> ## Content Index
> Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.ivarhagendoorn.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further.

# Further Reading
- URL: https://www.ivarhagendoorn.com/blog/2025/07/27/further-reading-108/
- Published: 2025-07-27T20:19:00.000Z
- Updated: 2025-07-29T07:37:03.000Z
- Description: Writing is thinking. How the brain wakes up from sleep. The parrot in the machine. A foundation model for human cognition. Placebos. Literary translation. Smell. The struggle for Los Angeles. Yuja Wang. Sylvia Plath. And more.
- Author: Ivar Hagendoorn
- Tags: Blog, Further Reading

[Writing is thinking](https://www.nature.com/articles/s44222-025-00323-4?ref=ivarhagendoorn.com). On the value of human-generated scientific writing in the age of large-language models. Editorial in *Nature Reviews Bioengineering*. I couldn't agree more. The reason that I write those mini reviews is that it forces me to think in a structured manner.

[The future of reviews writing](https://www.nature.com/articles/s41570-025-00738-y?ref=ivarhagendoorn.com) in the AI era. That's from *Nature Reviews Chemistry*.

Relatedly: James Gleick on [the parrot in the machine](https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2025/07/24/the-parrot-in-the-machine-the-ai-con-bender-hanna/?ref=ivarhagendoorn.com).

[How the brain wakes up from sleep](https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-02225-2?ref=ivarhagendoorn.com) — and produces that morning feeling.

A foundation model to predict and capture [human cognition](https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-09215-4?ref=ivarhagendoorn.com).

Image generators are designed to mimic their training data, so where does their apparent creativity come from? [A recent study](https://www.quantamagazine.org/researchers-uncover-hidden-ingredients-behind-ai-creativity-20250630/?ref=ivarhagendoorn.com) suggests that it’s an inevitable by-product of their architecture.

How [smell](https://www.quantamagazine.org/how-smell-guides-our-inner-world-20250703/?ref=ivarhagendoorn.com) guides our inner world.

[Millions of tonnes of nanoplastics are polluting the ocean](https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-02162-0?ref=ivarhagendoorn.com). These plastic particles smaller than a human hair can pass through cell walls and enter the food web.

By mathematically proving how individual molecules create the complex motion of fluids, three mathematicians have illuminated [why time can’t flow in reverse](https://www.quantamagazine.org/epic-effort-to-ground-physics-in-math-opens-up-the-secrets-of-time-20250611/?ref=ivarhagendoorn.com).

Patricia Lockwood on [the collected prose of Sylvia Plath](https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v47/n12/patricia-lockwood/arrayed-in-shining-scales?ref=ivarhagendoorn.com).

[Yuja Wang](https://www.ft.com/content/e5bdeb04-d782-4be1-83e6-ddc2ddd99e0c?ref=ivarhagendoorn.com) in the Financial Times.

Is mathematics [mostly chaos or mostly order](https://www.quantamagazine.org/is-mathematics-mostly-chaos-or-mostly-order-20250620/?ref=ivarhagendoorn.com)?

The surprising [power of placebos](https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2025/06/26/what-do-you-expect-the-power-of-placebos/?ref=ivarhagendoorn.com) demonstrates how the mind influences both the experience of ill health and the evolution of illness.

The optimistic brain: scans reveal [thought patterns shared by positive thinkers](https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-02302-6?ref=ivarhagendoorn.com). I tend to be skeptical of these kinds of findings.

[How to avoid nuclear war](https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-09215-4?ref=ivarhagendoorn.com) in an era of AI and misinformation.

Two books look closely at both the [limitations and the possibilities of the art of literary translation](https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2025/06/26/translations-drift-speaking-in-tongues-coetzee-dimopulos/?ref=ivarhagendoorn.com).

[How you breathe is like a fingerprint that can identify you](https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-01835-0?ref=ivarhagendoorn.com). Your inhalation and exhalation pattern is not only unique to you, it can be a marker of your physical and mental state, a recent study suggests. 

Is this [fascism](https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v47/n10/daniel-trilling/is-this-fascism?ref=ivarhagendoorn.com)?

Viet Thanh Nguyen on [the struggle for Los Angeles](https://www.ft.com/content/259880c8-b246-4a4a-bbfc-a155f8ac85a3?ref=ivarhagendoorn.com), the “migrant invasion” that wasn’t and the real meaning of America”s second-biggest city.