Emilie Reas @etreas.bsky.social

Assistant Professor of Neurosciences @UCSanDiego and PI @reas_lab | Alzheimer's disease & brain aging | Running fanatic & RRCA coach | barefoot runner

[Emilie Reas @etreas.bsky.social @etreas]

3 years too late for my amazing mother, but such desperately needed hope for the patients of today. So much gratitude to the incredible scientists who made this possible.

[Mark Lewis, MD, FASCO @marklewismd]

Cheers, chills, and a standing ovation when RASolute 302 showed unprecedented survival on daraxonrasib for patients with progressive pancreatic cancer

Seldom do you sense you’re witnessing a historic moment in cancer care but this feels like ras targeting has arrived

#ASCO26

[Retraction Watch @RetractionWatch]

Researchers provide "conservative estimate" of nearly 150,000 hallucinated citations in 2025 alone.
https://t.co/UqKKS4yUqb

[Dr. Catharine Young @DrCatharineY]

American science continues to shrink despite the story being told to the public.

And it’s the long term consequences that will be most devastating.

[Hannah Davis @ahandvanish]

Study of neuro #LongCovid patients found pTau-181 (marker of Alzheimer's/brain injury) increased by 59% after COVID.

Interestingly, levels increased more AFTER 1.5 years from infection (only 15% increased in the before-1.5 year time period).

https://t.co/QwEG1SwiOj 1/

[Nick Tiller, Ph.D. @NBTiller]

Our NEW study in @BMJ_Open is an audit of
𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐥𝐭𝐡 𝐦𝐢𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 spread by popular
AI chatbots. Learn more🧵1/7

Thx to amazing team: @CaulfieldTim @srmarcon at @UAlbertaLaw & @Jeukendrup @marco_zenone

🔗https://t.co/NAhWID3zHx
#health #misinformation #AI

[Jay Van Bavel, PhD @jayvanbavel]

NEWS: Massive budget cuts for US science proposed again by Trump administration

"It's an extinction-level event for science".

The US government is proposing massive cuts to almost every branch of science, from NASA to the National Institutes of Health. NSF would completely eliminate the social, economic and behavioral sciences directorate.

This would decimate the world's leading scientific system.
https://t.co/QtRa7L7Vo4

[nxthompson @nxthompson]

The US has canceled hundreds of millions in science grants and driven thousands of Ph.D.s out of the federal workforce. China, meanwhile, has poured evermore resources into its research efforts.

If they pass us as a scientific superpower, we shouldn't act surprised. https://t.co/7p01A0YxTn

[Mukund Iyengar @mukundiyngr]

U.S. bioscience research is collapsing.
This is the map of a systemic rot.

NIH new award pace this year: 14.6% of normal.

If you wanted to stall science, you don't pick & choose states.

You just freeze the entire map.

In case you missed it:
▫️ ~95,000 scientists gone (@nytimes)
▪️ ~$2.4B in NIH research wiped out
▫️ ~$6B in economic loss (@DrCatharineY / PNAS)

This is what (predictably) follows next:
⇣ early-career scientists exit for good
⇣ breakthrough discoveries never made
⇣ trials that never open
⇣ labs that quietly shut down
⇣ global talent choosing other countries
⇣ the next decade of innovation erased before it starts

Sadly, you don’t "bounce back" from 14%
you just hollow out the system.

For a country that leads in science, this is the mo(u)rning after “National Science Appreciation Day”

==========
Source: NIH RePORTER via @Jori_health

Plot note: NIH new-award counts were compared to the 5-year historic median for every state (as of the first week of March, Q2).
==========

[Reaslab @reas_lab]

We're enrolling participants in an NIH-funded study to understand blood-brain barrier disruption with anti-amyloid immunotherapy for Alzheimer's disease. Learn about the study in this video and please contact us if interested in participating! #alzheimers https://t.co/TW2SnX9Ast

[Steve Magness @stevemagness]

Alysa Liu just won Olympic gold.

She retired at 16. Was traumatized by the sport. Wouldn't go near an ice rink.

And just delivered a career-best on the biggest stage on earth. It's the most compelling comeback story in sports right now.

At 13, Liu was the youngest US national champion ever. At 16, she finished 6th at the Olympics.

She was a prodigy being told what to eat, what to wear, what music to skate to, and when to train. She lived in a dorm alone at the Olympic Training Center.

And she was miserable.

"The rink was my home for far too long... And I didn't have a choice,"

So she quit.

She'd lost something essential: the feeling that any of it was hers. She had no autonomy.

So she went the other direction. She went to Nepal. Trekked to Everest Base Camp. Got her driver's license. Dyed her hair. Attended college. She lived life.

As Liu put it: “Quitting was definitely, and still to this day, one of my best decisions ever.”

