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cantlonlab.bsky.social
CantlonLab
@cantlonlab.bsky.social
7.3K followers 2.8K following 300 posts
Professor studying origins of concepts @CarnegieMellon; Brain development, cognition, evolution, math & logic; Primate Portal
@TIME 2017 Silence Breakers; she
Science Homecoming
@sciencehomecoming.bsky.social
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cantlonlab.bsky.social
This new book sounds interesting
This is the kind of public intellectualism that makes the public hate intellectuals. Instead of showing what ideas have to teach us about life, Pinker holds a gun to life’s head and demands it conform to his thought experiments. And he does it with the patronizing tone of someone telling his readers what to think from on high. In one passage, prompting us to imagine increasingly higher-order levels of knowledge about knowledge, he virtually pats us on the head. “Now let’s try four layers,” he writes. After we’ve tackled four, he asks, encouragingly, “Think you can handle a fifth layer?”
October 6, 2025 at 1:35 AM
cantlonlab.bsky.social
Read the article here:
Screenshots of Article from: https://www.mycouriertribune.com/cuts-to-science-funding-jeopardize-next-generation-of-scientists/
July 15, 2025 at 5:41 PM
cantlonlab.bsky.social
Here’s my public comment, it took ~30 minutes
As a scientist who has received multiple research grants from the NIH and NSF, I write in strong opposition to any proposal that would allow political appointees to serve as scientific program officers. I study brain development—an area that requires deep expertise, long-term investment, and the protection of scientific independence. The proposal to insert political appointees into program officer roles risks destabilizing the entire science funding system. Career scientific program officers are not interchangeable administrators. They are expert scientists who carry institutional memory—knowledge of the field’s evolution, familiarity with decades of grant portfolios, and an understanding of how emerging ideas build on past discoveries. Replacing them with political appointees would trigger constant turnover with each new administration, wipe out that deep knowledge base, and force entire research communities to re-justify foundational work every few years. Worse, politicians are not equipped to assess the scientific credentials of the people they might appoint. They risk selecting individuals based on ideology or loyalty rather than expertise, which invites unqualified leadership, undermines trust in the grant process, and introduces inefficiency and confusion at every level. This would disrupt the entire pipeline of federally funded science, from proposal review to long-term program planning, and ultimately stall progress. Stable, evidence-based science policy depends on the continuity and credibility that only trained scientists can provide. Undermining that will come at enormous cost to public health, innovation, economy and the next generation of researchers. Comment at https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2025/04/23/2025-06904/improving-performance-accountability-and-responsiveness-in-the-civil-service#open-comment See previous pic
June 5, 2025 at 12:53 PM
cantlonlab.bsky.social
Congratulations to Dr. Abhishek Dedhe who successfully defended his dissertation at Carnegie Mellon. You can read about his work here:

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....
Dr Abhishek Dedhe holding many cutout images of his own head Party for Abhishek
May 17, 2025 at 1:34 PM
cantlonlab.bsky.social
The kids are alright! Carnegie Mellon undergraduates are petitioning for more Gender Studies courses, recognizing that these courses have critical information for navigating an insane world.

the-tartan.org/2025/04/20/p...
Photo of article here: https://the-tartan.org/2025/04/20/petition-on-gender-studies-courses/
May 6, 2025 at 7:06 PM
cantlonlab.bsky.social
Thursday traffic at Carnegie Mellon 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿
April 3, 2025 at 11:52 PM
cantlonlab.bsky.social
Reasoning Algorithms: Online workshop open to all, with a bunch of speakers from cognitive development, primate cognition, neuroscience, and computational modeling 🧪🧠
obssr.od.nih.gov/news-and-eve...
https://obssr.od.nih.gov/news-and-events/events/reasoning-algorithms-across-species-diagnoses-and-development-theoretical
March 28, 2025 at 12:21 PM
cantlonlab.bsky.social
Free NIH cognition and neuroscience workshop Apr 23, 11–5 ET, online. Register now.

