I really love teaching first year Greek history. That is all.

I'll be on a panel debating "rogue" AI on RTE Prime Time tonight, 9:30pm stay tuned

Qualitative capture - being able to capture, describe, + communicate the (social, cultural, organisational, relational, geographical, etc.) context of the research. Its essential for communicating all research but is at best underdeveloped, at worst ignored by #researchers and in methods training.

Academic Chatter@academic-chatter.bsky.social · 2d ago

What’s an underrated skill in research that you wish more people talked about?

Reflecting on "just because we can, doesn't mean we should"

"China’s intelligence service used a front company to pay grants to British universities and steal crucial research about technology projects, MI5 said on Wednesday in a rare public espionage warning." #HigherEd #edusky #university www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...

MI5 issues spy alert to UK universities over Chinese front company stealing research

Security service says academics should stop taking grants from and working with firm backed by China’s intelligence service

theguardian.com

What’s an underrated skill in research that you wish more people talked about?

Negotiation. Not just for research access, but for everything to do with running interdisciplinary projects in a way that creates transdisciplinary knowledge and enduring, ENJOYABLE partnerships between people whose epistemological orientation and disciplinary training may be very different.

Consultant-bro self-marketing for the job market. Not everyone can do it well.

Multidisciplinarity.

Relationship building. With colleagues. With partners. There is a LOT of informal communication and activity that goes into building relationships that are crucial to research.

"Looks like it is patentable and profitable" is the latest definition of "best" according the the current New Zealand government. IMHO, that's the way to kill a public research system.

Understanding that not everything you do needs to be earth-shattering or paradigm shifting. Good research happens in small steps that may seem obvious or boring to you, but are in fact solid, presentable research that moves your career and agenda forward.

Designing a good web survey. Not just writing good items (which is very important!), but actually using the available features to set your survey up in a way that is good for the respondent and limits the ways people can give you bad data.

I once heard the suggestion that everyone who’s taught for a long time should also be learning something completely new, to remind them of what it’s like to be a beginner.

Making a call on when a project is probably publishable versus when a project probably needs more data.

What’s an underrated skill in research that you wish more people talked about?

The advisory group on mathematics and artificial intelligence, of which I am a member, has just published a set of recommendations concerning the responsible release of mathematical results generated by AI companies using internal models. 1/3 agmai.org/general-sep29/

general-sep29

Responsible Release of AI-Generated Mathematics September 29, 2026 Back to main page Download PDF At present, some frontier AI labs are testing advanced mathematical problems on proprietary models …

agmai.org

Honestly, teaching someone something they don't know yet without making them feel stupid for not knowing it is a real skill. Not everyone recognises this skill. Bravo Dan!

Dan Baldassarre@evornithology.bsky.social · 2d ago

A student just told me, "I like your teaching style. You don't make people feel stupid." It sounds corny, but that principle a huge part of my classroom philosophy. Yes, we must maintain academic rigor, but if students are intimidated, they will not contribute, and no good can come from that. (1/2)

The history of a field isn't just a nice bit of context around the science. It helps explain why we know what we know, which questions got asked, and sometimes which questions didn't. The Cold War example is a brilliant illustration of that. Great thread.

Dr. Adeene Denton@spacewhalerider.com · 4d ago

It's me, the mythical STEM PhD who not only took history classes but got a whole history degree! Studying history is arguably one of the most important things STEM students can do. Science isn't done in a vacuum, and students should investigate the people, places, and events that shape it.

"Evidence-based solutions are needed to help improve reproducibility in research. This Consensus View presents a consensus-based list of core reproducibility items for research that has been developed by a multidisciplinary group interested in research, open science, and reproducibility...

🚨 🎉 Our CONSENSUS VIEW, “An international consensus on core reproducibility items in research,” is now out in @plosbiology.org 🎉 🚨 journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...

An international consensus on core reproducibility items in research

Evidence-based solutions are needed to help improve reproducibility in research. This Consensus View presents a consensus-based list of core reproducibility items for research that has been developed ...

journals.plos.org

I think this is the problem with trying to find the "best" research in the first place. There are loads of different things we might value in a piece of research, and they don’t necessarily point in the same direction. Why do we assume they can be reduced to one ranking?

Kevin Mitchell@wiringthebrain.bsky.social · 3mo ago

How is "best" defined? Rigor? Reproducibility? (That would be nice). Novelty? (Maybe, but more novel => more likely wrong) Potential impact? (Arbitrarily rewarding some areas over others)

Am instinctively skeptical of any attempt to reduce the intellectual effort and creativity of science to a single number. Doubly wary here because the methods and results are not yet published. www.science.org/content/arti... 1/2

How novel is that research paper? Competition to quantify concept crowns winner

The automated tool could be used to help journals vet submissions

science.org

Yes, this is exactly what worries me about metrics. Something can be useful for measuring research without necessarily being something we should incentivise people to maximise. Once it becomes a target, people start playing to it.

Stephen Curry@scurry.bsky.social · 4mo ago

Am concerned also about the unintended repercussions – so far unexplored – if this sort of novelty indicator were to become a target (e.g. for acceptance in a journal, funding decisions).

We talk a lot about reproducibility, but I keep coming back to the incentives around research. If you’re rewarded for getting new results out quickly, where’s the incentive to spend time making sure someone else can actually reproduce them? Worth a read. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Reproducibility in biomedical research - Nature Medicine

Reproducibility is a foundational principle of trustworthy science, but reproducible research practices are not consistently implemented. This Review summarizes the current landscape including efforts...

nature.com

Feels like this is getting closer and closer in the UK as well. And as @animalarchaeology.com so correctly pointed out, this only happens when university leadership participates in the reframing of universities as job-factories rather than places of education and learning.

The New Republic@newrepublic.com · 4d ago

Trump is banning students majoring in degrees that don’t make enough money from taking out college loans. Degrees for social work, art, religious studies, teaching aides, and music will be hit the hardest. trib.al/kQdKbY1

If financial survival becomes the main concern, it’s going to affect what gets taught, what gets researched, and what risks universities are prepared to take. Universities are supposed to think long-term. That’s pretty difficult when you’re constantly worrying about next year’s finances.

Nature Portfolio@natureportfolio.nature.com · 2w ago

The United Kingdom’s universities are under pressure. Nature asked eight leaders in higher education what they thought about the state of UK institutions. Here’s how they answered. #Academicsky

A student just told me, "I like your teaching style. You don't make people feel stupid." It sounds corny, but that principle a huge part of my classroom philosophy. Yes, we must maintain academic rigor, but if students are intimidated, they will not contribute, and no good can come from that. (1/2)

This is quite cool. My university is the first organisation in the world to force Microsoft to allow us to turn off copilot summaries in Word 365, after a backlash against it from staff (including, very vocally, me). That cannot have been easy for our heroic IT people so hats very much off to them!

It's me, the mythical STEM PhD who not only took history classes but got a whole history degree! Studying history is arguably one of the most important things STEM students can do. Science isn't done in a vacuum, and students should investigate the people, places, and events that shape it.