BJKS Podcast

Laura Luebbert just finished her PhD in computational biology and will soon be a postdoc with Pardis Sabeti, to hunt some viruses. We talk about how she got into biology, how she created a widely-used software project (gget) with no prior coding experience, her recent reports when she discovered questionable data in key papers about honeybee dances, and much more.BJKS Podcast is a podcast about neuroscience, psychology, and anything vaguely related, hosted by Benjamin James Kuper-Smith.Support the show: https://geni.us/bjks-patreonTimestamps0:00:00: Why Laura studied biology in Leiden/the Netherlands (and the importance of early scientific training)0:13:41: How Laura ended up doing a PhD at Caltech with Lior Pachter (and how to choose one project if you're interested in many things)0:22:00: gget: Developing and maintaining a software tool with no prior programming experience0:54:07: Laura's future postdoc (with Pardis Sabeti): global virus-hunter0:59:34: Finding and reporting questionable data in published papers about honeybee dances1:36:43: A book or paper more people should read1:38:55: Something Laura wishes she'd learnt sooner1:40:38: Advice for PhD students/postdocs1:44:02: Bonus: should I learn Catalan?Podcast linksWebsite: https://geni.us/bjks-podTwitter: https://geni.us/bjks-pod-twtLaura's linksWebsite: https://geni.us/luebbert-webGoogle Scholar: https://geni.us/luebbert-scholarTwitter: https://geni.us/luebbert-twtBen's linksWebsite: https://geni.us/bjks-webGoogle Scholar: https://geni.us/bjks-scholarTwitter: https://geni.us/bjks-twtReferences and linksEpisode with Jessica Polka: https://geni.us/bjks-polkaEpisode with Elisabeth Bik: https://geni.us/bjks-bikEpisode with Joe Hilgard: https://geni.us/bjks-hilgardPrototype fund Germany: https://prototypefund.de/en/PubPeer: https://pubpeer.com/Aaronovitch (2014-). Rivers of London series.Frisch (1927). Aus dem Leben der Bienen.Luebbert, Sullivan, Carilli, Hjörleifsson, Winnett, Chari & Pachter (2023). Efficient and accurate detection of viral sequences at single-cell resolution reveals putative novel viruses perturbing host gene expression. bioRxiv.Luebbert & Pachter (2023). Efficient querying of genomic reference databases with gget. Bioinformatics.Luebbert & Pachter (2024). The miscalibration of the honeybee odometer. arXiv.https://liorpachter.wordpress.com/2024/07/02/the-journal-of-scientific-integrity/

Laura Wesseldijk works at the Max Planck Institute for Empirical Aesthetics in Frankfurt at the Behavioral Genetics unit in collaboration with the Department of Psychiatry at Amsterdam UMC. We talk about her research on the genetics of music and mental health, methods in behavioural genetics, the role of large samples, the importance of twins for behavioural genetics, and much more.BJKS Podcast is a podcast about neuroscience, psychology, and anything vaguely related, hosted by Benjamin James Kuper-Smith.Support the show: https://geni.us/bjks-patreonTimestamps0:00:00: Did Beethoven have bad genetics for music - or are there problems with applying (some) genetic methods to individuals?0:11:51: Different methods in behavioural genetics0:24:20: Gene x environment interactions and the difficulty of disentangling them0:30:30: 23andMe in genetics research0:37:26: Can you ask an interesting question if you need millions of people to have done a measurement?0:42:08: How to measure musicality (at scale)0:47:56: Geneticists really love twins0:50:41: Do critical periods in music exist?1:03:30: How Laura got interested in the genetics of music1:12:07: A book or paper more people should read1:16:17: Something Laura wishes she'd learnt sooner1:17:49: Advice for PhD students/postdocsPodcast linksWebsite: https://geni.us/bjks-podTwitter: https://geni.us/bjks-pod-twtLaura's linksWebsite: https://geni.us/wesseldijk-webGoogle Scholar: https://geni.us/wesseldijk-scholarTwitter: https://geni.us/wesseldijk-twtBen's linksWebsite: https://geni.us/bjks-webGoogle Scholar: https://geni.us/bjks-scholarTwitter: https://geni.us/bjks-twtReferencesBegg, ... & Krause (2023). Genomic analyses of hair from Ludwig van Beethoven. Current Biology.Harden (2021). The genetic lottery: