Dr. Ali Barry
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aliibarry.bsky.social
Dr. Ali Barry
@aliibarry.bsky.social
1.3K followers 850 following 430 posts
chaotically postdocing • UniWien & UTDallas, previously UniOxford | pain, proteomics, multi-omics & open science | chronic migraines | raised on unceded Algonquin, Anishinabek territory | she/they 🌈🍉
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Reposted by Dr. Ali Barry
nkalamb.bsky.social
I'm teaching about Gaza on Monday. I assigned this article. You should read it if you haven't, because the trauma it describes is unbearable and we all need to sit with it.

archive.ph/JlVfm#select...
Treating Gaza’s Collective Trauma In Gaza, where displaced children play games called “air strike” and act out death, the lack of mental-health resources has become another emergency. By Mohammed R. Mhawish August 1, 2025
November 28, 2025 at 3:25 PM
Reposted by Dr. Ali Barry
aliibarry.bsky.social
We're probably due for a #PainResearch feed update, any requests re. inclusion criteria?

bsky.app/profile/did:...
aliibarry.bsky.social Dr. Ali Barry @aliibarry.bsky.social · Sep 20
📌🧪 Welcome to the Pain Research feed for any and all pain-related research

Anyone can post here using #PainResearch. Alt Text + CamelCase required.
November 28, 2025 at 7:14 AM
aliibarry.bsky.social
Thankful to the palace gardeners who built a perfectly sectioned 800 m running track
Frozen fountain in a park with blue skies Curved garden track covered in frost at Schönnbrunn
November 28, 2025 at 9:18 AM
aliibarry.bsky.social
We're probably due for a #PainResearch feed update, any requests re. inclusion criteria?

bsky.app/profile/did:...
aliibarry.bsky.social Dr. Ali Barry @aliibarry.bsky.social · Sep 20
📌🧪 Welcome to the Pain Research feed for any and all pain-related research

Anyone can post here using #PainResearch. Alt Text + CamelCase required.
November 28, 2025 at 7:14 AM
Reposted by Dr. Ali Barry
phdhurtbrain.bsky.social
Impossible how good reading is. You mean I just point my face at the paper for a bit and it does a whole update on my brain?
November 23, 2025 at 1:52 PM
Reposted by Dr. Ali Barry
kellyblack.ca
"We're making unprecedented investments in nation building projects."

