Daniel Pollak

I never feel like I have something about science I'm comfortable posting. But I just realized I have too many gardening thoughts to just keep to myself. So... Why do I never see grapevines in urban LA landscapes?

I'm hoping this trellis will give my doorway shade once buds break in mid-late March (fingers crossed), not to mention delicious leaves and grapes. Stay tuned. In the meantime, Los Angeles, not to be an ahole but what is going on?

I never feel like I have something about science I'm comfortable posting. But I just realized I have too many gardening thoughts to just keep to myself. So... Why do I never see grapevines in urban LA landscapes?

"But Daniel how do I even get a grapevine?" Do what I did. Steal a branch from an existing grapevine. In general, we should all steal more plants. (Thanks Caltech community garden!)

I never feel like I have something about science I'm comfortable posting. But I just realized I have too many gardening thoughts to just keep to myself. So... Why do I never see grapevines in urban LA landscapes?

Like most other people in LA county, I live in a concrete structure that becomes an oven in the summer: three walls with an opening facing West.

1/ Late to the game to publicize my paper with @healeylab.bsky.social ocial: Parsing social context in auditory forebrain of male zebra finches (PLOS ONE, March 19, 2025). We also developed a low-cost microdrive for long-term neural recording in freely behaving finches.

7/ Tools: Our open-access microdrive design—orchestrating reliable, long-term neural recordings—is freely shared (CaltechDATA repository) for the community to use and build upon.

1/ Late to the game to publicize my paper with @healeylab.bsky.social ocial: Parsing social context in auditory forebrain of male zebra finches (PLOS ONE, March 19, 2025). We also developed a low-cost microdrive for long-term neural recording in freely behaving finches.

5/ Key insights: • Behavioral context (self- vs. external song) → no change in neural encoding • Social context (alone vs. with conspecifics) → marked modulation in response strength & selectivity Plus, we observed stimulus-specific local field potential correlates in NCM.

1/ Late to the game to publicize my paper with @healeylab.bsky.social ocial: Parsing social context in auditory forebrain of male zebra finches (PLOS ONE, March 19, 2025). We also developed a low-cost microdrive for long-term neural recording in freely behaving finches.

3/ We compared two contexts: • Behavioral – hearing own song vs. actively singing it • Social – listening while alone vs. in the presence of others We found that NCM responses remained consistent across behavioral contexts but were changed social listening situations.

1/ Late to the game to publicize my paper with @healeylab.bsky.social ocial: Parsing social context in auditory forebrain of male zebra finches (PLOS ONE, March 19, 2025). We also developed a low-cost microdrive for long-term neural recording in freely behaving finches.