Why DNA matters for social equality.Hjelmborg, ... & Kaprio, J. (2017). Lung cancer, genetic predisposition and smoking: the Nordic Twin Study of Cancer. Thorax.Rutherford (2020). How to argue with a racist: History, science, race and reality.Rutherford (2022). Control: the dark history and troubling present of eugenics.Ullén, Mosing, Holm, Eriksson & Madison (2014). Psychometric properties and heritability of a new online test for musicality, the Swedish Musical Discrimination Test. Personality and Individual Differences.Wesseldijk, Ullén & Mosing (2019). The effects of playing music on mental health outcomes. Scientific reports.Wesseldijk, Mosing & Ullén (2021). Why is an early start of training related to musical skills in adulthood? A genetically informative study. Psychological Science.Wesseldijk, Ullén & Mosing (2023). Music and genetics. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews.Wesseldijk, Abdellaoui, Gordon, Ullén & Mosing (2022). Using a polygenic score in a family design to understand genetic influences on musicality. Scientific reports.Wesseldijk, ... & Fisher (2024). Notes from Beethoven’s genome. Current Biology.

Arne Ekstrom is a professor of psychology at the University of Arizona, where he studies spatial navigation and memory. We talk about how he got into psychology, his unusual path to getting a PhD, his work on using single-cells recordings from people, the relationship between memory and spatial navigation, why he uses multiple methods, and much more.Support the show: https://geni.us/bjks-patreonTimestamps0:00:00: How Arne ended up studying psychology and neuroscience0:06:23: Arne's route to a PhD recording single-cells in humans (via political activism in Central America)0:20:18: The state of using VR-like tasks in the early 2000s0:24:32: The status of spatial navigation research in the early 2000s0:29:45: Collecting data from unusual populations0:33:59: Why record from amygdala for a spatial navigation task?0:41:35: Combining memory and navigation in hippocampus1:02:04: Should I use one method or many?1:11:29: A book or paper more people should read1:13:51: Something Arne wishes he'd learnt sooner1:14:51: Advice for PhD students/postdocsPodcast linksWebsite: https://geni.us/bjks-podTwitter: https://geni.us/bjks-pod-twtArne's linksWebsite: https://geni.us/ekstrom-webGoogle Scholar: https://geni.us/ekstrom-scholarBen's linksWebsite: https://geni.us/bjks-webGoogle Scholar: https://geni.us/bjks-scholarTwitter: https://geni.us/bjks-twtReferences & linksEpisode with Lynn Nadel: https://geni.us/bjks-nadelEpisode with Nanthia Suthana: https://geni.us/bjks-suthana Episode with Nikolai Axmacher: https://geni.us/bjks-axmacherEpisode with Nachum Ulanovsky: https://geni.us/bjks-ulanovskyArgyropoulos ... & Butler (2019). Network-wide abnormalities explain memory variability in hippocampal amnesia. Elife.Ekstrom, .. & Fried (2003). Cellular networks underlying human spatial navigation. Nature.Ekstrom ... & Kahana (2005). Human hippocampal theta activity during virtual navigation. Hippocampus.Ekstrom ... & Bookheimer (2009). Correlation between BOLD fMRI and theta-band local field potentials in the human hippocampal area. J neurophys.Ekstrom ... & Starrett (2017). Interacting networks of brain regions underlie human spatial navigation: a review and novel synthesis of the literature. J neurophys.Ekstrom & Ranganath (2018). Space, time, and episodic memory: The hippocampus is all over the cognitive map. Hippocampus.Hassabis ... & Maguire (2009). Decoding neuronal ensembles in the human hippocampus. Current Biology.Iaria & Burles (2016). Developmental topographical disorientation. TiCS.Kunz ... & Axmacher (2015). Reduced grid-cell–like representations in adults at genetic risk for Alzheimer’s disease. Science.Logothetis ... & Oeltermann (2001). Neurophysiological investigation of the basis of the fMRI signal. Nature.Watrous ... & Ekstrom (2013). Frequency-specific network connectivity increases underlie accurate spatiotemporal memory retrieval. Nat Neuro.Zhang & Ekstrom (2013). Human neural systems underlying rigid and flexible forms of allocentric spatial representation. Human brain mapping.

