kwitschas @kwitschas@qoto.org

ChatGPT-like AI (LLMs) are coming to scientific search. Yesterday two big science databases, Scopus (Elsevier) & Dimensions (Digital Science), announced ChatGPT-based LLMs. Web of Science (Clarivate) plan similar. The concept is not like Meta's Galactica though -- more like Bing or Perplexity.
Here's my report in Nature: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-02470-3

It's that time of year!!

Time to help Skype a Scientist by telling every teacher, librarian, troop leader, etc you know that Fall 2023 enrollment is OPEN!

Sign up here http://bit.ly/EnrollFall2023

We rely on word of mouth to grow, so this action is critical for us!

I just found out alternative splicing is probably a massive lie and it's breaking my brain.

"Our results show that in genes with a median expression level, 92–98% of observed splice variants correspond to errors [not functional variants]." (Saudemont et al., 2017)

Almost all the variation we see in splicing patterns is probably just from the spliceosome being error-prone. WHAT?!

I guess this is another case of the cell not being a machine but rather a cobbled together sloppy mess, that still manages to self-organise. How insane.

https://sandwalk.blogspot.com/2022/08/splicing-errors-or-alternative-splicing.html

https://doi.org/10.1186/s13059-017-1344-6

Finding academic folks on Mastodon: a list of lists by @hendrikerz

https://github.com/nathanlesage/academics-on-mastodon

#AcademicMastodon @academicchatter

“This highly cited Science paper is riddled with problematic blot images,” it said. That anonymous 2015 observation helped spark a chain of events that led Stanford’s president, Marc Tessier-Lavigne, to announce his resignation this month.'

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/30/opinion/stanford-president-student-journalist.html

This may be my all time favorite meme. Bury me in it.

New posting! This one is a #HowTo guide on how NOT to start a research group in #academia - in other words, all the things that I wish I'd done differently or that I wish I'd been more aware of when I started back in 2015. I hope that helps anyone else out there taking their first steps in this direction! (And any comments/additions very welcome). 👇

https://totalinternalreflectionblog.com/2023/07/30/shutting-up-shop-a-short-guide-on-how-not-to-start-a-research-group/

"Here, using tunable collagen-coated hydrogels of physiological stiffness, we show that human primary monocytes undergo a dynamic local phase separation to form highly patterned multicellular multi-layered domains on soft matrix."
#Preprint

https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.07.27.550819v2

This week, I went over to Bluesky and asked people who'd left Mastodon why they left, and lots of people told me. I grabbed the replies and crunched them and wrote up a summary. I think it's really interesting and often kind of wrenching.

https://erinkissane.com/mastodon-is-easy-and-fun-except-when-it-isnt

#meta

Emmert-Streib, F. Can ChatGPT understand genetics?. Eur J Hum Genet (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41431-023-01419-4 #OpenAccess #OA #ChatGPT #AI #Artificialintelligence #Genetics #Science @science

Hello to all of my lovely new followers 👋 I've been trying to make #AcademicTwitter work (I miss the good old days, so many great communities and learnings), but it's changed too much.

I'm an experimental social psychologist, mainly studying addictive behaviours & social cognition, and my true love is #openresearch 💜

I'm aiming to be posting more on here, & it feels good to be back!

Hello! A new intro for a new instance.

I lead a research group trying to figure out axonal transport and neurodegeneration. A big emphasis on the microtubules and their motors, but really the transport of anything that doesn't have a membrane around it. For this we use a lot of single molecule methods and live cell imaging. I also post about research culture.

#introduction #kinesin #dynein #microtubules #neurodegeneration #AxonalTransport #neurobiology #SingleMolecule #CellBiology

Okay, this question came to mind earlier today while discussing with someone who feels there is a relative lack of #philosophy activity on #Mastodon.

It's a very simple question:

Who are the largest *active* philosophy accounts on Mastodon?

Please boost so we get as wide a range of responses as possible.

@philosophy

How does the brain do symbols: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301008223001120

The Biology Dept at the University of Iowa has two tenure-track assistant professor searches this year - one in cell biology (#74891) and one in neuroscience (#74892).

https://jobs.uiowa.edu/content/faculty/

Hey all, along with our other open positions, our publishing team at Arcadia Science is hiring for the following positions. Please share if you know anyone who would be a good fit!
- Data Viz Designer
- Scientific Editor
- Science Illustrator
https://jobs.lever.co/arcadiascience

Do you use #Zotero to manage your academic reading?

Are you interested in participating in a crowdsourced paper recommendation service?

ZoteroRecommender is a new service that recommends papers based on what other participants are reading.

If you'd like to learn more or are interested in participating, visit the link below:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSduCVXVJl8qjjse066rc8xT0UqVjWwxPSHHnaC1HD8pNMJJzQ/viewform?usp=sf_link

#Ecology #Evolution #EvolutionaryBiology #Microbiology #Academia #AcademicMastodon #AcademicChatter

With Twitter rebranding itself out of existence, millions of websites will have to update their "follow" and "share" buttons.

A perfect opportunity to finally add Mastodon or Fediverse buttons.

@manisha @Neurograce @neuroscience @cogsci @cogneurophys @PessoaBrain

@cian comment in thread reminded me:

@kordinglab recent talks on how #computationalneuroscience #ml methods, while spread across labs & papers, still face #neurotheory proven grounds:

Does the #brain do #gradientDescent ?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E5hATeCZQnU

#causality for #neuroscience & beyond
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XUD69JshQTk

#philosophyofneuroscience
#systemsneuroscience
#mindbrain

ps: IMHO #ml yea: best when for discovery, not causality