She built an identity that wasn't tied solely to the ice. She figured out who she was as a human being.

Then in early 2024, she went skiing and felt something she hadn't felt in two years: an adrenaline rush.

If skiing feels like this, what would skating feel like? She went to a public session. Landed a double axel and triple salchow on the spot.

Two weeks later, she was back, but this time on her own terms.

She came back because she wanted to.

"I choose to be here. I loved that I was able to come back and choose my own destiny."

That shift from external obligation to internal choice is the point.

A mountain of research tells us autonomy is one of the most powerful driver of sustained motivation.

Self-Determination Theory is one of the most established theories in psychology.

When people feel ownership over their pursuits, performance goes up, burnout goes down, and creativity skyrockets.

Her coach, Phillip DiGuglielmo, nailed it: "For many years she was dropped off at the rink. She was told what to do. Now she comes in, and it is all collaborative."

She picks her own music. Designs her own costumes. Controls her training load.

"No one's gonna starve me or tell me what I can and can't eat."

We often get performance wrong.

We think the path to greatness is more control, more structure, more sacrifice. We push young phenoms to "grind", to be disciplined...

Not realizing we're often extinguishing the flame that makes them great. It's what psychologist Ellen Winner found when studying prodigies.

They have the "rage to master," but over controlling environments suck the passion and joy out of them, snugging out that rage. Those who make it to adult staff have support, but their drive is more intrinsic than extrinsic.

Liu's career-best came AFTER she walked away, lived her life, and came back with agency.

Tonight she skated to Donna Summer's MacArthur Park with platinum blonde streaks, a lip piercing, and the biggest smile in the building. Career-best 226.79.

First American woman to win Olympic gold in figure skating in 24 years.

It was pure joy.

Her message to the camera: "That's what I'm f---ing talking about."

Everyone wants to know the secret to elite performance. It's not complicated.

Give people ownership.

Let them bring themselves to the performance, instead of squashing the joy and authenticity out of them.

Alysa Liu retired at 16 because skating wasn't hers anymore.

She won Olympic gold at 20 because it finally was.

Be yourself. Go all the way.

[Emilie Reas @etreas.bsky.social @etreas]

California scientists, add your name supporting a bill to create the "California Foundation for Science and Health Research." Fund CA science! https://t.co/HUJGrXTcyI

[Emilie Reas @etreas.bsky.social @etreas]

"The [X Feed] algorithm promotes conservative content and demotes posts by traditional media. Exposure to algorithmic content leads users to follow conservative political activist accounts...has persistent effects on users’ political attitudes and account-following behaviour"

[Philine Widmer @phinifa]

Can feed algorithms shape what people think about politics? Our paper "The Political Effects of X's Feed Algorithm" is out today in @Nature and answers "Yes".

https://t.co/2h4NgHZSmb

[JAMA @JAMA_current]

Introducing JAMA’s Research of the Year.

Chosen by JAMA editors, the inaugural roundup highlights 9 of the most impactful, newsworthy, and novel studies published in the journal over the past year. 🧵

#JAMAROTY25

🔗 https://t.co/zvpFrvH0Os

[James Tate @JamesTate121]

This is a great idea. 👏👏👏

[Damien Fair @DrDamienFair]

I still get chills

Meet Mike
*30+ years severe depression
*first hospitalized @ 13y
*20 meds
*3 rounds of ECT
*2 near-fatal suicide attempts

Mike felt joy for the first time in decades after we turned on his new brain pacemaker or PACE

see paper, thread
https://t.co/8bdB2pXxQa

[Steve Magness @stevemagness]

A 16 year old high schooler just ran 1:42.27.

I have no words.

This is the most impressive athletic feat in history.

There are no superlatives.

His performance makes high school Lebron look like nobody.

Cooper Lutkenhaus take a bow.

[Emilie Reas @etreas.bsky.social @etreas]

@Oh_Pervy_One @DHSgov To communicate in the target language :) If you wanted to communicate with a French-speaker, would you use Japanese?

[Zohran Kwame Mamdani @ZohranKMamdani]

America is beautiful, contradictory, unfinished. I am proud of our country even as we constantly strive to make it better, to protect and deepen our democracy, to fulfill its promise for each and every person who calls it home.

Happy Independence Day. No Kings in America.

[Danielle Beckman @DaniBeckman]

Look at this team of editors 100% #WomenInSTEM, I am so proud of this! 💪😍👩‍🔬. With @anyabphd and @mgood695. To learn more about it: https://t.co/BjXr2F6NFv
@natureportfolio

[Democratic Wins Media @DemocraticWins]

BREAKING: Fareed Zakaria just gave a masterclass on everything that’s wrong with Donald Trump’s second term policies. This is incredible