This is exactly why people claiming "it came up with a new set of experiments/ideas/concepts" are carrying water for the weasels trying to put genAI on everything. This is how we get science defunded. This is how your colleagues lose their jobs 🧪

Suppose you ask #AI for improvements to your writing. The #LLM was trained on, but doesn’t mention, Smith’s work. You adopt the suggestions containing Smith’s ideas. You don’t even realize YOU’VE PLAGIARIZED because you’ve never read or heard of Smith.

Zero tolerance is the ONLY and FITTING response to genAI being used in production of media. Sure, you might think it's too harsh. Sure, they might've only used it for early stuff in development, etc Listen, it's not even a SLIPPERY slope, there is NO friction at all unless we speak out against it.

*record scratch* Yep. That's me. You'll be wondering how I got here.

Okay real talk, the only sense in which GenAI is "here to stay" is that even after the bubble pops, AI is digital asbestos that is poisoning everything and we'll probably be picking the detritus out of everywhere it's ended up for years, assuming there's a will to remove it en masse that is.

Everyone who drinks coffee has at some point wondered whether they could brew a pot of coffee using coffee instead of water. The ones who actually did it, found themselves magically transported to 5th century Finland

Okay this. THIS RIGHT HERE is one of the massive dangers of AI to academia: it presents the illusion that the is one consensus about the Truth of a given subject and that we need not do the fucking research. It is, in essence, the anti-academy.

This is specifically about AI use in humanities disciplines within academia, which is clear from context- this crap is extremely harmful in that setting. Inevitably, people show up to be like "AI finds cancer cells tho". NOT THE SUBJECT, and that conflation has been inflicted upon us intentionally.

Multidisciplinary training, over time, produces the highest impact people www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

I think this post nails the actual problem, for researchers at least—AI hallucinations would simply not be a problem in academic work if we’d not normalized citation-as-signaling rather than actual engagement—you can only cite a fake paper if you’re not in the habit of reading the papers you cite

Tis the season for PEPPERMINT SHRIMP! #LetsChangeThat

As someone who ended up using non-model systems after doing his PhD with Drosophila, you don't realise just how amazing FlyBase or WormBase are until you try to genetics without them.

More #zebrafish! 🧪

If you're not trans, I don't think I can fully explain how important this is. It's so powerful that one of the most circulated science media publications in the world has come out and said "trans children are real and providing transition care improves their lives." That's groundbreaking.

#zebrafish! 🧪

The 2026 Santa Cruz Developmental Biology Meeting website is LIVE!!! Go see the incredible list of scientists who will be speaking at the meeting next summer! (...and check the site early next year for info on registration and abstract submission.) scdb2026.sites.ucsc.edu

As we reflect on 2025, it’s been filled with ups and downs but the geniality of the #zebrafish community has reinvigorated us. We head into 2026 with boundless thanks to shoal members that have supported us and helped cultivate this inclusive community of ours. We remain your biggest fans! #RockOn 🧪

From patterning to secretion: Kv2.1 subunits as regulators of zebrafish hatching gland morphogenesis and function https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2025.12.18.695154v1

“Loss of mob4 leads to pronounced cardiovascular and neuronal defects, including a leaky cerebral vasculature, hypersprouting of venous endothelial cells and poor neuronal branching.” New work from @icscott.bsky.social et al. 🐟

All research is exploratory if you’re confused enough

Flashbacks of ACeDB with accumulating C. elegans genome sequences and little/no tools; Paul Sternberg being frustrated and saying "we have to make this easier!" His solution was WormBase

Finally! A working protocol for the RT sperm storage 🐟 Working link: bio-protocol.org/en/bpdetail?...

Two new articles from our lab!! Davis et al identified epithelial transcription factor ELF3 as a key mediator of host-microbiota interaction in zebrafish tinyurl.com/pkavnxdp Morash et al revealed enteroendocrine cell subtypes in zebrafish & catalogued their peptide hormones tinyurl.com/bdzbm2xm

Techbros seem to love Tolkien, so here's an analogy to help you understand what genAI is. GenAI is The One Ring. You think your use is justified, b/c you don't have evil in your heart. But it came from evil, it is intended for evil purpose, & anything you do with it will be twisted to that end.