The nation we're building:
Colour photo by Edward Burtynsky. A yellow tailing pond in the Alberta tar sands surrounded by dirt and tire tracks with smoke stacks in the background
November 28, 2025 at 4:51 AM
aliibarry.bsky.social
How do I win the autistic bicycle points?
feralrobots.bsky.social Feral T. Robot, Oil Swamp Utility Bot #7629 @feralrobots.bsky.social · 2d
Hey @nature.com, have you got an explanation for how the hell THIS happened? & especially why you accepted a paper with such a bizarre piece of genAI slop in it?!
& more to the point, why we should take you seriously at all going forward?
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Figure 1 from a paper published in Nature (linked in post). The figure purports to be an infographic depiction of the "Overall working of the framework" for 'explainably' diagnosing autism spectrum disorder. The infographic is plainly nonsense, containing many spelling errors, nonsense words, meaningless images and graphs. Clearly created using generative AI and (crucially) NEVER CHECKED AT ANY STEP OF THE WRITING OR PUBLICATION PROCESS.
November 27, 2025 at 9:33 PM
Reposted by Dr. Ali Barry
painresforum.bsky.social
Have you been wondering what the role is of non-neuronal cells in modulating sensory neuron activity? Check out this review from @psalmotoxin.bsky.social et al. in @sfnjournals.bsky.social’s #JNeurosci, one of this week’s #EditorsPick papers chosen by @rpseal.bsky.social bit.ly/3XEp2rE #PRF
November 26, 2025 at 1:00 PM
aliibarry.bsky.social
This is actually my gender
coolbikeart1.bsky.social Cool Bike Art @coolbikeart1.bsky.social · Oct 7
"The mob object to a lady cyclist wearing socks. She flies for refuge into a café."
-The Illustrated Police News, 1897
Illustration of a woman wearing knickers walking a bicycle up a step with a crowd behind her.
November 25, 2025 at 3:31 PM
aliibarry.bsky.social
Mostly just angry it took this long
news.rte.ie RTÉ News @news.rte.ie · 4d
The EU's highest court has ruled that same-sex marriages must be respected throughout the bloc and rebuked Poland for refusing to recognise a marriage between two of its citizens that took place in Germany
Same-sex marriage should be recognised in bloc - EU court
The EU's highest court has ruled that same-sex marriages must be respected throughout the bloc and rebuked Poland for refusing to recognise a marriage between two of its citizens that took place in Ge...
www.rte.ie
November 25, 2025 at 11:54 AM
Reposted by Dr. Ali Barry
annenathema.bsky.social
Image from the July 1, 1899 issue of "The Illustrated Police News", captioned "THRASHED BY A LADY CYCLIST, noted for her athletic powers", and featuring, as the caption indicates, a lady cyclist thrashing a (and I presumably need to use this term lightly gentleman, as her bicycle lays nearby and a crowd of aggrieved 19th Century dudebros look on in horror.
November 22, 2025 at 9:02 PM
aliibarry.bsky.social
Oh hey, it's my auras in photo form
fjord.style meetar @fjord.style · 5d
I've been "enjoying" scintillating scotomas more often recently. They're difficult to describe, and images online don't really capture it. But the first thing I thought when I saw them was "I should make a shader of this" – so here's a demo, it's pretty close: meetar.github.io/scotoma/
A landscape with a shimmering blobby arc, representing a phenomenon called a "visual aura" associated with migranes
November 24, 2025 at 8:23 AM
aliibarry.bsky.social
Officially running spike season!
Ali dressed in winter running kit on a snowy trail Snow covered trail in the forest
November 23, 2025 at 11:55 AM
Reposted by Dr. Ali Barry
ishmailsaboor.bsky.social
Ive seen this work from Prof Liqun Luo’s presented a few times now and its stunning and heroic.
November 21, 2025 at 11:20 AM
aliibarry.bsky.social
Whispering this to myself on repeat as I chase anxiety meds with espresso
robzacny.bsky.social Rob Zacny @robzacny.bsky.social · 7d
Accidentally had fully caffeinated coffee at like 930 and here’s the thing: i had a fantastic night. Are we sure this isn’t a better way to live? What if “sleep hygiene” stuff is just a psyop to make us weaker and sadder?
November 22, 2025 at 12:27 PM
aliibarry.bsky.social
unclear if I'm actually qualified as a bioinformatician or if I just figured out when to restart a computer
November 22, 2025 at 12:22 PM
Reposted by Dr. Ali Barry
christopherjm.ft.com
Read my scoop overnight from Kyiv, where US army secretary Dan Driscoll’s brief meeting (he was running late after calls with Vance) with European ambassadors at the US ambassador’s residence in Podil left one feeling “nauseated” and others “shocked.” W/ @henryjfoy.ft.com

on.ft.com/43GWpxI
Trump envoys issue ultimatum to Ukraine to sign peace deal by Thursday
Hardline message over US-Russia plan at volatile meeting in Kyiv sparks alarm among European allies
on.ft.com
November 22, 2025 at 4:52 AM
Reposted by Dr. Ali Barry
goodlawproject.bsky.social
Today is Trans Day of Remembrance.

Today we remember and grieve all those we have lost. But we also commit – collectively – to fighting for those of us who are left. There will be hope as long as we continue to stand together.
https://goodlaw.social/n1jn
goodlaw.social
November 20, 2025 at 9:39 AM
Reposted by Dr. Ali Barry
nytpitchbot.bsky.social
If an attractive young woman a third my age didn't want to date me, then why did she ask me for feedback on an economics paper?

by Larry Summers
November 17, 2025 at 6:54 PM
aliibarry.bsky.social
sunny sundays
Worn path through a dry meadow Runner at a viewpoint overlooking a valley
November 16, 2025 at 2:36 PM
Reposted by Dr. Ali Barry
juliametraux.bsky.social
What a privilege it is to be a younger disabled person in a community shaped by Alice Wong. Rest in peace, Alice.
November 15, 2025 at 8:19 AM
Reposted by Dr. Ali Barry
hansonmark.bsky.social
We wrote the Strain on scientific publishing to highlight the problems of time & trust. With a fantastic group of co-authors, we present The Drain of Scientific Publishing:

