Potentially interesting way to test whether the methods section of a (comp.) paper is sufficient for replicating the study: Feed methods to AI agent and ask it to produce the key figures.

AI is not "threatening" higher education but exposing that we have largely replaced student-teacher relationships with an anonymous conveyer belt of conveniently assessable performance metrics. We need to talk to students instead of fueling an arms race between AI generation and AI detection.

"... the most immediate risk [of AI] is 'mediocrity at scale,' a flood of work that isn’t wrong enough to dismiss but isn’t interesting enough to advance anything." Akin to what PhD students have to produce to meet arbitrary degree requirements. Both the result of Goodhart's law. shorturl.at/S3vln

It’s time to get rid of the peer-reviewed paper

The peer-reviewed journal article, perhaps the single most important device behind the expansion of scientific knowledge in the last century, is an extraordinarily expensive way to share novelty: e…

pardoguerra.org

New research in #GENETICS from @msrivastava95.bsky.social, Ard Louis, and @n-martin.bsky.social focuses on fitness landscapes built from genotype–phenotype maps with a random phenotype-fitness map and makes analytic predictions about their topographical properties. 🔗 for the paper: buff.ly/VnQ796V

Today!

Timothy Fuqua@timothyfuqua.bsky.social · 5mo ago

Come listen to my talk about how enhancers evolve and how promoters emerge from randomly synthesized DNA sequences!

Very similar results had been obtained by Cernan, Harrison and Schmitt in 1972. The advances here seem minimal and the novelty of the work remains unclear. The study would be more appropriate for a more specialised journal.

It looks like there will be an open postdoc position in my lab soon. I'll be looking for someone with substantial wet-lab experience in microbiology / microbial ecology / evolution / physiology. If everything goes well, an ad will be coming. But if you know someone, ask them to reach out already.

Many people worry that AI will make science more productive but also more conservative — pushing attention toward already well-studied areas. @yianyin.bsky.social Sukwoong, and I ask: can AI instead help expand the scientific frontier? www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... 1/15

New group website: www.noramartin-lab.com Get in touch if you are interested in joining the group, or know anyone who might be 📮

Hello Bluesky! Does Nₑ really explain mutation rate (μ) or genome size (GS) in vertebrates? We find the apparent Nₑ–μ link in Bergeron et al. (2023) is a “back-door” path via generation time, and GS is decoupled from both Nₑ and life-history traits. www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/... #evobio #PNAS

I'm looking for a Swiss department to host me for an SNSF Starting Grant. I research how gene expression evolves and emerges by combining wet lab + computational work in a variety of model systems (E. coli, Drosophila, yeast). More: timothyfuqua.com If your department might be a match, let’s chat!

Goed stuk over het wetenschappelijk publicatiesysteem. Mijn voorstel is om het systeem op de schop te gooien: "niet eerst op journals wachten voordat zij de kwaliteit beoordelen, maar gelijk publiceren en vervolgens in alle openheid de peerreview doen" #PublishReviewCurate @cwtsnl.bsky.social

Follow the Money@ftm.nl · 7mo ago

Bij extreme winstmarges denk je waarschijnlijk niet aan wetenschappelijke uitgevers. Toch slaan wetenschappers alarm: de tarieven voor ‘open’ publicaties rijzen de pan uit en staan niet in verhouding tot de werkelijke kosten. Publiek onderzoeksgeld verdwijnt zo rechtstreeks naar aandeelhouders.

Last chance to submit an abstract to our symposium on fitness landscapes and genotype-phenotype maps!

Meike Wortel@meikewortel.bsky.social · 8mo ago

New year, new conferences! Consider submitting to the symposium on Fitness landscapes and Genotype-phenotype maps, linking computational and experimental approaches (organising with @n-martin.bsky.social; @dbajic.bsky.social invited spreaker) at SMBE (28/6-2/7)! Abstract deadline February 3rd!

Canadian PM Carney’s speech at Davos reportedly received a standing ovation. The speech marked the end of an era. It will no doubt be looked to as part of the historical record of the end of the transatlantic rules-based international order. You can read the speech in full here:

The Carney doctrine

Open comment thread on the PM's Davos speech

open.substack.com

DFG erlaubt Einsatz von KI in der Begutachtung. Wenn wir jetzt noch die AI dazu kriegen, die komplette Forschung zu machen, haben wir den Menschen komplett von der Last des Forschungsprozzeses befreit und er kann sich komplett auf wichtige Dinge wie Reisekostenerstattungsanträge konzentrieren.

Künstliche Intelligenz in der Begutachtung

dfg.de

📣CALL FOR APPLICATIONS!! 📣 The next deadline for the #GodfreyHewitt mobility award is 31st January 2026. Open to ECRS in support of research trips or lab visits. For more information, eligibility and how to apply: eseb.org/prizes-fundi...