Reasoning algorithms across species, models, diagnoses & development. 🧪🧠

events.teams.microsoft.com/event/46b514...
Screenshot of linked workshop page
March 27, 2025 at 3:12 PM
cantlonlab.bsky.social
Follow the new Science Homecoming account at:
@sciencehomecoming.bsky.social
Science Homecoming account banner
February 24, 2025 at 3:21 PM
cantlonlab.bsky.social
Hailing from Timonium, home of the Maryland State Fair 🎡 @spiantado.bsky.social wrote about the value of science for The Sentinel.
Happy Homecoming 🧪🏠
Maryland State Fair
February 23, 2025 at 5:19 PM
cantlonlab.bsky.social
One thing I’ve noticed: academic men often form alliances that extend beyond work. They reward shared activities and have a tendency to bond with similar others (homophily) —women do this too but evidence shows they give out fewer professional rewards to friends.

www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Figure 1 from https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-00021-6
January 12, 2025 at 2:59 PM
cantlonlab.bsky.social
This sudden spike in social media hate cost just $75K to create, and what’s scary is that’s peanuts to many individuals and institutions.
Spike in negative internet comments about Blake Lively in August 2024, from lawsuit: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/12/21/us/complaint-of-blake-lively-v-wayfarer-studios-llc-et-al.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare&tgrp=on&pvid=8B18B506-94C9-4450-B319-F5C3FFE9A45D
December 23, 2024 at 2:01 AM
cantlonlab.bsky.social
Thanks to FIRE for protecting our freedom 🙄

“While [TRUMP] hasn’t yet established how to measure academic freedom, he has been looking at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression and the nonprofit’s scoring of universities and their rankings based on freedom of speech.”
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/donald-trump-research-grants-woke-b2660318.html https://www.thefire.org/about-us/our-team/steven-pinker
December 8, 2024 at 10:07 PM
cantlonlab.bsky.social
A promise painted on the students’ fence at Carnegie Mellon campus.
We will reclaim the future, painted
November 16, 2024 at 8:52 PM
cantlonlab.bsky.social
We all need to get a lot more charismatic and entertaining if we want to reach the phone-addicted masses with our facts — I nominate this guy as metaphor czar
David Sedaris dump metaphor
November 11, 2024 at 4:04 PM
cantlonlab.bsky.social
Here’s some more economy news that no one seems to hear
November 8, 2024 at 5:32 PM
cantlonlab.bsky.social
I’m not buying SHIT from this fool. I hope economic boycotts come back — they are powerful.
November 6, 2024 at 9:15 PM
cantlonlab.bsky.social
Dick Aslin’s festchrift was this week, cheers to a great man!
October 20, 2024 at 8:31 PM
cantlonlab.bsky.social
Big ideas are brewing in Iceland. Grateful for this discussion of Power & Sexual Harassment, organized by Gender Studies Professor Thorgerdur Jennyjardottir Einarsdót, at the University of Iceland. 🇮🇸
Cantlon speaking at University of Iceland
September 24, 2024 at 9:24 PM
cantlonlab.bsky.social
Also here’s a picture of my chicken Rosita, who has reached total enlightenment and is my pride and joy
Rosita, speckled Sussex chicken, in the sunset
October 29, 2023 at 11:31 AM
cantlonlab.bsky.social
"Are unattractive women particularly attracted to neuroscience? Are beautiful women particularly uninterested in the brain?”
Dario Mestripieri
October 19, 2023 at 12:16 PM
cantlonlab.bsky.social
Legendary keeping it real in this math textbook
James Robert Brown Philosophy of Mathematics, “let them burn in hell”
October 8, 2023 at 1:12 PM
cantlonlab.bsky.social
After a years long (but ultimately successful) sexual harassment lawsuit, and being forced to move my lab and family to a new state and start over, I’m now (nearly) a Full Professor—thanks to the faculty for the votes and to the secret letter writers 🎉
Shantay you stay — RuPaul
October 5, 2023 at 12:15 PM
cantlonlab.bsky.social
I always wondered why she suddenly disappeared from film

www.nytimes.com/2023/10/04/b...
NYT story clip describing how Julia Ormond was fired and demoted to a lesser agent after being sexually assaulted by Harvey Weinstein
October 4, 2023 at 9:54 PM
cantlonlab.bsky.social
Don’t forget that Karikó’s advisor tried to have her deported for accepting a new job (?!) #Skyence #SciSky
Text from Gregory Zuckerman, A Shot To Save The World about Karikó’s advisor threatening her then calling immigration to deport her because she was accepting a new job
October 4, 2023 at 1:53 AM