Matishalin
@matishalin.bsky.social
Lecturer in Biology and AI at the University of Hull.
Interested in evolutionary theory using mathematical and computational approaches.
Currently focusing on cooperation between species and fitness optimisation theory.
Interested in evolutionary theory using mathematical and computational approaches.
Currently focusing on cooperation between species and fitness optimisation theory.
Excited for this paper to be out, literal years of hard work by Kozzy. Excitingly, my first last author paper!
This work came from joining the Kinds of Intelligence group at Cambridge and being given time by @martahalina.bsky.social to explore and cross disciplines. Hard work but very fun! 🧪 🤖🧠
This work came from joining the Kinds of Intelligence group at Cambridge and being given time by @martahalina.bsky.social to explore and cross disciplines. Hard work but very fun! 🧪 🤖🧠
We find that recurrence confers a significant advantage for learning more complex grammars, but lamination does not.
This work would not have been possible without Matishalin Patel, Colin Klein, Marta Halina, and Andrew Barron. You can check out our preprint here: arxiv.org/abs/2509.13968.
This work would not have been possible without Matishalin Patel, Colin Klein, Marta Halina, and Andrew Barron. You can check out our preprint here: arxiv.org/abs/2509.13968.
Exploring Major Transitions in the Evolution of Biological Cognition With Artificial Neural Networks
Transitional accounts of evolution emphasise a few changes that shape what is evolvable, with dramatic consequences for derived lineages. More recently it has been proposed that cognition might also h...
arxiv.org
September 18, 2025 at 5:04 PM
Excited for this paper to be out, literal years of hard work by Kozzy. Excitingly, my first last author paper!
This work came from joining the Kinds of Intelligence group at Cambridge and being given time by @martahalina.bsky.social to explore and cross disciplines. Hard work but very fun! 🧪 🤖🧠
This work came from joining the Kinds of Intelligence group at Cambridge and being given time by @martahalina.bsky.social to explore and cross disciplines. Hard work but very fun! 🧪 🤖🧠
youtu.be/lLlwvmu1ZeA?...
Possibly my favourite What If? ever. If you haven't read the what if books I highly recommend finding some copies.
Possibly my favourite What If? ever. If you haven't read the what if books I highly recommend finding some copies.
What if you had a mole of moles?
YouTube video by xkcd's What If?
youtu.be
August 20, 2025 at 4:41 PM
youtu.be/lLlwvmu1ZeA?...
Possibly my favourite What If? ever. If you haven't read the what if books I highly recommend finding some copies.
Possibly my favourite What If? ever. If you haven't read the what if books I highly recommend finding some copies.
Why do anemonefish (A. percula) live in groups where only the dominant pair breed? We tested ~200 groups for genetic relatedness and showed no patterns indicating relatedness was high within groups. 🧬🧪
doi.org/10.1093/behe...
@theresarueger.bsky.social #MarineBiology #SocialEvolution
doi.org/10.1093/behe...
@theresarueger.bsky.social #MarineBiology #SocialEvolution
August 1, 2025 at 12:47 PM
Why do anemonefish (A. percula) live in groups where only the dominant pair breed? We tested ~200 groups for genetic relatedness and showed no patterns indicating relatedness was high within groups. 🧬🧪
doi.org/10.1093/behe...
@theresarueger.bsky.social #MarineBiology #SocialEvolution
doi.org/10.1093/behe...
@theresarueger.bsky.social #MarineBiology #SocialEvolution
Reposted by Matishalin
New study in @science.org Science Advances: Clownfish can shrink to survive heatwaves and social conflict!
Led by Melissa Versteeg, with Chancey MacDonald, Morgan Bennett-Smith, Pete Buston
@newcastleuni.bsky.social
@sciencesncl.bsky.social
@bostonu.bsky.social
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Led by Melissa Versteeg, with Chancey MacDonald, Morgan Bennett-Smith, Pete Buston
@newcastleuni.bsky.social
@sciencesncl.bsky.social
@bostonu.bsky.social
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Individual clown anemonefish shrink to survive heat stress and social conflict
Clown anemonefish survive heatwaves by shrinking together with their breeding partner.
www.science.org
May 22, 2025 at 1:27 AM
New study in @science.org Science Advances: Clownfish can shrink to survive heatwaves and social conflict!
