Mark Blumberg
Neuroscientist studying behavioral development & sleep. Dept chair @PsychIowa.bsky.social. Author of Freaks of Nature. Music, drums, photography for sanity.
My lab is here: https://blumberg.lab.uiowa.edu
- Congratulations to @antbergel.bsky.social and Paul-Antoine Libourel on their new paper. It was a pleasure being a part of the effort. I also enjoyed reading this article about the new findings: www.thetransmitter.org/sleep/snoozi...
- ⚠️ New paper alert and what a way to end 2025! 🎉 Happy to share our story “Sleep-dependent infraslow rhythms are evolutionarily conserved across reptiles and mammals.” published today in Nature Neuroscience. Sleeping dragons 🦎 and functional ultrasound! Read the full paper here: rdcu.be/eWJHb 1/8
- Reposted by Mark Blumberg⚠️ New paper alert and what a way to end 2025! 🎉 Happy to share our story “Sleep-dependent infraslow rhythms are evolutionarily conserved across reptiles and mammals.” published today in Nature Neuroscience. Sleeping dragons 🦎 and functional ultrasound! Read the full paper here: rdcu.be/eWJHb 1/8
- This is a wonderful thread by @kohngregory.bsky.social! Read it carefully, follow the links, and spread it around. More scientists, including neuroscientists, will think better if they take the time to understand these important issues.
- This is an awe-inspiring and fascinating study that I thoroughly enjoyed reading. However, the overall framing in terms of "innate versus learned” is unnecessary. The innate versus acquired dichotomy is outdated and has been for a long time. www.nature.com/articles/s41...
- The deadline for our open-area senior search is approaching. If you're looking for a new academic home and, perhaps, the security of a hard-money position, please consider applying.
- Our open-area senior faculty position is live. If you're interested, apply! If you know someone, let them know. Substantial startup and endowed position are part of the package. Learn more about our great department here: psychology.uiowa.edu. Come join us! psychology.uiowa.edu/about/job-op...
- If you have any questions about this position or the one in clinical science, please don't hesitate to reach out to me. We're a growing, interdisciplinary, closely-knit, and supportive department. And we're looking for exceptional junior and senior scientists to join us.
- Our open-area senior faculty position is live. If you're interested, apply! If you know someone, let them know. Substantial startup and endowed position are part of the package. Learn more about our great department here: psychology.uiowa.edu. Come join us! psychology.uiowa.edu/about/job-op...
- Reposted by Mark BlumbergThe ad for the tenure-track Clinical Science position is live. Please spread it around! psychology.uiowa.edu/about/job-op...
- Reposted by Mark Blumberg[This post could not be retrieved]
- "chronic venous insufficiency." So that's what they're calling _____ these days.
- Two faculty positions in my department this year. Please spread the word! And don't hesitate to reach out if you want to learn more.
- Heads up! We are doing two searches this year—for an assistant prof in Clinical Science, and an associate/full prof in any domain of psychology. Want to learn more? Contact the dept chair, Mark Blumberg, at mark-blumberg@uiowa.edu. Ads will be posted soon on our homepage: psychology.uiowa.edu
- Reposted by Mark BlumbergI think a lot about what Carl Sagan said in one of his final interviews.
- Reposted by Mark BlumbergThe National Institutes of Health, the largest funder of biomedical research in the world, has fired 1,300 employees and cancelled more than $2 billion in federal research grants. cbsn.ws/4daiCrv
- Reposted by Mark BlumbergOur cover this week.
- Geez, if only the University of Iowa were among those mentioned in this article. Is it really that difficult? Even Nebraska is ahead of us. Nebraska!
- From The Atlantic: “The Trump administration is manipulating government-sponsored research to get the answers it wants.” Who remembers Lysenko?
- We are all Harvard now. (gulp)
- Kerr is such a class act.
- Well, at least we know something horrifies her. It just ain't the people around her.
- I'm ashamed of the silence from campus leaders across the country as our international students are terrorized by threats, intimidation, and deportation. Ducking and covering is not the strategy they seem to think it is. Soon enough, they will find there's no place left to hide.