My lab is hiring a postdoc (ERC funded)! If you're interested, get in touch!

¿Os acordáis de cuando los trabajadores de la cultura os pedimos apoyo porque, entre otras cosas, tarde o temprano esto también os afectaría a vosotros… pero os pareció mucho más importante ver cómo seríais si os hubiese dibujado Ghibli?

There’s a direct line from ‘just asking questions about women’s sports’ to criminalizing our health care, we warned you it was coming, you said it would be fine and you just had a few more questions.

Trans lives matter, you absolute dumbfuck weasels

Did you know the last common ancestor of #zebrafish and humans was ~450 million years ago? A whole genome duplication event (3R) occurred early in the teleost fish phylogeny. Despite this event, zebrafish and humans have about the same number of chromosomes. #ZebrafishFunFacts 🧪

who has favorite ways to measure hypoxia in tissues using immunofluorescence/microscopy? i guess maybe the gold standard is pimonidazole/hypoxyprobe- is there any reliable way that doesn't involve injecting anything in vivo? (like what do people do for human tissues?)

Sea Cucumbers are weirdly wonderful. #LetsChangeThat

1) Anger at AI is moral. Never call that a waste. 2) If we want to stop AI in the decades to come, early and virulent rage is necessary. Lash out so hard they fear every attempt. 2) I have room for hate in my heart for MANY atrocities, at all scales and in all contexts. Get stronger.

" if you need an LLM to provide the text for you, it may be because you are unwilling to do the thinking."

so many reasons ai "creation" sucks. one that just occurred to me upon looking at this comic. the selling point of AI is that it we can all produce More. you do not need More. Capitalists need you to want More. if you Consume More Product, they can hoard more wealth.

ICYMI

🤔 #AskZebrafish

For our November in #preprints, check out special picks from the list highlighted by preLighters @prelights.bsky.social with expertise across #DevBio and #StemCell biology. Find out why these preLighters are particularly excited about these preprints. ⬇️ thenode.biologists.com/prelighters-...

Gf: You never take anything seriously Me: *Miss Piggy voice* Moi?!

🚨 Paper alert! The final version of our latest manuscript is published. We are excited to share this new resource for the zebrafish community and beyond: doi.org/10.7554/eLif... Congratulations to all authors! 🥳

Dr. Leila Denmark co-developed the pertussis (whooping cough) vaccine. World's oldest practicing pediatrician until she retired at age 103 (after 73 yrs). At the time of her death at age 114 & 60 days, she was the 5th-oldest validated living person in the world & 3rd-oldest in the US. #WomenInSTEM

Lovely feature on @tamarastawicki.bsky.social highlights her work on hearing and the benefits of undergraduate research 👩‍🔬

Oh Chile, come on

European governments are voluntarily handing the keys of their vital IT systems in police, health care and intel to #Palantir, whose boss explicitly wants to end democracy. The Swiss seem to be the only ones who are paying attention when all the others have gone into snooze mode

A quién conozco en España que sabe de/está en contacto con gente von acceso a clinical trials? Tengo una pregunta muy concreta. Gracias!

Dravet Syndrome is a genetic form of epilepsy caused by mutations in SCN1A. Researchers screened a library of compounds on loss-of-function scn1Lab (Nav1.1) #zebrafish and found clemizole (EPX-100) rescued the phenotype. This drug is now in Phase 3 Clinical Trials to treat seizures. #KnowYourZDM 🧪

Time-lapse movie of mitochondria (blue) transport within neurons (green) in the tail of a transgenic #zebrafish larva. Credit to @paquetlab.bsky.social. #ZebrafishZunday 🧪

this is similar to what I've come to think of as the "reverse turing test" when people find synthetic text is "good enough" to complete a task (homework, business report, email) it doesn't mean the machine is smart. it means they were asked to produce something that didn't matter it's diagnostic