a 🧵 1/n

Drain: arxiv.org/abs/2511.04820
Strain: direct.mit.edu/qss/article/...
Oligopoly: direct.mit.edu/qss/article/...
A table showing profit margins of major publishers. A snippet of text related to this table is below. 1. The four-fold drain 1.1 Money Currently, academic publishing is dominated by profit-oriented, multinational companies for whom scientific knowledge is a commodity to be sold back to the academic community who created it. The dominant four are Elsevier, Springer Nature, Wiley and Taylor & Francis, which collectively generated over US$7.1 billion in revenue from journal publishing in 2024 alone, and over US$12 billion in profits between 2019 and 2024 (Table 1A). Their profit margins have always been over 30% in the last five years, and for the largest publisher (Elsevier) always over 37%. Against many comparators, across many sectors, scientific publishing is one of the most consistently profitable industries (Table S1). These financial arrangements make a substantial difference to science budgets. In 2024, 46% of Elsevier revenues and 53% of Taylor & Francis revenues were generated in North America, meaning that North American researchers were charged over US$2.27 billion by just two for-profit publishers. The Canadian research councils and the US National Science Foundation were allocated US$9.3 billion in that year. A figure detailing the drain on researcher time. 1. The four-fold drain 1.2 Time The number of papers published each year is growing faster than the scientific workforce, with the number of papers per researcher almost doubling between 1996 and 2022 (Figure 1A). This reflects the fact that publishers’ commercial desire to publish (sell) more material has aligned well with the competitive prestige culture in which publications help secure jobs, grants, promotions, and awards. To the extent that this growth is driven by a pressure for profit, rather than scholarly imperatives, it distorts the way researchers spend their time. The publishing system depends on unpaid reviewer labour, estimated to be over 130 million unpaid hours annually in 2020 alone (9). Researchers have complained about the demands of peer-review for decades, but the scale of the problem is now worse, with editors reporting widespread difficulties recruiting reviewers. The growth in publications involves not only the authors’ time, but that of academic editors and reviewers who are dealing with so many review demands. Even more seriously, the imperative to produce ever more articles reshapes the nature of scientific inquiry. Evidence across multiple fields shows that more papers result in ‘ossification’, not new ideas (10). It may seem paradoxical that more papers can slow progress until one considers how it affects researchers’ time. While rewards remain tied to volume, prestige, and impact of publications, researchers will be nudged away from riskier, local, interdisciplinary, and long-term work. The result is a treadmill of constant activity with limited progress whereas core scholarly practices – such as reading, reflecting and engaging with others’ contributions – is de-prioritized. What looks like productivity often masks intellectual exhaustion built on a demoralizing, narrowing scientific vision. A table of profit margins across industries. The section of text related to this table is below: 1. The four-fold drain 1.1 Money Currently, academic publishing is dominated by profit-oriented, multinational companies for whom scientific knowledge is a commodity to be sold back to the academic community who created it. The dominant four are Elsevier, Springer Nature, Wiley and Taylor & Francis, which collectively generated over US$7.1 billion in revenue from journal publishing in 2024 alone, and over US$12 billion in profits between 2019 and 2024 (Table 1A). Their profit margins have always been over 30% in the last five years, and for the largest publisher (Elsevier) always over 37%. Against many comparators, across many sectors, scientific publishing is one of the most consistently profitable industries (Table S1). These financial arrangements make a substantial difference to science budgets. In 2024, 46% of Elsevier revenues and 53% of Taylor & Francis revenues were generated in North America, meaning that North American researchers were charged over US$2.27 billion by just two for-profit publishers. The Canadian research councils and the US National Science Foundation were allocated US$9.3 billion in that year. The costs of inaction are plain: wasted public funds, lost researcher time, compromised scientific integrity and eroded public trust. Today, the system rewards commercial publishers first, and science second. Without bold action from the funders we risk continuing to pour resources into a system that prioritizes profit over the advancement of scientific knowledge.
November 11, 2025 at 11:52 AM
aliibarry.bsky.social
The most November of weathers but we caught the first snowfall of the season
Patches of snow along a forest path in the mist Mountain summit in full cloud, only the cross is visible Grey and foggy mountain valley view
November 9, 2025 at 3:07 PM
Reposted by Dr. Ali Barry
newyorker.com
One analytical model shows that, as of November 5th, the dismantling of U.S.A.I.D. has already caused the deaths of 600,000 people, two-thirds of them children. https://newyorkermag.visitlink.me/jUzNSc
The Shutdown of U.S.A.I.D. Has Already Killed Hundreds of Thousands
The short documentary “Rovina’s Choice” tells the story of what goes when aid goes.
newyorkermag.visitlink.me
November 6, 2025 at 9:00 PM
aliibarry.bsky.social
Nice opportunity for canadian #PainResearch folks abroad to feel a bit more connected, as well as any postdoc at a canadian uni!
cns-pds.bsky.social Canadian Neuroscience Seminars – Postdoctoral Series (CNS-PDS) @cns-pds.bsky.social · 22d
We are selecting hashtag #speakers for the 2026 Canadian hashtag #Neuroscience #Seminars: Postdoctoral Series. Apply by Nov. 21, 2025.
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More details: tinyurl.com/72dmv4f8
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Link to apply: tinyurl.com/4h5atuvb
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And if you are interested, join our mailing list: t.co/Oa9dLowy1h
November 7, 2025 at 7:08 PM