Andrew Kniss
@wyoweeds.bsky.social
I kill things for science (mostly plants). I study crops, weeds, and sometimes other things at a University in Wyoming (but this is a personal account). I like taking photos and writing #Rstats code, but not at the same time. PlantOutOfPlace.com
Instead of having to go to work everyday, I think I just want to be one of those rich guys with hobbies. How do I make that happen?
Every year I feed some of my class assignments into the most recent (free) versions of the chatbots, just to see what I should expect if students do the same. The chatbot got a 50% on an upcoming plant ID quiz, which seems to me like a skill it should be good at by this point.
Imagine being talented and beautiful and rich and famous and still the most noteworthy thing about you is how good a person you are.
Conservatives in 2026 are like: “When we said Barack Obama was like Hitler we meant it as a metaphor for something bad, not a reference to real Hitler who we think is cool but not in a way that lets you say we’re racist.”
Way back in 2023, NIH said people can't use LLMs for drafting peer review text, in part for exactly this reason. www.science.org/content/arti...
Science funding agencies say no to using AI for peer review
Concerns include confidentiality, accuracy, and “originality of thought”
science.org
I've now recieved a rejected manuscript review where a reviewer submitted LLM-generated content (100% confident), and a rejected grant review where a reviewer submitted LLM-generated content (80% confident). On it's own, this is somewhere between frustrating and infuriating. But my main concern:
I have travel bottles of toothpaste and shampoo that are similar in size and shape. This morning in my hotel room I realized this is not ideal.
A lot of the discussions about AI in academia have focused on students, grading, etc. But I think there is even more of a problem in academic research... Just had a manuscript clearly "peer" reviewed by an LLM. And who knows how many AI written and AI reviewed grants are in the system.
Reports like this are almost certainly going to increase as these tools become more trusted. "Farmer kills 25 acres of crops after following AI-generated weed and pest control advice." share.google/uDDq4j9nOXJw...
Chinese farmer kills 25 acres of crops after following AI-generated weed and pest control advice — farmer trusted pesticide recipe after months of successful advice
AI is useful, but you should never blindly trust it.
share.google
Pleased to see our work published: The Ties That Bind: Computational, Cross-cultural Analyses of Knots Reveal Their Cultural Evolutionary History and Significance We analysed knots across 12,000 years and 82 societies. Time to tie a thread 🧵 about why knots matter. doi.org/10.1017/S095...
There are a LOT of products out there being marketed to farmers. Many of these products have little to no independent testing to evaluate whether they work. A couple years ago, we tested two products marketed as "soil detoxifiers" - and we found they didn't seem to do anything.
Andrew Kniss @wyoweeds.bsky.social · 2mo agoNew publication out today: "Can soil detoxifiers mitigate crop injury from residual herbicides?" doi.org/10.1002/agg2...
New publication out today: "Can soil detoxifiers mitigate crop injury from residual herbicides?" doi.org/10.1002/agg2...
When grant programs are posted only 6 weeks before the deadline, but then funding decisions aren't announced for another 9+ months, it really makes managing a research program stressful...
There's an OMB rule change that would require political oversight of scientific grants, and could pull any that don't "reflect presidential priorities" Another country has tried this before! It was the USSR and it was called Lysenkoism. By @thsaey.bsky.social www.sciencenews.org/article/omb-...
Here’s what happens when you put politicians in charge of science
Proposed federal rules would rely on political appointees to decide how a lot of U.S. science gets done. History shows the consequences of such actions.
sciencenews.org
Potato Oles from Taco John's. Preferably with nacho cheese, but not necessary to be the best.
Brendel@brendelbored.bsky.social · 4mo agoWhat’s the single best fast food item? I’m talking sandwiches, fries, drinks, whatever
From yesterday - a thread about a new publication where we look at seed germination ecology, and how two species might respond to cover crops for weed management.
Andrew Kniss @wyoweeds.bsky.social · 5mo agoNew publication out today ('preproof' version). Some really cool work from my former PhD student Jonah Ziyaaba looking at how seeds of two weed species (kochia and common lambsquarters) germinate in response to light quality. doi.org/10.1017/wsc....
New publication out today ('preproof' version). Some really cool work from my former PhD student Jonah Ziyaaba looking at how seeds of two weed species (kochia and common lambsquarters) germinate in response to light quality. doi.org/10.1017/wsc....
Light Quality Differentially Regulates Germination and Dormancy in Kochia (Bassia scoparia) and Common Lambsquarters (Chenopodium album) | Weed Science | Cambridge Core
Light Quality Differentially Regulates Germination and Dormancy in Kochia (Bassia scoparia) and Common Lambsquarters (Chenopodium album)
doi.org
I don't take pictures of the Mallards very often because they're so common. A reminder that common things can be pretty amazing. #BirdsOfLabontePark #birds #photography
Love this! www.notus.org/perspectives... (The suggestions from the 15 other WaPo veterans fall well short of the moment.)
#BirdsOfLabontePark An eared grebe. Disappointed I didn't get a better photo of this one. The bright red eye and light feathers around the face is really distinctive.
A web page just told me everything it learned about me without asking. It knew my city, my device, my GPU, and how long I hesitated before scrolling. sinceyouarrived.world/taken
taken.
A web page that tells you what your browser gave away the moment you arrived. No login, no form, no permission. Most pages do this. None of them tell you.
sinceyouarrived.world
How are other academics dealing with the "Countries of Concern" disclosures when submitting Federal grants? My institution is asking me for a list of Co-PIs from the list of countries, and I have no interest in playing that game... Am I alone here? #adademicsky
Someone out there decided it would be a good idea to put a German Shepherd in charge of babysitting a bunch of Doberman puppies and they were 100% correct