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How I got a job in industry
I often get asked how I landed a job in industry after my postdoc. After my PhD at McGill, I started a postdoc at UCLA in July 2014. After about 6 months, like many a postdoc, I started to get worried about my financial security and academic job prospects. So I started exploring jobs outside…
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The eyes of scallops
A scallop. Each of the blue dots lining the shell is an eye. Source: Wikipedia. Scallops are a family of bivalves. These modest saltwater clams often end up on seafood dinner plates, but did you know that scallops have dozens of image-forming eyes? They focus light onto a multi-layered retina through a telescope-like parabolic mirror.…
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VR in neuroscience
VR has become affordable and accessible to consumers. Neuroscience research can benefit from the tight control of visual and auditory stimuli and the immersion that VR can afford. I compiled a list of the opportunities that cheap, commodity VR headsets bring to human neuroscience. What can you do with VR? The graphics in this 2002…
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AI and neuroscience – MAIN2019
There’s a lot of excitement at the intersection of neuroscience and AI right now. I had a chance to go to the MAIN2019 conference (Montreal AI and neuroscience), and saw an amazing line-up of people and interesting talks it was. This is a tour of the main ideas that caught my attention at the conference.…
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What can a neuroscientist do about climate change?
The climate crisis is a defining challenge of the 21st century. If we keep on the same emissions path, we expect a sea rise of 2 meters, hundreds of millions of climate refugees, a mass extinction of over half of animal species, and decreases agricultural productivity that could leave a billion people starving by 2100.…
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An introduction to meta-analysis
I just finished reading an excellent book on meta-analysis, Introduction to Meta Analysis by Borenstein et al. The book starts with the motivating example of streptokinase, a blood clot buster. Early studies showed conflicting evidence of efficacy of the drug in preventing death following a heart attack. These early studies were small, and the main outcome was often not significantly…
xcorr: AI & neuro 