS HUGE! Researchers at Stanford Medicine have devised an influenza vaccine that prompts immunity to ALL four major flu subtypes AND shows potential against bird flu, indicating a significant advancement in flu prevention and a potential increase in vaccine efficacy. Let’s talk about that! πŸ§ͺπŸ§΅β¬‡οΈ
January 2, 2025 at 5:00 PM
FOXO3 is a gene linked to longevity with protective effects against cellular stress. Refoxy's targeting it for IPF, but their bigger vision is tackling aging at its roots. Exciting to see (our portfolio) companies addressing age-related diseases + aging itself as biology unlocks new possibilities πŸ§ͺ
Biotech Refoxy Pharmaceuticals advances research with €9.1M funding
The financing will accelerate the preclinical development of Refoxy’s program in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis and expand its platform to other age-related indications.
tech.eu
December 4, 2024 at 7:01 PM
(which can confer a survival advantage for some species in particular situations). And over long periods of time, this increasing intelligence can lead to self-awareness, either as a side effect of greater problem solving ability or perhaps as a feature that enables greater survival in itself
December 4, 2024 at 4:04 PM
but very few of them we would consider to have self awareness--just a tiny minority. So it doesn't seem that life tends automatically towards self-awareness. But I do think certain combinations of conditions and pressures can select for increasing intelligence ...
December 4, 2024 at 4:04 PM
Thanks! I don't necessarily think that life generally tends towards becoming aware of itself. If you think about the vast diversity of living organisms on earth, they've all been evolving for the same amount of time (since they all share a common ancestor) ...
December 4, 2024 at 4:03 PM
Thanks! πŸ™
December 3, 2024 at 9:00 PM
It's fascinating (and I think often under-appreciated) how intelligent some birds are! 🐦
December 3, 2024 at 8:51 PM
They're really fascinating creatures! And they've always captured human imagination, whether as sea monsters or inspiration for sci-fi aliens haha
December 3, 2024 at 8:50 PM
Pondering the cosmic implications of the octopus πŸ™ & what this strange creature can teach us about the diversity of possible minds in the universe ✨ So I wrote this.
πŸ§ͺ #philsci #neurosky #neuroscience
The Octopus: A Case Study in Alien Intelligence
What these evolutionary outliers can teach us about alternative minds
medium.com
December 3, 2024 at 8:05 PM
Thanks! Much appreciated πŸ™
December 3, 2024 at 7:57 PM
Orcas may have revived a trend of wearing dead salmon on their heads πŸ‘’πŸŸ They are very social animals, and behaviors or "trends" can spread from pod to pod. Still unclear why they do this though 🌊 but I love the aesthetic ✨πŸ§ͺ
Why orcas wear dead salmon as 'hats' remains a mystery, scientists say | CBC News
In what may seem likeΒ a call-back to 1980s whale culture, a resident orca off the coast of Washington stateΒ was recently spotted sporting a dead salmon on its head.
www.cbc.ca
December 1, 2024 at 4:28 PM
Thank you! πŸ™
December 1, 2024 at 2:08 PM
Hello! I'd love to be added. I have a research background in biology and neuroscience (a couple random neuro papers: pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34644570/, pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30578972/), current master's student at CharitΓ© Berlin, and I also write about scientific ideas (medium.com/@la.payette/...)
December 1, 2024 at 2:11 AM
Nice you're here! Kept checking over the past couple weeks to see if you'd made an account yet πŸ˜…
November 29, 2024 at 9:49 PM
Love it! 🎨
Nice to find you on here :)
November 29, 2024 at 6:19 PM