Benjamin Ehrlich is the author of the recent biography of Santiago Ramon y Cajal (The brain in search of itself), and The Dreams of Santiago Ramon y Cajal. We talk about Cajal's life and work, Cajal's unlikely beginnings in a rural Spain, how he discovered that neurons were separate from each other, leading to the neutron doctrine, how Cajal became famous seemingly overnight, Cajal's rivalry with Camillo Golgi, the relationship between art and science, how to write a biography of someone whose autobiographical writings were heavily influenced by picaresque novels, and much more.BJKS Podcast is a podcast about neuroscience, psychology, and anything vaguely related, hosted by Benjamin James Kuper-Smith.Support the show: https://geni.us/bjks-patreonTimestamps0:00:00: Why Cajal is worth talking about0:01:42: Cajal's father 0:04:48: Cajal's childhood0:17:22: Cajal's early work on the brain, and the status of neuroscience in the 1880s0:23:45: The conference that made Cajal famous0:29:42: Cajal's years as a famous scientist0:35:33: Cajal's personality0:41:14: Cajal & Golgi's rivalry0:45:48: del Rio and the discovery of glia cells0:49:13: Picaresque novels and the difficulty of trusting Cajal's stories of himself1:02:52: A book or paper more people should read1:04:14: Something Ben wishes he'd learnt sooner1:04:57: Advice for PhD students/postdocs - people in a transitory periodPodcast linksWebsite: https://geni.us/bjks-podTwitter: https://geni.us/bjks-pod-twtBen (Ehrlich)'s linksWebsite: http://www.benehrlich.com/Twitter: https://twitter.com/benehrlich11Ben (Kuper-Smith)'s linksWebsite: https://geni.us/bjks-webGoogle Scholar: https://geni.us/bjks-scholarTwitter: https://geni.us/bjks-twtReferences & linksKölliker: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_von_K%C3%B6llikerGolgi: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camillo_Golgidel Rio: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P%C3%ADo_del_R%C3%ADo_HortegaCalvino (1972). Invisible cities.Ehrlich (2017). The Dreams of Santiago Ramón y Cajal.Ehrlich (2022). The brain in search of itself: Santiago Ramón y Cajal and the story of the neuron.Pitlor & Lee (editors). The Best American Short Stories 2023 .

Discover the concept of 'neural fingerprinting' and using naturalistic stimuli in neuroimaging. Listen to insights on writing good scientific articles, taking time off before starting a PhD, and advice for PhD students. Explore the impact of unconventional research paths, juggling work-life balance, and transitioning from PhD to postdoc.