Led by Melissa Versteeg, with Chancey MacDonald, Morgan Bennett-Smith, Pete Buston
@newcastleuni.bsky.social
@sciencesncl.bsky.social
@bostonu.bsky.social
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Led by Melissa Versteeg, with Chancey MacDonald, Morgan Bennett-Smith, Pete Buston
@newcastleuni.bsky.social
@sciencesncl.bsky.social
@bostonu.bsky.social
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Reposted by Matishalin
After a week of intense population genomics, lots of tired but still smiley faces. Thank you @embo.org for funding another edition of our Population Genomics course in Naples. And thank you to the trainers and participants for making this eight edition another success! #EMBOpopgen
June 29, 2025 at 9:10 AM
After a week of intense population genomics, lots of tired but still smiley faces. Thank you @embo.org for funding another edition of our Population Genomics course in Naples. And thank you to the trainers and participants for making this eight edition another success! #EMBOpopgen
www.theguardian.com/technology/2...
Yeah I mean they went to all this trouble secretly stealing stuff. It's only fair they don't have to tell anyone...
Yeah I mean they went to all this trouble secretly stealing stuff. It's only fair they don't have to tell anyone...
UK ministers block amendment requiring AI firms to declare use of copyrighted content
Government uses arcane procedure to strip amendment passed by House of Lords from its data bill
www.theguardian.com
May 14, 2025 at 6:22 PM
www.theguardian.com/technology/2...
Yeah I mean they went to all this trouble secretly stealing stuff. It's only fair they don't have to tell anyone...
Yeah I mean they went to all this trouble secretly stealing stuff. It's only fair they don't have to tell anyone...
Reposted by Matishalin
How can we rigorously investigate the common-sense capabilities of agentic AI systems? How can we build better models of non-human animal cognition?
(Re-)introducing the Animal-AI Environment: A virtual laboratory for comparative cognition and artificial intelligence research!
(Re-)introducing the Animal-AI Environment: A virtual laboratory for comparative cognition and artificial intelligence research!
March 1, 2025 at 11:06 AM
How can we rigorously investigate the common-sense capabilities of agentic AI systems? How can we build better models of non-human animal cognition?
(Re-)introducing the Animal-AI Environment: A virtual laboratory for comparative cognition and artificial intelligence research!
(Re-)introducing the Animal-AI Environment: A virtual laboratory for comparative cognition and artificial intelligence research!
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
100 year discussion on whether to use the word scientist can now be resolved correctly.
By recognising the correct term should be lorer.
anglish.fandom.com/wiki/Lore
#conlang
100 year discussion on whether to use the word scientist can now be resolved correctly.
By recognising the correct term should be lorer.
anglish.fandom.com/wiki/Lore
#conlang
February 20, 2025 at 9:33 AM
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
100 year discussion on whether to use the word scientist can now be resolved correctly.
By recognising the correct term should be lorer.
anglish.fandom.com/wiki/Lore
#conlang
100 year discussion on whether to use the word scientist can now be resolved correctly.
By recognising the correct term should be lorer.
anglish.fandom.com/wiki/Lore
#conlang
www.cea.fr/english/Page...
This seems very cool progress from the EAST result. Can physics people tell me is there still an issue with neutron shielding? Is that on its way to a solution? 🧪⚛️
This seems very cool progress from the EAST result. Can physics people tell me is there still an issue with neutron shielding? Is that on its way to a solution? 🧪⚛️
Nuclear fusion: WEST beats the world record for plasma duration!
On 12 February, the CEA’s WEST machine was able to maintain a plasma for more than 22 minutes. In doing so, it smashed the previous record for plasma duration achieved with a tokamak. This leap forwa...
www.cea.fr
February 19, 2025 at 3:22 PM
www.cea.fr/english/Page...
This seems very cool progress from the EAST result. Can physics people tell me is there still an issue with neutron shielding? Is that on its way to a solution? 🧪⚛️
This seems very cool progress from the EAST result. Can physics people tell me is there still an issue with neutron shielding? Is that on its way to a solution? 🧪⚛️
To hijack Weinberg:
With or without notebooks, good people can program well and bad people can program badly; but for good people to program badly - that takes notebooks.
With or without notebooks, good people can program well and bad people can program badly; but for good people to program badly - that takes notebooks.
February 15, 2025 at 5:00 PM
To hijack Weinberg:
With or without notebooks, good people can program well and bad people can program badly; but for good people to program badly - that takes notebooks.
With or without notebooks, good people can program well and bad people can program badly; but for good people to program badly - that takes notebooks.
Seems so cool and strange to me that tokenising+transformer of a time series can work. And that the performance generalises so well across the different tasks. 🧪
openreview.net/forum?id=QlT...
very good video exposition by first author:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=OqrC...
openreview.net/forum?id=QlT...
very good video exposition by first author:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=OqrC...
February 9, 2025 at 2:03 PM
Seems so cool and strange to me that tokenising+transformer of a time series can work. And that the performance generalises so well across the different tasks. 🧪
openreview.net/forum?id=QlT...
very good video exposition by first author:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=OqrC...
openreview.net/forum?id=QlT...
very good video exposition by first author:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=OqrC...
