Happy Vernal Equinox.
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UCLA scientists discover a drug, DDL-920, that led to the complete recovery of movement control in mice after they experienced a stroke.
Amazing, if confirmed. Paper here.The drug, tested on mice, restored these gamma oscillations, and in turn reconnected neurons to essentially heal the brain damage without arduous physical rehabilitation.
Interesting survey of executives regarding their experience with AI.
- 59% of the executives say they're "actively looking for a new job with a company that's more innovative with generative AI."
- Less than half (45%) of employees — versus 75% of the C-suite — think their company's AI rollout in the last 12 months has been successful.
- According to a May 2024 study from IBM, nearly two-thirds (64%) of leaders said their organization needs to embrace AI despite the fact that it will change jobs faster than employees can adapt.
- According to a 2024 LinkedIn report, 53% of employees said they hid their AI use from employers for fear that it would make them look replaceable.
- Execs are often so far removed from the actual implementation of AI on a worker level that they don't see or understand this fear and resistance
So true.
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WTF, man. Some guy asked ChatGPT to look up information on himself. ChatGPT told him that he was a child murderer.
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The parts of the brain involved in word recall have been identified. No surprises here. They're in the expected places – the areas where if dysfunctional, cause Wernicke's and Broca's aphasia.
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So there was a world happiness survey, and the United States came in #24. The winners were the northern European countries, of course. But man, even Mexico beat us. Of course, the survey data were obtained between 2020 and 2022, when Biden was in charge, so this is no surprise. Those were bleak years. Apparently this was the first time the U.S. dropped below the top 20.
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Oregon lawmakers (the usual crowd) wants to make Lunar New Year a paid state holiday. Oregon is a big joke.
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Oregon lawmakers complain that they won't have enough money due to federal budget cuts. The tide is going out, and Oregon has no pants on.
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Researchers at OHSU and Providence complain about NIH budget cuts. It comes down to indirect costs, and there are arguments against paying such a high percentage towards indirect costs:
If the NIH doesn't have to pay as much in indirect costs, it may have more money to allocated to more researchers. It won't help the current grantees, though. Sad to see that Dr. Aaron Grossberg is seeking opportunities elsewhere.Privatized research may be the thing, and industry may indeed be the place where ground-breaking research gets done. Universities have been living off government subsidies for too long.The NIH guidance justified its new 15 percent indirect cost cap by comparing what foundations typically pay for indirect costs: zero. The Gates Foundation has a maximum indirect cost rate of 10 percent. The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation pays up to 12 percent. If universities accept zero to 12 percent indirect cost rates from foundations, they should accept a similar rate from the government, argues the NIH.
Colleges reject the relevance of the comparison. They can forgo indirect cost funding from foundations only because the government already provides it, they say. In other words, taxpayers are easy marks when their money is being stewarded by federal bureaucrats. Private funders drive a harder bargain with their resources.