"...the big problem in science is not fraud but rather well-intentioned bad work." !!!

It's kinda disappointing when people whose views you generally respect start using LLMs to write their contributions to collegial discussions, especially when they leave in clues like sycophancy from the bot ("this is your killer point"). Apparently they assume that we won't notice that it's slop. 😥

…students, by definition, cannot reliably determine if a re-wording of their writing changes the underlying ideas. Their ability to communicate their own understanding is exactly what we’re meant to assess. If they were already competent to tell, they wouldn’t need to be students. (4/7)

Question for AI haters who are also academics:

How do you navigate co-authorship situations, where you don’t want to be involved in manuscripts where an author is using AI? Do you have explicit discussions with potential co-authors? How do these go?

-- New Open Research Game --
I reached the rank of Asst. Prof in #TenureRun! 🎓 I published 98 papers and paid $115.000 in APCs to publishers. My grant money is gone and I am exhausted. 💸 How far can you make it? Play now at forrt.org/TenureRun/

I do not want to use AI to write or think. Can someone train it to handle annoying tasks like formatting journal submissions instead of trying to get us all to use it for things that take critical thought and expert knowledge?

Fundamental Attribution Error: What It Is & How to Avoid It The fundamental attribution error plays a central role in how we understand the actions of others and how we justify our own.

online.hbs.edu/blog/post/th...

Lawrence Summers Will Resign From Harvard After Epstein Revelations

I'm glad to see accountability for academia's bad apples. But I also hope that resignations like this one won't be the end of the story. Because we still need to reckon with how the structures and cultures in "elite" academia have created ripe conditions for rot. 1/🧵

www.nytimes.com/2026/02/25/u...

"Be teachable. You're not always right."

I don't think the "Einstein" or other AI replacing the important steps of learning, esp in higher ed, would be posing quite the challenge it is right now if students hadn't been sent the message their entire lives that the point of college is to get good grades and a high paying job, not to learn.

Alysa Liu released the pressure, reclaimed her joy and turned it into Olympic gold | Bryan Armen Graham After stepping away from figure skating, the US star climbed back on her own terms. Her journey culminated in a medal, but it was about much more than that

So inspirational. I always believe if you can have freedom to be yourself and do things on your own terms, you will have joy and be able to be at your best 🙂 that's also my experience so far
www.theguardian.com/sport/2026/f...

Doing things the "right" way, burning out and then realizing there is another option, coming back and winning it all with no fucks given? Yes please tell me that story forever.

Why are so many academics in the Epstein files? It’s not just about money | Christopher Marquis In a university ecosystem that breeds hunger for status, Epstein made scholars feel like celebrities

"Too many people – even those who were not involved directly in exploitation – took the deal because it was easy to do and because it felt good." www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Ten Thousand

Really like this one! xkcd.com/1053/

Comic. [2x2 chart. Top left quadrant: seem like dinosaurs x are dinosaurs. Silhouettes of dinosaurs stegosaurus, triceratops, tyrannosaurus, velociraptor, and long-neck dinosaur. Top right quadrant: seem like dinosaurs x are not dinosaurs. Silhouettes of mosasaur, quetzalcoatlus, dimetrodon, plesiosaur, and pteranodon. Bottom left quadrant: don’t seem like dinosaurs x are dinosaurs. Silhouettes of penguin, egret, ostrich, pigeon, falcon. Bottom right: don’t seem like dinosaurs x are not dinosaurs. Silhouettes of squirrel, stapler, plant, person, and bicycle.]

Dinosaurs And Non-Dinosaurs

xkcd.com/3204/

Wow this scoring chaos seems to be an extreme case of what I say about many ad hoc analyses: no derivation of method from a clear scientific theory, no assessment of statistical properties, and decades pass before someone notices. This happens in biology too, so let’s not pick on psychology only

I've learned that when a study is published even in those fancy journals, it does not mean that it is good, but just published. But still whenever a probably confounded study published in some fancy journals and publishing in those journals is how you are valued as an academic, I despair.

All foods can fit in a balanced diet – a dietitian explains how flexibility can be healthier than dieting Social media and advertising is full of messages about what you should or shouldn’t eat. But making health and nutrition so black and white can do more harm than good.

I like this viewpoint. Also if you would like to help people to change behavior it's not helpful when you shame people whenever they aren't eating whatever you think is healthy. theconversation.com/all-foods-ca...

A drawing of two happy otters sliding down a snowy hill. The caption reads, "maybe your best days are still up ahead"

It's worth sticking around, I think.

The ‘shades of grey’ in research integrity—Researchers admit to questionable research practices that they do not perceive to be serious Research misconduct practices like fabrication, falsification and plagiarism (FFP) are serious deviations from good research conduct, which have attracted attention in the literature due to the damage...

The ‘shades of grey’ in research integrity—Researchers admit to questionable research practices that they do not perceive to be serious

journals.plos.org/plosone/arti...

Sure the way criticism is delivered matters, but I hope we sometimes are also able to trust that our colleagues or partners can take some criticism.

A drawing of a penguin and bird friend sitting together on a snowy log. The caption reads, "In light of every hardship, thank you for continuing to try."

After I burned out, physics helped me understand what had happened to me – and to move on | Zahaan Bharmal I thought hard work equalled success. I had to realise that’s not always how it works, in science or in life, says Google employee Zahaan Bharmal

I thought this was really insightful: www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

“No, we’ve all accepted that the goal is to publish anything and everything and see what sticks. More students. More “collaborations”. So many papers that no human can possibly be paying very much attention to any of it. And we all know where the incentives lie.”

😟

I don't understand why some people present their research in a way that doesn't help their audience to understand what they did and what their results really mean.

Great science happens in great teams — research assessments must try to capture that Europe must reform the ways in which science is evaluated. To boost innovation, it must improve research culture.

Europe must reform the ways in which science is evaluated. To boost innovation, it must improve research culture, says David Budtz Pedersen

go.nature.com/3Y0652P

How not to choose which science is worth funding We may as well just pick tickets out of a hat

medium.com/the-spike/ho...

Oops. Ooooooooooooops.

I do hope that nobody has been given or denied a job/promotion based on their SpringerNature citation counts in the past 15 years.

arxiv.org/pdf/2511.01675

h/t @nathlarigaldie.bsky.social

Why Science Needs to Prioritize Mentoring Progress is usually incremental and depends on innumerable contributors, our guest columnist writes. So we ought to focus on developing them.

Totally agree and I hope to do my share as well www.chronicle.com/newsletter/t...