David Van Essen is an Alumni Endowed Professor of Neuroscience at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. In this conversation, we talk about David's path to becoming a neuroscientist, the Human Connectome project, hierarhical processing in the cerebral cortex, and much more.BJKS Podcast is a podcast about neuroscience, psychology, and anything vaguely related, hosted by Benjamin James Kuper-Smith.Support the show: https://geni.us/bjks-patreonTimestamps0:00:00: David's childhood: ravens, rockets, and radios0:05:00: From physics to neuroscience (via chemistry)0:13:55: Quantitative and qualitative approaches to science0:19:17: Model species in neuroscience0:31:35: Hierarchical processing in the cortex0:46:54: The Human Connectome Project0:55:00: A book or paper more people should read0:58:01: Something David wishes he'd learnt sooner1:00:31: Advice for PhD students/postdocsPodcast linksWebsite: https://geni.us/bjks-podTwitter: https://geni.us/bjks-pod-twtDavid's linksWebsite: https://geni.us/VanEssen-webGoogle Scholar: https://geni.us/VanEssen-scholarBen's linksWebsite: https://geni.us/bjks-webGoogle Scholar: https://geni.us/bjks-scholarTwitter: https://geni.us/bjks-twtReferences & linksDavid's autobiographical sketch for the Society for Neuroscience (in Volume 9): https://www.sfn.org/about/history-of-neuroscience/autobiographical-chaptersFelleman & Van Essen (1991). Distributed hierarchical processing in the primate cerebral cortex. Cerebral Cortex.Glasser, Coalson, Robinson, Hacker, Harwell, Yacoub, ... & Van Essen (2016). A multi-modal parcellation of human cerebral cortex. Nature.Hubel & Wiesel (1962). Receptive fields, binocular interaction and functional architecture in the cat's visual cortex. The Journal of physiology.Maunsell & Van Essen (1983). The connections of the middle temporal visual area (MT) and their relationship to a cortical hierarchy in the macaque monkey. Journal of Neuroscience.Sheldrake (2021). Entangled life: How fungi make our worlds, change our minds & shape our futures.Van Essen & Kelly (1973). Morphological identification of simple, complex and hypercomplex cells in the visual cortex of the cat. In Intracellular Staining in Neurobiology (pp. 189-198).Van Essen & Maunsell (1980). Two‐dimensional maps of the cerebral cortex. Journal of Comparative Neurology.Van Essen (2012). Cortical cartography and Caret software. Neuroimage.Van Essen, Smith, Barch, Behrens, Yacoub, Ugurbil & WU-Minn HCP Consortium. (2013). The WU-Minn human connectome project: an overview. Neuroimage.Wooldridge (1963). The machinery of the brain.

Nachum Ulanovsky is a professor at the Weizman Institute. We talk about his research on spatial navigation in bats, how Nachum started working with bats, the importance of natural behaviour, how to build a 700m long tunnel for neuroscience, and much more.Support the show: https://geni.us/bjks-patreonTimestamps0:00:00: How Nachum started working with bats0:09:29: The technical difficulties of working with bats and in a new species0:16:03: The Egyptian Fruit Bat0:19:42: Wild bats vs lab-born bats / spatial navigation in very large spaces0:26:28: How to build a 700m long tunnel for neuroscience0:44:30: 2 random questions about bats0:53:48: The social lives of bats & social place cells1:05:09: Why are there so many types of cells for spatial navigation?1:13:01: Natural neuroscience1:17:33: A book or paper more people should read1:20:39: Advice for PhD students/postdocsPodcast linksWebsite: https://geni.us/bjks-podTwitter: https://geni.us/bjks-pod-twtNachum's linksWebsite: https://geni.us/ulanovsky-webBen's linksWebsite: https://geni.us/bjks-webGoogle Scholar: https://geni.us/bjks-scholarTwitter: https://geni.us/bjks-twtReferences & linksBracken Cave in Texas, with millions of bats: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PNPioS_roREThe Onion video on scientist who wasted life studying anteaters: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qXD9HnrNrvkEilam-Altstadter ... (2021). Stereotaxic brain atlas of the Egyptian fruit bat.Eliav ... (2021). Multiscale representation of very large environments in the hippocampus of flying bats. Science.Finkelstein ... (2015). Three-dimensional head-direction coding in the bat brain. Nature.Geva-Sagiv ... (2015). Spatial cognition in bats and rats: from sensory