Itai Yanai
@itaiyanai.bsky.social
Professor at the NYU School of Medicine (https://yanailab.org/). Co-founder and Director of the Night Science Institute (https://night-science.org/). Co-host of the 'Night Science Podcast' https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/night-science/id1563415749
NYC Postdocs: Join us for our next Postdoc Night Science session to practice how to get new ideas using "puzzle-switching"! This time we're in Columbia U. on Dec 3 at 5pm.
Free registration: docs.google.com/forms/d/1onf... @stearnslab.bsky.social @kelseymonson.bsky.social @jaeseunghahn.bsky.social
Free registration: docs.google.com/forms/d/1onf... @stearnslab.bsky.social @kelseymonson.bsky.social @jaeseunghahn.bsky.social
November 23, 2025 at 6:29 PM
NYC Postdocs: Join us for our next Postdoc Night Science session to practice how to get new ideas using "puzzle-switching"! This time we're in Columbia U. on Dec 3 at 5pm.
Free registration: docs.google.com/forms/d/1onf... @stearnslab.bsky.social @kelseymonson.bsky.social @jaeseunghahn.bsky.social
Free registration: docs.google.com/forms/d/1onf... @stearnslab.bsky.social @kelseymonson.bsky.social @jaeseunghahn.bsky.social
This inspired him! "Since then I have taken a handful of immunology PhD students through the MFA, discussing pieces that I found to have parallels to the immune system." Check out his blog for glimpses of the tour he gives!
davisgarner.substack.com/p/immunologi...
davisgarner.substack.com/p/immunologi...
November 23, 2025 at 12:27 AM
This inspired him! "Since then I have taken a handful of immunology PhD students through the MFA, discussing pieces that I found to have parallels to the immune system." Check out his blog for glimpses of the tour he gives!
davisgarner.substack.com/p/immunologi...
davisgarner.substack.com/p/immunologi...
Davis Garner, a PhD student at Harvard Medical School, heard me say on the podcast that in my lab we once went to an art museum (the MOMA) and I gave them each the prompt to find a piece of art that best related to their current project in some way.
November 23, 2025 at 12:27 AM
Davis Garner, a PhD student at Harvard Medical School, heard me say on the podcast that in my lab we once went to an art museum (the MOMA) and I gave them each the prompt to find a piece of art that best related to their current project in some way.
PhD students and Postdocs: The Night Science Podcast (@nightsciencepod.bsky.social) is producing an episode highlighting young scientists talking about their creative process. DM me if you'd like us to consider you for this, & read below what PhD student Davis Garner will contribute! ⬇️
November 23, 2025 at 12:27 AM
PhD students and Postdocs: The Night Science Podcast (@nightsciencepod.bsky.social) is producing an episode highlighting young scientists talking about their creative process. DM me if you'd like us to consider you for this, & read below what PhD student Davis Garner will contribute! ⬇️
Friends in Germany! I want to tell you about the process of discovery, the creativity that it requires and the sense of awe that it inspires. Come check out my "The Gorilla in the Genome" lecture on Monday at the International Science Festival in Heidelberg.
www.geist-heidelberg.de/de/programm/...
www.geist-heidelberg.de/de/programm/...
November 15, 2025 at 11:26 PM
Friends in Germany! I want to tell you about the process of discovery, the creativity that it requires and the sense of awe that it inspires. Come check out my "The Gorilla in the Genome" lecture on Monday at the International Science Festival in Heidelberg.
www.geist-heidelberg.de/de/programm/...
www.geist-heidelberg.de/de/programm/...
New Yorkers! Come to my talk at MSK on Thursday if you're interested in adaptive tumor-microenvironment interactions and cancer’s extended phenotype.
November 13, 2025 at 3:36 AM
New Yorkers! Come to my talk at MSK on Thursday if you're interested in adaptive tumor-microenvironment interactions and cancer’s extended phenotype.