Reposted by Matishalin
A cancer cell with three nuclei (cyan) videoed through a microscope. Mitochondria (yellow) and the actin cytoskeleton (red) are also shown. #Science #Biology #CellBiology #microscopy
January 20, 2025 at 1:47 PM
A cancer cell with three nuclei (cyan) videoed through a microscope. Mitochondria (yellow) and the actin cytoskeleton (red) are also shown. #Science #Biology #CellBiology #microscopy
Reposted by Matishalin
Our review is out in Nature Reviews Genetics! rdcu.be/d5AY2
We show how phylogeny-based methods can resolve the problem of non-independence in genomic datasets.
These methods must be considered an essential part of the comparative genomics toolkit.
@lauriebelch.bsky.social @stuwest.bsky.social
We show how phylogeny-based methods can resolve the problem of non-independence in genomic datasets.
These methods must be considered an essential part of the comparative genomics toolkit.
@lauriebelch.bsky.social @stuwest.bsky.social
A phylogenetic approach to comparative genomics
Nature Reviews Genetics - Controlling for phylogeny is essential in comparative genomics studies, because species, genomes and genes are not independent data points within statistical tests. The...
rdcu.be
January 8, 2025 at 1:19 PM
Our review is out in Nature Reviews Genetics! rdcu.be/d5AY2
We show how phylogeny-based methods can resolve the problem of non-independence in genomic datasets.
These methods must be considered an essential part of the comparative genomics toolkit.
@lauriebelch.bsky.social @stuwest.bsky.social
We show how phylogeny-based methods can resolve the problem of non-independence in genomic datasets.
These methods must be considered an essential part of the comparative genomics toolkit.
@lauriebelch.bsky.social @stuwest.bsky.social
Reposted by Matishalin
New paper with @tobykiers.bsky.social and @stuwest.bsky.social on whether plants send signals through fungal networks to warn other plants of impending attack – theory suggests unlikely.
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
PNAS
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), a peer reviewed journal of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) - an authoritative source of high-impact, original research that broadly spans...
www.pnas.org
January 21, 2025 at 3:19 PM
New paper with @tobykiers.bsky.social and @stuwest.bsky.social on whether plants send signals through fungal networks to warn other plants of impending attack – theory suggests unlikely.
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
Hinton's responses during the banquet interviews are truly S-tier. I'm a bit confused as to why they think ai won't blush though!
December 10, 2024 at 8:30 PM
Hinton's responses during the banquet interviews are truly S-tier. I'm a bit confused as to why they think ai won't blush though!
Good Sunday recreational maths read on permutation fair dice. 🧮🧪
www.ericharshbarger.org/dice/go_firs...
www.ericharshbarger.org/dice/go_firs...
Go First Dice
www.ericharshbarger.org
December 1, 2024 at 12:49 PM
Good Sunday recreational maths read on permutation fair dice. 🧮🧪
www.ericharshbarger.org/dice/go_firs...
www.ericharshbarger.org/dice/go_firs...
I was getting more and more annoyed by quotes/refs of Haldane 1955 which were either incomplete or weird.
Not digitised so I bought it. And now can disagree with people over it properly.
Thanks to @arvidagren.bsky.social for pointing out physical things exist. 🧪
Not digitised so I bought it. And now can disagree with people over it properly.
Thanks to @arvidagren.bsky.social for pointing out physical things exist. 🧪
November 27, 2024 at 1:12 PM
I was getting more and more annoyed by quotes/refs of Haldane 1955 which were either incomplete or weird.
Not digitised so I bought it. And now can disagree with people over it properly.
Thanks to @arvidagren.bsky.social for pointing out physical things exist. 🧪
Not digitised so I bought it. And now can disagree with people over it properly.
Thanks to @arvidagren.bsky.social for pointing out physical things exist. 🧪
One of the most heart warming adaptations I've heard of. Heart cockles have evolved aragonite fibre optic bundles to transmit sunlight to their symbionts. These bundles appear optimally arranged for light transmission and reduce UV load which can damage symbionts. 🧪
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Heart cockle shells transmit sunlight to photosymbiotic algae using bundled fiber optic cables and condensing lenses - Nature Communications
Some bivalves have evolved photosynthetic symbioses. Here, the authors show that heart cockles transmit light through their upper shell to internal photosynthetic symbionts, using mineral fiber optic ...
www.nature.com
November 19, 2024 at 9:34 PM
One of the most heart warming adaptations I've heard of. Heart cockles have evolved aragonite fibre optic bundles to transmit sunlight to their symbionts. These bundles appear optimally arranged for light transmission and reduce UV load which can damage symbionts. 🧪
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...