Mike Fainzilber
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mfainzilber.bsky.social
Mike Fainzilber
@mfainzilber.bsky.social
Molecular neuroscience, cell biology, aikido and haiku, not necessarily in that order.

https://www.weizmann.ac.il/Biomolecular_Sciences/Fainzilber/
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“There are two races of men in this world, but only these two - the “race” of the decent man and the “race” of the indecent man.”

- Viktor Frankl
"Anyone can be a barbarian; it requires a terrible effort to remain a civilized man."

—Leonard Woolf

Via @economist.com quote of the day
November 25, 2025 at 7:49 AM
Reposted by Mike Fainzilber
Ori Weinstock and company. My daily post on the dark site, now moved here

youtu.be/PH-ijpgDZsY
Netanyahu resign
YouTube video by Yael Nussbaum
youtu.be
March 29, 2025 at 11:39 AM
🧪

An amoeba that can live at 63-63 C !!!
A geothermal amoeba sets a new upper temperature limit for eukaryotes https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.11.24.690213v1
November 25, 2025 at 5:39 AM
🧪 “We urge faculty members to cooperate in raising PSU citations and impact.”
November 24, 2025 at 8:04 PM
Reposted by Mike Fainzilber
suffer little children
the smell
of rotting rice

🙏 to Roberta Beach Jacobson (Robin) for featuring this one in Five Fleas Itchy Poetry

Published this Monday, but I am still tagging this one as a #SenryuSunday

fivefleas.blogspot.com/2025/11/afte...
November 17, 2025 at 9:35 PM
Reposted by Mike Fainzilber
Sometimes, as patients near the end of life, eliciting and fulfilling a simple wish can lead to acceptance and a peaceful death — a lesson absorbed by a physician during a week of ice cream.

www.nejm.org/doi/full/10....
November 23, 2025 at 8:01 AM
Reposted by Mike Fainzilber
From "Guidelines for T cell nomenclature"

www.nature.com/articles/s41...
November 22, 2025 at 8:01 PM
A new selection carefully curated by editor extraordinaire David McMurray

www.asahi.com/ajw/articles...
ASAHI HAIKUIST NETWORK/ David McMurray | The Asahi Shimbun: Breaking News, Japan News and Analysis
November winter--the endless drizzle wears down the sleep--Claudia Brefeld (Bochum, Germany)
www.asahi.com
November 21, 2025 at 10:01 AM
Reposted by Mike Fainzilber
absolutely LOVE this preprint on tricking LLMs using poetry:
arxiv.org/abs/2511.15304
Like magic spells, you need to use the correct pentameter or the demon won't listen
Adversarial Poetry as a Universal Single-Turn Jailbreak Mechanism in Large Language Models
We present evidence that adversarial poetry functions as a universal single-turn jailbreak technique for Large Language Models (LLMs). Across 25 frontier proprietary and open-weight models, curated po...
arxiv.org
November 21, 2025 at 2:07 AM
“Cherish those who seek the truth but beware of those who find it.”

—Voltaire

Via @economist.com quote of the day
November 21, 2025 at 5:48 AM
Reposted by Mike Fainzilber
Handwritten and oral exams are making a comeback
AI is accelerating a tech backlash in American classrooms
Handwritten and oral exams are making a comeback
econ.st
November 20, 2025 at 3:50 PM
Reposted by Mike Fainzilber
Science WITH Anguish?

Grant rejection today. It never stops hurting no matter how successful or how many you dealt with before (this is no. 57). Thanks to my team for helping me handle it today. 😀 Tomorrow we go on.

ECRs dealing with rejection: you are not alone! Hot tip: saying this helps me too!
November 19, 2025 at 8:26 PM
Reposted by Mike Fainzilber
I am on holiday in #Krakow #poland

The world doesn’t always end with thunder. Often it ends quietly, like when someone waters their flowers, or a child chases a butterfly.

Milosz asks us to pay attention to the small, ordinary moments that keep our humanity intact.

#poetry
#poemoftheday
November 19, 2025 at 12:55 PM
suffer little children
the smell
of rotting rice

🙏 to Roberta Beach Jacobson (Robin) for featuring this one in Five Fleas Itchy Poetry

Published this Monday, but I am still tagging this one as a #SenryuSunday

fivefleas.blogspot.com/2025/11/afte...
November 17, 2025 at 9:35 PM
textile tariffs
the emperor’s
new clothes

🙏 to Roberta Beach Jacobson (Robin) for featuring this one in Five Fleas Itchy Poetry

fivefleas.blogspot.com/2025/11/afte...
November 17, 2025 at 9:29 PM
Reposted by Mike Fainzilber
The question is where is the phase separation? You may call cars liquids because at regime traffic can be described as a fluid. What have you learned?
November 16, 2025 at 7:40 PM
Reposted by Mike Fainzilber
Though comedians in India may not be fined or jailed for every complaint, police are required to investigate, which means comedians spend time and money defending themselves. So why do they keep going?
Indian comedians have never been so successful or endangered
Jokesters lead the fight for free expression in India
econ.st
November 17, 2025 at 6:00 AM
Reposted by Mike Fainzilber
This has gotten surprisingly little attention — it's not even on the front page of @science.org right now — but it's really hard to describe what the SAFE Research Act would do to US science and scientists without sounding insane

www.science.org/content/arti...
November 14, 2025 at 5:16 PM
Reposted by Mike Fainzilber
Dang, hard disagree. The best papers to write and read are works of art, not merely a list of data and statements.

Don’t let LLMs take this away too, for gods sake.
I honestly think we would all be a lot more productive if papers were bullet points with plots.
November 14, 2025 at 10:22 PM
Reposted by Mike Fainzilber
The link between the gut #microbiome and autism is not backed by science, researchers say.

Read the full opinion piece in @cp-neuron.bsky.social: spkl.io/63322AbxpA

@wiringthebrain.bsky.social, @statsepi.bsky.social, & @deevybee.bsky.social
November 13, 2025 at 4:00 PM
cold drizzle
when did it start
this talking to myself

- Beverly Acuff Momoi

on

tinywords.com/2025/11/14/4...
tinywords
cold drizzle when did it start this talking to myself
tinywords.com
November 14, 2025 at 9:06 PM
Teaching an octopus to play the piano

youtu.be/PcWnQ7fYzwI
I taught an octopus piano (It took 6 months)
YouTube video by Mattias Krantz
youtu.be
November 14, 2025 at 2:43 PM
Reposted by Mike Fainzilber
A handy translation guide for non-academic speakers.
November 13, 2025 at 2:19 PM