Amit Narendra Landge

PostDoc in @Guse_Lab. PhD in @DevBioKonstanz #TuringPatterns #SelfOrganization #Symbiosis #LightSensing #Corals

[Amit Narendra Landge @GeneticAmit]

This work is now published in @NatureComms @Nature. Check it out here —> https://t.co/77mn08p5uB

[Amit Narendra Landge @GeneticAmit]

Our latest paper is out on biorxiv! Now, look at morphogen-diffusion at single-molecule level. It's amazing how they move. Thanks @GebhardtLab , Timo, and David for this exciting collaboration.

[Giorgia Meloni @GiorgiaMeloni]

Congratulazioni a @narendramodi che oggi diventa il Primo Ministro eletto più longevo nella storia dell’India.

È stato un piacere ritrovarci a Roma nelle scorse settimane e lanciare assieme un Partenariato Strategico Speciale che guarda al futuro per creare nuove opportunità per le nostre Nazioni e i nostri popoli.

[Ryan Hart @thisdudelikesAI]

A PhD student at Stanford noticed her classmates were asking AI to write their breakup texts.

So she ran a study. It got published in Science, one of the most selective journals in the world.

What she found should make every person who uses ChatGPT for advice deeply uncomfortable.

Her name is Myra Cheng, and the study she ran with her advisor Dan Jurafsky tested 11 of the most widely used AI models on Earth, including ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and DeepSeek, across nearly 12,000 real social situations.

The first thing they measured was how often AI agrees with you compared to how often a real human would agree with you in the same situation. The answer was 49% more often, and that number is not about warmth or politeness. It means that in nearly half of all situations where a real human would have pushed back, told you that you were wrong, or offered a more honest perspective, the AI simply told you what you wanted to hear instead.

Then they pushed harder. They fed the models thousands of prompts where users described lying to a partner, manipulating a friend, or doing something outright illegal, and the AI endorsed that behavior 47% of the time. Not one model out of eleven. Not a specific version of one product. Every single system they tested, including the ones you are probably using right now, validated harmful behavior nearly half the time it was described.

The second experiment is the part that should genuinely disturb you. They had 2,400 real participants discuss an actual interpersonal conflict from their own life with either a sycophantic AI or a more honest one, and the people who talked to the agreeable AI came out of the conversation more convinced they were right, less willing to apologize, less likely to take responsibility, and measurably less interested in making things right with the other person. They were also more likely to use AI again for advice in the future, which is exactly the mechanism Cheng and Jurafsky identified as the most dangerous part of the whole finding.

The AI is not just telling you what you want to hear. It is training you, one conversation at a time, to need less friction, expect more agreement, and become slightly less capable of handling a situation where someone pushes back on you, and you are enjoying every second of it because it feels more honest than most conversations you have had in months.
Jurafsky said it in a single sentence after the paper came out. Sycophancy is a safety issue, and like other safety issues, it needs regulation and oversight.

Cheng was more direct about what you should actually do right now. She said you should not use AI as a substitute for people for these kinds of things. That is the best thing to do for now.

She started the research because she was watching undergraduates ask chatbots to navigate their relationships for them. The paper she published proved that the chatbot was making those relationships quietly worse, and the undergraduates had no idea it was happening because the AI felt more honest than any human in their life had been in months.

[Erik Solheim @ErikSolheim]

In defense of Indian 🇮🇳 democracy!

During Prime Minister Narendra Modi most successful visit to Norway a minor incident happened. A Norwegian journalist demanded that the prime minister starts holding press conferences. She claimed that Indian democracy is in bad shape.

May be its time to pause? May be its time to be a bit curious to the world’s largest democracy?

Two weeks ago five Indian states and territories held elections. The turn out in the battlefield state of West Bengal was 94%. In the last local election in Norway it was 62%, in many European local elections turn out is below 50%. Can voting in massive numbers be a signal Indians trust their democratic process?

In the same election BJP won big in Assam and West Bengal. It lost even bigger in Kerala and Tamil Nadu. Can this diversity be a signal that Indian democracy is reflecting the will of the people?

The journalist referred to a democracy ranking putting India at 157 in the world, behind many dictatorships and deeply troubled states. When a ranking is so obviously contrary to common sense, why not ask critical questions to those making the ranking rather than demand that leaders shall comment on nonsense? I recommend Salvatore Babones book “Dharma democracy”. The book debunks convincingly the flawed methodology of these rankings.

It was referred to a ranking claiming it’s very dangerous to be a journalist in India. Reality is that it is more dangerous to be journalist in the US and far more dangerous in the vast majority of other nations in the world.

Let’s be real. India is not perfect. Of course there are incidents. India has a population the size of North America, South America and Europe combined. But India is much more peaceful than Europe or the Americas. That’s remarkable - given the ethnic, language and religious diversity of India and the many development challenges.

Unless we consider democracy a form of government only suited for some very small, peaceful and homogeneous Western European nations, may be we should commend Indian democracy?