- I’ve committed myself to learning James Gadson’s brilliant drum pattern on Bill Withers’ Use Me. I’ve got the pattern down now; making it groove is the next big challenge.
- “Wildly destructive stupidity.” Nothing like simple clarity.
- Oh Susan Collins. Bless her heart.
- I’m totally with David Frum on this. We have a lot of farmers in Iowa. If Trump grants them a bailout from his tariffs, which they desperately want, I don’t want to hear them whine about welfare and socialism ever again. They voted for this pig sh*t. They can roll around in it with the rest of us.
- Farm families earn more than non-farm families. Farm families are wealthier than non-farm families. If Americans are to pay high tariffs to bring back toaster-making jobs, farmers should bear their share of the sacrifice. www.theatlantic.com/politics/arc...
- Ouch. @benwikler.bsky.social has got game. Congrats and thanks to Wisconsin. We all needed this.
- Very proud of my wonderful former doctoral student for Standing Up For Science!
- As a developmental scientist, I find it fascinating that "the greatest country the world has ever known" will have been destroyed by economic and moral concerns about eggs, embryos, and fetuses.
- Powerful response from Marc Elias to Musk's provocations. "I will not back down. I will not bow or scrape. I will never obey." Damn right.
- Elon Musk recently posted on his site that another lawyer and I are “undermining civilization.” He goes on to ask if we suffered childhood trauma and concludes by suggesting we are suffering from “generational trauma.” This is my response. www.democracydocket.com/opinion/my-o...
- I was more than happy to be interviewed again by the talented @nhassenfeld.bsky.social for the new Unexplainable podcast. This one is about the connections among sleep, dreams, and twitching. I hope you enjoy! podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/u...
- Once again, we see that women (in this latest case, Danielle Sassoon) are the heroes we need in this time. Why are MAGA men such MEGA wimps?
- Important and informative new Unexplainable podcast episode (nhassenfeld.bsky.social) entitled “Is science in danger?” It lays out the threats but also provides helpful counterarguments to the nonsense out there. Everyone concerned for the state of US science should listen and share.
- I don't know anyone who enters science to receive awards, and there are far fewer awards than deserving recipients. But this one is particularly sweet and I am grateful to the SRS for the recognition, not only for me but for the many wonderful trainees and collaborators with whom I have worked.
- Congratulations @marksblumberg.bsky.social ! It’s about damn time!! Mark is the 2025 Distinguished Scientist awardee for the Sleep Research Society and will be giving a plenary talk at #SLEEP2025 in Seattle this June.
- Another wonderful essay from Eve Marder — with important lessons for trainees and faculty. I'm looking forward to discussing it in my next lab meeting.
- Reflective piece by Eve Marder – "What happened to the pursuit of truth" rupress.org/jgp/article/...
- I'm noticing how neuroscientists are increasingly sprinkling their papers with the word "innate." It's quite clear that most have no idea what that word means. Perhaps they think the word makes their papers sound more important. And journal editors seem to fall for it.
- Reposted by Mark BlumbergWe’re calling this subfield (sub-subfield?) “Developmental Systems Neuroscience” and have put together a starter pack of some labs on Bluesky that we cited in the article. Of course, this list is still incomplete, so if want to be added, send Meike or me a DM. bsky.app/starter-pack...at://did:plc:sr2rrf2ksftebksf2kw4ydhy/app.bsky.graph.starterpack/3lbuexm666f2e
- One of the best threads ever! Wonderful to see it revived here.
- Now that we’re on Bluesky, it’s a good time to bring back #badsciencedrawings – a collection of figures that prove that science is more science than art. Before Biorender, all we had was MS Paint and a dream. But ovals, lines, and lightning bolts were all we needed Morales-Botello et al., 2012
- Reposted by Mark BlumbergI just asked Timmy, a self-described "BroGTP" to come up with some metaphors to explain the major points from the ViewPoint article, and it did a pretty good job. I really like number 3
- Looking for an escape over the holiday? @meikeesther.bsky.social and I published a ViewPoint looking at the intersection of Developmental and Systems Neuroscience titled “More Than a Small Brain: The Importance of Studying Neural Function during Development” www.jneurosci.org/content/44/4...