International scientists constitute the engine of much of the most exciting US science. My friend Sonali Majumdar has written precisely the kind of guide that international scientists crave in order succeed as resilient and brilliant scientists. Check it out! @sonali-m-19.bsky.social
November 13, 2025 at 2:18 AM
International scientists constitute the engine of much of the most exciting US science. My friend Sonali Majumdar has written precisely the kind of guide that international scientists crave in order succeed as resilient and brilliant scientists. Check it out! @sonali-m-19.bsky.social
This is a such an inspiring book about the art of improvisation and how it applies to our lives in general. I think it’s also very relevant also for what it’s like to do science. It was a pleasure to talk with Stephen about it on the Night Science podcast! open.spotify.com/episode/165i...
November 12, 2025 at 4:47 PM
This is a such an inspiring book about the art of improvisation and how it applies to our lives in general. I think it’s also very relevant also for what it’s like to do science. It was a pleasure to talk with Stephen about it on the Night Science podcast! open.spotify.com/episode/165i...
🔥We released a new episode of the Night Science Podcast today, all about the power of improvisation in life, the arts and the sciences. We talked with Stephen Nachmanovitch who wrote the classic book "Free Play". Check it out and please me know what you think!
November 11, 2025 at 2:25 AM
🔥We released a new episode of the Night Science Podcast today, all about the power of improvisation in life, the arts and the sciences. We talked with Stephen Nachmanovitch who wrote the classic book "Free Play". Check it out and please me know what you think!
Join us tomorrow for a Night Science Seminar Series presentation! Jennifer Oyler-Yaniv from Harvard will talk about how a scientific journey can be viewed as a mythological Hero's Quest by sharing work from her lab on how epithelial tissues restrict the spread of viruses.
cassyni.com/events/ZYQow...
cassyni.com/events/ZYQow...
November 9, 2025 at 3:37 PM
Join us tomorrow for a Night Science Seminar Series presentation! Jennifer Oyler-Yaniv from Harvard will talk about how a scientific journey can be viewed as a mythological Hero's Quest by sharing work from her lab on how epithelial tissues restrict the spread of viruses.
cassyni.com/events/ZYQow...
cassyni.com/events/ZYQow...
New Yorkers! Come to my talk at Rockefeller University on Friday if you're interested in the mechanisms of adaptive genome regulation.
November 6, 2025 at 3:42 AM
New Yorkers! Come to my talk at Rockefeller University on Friday if you're interested in the mechanisms of adaptive genome regulation.
November 3, 2025 at 2:50 AM
Is science too obsessed with metrics, large-scale projects & “blockbuster” outputs? Desai & Jun argued that preserving the "auteur" spirit of individual creativity, exploration and risk-taking is essential for maintaining the creativity that drew us into science in the 1st place.
November 3, 2025 at 2:50 AM
Is science too obsessed with metrics, large-scale projects & “blockbuster” outputs? Desai & Jun argued that preserving the "auteur" spirit of individual creativity, exploration and risk-taking is essential for maintaining the creativity that drew us into science in the 1st place.
Interested in genome organization in bacteria? Come to Martin Lercher's live virtual talk Monday at the Night Science Seminar Series! Free register here: cassyni.com/events/AhWU3... @martinlercher.bsky.social
October 27, 2025 at 1:32 AM
Interested in genome organization in bacteria? Come to Martin Lercher's live virtual talk Monday at the Night Science Seminar Series! Free register here: cassyni.com/events/AhWU3... @martinlercher.bsky.social
Congratulations to Mary Brunkow, Fred Ramsdell and Shimon Sakaguchi for this year's Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. It also demonstrates the fairness of the prize, as Mary Brunkow is a Senior Program Manager (not a professor) at the @isbscience.org
hood.isbscience.org/people/mary-...
hood.isbscience.org/people/mary-...
October 6, 2025 at 11:42 AM
Congratulations to Mary Brunkow, Fred Ramsdell and Shimon Sakaguchi for this year's Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. It also demonstrates the fairness of the prize, as Mary Brunkow is a Senior Program Manager (not a professor) at the @isbscience.org
hood.isbscience.org/people/mary-...
hood.isbscience.org/people/mary-...
Rest in peace Jane Goodall, a true giant among scientists. Your breakthroughs into the secret lives of chimpanzees viewed through an anthropomorphic lens – without yet knowing that science had forbidden it – changed science forever, and with it how we see ourselves.