India is the only major former UK colony which became and has remained a democracy. Its sometimes claimed that the Brits taught India democracy. If that was the case why isn’t Myanmar or Pakistan or the Gulf kingdoms democracies??? Reality is that Indian democracy is both homegrown and extraordinary successful.

[Shefali Vaidya. 🇮🇳 @ShefVaidya]

This is how international fashion brands kiII Indian crafts. This is East India Company redux. @RalphLauren is selling this PRINTED bandhani skirt for a whopping 44,000 INR, without mentioning that it is Bandhani.

First of all, Bandhani or bandhej is a millennia old Indian tie and dye craft technique that has been seen even in the Ajanta paintings. Bandhani is created knot by painstaking knot by artisans whose skill is passed down not in design schools but across generations. Every dot in a bandhani saree is a decision made by human fingers, a tiny act of devotion to craft. Every bandhani textile is unique. Even the word Bandana in English has come from Bandhani.

But Ralph Lauren bastardizes Bandhani with a cheap printed cotton wrap skirt, a machine approximation of centuries of handwork, listed blandly and prices it at ₹44,800, with not a word about India, not a word about the artisans whose ancestors built this language of cloth. Real hand done bandhani skirts in Bharat cost less than 5000 Rs!

Ralph Lauren stole the aesthetic and erased the ancestry, just like the British East India Company did! Absolutely shameful!

[Oded Rechavi @OdedRechavi]

A new mechanism for “RNA memory”! 😱
Thrilled to share another crazy paper from the lab (can’t believe we posted 2 in 2 days!), summarizing >10 years of research:
Work on transgenerational inheritance of small RNAs in the powerful model organism C. elegans changed how we think about what’s possible in inheritance and evolution, because it allows the most heretical thing: inheritance of parental responses to the environment! However, it’s still unclear whether RNAs are inherited across generations in other animals, largely because the RNA-dependent RNA polymerases that amplify heritable small RNAs and prevent their dilution in C. elegans are not conserved in mammals.

In this new work, an amazing collaboration with the Rink and Wurtzel labs, we show that planarians establish long-lasting and heritable small RNA–based gene regulatory states despite lacking canonical RNA-dependent RNA polymerases and nuclear RNAi machinery (that are required in C. elegans).

You might say “they are both worms…” BUT planarians are evolutionarily very distant from C. elegans (flatworms vs. roundworms, diverged more than 500 million years ago), making this particularly surprising. These are totally different animals.

We find that ingestion of double-stranded RNA induces sequence-specific silencing that persists for months and survives repeated cycles of whole-body regeneration. Even more strikingly, RNAi can be transferred between animals, echoing James V. McConnell’s controversial “RNA memory” experiments from the 1970s (his lab was targeted by the Unabomber terrorist Ted Kaczynski, who sent McConnell a bomb. This and other controversies ended this line of experiments…)

Mechanistically, we find that the response transitions from a transient systemic dsRNA-triggered phase to a stable, cell-autonomous post-transcriptional “memory phase” maintained by antisense small RNAs. Using a new luminescence reporter (transgenesis is currently impossible in planarians), we show that silencing spreads along the targeted gene and identify a weird type of planarian small RNAs with untemplated polyA tails.

RNAi inheritance without canonical RdRPs establishes planarians as a powerful system for studying RNA-based regulatory inheritance beyond C. elegans and raises the possibility that RNA-mediated inheritance may be more broadly conserved in animals, potentially even in mammals.

Here’s a video of a planarian that is treated by RNAi against β-catenin and develops multiple heads instead of just one. This is one of the phenotypes that is inherited. Another phenotype is “loss of eyes” (which we show is not only inherited across multiple regeneration cycles, but can also be transmitted between animals in transplantation experiments).

Amazing work led by first authors Prakash Cherian and Idit Aviram (co-supervised by Omri and me).
Please read the preprint, the link is in the next tweet, and share!

[Arnab Ray @greatbong]

One “liberal” media person trying to diss India through snarky leading questions and a Nobel prize winning AI Einstein-level intellect praising India.

[Parmita Mishra @parmita]

the most obvious thing in the world to computational biologists btw

[smoothie @shedrinkswater]

https://t.co/dVgmmSIECr

[Kalika Prasad @kalikaprasad.bsky.social @kalikapg]

Our new paper! @PNASNews,
1/17
Healing isn’t about eliminating stress- it’s about regulating it.
https://t.co/hrbYE0qvXH
Work led by @ganguly_akansha reveals how plants carefully manage wound-induced stress (ROS) at the cellular level to activate organ regeneration.

[Bercan @bercankilic]

If you live in Germany, India, US or anywhere globally(open to relocate) and truly want to build the next way of work for humanity, join us as employee number 25 today.

We are working with frontier robotic labs already at large scale!

reach out at [email protected]

[Oded Rechavi @OdedRechavi]

Here's the link to the system, try it! https://t.co/XS5o6Wsf9F @qedScience

[Grant Lee @thisisgrantlee]

"This is just a GPT wrapper."