Good and necessarily infuriating read.

Paul Rainey@paulbrainey.bsky.social · 10mo ago

Many are painfully aware that the environment within which we function -- as scientists -- needs fixing. We've come up with a proposal for academic renewal. It's not perfect, but its a start. Input, comments, suggestions are welcome. Making a difference matters 👇 doi.org/10.5281/zeno...

From January 1st 2026, the CNRS will cut access to one of the largest commercial bibliometric databases, Clarivate Analytics' Web of Science, along with the Core Collection and Journal Citation Reports.

The CNRS is breaking free from the Web of Science

From January 1st 2026, the CNRS will cut access to one of the largest commercial bibliometric databases, Clarivate Analytics'

cnrs.fr

Doing non-causal inference (and being explicit about it), yet using a causal word as second word in the title. If you pay Nature € 10.690, they will publish this in Nature Ageing. I can tell you what I think of that for free. www.nature.com/articles/s43...

📣CALL FOR APPLICATIONS!! The next deadline for the #GodfreyHewitt mobility award is 31st January 2026. Open to ECRS in support of research trips or lab visits. For more information, eligibility and how to apply: eseb.org/prizes-fundi...

I’m excited to announce the launch of my lab at EPFL in Jan 2026 🎉. We’ll combine evolution & synthetic biology to study and (re)engineer bacterial communication. I’m recruiting PhD students to start in the first semester of 2026. Apply via EPFL PhD programs by Nov 1 drive.google.com/file/d/1cm-t...

Opportunity for a Master’s/Bachelor’s student: - Join us for up to 5 months 🗓️ - Build computational/mathematical models 💻 - Learn about genotype-phenotype maps and evolution 🧬 - Work closely with PhD student Manuela Giraud - full info here: www.crg.eu/en/content/t...

Please spread the word! 10 days left to apply for this #sciencejobs as Assistant Professor Tenure Track in Quantitative Cell Biology 👩‍🔬 @izb-unibern.bsky.social @unibe.ch! ohws.prospective.ch/public/v1/jo... #QueerInSTEM #DisabledInSTEM #BlackInSTEM #WomenInSTEM #CarersInSTEM #AcademicSky #HigherED

Uni Bern: Assistant Professor with tenure-track for Quantitative Cell Biology

Start date of employment: anticipated for August 2027

ohws.prospective.ch

I'm curious if other mid career PIs have considered completely abandoning the trad publication model. We've been making gradual moves towards that end goal. But it's been difficult to completely jump ship for one main reason for me at least. 1/

As a junior researcher who is at the doorstep of the journal publishing system this post resonates with me a lot. Journal publishing looks like a historical contingency that's kept alive by the career promises that Nature publications make. thescientistpapers.substack.com/p/how-to-be-...

How to be a scientist in a post-journal world

When we created this site to write about things in science that need to be fixed, we chose not to start with publishing, even though it has been our preoccupation for decades.

thescientistpapers.substack.com

Megan Fox@glassbottommeg.bsky.social · last yr.

Holy shit. This guy saved a PNG to a bird. (he drew a bird into a spectrogram, played that sound to a starling, and the starling reproduced it back to him with enough accuracy he got his bird drawing back in their call's spectrogram) www.youtube.com/watch?v=hCQC...

#Growth-coupled #selection just got an update ! In the last years, E. coli selection strains for #central , #amino #acid and #energy metabolism intermediates were created by the community. So, we compiled them and revisit the core concepts of growth coupling. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Escherichia coli selection strains for growth-coupled metabolic engineering

Synthetic metabolism has the potential to transform carbon capture, bioremediation, or bioproduction strategies. To transfer metabolic designs from an…

sciencedirect.com

Hey y'all, grant-pending, I may be unemployed starting from October. If you have any leads on biotech / postdoc positions in the German-speaking part of Switzerland, I'd greatly appreciate a message. I'm great with Data Analysis, Molecular Biology, and Teaching. (Plz RT!) More at timothyfuqua.com

"a fascinating case study on the limits of AI in biology and the harms of current publishing incentives" rachel.fast.ai/posts/2025-0...

Rachel Thomas, PhD - Deep learning gets the glory, deep fact checking gets ignored

an AI researcher going back to school for immunology

rachel.fast.ai

🔊 ¡Llamado a pensar la evolución desde el sur! Invitamos a estudiantes de maestría y doctorado en biología evolutiva de Sudamérica a postularse a EvoSur. 🧬 Un espacio para intercambiar ideas, debatir evolución y tejer redes científicas con todas las voces, todas: sites.google.com/view/evosur2...

EvoSur

MOTIVACIÓN

sites.google.com