October 1, 2025 at 8:44 PM
Rest in peace Jane Goodall, a true giant among scientists. Your breakthroughs into the secret lives of chimpanzees viewed through an anthropomorphic lens – without yet knowing that science had forbidden it – changed science forever, and with it how we see ourselves.
Interested in learning how to be a good speaker and give effective talks? Season 2 of the NYC Postdoc Night Science Club begins October 15th. Join us NYC Postdocs for a 2hr workshop and maybe also a drink at a bar! Free registration (usually ~100 come): docs.google.com/forms/d/1dII...
September 30, 2025 at 1:40 PM
Interested in learning how to be a good speaker and give effective talks? Season 2 of the NYC Postdoc Night Science Club begins October 15th. Join us NYC Postdocs for a 2hr workshop and maybe also a drink at a bar! Free registration (usually ~100 come): docs.google.com/forms/d/1dII...
"That was not a question, it was a statement" said the famous physicist Paul Dirac after a long silence, in a lecture, when a student said to him, "I don't understand that equation".
That was a hundred years ago and not enough has changed since then in our 'welcoming' culture in science..
That was a hundred years ago and not enough has changed since then in our 'welcoming' culture in science..
September 27, 2025 at 1:54 PM
"That was not a question, it was a statement" said the famous physicist Paul Dirac after a long silence, in a lecture, when a student said to him, "I don't understand that equation".
That was a hundred years ago and not enough has changed since then in our 'welcoming' culture in science..
That was a hundred years ago and not enough has changed since then in our 'welcoming' culture in science..
Dolbear's law: to get the temperature, count the number of chirps a cricket makes in 15 seconds and add 40. #ScienceIsAwesome
September 23, 2025 at 3:24 AM
Dolbear's law: to get the temperature, count the number of chirps a cricket makes in 15 seconds and add 40. #ScienceIsAwesome
Present your talk as though your audience is a curious 16-year-old. (At Woodstock Night Science over the summer we literally did this and presenting to a 16-year-old on stage with me made the talk clear and understandable to the entire audience!) #TCTEAC
September 22, 2025 at 7:59 PM
Present your talk as though your audience is a curious 16-year-old. (At Woodstock Night Science over the summer we literally did this and presenting to a 16-year-old on stage with me made the talk clear and understandable to the entire audience!) #TCTEAC
Interested in cellular plasticity? Come to my live virtual talk on Monday! Free register here: cassyni.com/events/ApfsK...
September 20, 2025 at 6:42 PM
Interested in cellular plasticity? Come to my live virtual talk on Monday! Free register here: cassyni.com/events/ApfsK...
How will AI change the creative scientific process? Check out our discussion with the Google Co-Scientist team on the latest episode of the Night Science Podcast!
September 13, 2025 at 7:09 PM
How will AI change the creative scientific process? Check out our discussion with the Google Co-Scientist team on the latest episode of the Night Science Podcast!
Interested in cellular plasticity? Come to my live virtual talk at the Night Science Seminar Series! Free register here: cassyni.com/events/ApfsK...
September 12, 2025 at 9:17 PM
Interested in cellular plasticity? Come to my live virtual talk at the Night Science Seminar Series! Free register here: cassyni.com/events/ApfsK...
'Both competition and cooperation' – that is an underlying principle of how Google designed its "AI co-scientist" platform to generate ideas and think like a scientist. We talk with the leaders of this project on the latest episode of the Night Science Podcast. @nightsciencepod.bsky.social
September 8, 2025 at 5:41 PM
'Both competition and cooperation' – that is an underlying principle of how Google designed its "AI co-scientist" platform to generate ideas and think like a scientist. We talk with the leaders of this project on the latest episode of the Night Science Podcast. @nightsciencepod.bsky.social
Legend David Baltimore died yesterday. He understood the way things should work: "the real contribution of MIT is that it doesn't take itself too seriously. It takes ideas seriously, but the people are relatively informal. They are not self-aggrandizing the way academics can be."
September 7, 2025 at 8:04 PM
Legend David Baltimore died yesterday. He understood the way things should work: "the real contribution of MIT is that it doesn't take itself too seriously. It takes ideas seriously, but the people are relatively informal. They are not self-aggrandizing the way academics can be."