acquisition to multiscale maps and navigation. Nat Rev Neuro.Geva-Sagiv ... (2016). Hippocampal global remapping for different sensory modalities in flying bats. Nat Neuro.Hafting ... (2005). Microstructure of a spatial map in the entorhinal cortex. Nature.Hodgkin & Huxley (1952). A quantitative description of membrane current and its application to conduction and excitation in nerve. The J phys.Hubel & Wiesel (1962). Receptive fields, binocular interaction and functional architecture in the cat's visual cortex. The J phys.Lettvin... (1959). What the frog's eye tells the frog's brain. Proceedings of IRE.Miller (1956). The magical number seven, plus or minus two ... Psych Rev.O'Keefe & Dostrovsky (1971). The hippocampus as a spatial map ... Brain research.Omer ... (2018). Social place-cells in the bat hippocampus. Science.Sarel ... (2017). Vectorial representation of spatial goals in the hippocampus of bats. Science.Sarel ... (2022). Natural switches in behaviour rapidly modulate hippocampal coding. Nature.Tsoar ... (2011). Large-scale navigational map in a mammal. PNAS.Ulanovsky ... (2003). Processing of low-probability sounds by cortical neurons. Nature neuroscience.Ulanovsky & Moss (2007). Hippocampal cellular and network activity in freely moving echolocating bats. Nat Neuro.Yartsev & Ulanovsky (2013). Representation of three-dimensional space in the hippocampus of flying bats. Science.

 Tom Hardwicke is a Research Fellow at the University of Melbourne. We talk about meta-science, incuding Tom's work on post-publication critique and registered reports, what his new role as editor at Psychological Science entails, and much more.BJKS Podcast is a podcast about neuroscience, psychology, and anything vaguely related, hosted by Benjamin James Kuper-Smith.Support the show: https://geni.us/bjks-patreonTimestamps0:00:00: What is meta-science/meta-research?0:03:15: How Tom got involved in meta-science0:21:51: Post-publication critique in journals0:39:30: How Tom's work (registered reports) led to policy changes at journals0:44:08: Tom is now the STAR (statistics, transparency, and rigor) editor at Psychological Science0:48:17: How to best share data that can be used by people with different backgrounds0:54:51: A book or paper more people should read0:56:36: Something Tom wishes he'd learnt sooner1:00:13: Jobs in meta-science1:03:29: Advice for PhD students/postdocsPodcast linksWebsite: https://geni.us/bjks-podTwitter: https://geni.us/bjks-pod-twtTom's linksWebsite: https://geni.us/hardwicke-webGoogle Scholar: https://geni.us/hardwicke-scholarTwitter: https://geni.us/hardwicke-twtBen's linksWebsite: https://geni.us/bjks-webGoogle Scholar: https://geni.us/bjks-scholarTwitter: https://geni.us/bjks-twtReferences & linksEpisodes w/ Nosek, Vazire, & Chambers: https://geni.us/bjks-nosekhttps://geni.us/bjks-vazirehttps://geni.us/bjks-chambersFoamhenge: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FoamhengeMETRICS: https://metrics.stanford.edu/AIMOS: https://www.youtube.com/@aimosinc4164Chambers & Mellor (2018). Protocol transparency is vital for registered reports. Nature Human Behaviour.Hardwicke, Jameel, Jones, Walczak & Weinberg (2014). Only human: Scientists, systems, and suspect statistics. Opticon1826.Hardwicke & Ioannidis (2018). Mapping the universe of registered reports. Nature Human Behaviour.Hardwicke, Serghiou, Janiaud, Danchev, Crüwell, Goodman & Ioannidis (2020). Calibrating the scientific ecosystem through meta-research. Annual Review of Statistics and Its Application.Hardwicke, Thibault, Kosie, Tzavella, Bendixen, Handcock, ... & Ioannidis (2022). Post-publication critique at top-ranked journals across scientific disciplines: a cross-sectional assessment of policies and practice. Royal Society Open Science.Hardwicke & Vazire (2023). Transparency Is Now the Default at Psychological Science. Psychological Science.Kidwell, Lazarević, Baranski, Hardwicke, Piechowski, Falkenberg, ... & Nosek (2016). Badges to acknowledge open practices: A simple, low-cost, effective method for increasing transparency. PLoS biology.Nosek, Hardwicke, Moshontz, Allard, Corker, Dreber, ... & Vazire (2022). Replicability, robustness, and reproducibility in psychological science. Annual review of psychology.Ritchie (2020). Science fictions: Exposing fraud, bias, negligence and hype in science.

