Ran Blekhman
@blekhman.bsky.social
Professor of Genetic Medicine at the University of Chicago. Decoding the human microbiome. http://BlekhmanLab.org
Protip: review the paper, not the authors. A paper is not a grant proposal and you don't need to critique the PI, just the work. It's actually easy to not mention the authors at all. Instead of "the authors should...", just say "the work should address..." or "the paper would be improved by..."
Piali Sengupta@senguptalab.bsky.social · last wk.If you don't like a paper, it is obviously totally fine to point out the issues. But please do NOT make egregious and unpleasant comments about the first author's qualifications. A first author who is usually a trainee. Beyond inappropriate and unprofessional.
It's likely that in the 2028 election, after 36(!) straight years of Boomer presidents, we will elect a Millennial, skipping Gen X entirely. Which is sad but also the most Gen X outcome imaginable
Clear-eyed analysis from @blekhman.bsky.social on the future value and current limitations of AI in science. TLDR: we need to change systems to realize AI's promise blekhman.substack.com/p/why-ai-wil...
This is the key. Thinking up new ideas is never the bottleneck - it's all the institutional slow downs: Grants take years, purchasing approvals, sponsored projects office need so many docs & let's not forget how long it takes our animals to breed. AI doesn't solve the most important bottlenecks
Ran Blekhman@blekhman.bsky.social · last wk.Everyone says AI will accelerate science. I don't think it will -- at least not in biology, and at least not soon. New post where I explain why, and how the productivity paradox can be resolved: blekhman.substack.com/p/why-ai-wil...
Everyone says AI will accelerate science. I don't think it will -- at least not in biology, and at least not soon. New post where I explain why, and how the productivity paradox can be resolved: blekhman.substack.com/p/why-ai-wil...
Why AI will not speed up science (yet)
You can see AI everywhere except in the productivity statistics
blekhman.substack.com
To help Europeans understand the American halftime show, think of it as a mini Eurovision. The over-the-top tackiness is the point
The Human Microbiome Conservancy is doing something incredibly important: creating a “seed bank” of human microbiomes from around the world, preserving diversity before it vanishes. Enjoyed discussing it with the NYT for this wonderful story: www.nytimes.com/2026/07/08/m...
Our Bacteria Are Talking. We’ve Just Begun to Understand What They’re Saying. (Gift Article)
The human microbiome is essential to our health, but scientists still know very little about it. Two researchers set out to map this largely uncharted terrain.
nytimes.com
Successfully appealing an unappealable red card! We can finally say that the US is a true soccer country, taking part in FIFA corruption like the big boys 😅
The New York Times@nytimes.com · last mo.From @theathleticfc.bsky.social: Folarin Balogun will be available to play the USMNT’s round of 16 match against Belgium with his one-game red-card ban suspended. Multiple FIFA officials previously said that a team cannot appeal a red card or suspension. nyti.ms/4vJ2Ls7
Look at that dinosaur reading and reviewing claims himself rather than asking Claude how good it is, as we all know now proper independent review should be done /s
Ran Blekhman@blekhman.bsky.social · last mo.I wanted to like QED's new 1% preprint ranking. I really did. But the more I looked at the data, the more uncomfortable it made me. Here is my full peer review. open.substack.com/pub/blekhman...
“I have posted many preprints to bioRxiv, but had not really considered that this implies consenting to commercial AI scoring and ranking. There is no opt-out mechanism...Honestly, this makes me a bit less enthusiastic about posting preprints.”
Ran Blekhman@blekhman.bsky.social · last mo.I wanted to like QED's new 1% preprint ranking. I really did. But the more I looked at the data, the more uncomfortable it made me. Here is my full peer review. open.substack.com/pub/blekhman...
I wanted to like QED's new 1% preprint ranking. I really did. But the more I looked at the data, the more uncomfortable it made me. Here is my full peer review. open.substack.com/pub/blekhman...
My Peer Review of The 1%
I wanted to like QED's new 1% ranking. I don't.
open.substack.com
My first reaction to QED 1% is that it's an interesting idea - there are so many preprints that any additional data point could be helpful for filtering. Might be the beginning of something useful My reaction after seeing my preprint is not in the 1%: what a terrible idea. A joke really
They say the US lost its global influence, but somehow it convinced everyone in the world that it's normal to play soccer in 4 quarters??
Our new friendly neighborhood monolith. Maybe an unpopular opinion but I love it
Nine (not so simple) steps: a practical guide to using machine learning in microbial ecology Step 1: Determine whether machine learning is necessary or even worth doing journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...
Nine (not so simple) steps: a practical guide to using machine learning in microbial ecology | mBio
Microbial ecologists are increasingly turning to machine learning (ML) models to better identify and predict meaningful biological patterns and relationships in molecular microbial community data (inc...
journals.asm.org
Wild to think that no one has invented a way to make milk safe to drink yet. A cheap, scalable process that kills all the pathogens while keeping all the flavor and nutrients. Tragic
Kyle Pfannenstiel@pfannyyy.bsky.social · 2mo agoIdaho health officials are investigating how nearly 60 people got sick after drinking raw milk in the past two weeks. The Idaho Department of Health and Welfare says they didn't name two dairies potentially linked to the outbreak “because this is a potential risk for any raw milk producer.”
Visited the grand canyon last year and a rainbow appeared *inside* the canyon
Reminder: giving an AI the prompt "You are a world expert in X" doesn't make it a world expert. It doesn't give the model additional knowledge or improve its reasoning. All it does is change the *style* of the output, so it sounds like an expert, even when it's wrong.
What you see in the Sun, is the Chicago skyline from the Indiana Dunes beach, across Lake Michigan. You can see it from 50 miles of distance due to a form of superior mirage, because the skyline is seen above where it's actually located. [📷 wesskywalker]
"This is why LLM AI will not solve cancer or climate change. Those problems require long time horizons, willingness to fail publicly, cooperations across competitors, and subordination of short-term returns to outcomes that may take decades to materialize." www.tomorrowsmess.com/p/the-fox-an...
The Fox and the Hedgehog
Americans are catching on to Silicon Valley's 'One Weird Trick'
tomorrowsmess.com