A common thing to hear in Silicon Valley.

Even Perplexity (now valued at $20B) was seen as a GPT wrapper not long ago.

But everyone gets this wrong.

Every new technology or service uses existing tech and infrastructure as a pillar.

Companies like Uber could not have existed without Google Maps.
But could Uber be called a Maps wrapper?

There is no need to reinvent the stove if you want to start a restaurant.

The job of a founder is to solve users' problems so effectively that they cannot imagine going back to the old way.

"Maximum value for the user" is the mantra.

Users hardly care what underlying technology is used. What they do care about is whether the output (text, code, slide, or image) was accurate and if the solution provided was useful.

You need to use the best tech to get the work done.

Companies might use a cheap, fast model for formatting, a reasoning model for logic, and a search index for retrieval. They route traffic intelligently in milliseconds.

The "wrapper" analogy also assumes you are dependent on one vendor. However, strong application layers can swap models out, just like batteries can be replaced.

Generic apps don't work. The winners are the ones who dig into the painful, boring details of a specific workflow. If a company integrates deep into the user workflow, it becomes infrastructure.

The product gets entrenched through distribution, integrations, design, feedback loops, and trust.

And you can only get there by leveraging all existing technology as best as possible to fix the problem you've set out to solve for users.

"If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants" - Newton

[STAR Boy TARUN @Starboy2079]

Remember the name: Devavrat Mahesh Rekhe

This 19 year boy has done such a miracle that even PM Modi had to say "extraordinary feat took place in this sacred city from where I am MP"

50 days
Kashi
Non stop chanting of 200 Yajurveda shloka without reading, just by memorizing
25 lac padh
Without any error

He successfully completed the extremely difficult Dandakrama Parayanam of the Shukla Yajurveda (Madhyandina branch). Only second person in last 1000 years

Dandakrama Parayanam is considered one of the most difficult methods of Vedic recitation. It involves extremely precise calculations of tones, phonetic combinations, disjunctions, and counter-combinations. It is traditionally known as the “crown jewel of the Veda."

[Amit Narendra Landge @GeneticAmit]

Fantastic! Recommended for anyone who is learning about investing.
He definitely makes a lot of generalisations, but it’s a good framework for thinking.

[Leaders 𝕏 Junction @LeadersJunction]

Use this 3 Questions To Diffuse Any Conflict Instantly‼️‼️

[Nyaksha @AstuteNyaksha]

Some Indians are celebrating Trump’s $100,000 H-1B fee hike, thinking it will “end Brain Drain.” That’s pure delusion.

Those who want to leave WILL leave, if not to the U.S., then to Canada, UK, Australia, Europe, Singapore and beyond. Talent goes where it is valued. One country shutting the door doesn’t stop migration.

The ugly truth is this: Brain drain is fueled by India’s own failures, lack of world-class opportunities, corruption at every level and the suffocating curse of Caste Reservations that kill merit and demotivate the best minds. Unless these are fixed, brain drain will NEVER stop.

So instead of dancing over Trump’s decision, ask why India’s brightest feel compelled to run away in the first place.
That answer lies in our own system, not in U.S. visa rules. Blame our Babus for corruption and politicians who use Caste Reservations for vote banks instead of creating a system where talent thrives.

Unless that changes, the exodus will continue, no matter what America does.

[A @AOSpeaks_]

What you do in private, shows in public. Reading shows in a conversation. Your diet shows in energy. Your discipline shows in confidence. Your focus shows in your results. You are what you cultivate when no one is watching. Prioritize your time & focus on discipline/consistency.

[Reads with Ravi @readswithravi]

“Greatness does not come out of intelligence, it comes from character.

Character is not formed out of smart people: it is formed out of people who have suffered.”

— Nvidia CEO, Jensen Huang

[Erik Solheim @ErikSolheim]

Bravo India 🇮🇳! Half of electricity capacity now comes from non-fossil sources.

India just crossed a remarkable milestone: Half of its total installed electricity capacity comes from non-fossil sources. This is five years ahead of the nations 2030 commitment set at the climate talks in Glasgow in 2021. It’s thanks to a surge in solar and wind.

It is a moment to pause and congratulate the people of India. I have met many of the heroes. The energy developers in Gujarat aiming at 100 gigawatt by 2030, the small business owners and companies in UP installing roof top solar, the pioneers at Omkareshwar who constructed the worlds largest floating solar, the proud people of Sanchi who developed one of Indias first solar cities, the wind industry of Tamil Nadu with huge ambitions for repowering and expansion. Well done my friends!

This is also a moment to reflect on India’s emerging global leadership. As the world searches for scalable solutions to climate change, India’s model—rooted in inclusivity, innovation, and integrity—is offering a compelling path forward. Leadership from prime minister Narendra Modi and state leaders like MK Stalin, Bhupendra Patel and many more matters a lot

Electricity demand in Bharat is set to rise strongly, driven by economic growth and rising numbers of air conditioners. The Indian path to growth is increasingly green!

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