This is my partner and I, but Terry Pratchett. I love it.

…I think I just took mental damage from this pic.

Amazing work from whoever was up in N6914W over Ohio … www.flightaware.com/live/flight/...

The rate of return here is crazy: for a few hundred thousand dollars, this lab produces literally billions of oysters and supports a seafood industry worth hundreds of millions. And the Trump administration is just like "fuck all that, it's wasteful spending, you're fired"

Me in 2017: the 2020s aren't a real decade. They only exist in midcentury scifi dystopias. Me in 2025: I wish I'd been wrong

Somehow the public health discourse on here today is even weirder than the genAI discourse, and I have to say I do *not* care for it.

Another in my series of libraries Kannur Public Library, India #SomethingBeautiful #LoveLibraries #EveryLibraryMatters #Libraries #Library #LibrarySky #libsky

NOW it’s officially the Christmas season.

I keep having exactly this conversation with AI proponents: “I need it to be accurate.” “How accurate?” “100%” “Uh. How about 85%? Good enough?” “No, 100%.” “Well, we can’t do that because [reason of the week].” “Okay, talk to me when you can, then.”

How do you know it’s been too long since you’ve been in the lab full time? I’ll go first: I’ve started reflexively holding my pen in my teeth again.

Chop wood, carry water. Write word, pipette sample.

This doesn’t surprise me, honestly. AI-made text is simple, easy. It writes like the prevailing tone of the internet, which is the primary textual source many people are exposed to. It doesn’t challenge the reader, doesn’t present truly novel ideas, doesn’t require emotional engagement.

Original opinion piece in PNAS: The “machinal bypass” and how we’re using AI to avoid ourselves www.pnas.org/doi/full/10....

In a similar vein as the “don’t cite a paper you didn’t read” article earlier, I quite like Stephen’s take here on AI for writing. I *could* ask AI to read papers for me, I *could* ask it to draft my text, but I choose not to, because the process IS the point. Even - especially! - when it’s hard.

Dunkin was playing Christmas music, and I think it was an English-language, Christmas-themed cover? version? of “Dragostea Din Tei”….

Things that really should be obvious but this is 2025:

Pantone just updated their Color Of The Year

More “holly” vibes this year than “poinsettia”, but I like it anyway.

the dumpling that got stuck to the pan

Me: *visits newspaper site* Newspaper: YOU MUST TURN OFF ADBLOCKER TO READ THIS ARTICLE. Me: *sighs* Oh, okay, sure, support local journalism. *turns off adblocker* Newspaper: HA HA, YOU MUST SUBSCRIBE TO VIEW THIS ARTICLE! ALSO PLEASE ENJOY THESE FOUR BLINKY, FLASHING ADS! Me: *closes tab*

I am not sorry. This is simply true. Academics should be able to write fluently and express themselves clearly and academics should do their own work. It’s literally our job. It’s what we trained until 22nd grade to do. This is a simple observation that should require no explanation or defense.

this is the greatest feeling, when the cord box proves its utility to a family member

This whoooooole thread is gold.

It’s a single-blind study in a country where hepB is highly prevalent, where some children will be given placebos and a painful death rather than a safe, effective vaccine. Complaining this isn’t “America First” because American researchers aren’t getting the money is…. that’s not the problem here.

Sometimes, you get a drink that’s just MADE for you: boozy Vietnamese coffee, with a blue orchid, in an octopus glass.

*ape noises*

The Epstein Files, everybody!

“We have published research showing that the models have started growing neuron clusters that are highly similar to humans and that they experience something like anxiety and fear…” says Jason Clinton NO. AIs aren’t “growing” SHIT. They do not *have* neurons. These AI people are smoking something.

It *still* makes me cry.

"Has feminism failed women brought to you by bank of america" is my MKULTRA sleeper agent activation phrase

The day before everyone takes the week off for the holidays:

The name "Popular Science" doesn't mean we shift our coverage depending on public opinion. It means we cover relevant subjects that are rigorously researched, reliable, and grounded in reality. And trans lives are grounded in reality. We see y'all. No matter what. www.popsci.com/science/tran...

People who aspire to be academics: I wish to live a life of the mind Actual academics:

I have become a slop collector. 😮‍💨 Dirty job, but someone has to do it. I’m compiling gen A.I. images in academic journals. This is an ongoing project, and version 1 is here: doi.org/10.6084/m9.f... Version 2 in January with at least three 3️⃣ new illustrations. #AcademicChatter

🎄✨ Season’s Greetings from PDBe ✨🎄 The PDBe wishes you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. We are delighted to share our jointly designed EMDB/PDBe Christmas card with you. It has been a busy year, and we look forward to seeing you in the New Year.

The shooting suspect was a former Brown grad student in physics, for about two semesters. So yeah, this feels terrifyingly targeted. I wonder if we’ll ever know why.

“So this exciting fossil discovery of bees nesting in bone cavities, and in caves, serves as a good reminder that when it comes to evolution, bees will keep on being the bees they need to be.” Happy that @cnn.com Science used my quote about this amazing fossil find. www.cnn.com/2025/12/17/s... 🧪🐝🪹🦴🪨

Serious question: did he say anything worth watching? Did anyone actually think he would?

Less common varieties of 'nog: Hognog—bacon drippings & milk Bognog—bog water au lait Balnog—for those who have drunk too greedily and too deep, who long to taste the dark fires of Udûn, flavored not with nutmeg & vanilla but with shadow & flame Neggnog—are you really going for ANOTHER glass?

imagining a NSF PO handing a VC bro the stack of 10-to-15 proposals they'll have to be ready to discuss, then explaining that they'll be paid $600 for the three days of the panel meeting

American Academy of Pediatrics has grants cut by HHS [Gift link] wapo.st/48U8yB2 1/3

Attention introverts: If you really want to be left alone, maybe try living 2.5 miles deep in the ocean and posing as a sea sponge? www.nytimes.com/2025/12/12/s... 🧪

I’m in back-to-back meetings all day. Lunch is pizzelles made by our friends’ little kid, and they’re the only good thing to happen to me today.

The post going around criticizing Oliver Sacks but saying Stephen Pinker is a lifelong friend and mentor of the writer is certainly… very interesting in 2025.

I choose to take this as a positive omen. (As named and drawn by Paul Kidby, illustrator of Discworld.)

You remember that Nature Aging paper about how multilingualism protects against accelerated aging? Well…

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...

*screaming in the corner*