Jessica Polka, Executive Director of ASAPbio, discusses preprints, the functions of peer review, and the future of scientific publishing. Topics include the benefits of preprints, the role of journals, and individual actions for change in the scholarly community.

Brian Boyd is a Distinguished Professor in English and Drama at the University of Auckland. We talk mainly about Vladimir Nabokov: Brian wrote the defining biography on Nabokov (in addition to books on more specific aspects about Nabokov), so we discuss Nabokov's life & work, Brian's approachh to writing biographies, with some hints of the new biography Brian is writing about Karl Popper.BJKS Podcast is a podcast about neuroscience, psychology, and anything vaguely related, hosted by Benjamin James Kuper-Smith.Support the show: https://geni.us/bjks-patreonTimestamps0:00:00: Why this is a special episode for me0:07:02: Nabokov's family & childhood0:15:54: The Russian Revolution, starting in 19170:19:52: Nabokov's study years in Cambridge and emigre years in Berlin in the 1920s and 30s0:30:19: Nabokov's early American years: teaching and butterflies0:35:56: Nabokov's Russian vs English works, and the problem of translations0:41:48: Lolita0:50:13: Pale Fire1:02:46: Nabokov's writing process1:07:26: Nabokov's reception1:10:00: Writing Nabokov's biography: how it started, meeting Nabokov's family, researching and writing, and the responsibility of writing the defining work on someone1:28:26: Which Nabokov book should new readers read first?1:30:58: A book or paper more people should read1:35:03: Something Brian wishes he'd learnt sooner1:38:47: Advice for PhD students/postdocsPodcast linksWebsite: https://geni.us/bjks-podTwitter: https://geni.us/bjks-pod-twtBrian's linksWebsite: https://geni.us/boyd-webBen's linksWebsite: https://geni.us/bjks-webGoogle Scholar: https://geni.us/bjks-scholarTwitter: https://geni.us/bjks-twtReferences and linksThe estate Nabokov inherent and immediately lost in th revolution: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rozhdestveno_Memorial_EstateAda online, Brian's line-by-line annotations to Nabokov's Ada: https://www.ada.auckland.ac.nz/ Boyd (1985/2001). Nabokov's Ada: The Place of Consciousness. Boyd (1990). Vladimir Nabokov: The Russian Years. Boyd (1991). Vladimir Nabokov: The American Years.Boyd & Pyle (eds) (2000).  Nabokov’s Butterflies .Boyd (2001). Nabokov's Pale Fire: The Magic of Artistic Discovery.Grass (1959). Die Blechtrommel.James (1897). What Maisie Knew. Machado de Assis (1882). The Posthumous Memoirs of Brás Cubas. [The 2 new translations are by Thomson-DeVeaux (Penguin Classics), and by Jull Costa & Patterson (Liveright)]Nabokov (1929). The (Luzhin) Defense. Nabokov (1936). Invitation to a Beheading. Nabokov (1947). Bend Sinister. Nabokov (1955). Lolita. Nabokov (1957). Pnin. Nabokov (1962). Pale Fire. Nabokov (1967). Speak, Memory. Nabokov (1969). Ada or Ardor.Tarnowsky (1908). Les femmes homicides. [Nabokov's great-aunt; see also:  Huff-Corzine & Toohy (2023). The life and scholarship of Pauline Tarnowsky: Criminology's mother. Journal of Criminal Justice]Vila, Bell, Macniven, Goldman-Huertas, Ree, Marshall, ... & Pierce (2011). Phylogeny and palaeoecology of Polyommatus blue butterflies show Beringia was a climate-regulated gateway to the New World. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences.