Zen Faulkes

I refuse to believe the box office fiasco that was the documentary of the current First Lady is the #1 movie on Prime.

Guild of Natural Science Illustrators GNSI advances scientific illustration and visual science communication through education, community, and professional support.

The Guild of Natural Science Illustrators (gnsi.org) has a job board they update regularly for requests like this. Researchers can contact news@gnsi.org with specs and GNSI will post it if it fits their guidelines. Paying work only, no spec work, but other than that, no job is too small #sciart

Is this the source of this idea that keeps getting floated but that very few people want?

“(Sea quirts) have perfectly good brains, an order of magnitude larger than those of their larvae, and their behaviour is as finely adapted to sessility as that of the larvae to motility” (Mackie and Burighel, 2005).

neurodojo.blogspot.com/2008/05/sea-...

Creationists walked so MAHA could run.

It is hard to understate how much of our current information ecosystem is... very, VERY familiar to anyone who has followed creationism for the last few decades.

Ig Nobels ceremony moves to Europe over security concerns Marc Abraham: “During the past year, it has become unsafe for our guests to visit the country."

A sad reflection of the state of visiting the USA -

Ig Nobels ceremony moves to Europe over security concerns

Marc Abraham:
“We cannot in good conscience ask the new winners, or the international journalists who cover the event, to travel to the US this year.”

Thanks to everyone who attended the @repro4everyone.bsky.social webinar on poster design today! I particularly appreciated the questions!

And thanks to the hosts for asking me!

I am available to give webinars on poster design (and more) to your class or program!

1. Are you currently using an AI tool for work-related tasks or projects? * Yes * No, but I would like to (PLEASE SKIP TO QUESTION 7)

My employer asks me to complete a survey on AI usage for which this is the first question (required):

How I've learned that certainty is the thing to really fear After five decades hosting radio phone-ins and debates, Nicky Campbell reflects on the state of public debate

I found this really frustrating to read.

Mainstream media, including the BBC, prioritised the battle of ideas/2 sides argument as a popular means of coverage. This piece suggests it happened accidentally, or even at the behest of those pushed into these scenarios /1

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

For those of you who've published 30+ scientific papers, how confident are you that you could recognize each one by the first 5 words of the title?

I’m surprised that businesses are reporting positive effects of “AI”, small though they are.

But business productivity should not be the only metric for AI use.

OMG! 🦀
beta.ideas.lego.com/product-idea...

@franzanth.bsky.social
@jopabinia.bsky.social

I’m still trying to figure out how that book won its science communication battle and changed opinions. It doesn’t happen often.

R4E webinar: Designing an Effective Poster — R4E Join us on Tuesday March 10 2026 for an informative webinar with Dr. Zen Faulkes on how to design a conference poster that commands attention. Thank-you to Addgene for sponsorship! More details her...

Tomorrow!

I'll be talking how to make your conference poster stand out from the crowd - in a GOOD way!

There is still time to sign up for this 🆓 webinar!

www.repro4everyone.org/blog/r4e-web...

hal.science/hal-03701250

And I know it’s not point, but automatic text generators have been used for many hoax papers that were published in junk journals:

figshare.com/articles/boo...

Good excuse for me to post this again:

As for the latter, a big part of it was that science blogging was subsumed by science Twitter.

"How can one well-meaning scientist counter scientific misinformation? Or even a million? The other side is bankrolled by dead-eyed billionaires."

My latest blog post #AcademicSky

occamstypewriter.org/mindthegap/2...

One reason many people hate ‘AI’ is because they instinctively understand that this is how it will be used. (And you should read the whole 🧵)

5/ Right now, they are arguing in court that they have replaced the old, unlawful process.

But my colleagues inside say this is false.

NIH isn't actually following the new processes they laid out.

Crab 🦀 feed

THE single most “we only do twitter and don’t understand bluesky” behavior, STILL, is people not posting the link to the actual news story in the first post in a thread. There is no algorithm here! Posts are not demonetized or restricted or downvoted or whatever because they have links!

Can AI Replace Social Science Researchers? No. No it can't. Come on, now.

New post: Can AI Replace Social Science Researchers? (No. No it can't. Come on, now.)

davekarpf.beehiiv.com/p/can-ai-rep...

If you have any examples of generative A.I. in academic journals, let me know by filling out this form:

docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

You can see the academic shop collection: doi.org/10.6084/m9.f...

I was an extra in a Hong Kong action movie.

If escape rooms are your thing:

Imagine not an escape room, but an escape building.

With enough challenges that it will take you a day to solve them so, not an hour.

A building with full immersive sets and actors.

Then you might dig Agents of Mystery on Netflix. Best escape room ever.

This week marks 17 years I've been writing the Better Posters blog!

🎂 1️⃣7️⃣ 🎂

The blog is also approaching 5 MILLION ❗ views. That is not a number I would have DREAMED possible when I started the project.

Thanks to all you readers and contributors!

betterposters.blogspot.com

I know this is a joke, but the replies are some wild American exceptionalist nonsense. You don’t get to escape yr nation’s shit show by sewing on a 🇨🇦 flag.

Canadians are politely asking all the Americans on the thread and elsewhere who’re doing this to just not.