Sign in

Stephen Turner

@stephenturner.us
9.4K followers 485 following 4.3K posts

Field guide. Quartermaster. Associate Professor and Research Dean at UVA School of Data Science. Views my own. Web: datascience.virginia.edu/people/ste… Newsletter: blog.stephenturner.us

PostsRepliesMedia
Reposted by Stephen Turner
Dr. Stephanie @punkrockscience.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
Yes,maybe it does mean that this piece wouldn’t have been published, but maybe that itself is an indicator. If you don’t care enough to put your human time into the writing, why do you care enough to say it at all?
2173
Stephen Turner @stephenturner.us · 03/10/2026
Got near ringside seats at Lucha Libre last night in Mexico City. Impromptu decision. Hands down the most fun "sports" event I've ever been to.
080
Reposted by Stephen Turner
Hans-Rudolf Hotz @hrhotz.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
unfortunately, no mention of @galaxyproject.bsky.social 😞
051
Stephen Turner @stephenturner.us · 30/09/2026
Reproducibility in biomedical research www.nature.com/articles/s41... 🔓 rdcu.be/65xyNmVgEmTa
nature.com
Reproducibility in biomedical research - Nature Medicine
Reproducibility is a foundational principle of trustworthy science, but reproducible research practices are not consistently implemented. This Review summarizes the current landscape including efforts...
095
Stephen Turner @stephenturner.us · 29/09/2026
Academic life & discourse, biosecurity, AIxBio, creativity, peer review, Thomas Jefferson blog.stephenturner.us/p/september-...
blog.stephenturner.us
September 2026 links
Thomas Jefferson, biosecurity, AI, creativity, peer review, academic life & discourse
010
Stephen Turner @stephenturner.us · 28/09/2026
Didn’t want to say the quiet part out loud 😉
040
Reposted by Stephen Turner
Carl Zimmer @carlzimmer.com · 28/09/2026
The human genome is part virus. And here's a virus that's part human, having picked up a human gene about 100,000 years ago. My story here: nyti.ms/4hRKNPC
nyti.ms
This Virus Stole a Human Gene and Won’t Let Go of It (Gift Article)
Scientists have found a human gene lurking in a virus that causes skin infections. It may be using our own DNA to infect us.
518052
Stephen Turner @stephenturner.us · 28/09/2026
There's something mesmerizing about watching a pointer move and click inside a browser window, forms being filled, responses being typed, and so on, while I'm doing something else.
130
Stephen Turner @stephenturner.us · 28/09/2026
First time using ChatGPT/Claude + Chrome to control a browser. Filling out an incredibly annoying form using answers I compiled in a separate word doc. And doing so flawlessly. Old news I suppose, but seems like game over for the integrity of online training platforms, LMS/Canvas-based testing, etc.
4130
Reposted by Stephen Turner
Stephen Turner @stephenturner.us · 26/09/2026
Personal essay, weekend edition. My relationship with AI is changing. 1.8k words, 8 min reading time. doi.org/10.59350/bh7...
doi.org
My relationship with AI is changing
When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do, sir?
06615
Stephen Turner @stephenturner.us · 27/09/2026
A friend I was with told me this could invalidate the pass
100
Stephen Turner @stephenturner.us · 27/09/2026
I had a lovely (cold!) ride through Shenandoah this morning with a friend. But I had to renew my National Park pass and I’m truly appalled that I have to carry this around in my wallet for the next year.
281
Reposted by Stephen Turner
Kinga Kamieniarz-Gdula @stoplab.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
A thoughtful essay on AI use in science. Found it a good read.
062
Reposted by Stephen Turner
Alexey Veraksa @veraksa.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
“Even flawless prose wouldn’t make me less reluctant to spend an hour reading something that its author spent less than 10 minutes “writing.””
091
Stephen Turner @stephenturner.us · 27/09/2026
That first rstudio::conf with the Harry Potter area at Universal shut down for the couple hundred people who came… 🤩
020
Reposted by Stephen Turner
BF Francis Ouellette @bffo.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
"I love that blogs are making a comeback." Yes, me too!
021
Reposted by Stephen Turner
Damien C-C @dccc-phd.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
"Part of the reason I read the things I read is to understand how another person thinks."
041
Reposted by Stephen Turner
Damien C-C @dccc-phd.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
"every time I delegated the writing I missed out on much of the *thinking* that I would have done while trying to think through or explain an idea"
062
Reposted by Stephen Turner
Timothée Lionnet @successprocess.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
great piece, along with giorgio.gilest.ro/the-weimar-o... I'm feeling somewhat protected because I evolve in an experimental data-driven field, but definitely feeling the flood coming, and the need for new incentives
giorgio.gilest.ro
The Weimar of knowledge – la bottega
051
Reposted by Stephen Turner
Michael D. Green, PhD @michaeldgreen.phd · 26/09/2026
imo debates around AI use are often not nuanced. Usually 2 diametrically opposed views in a standoff as we all navigate our slop filled world. I also find myself reading less because of the sheer volume of nonsense I come across. Incentives and culture around this need to change. @stephenturner.us
271
Stephen Turner @stephenturner.us · 26/09/2026
Hard to find nuanced views here. Dogmatically pro-AI evangelists are torching their credibility with every new slop post. The vehemently anti-AI luddites... their rhetoric will largely be irrelevant and forgotten soon. See @blekhman.bsky.social's recent essay blekhman.substack.com/p/the-ai-dis...
blekhman.substack.com
The AI Discourse in Academia is Toxic. It Doesn’t have to be.
You are allowed to have a nuanced opinion about AI
130
Reposted by Stephen Turner
Tan G. @tangandhara.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
The section on reading was very relatable, especially this line: “Part of the reason I read the things I read is to understand how another person thinks.”
073
Stephen Turner @stephenturner.us · 26/09/2026
Come set up shop here. #Charlottesville is a hidden gem for incubating biotech, and we're pumping out tons of talent at UVA. www.wvtf.org/news/2026-09...
wvtf.org
How Charlottesville became home to more than 250 life science companies
Universities train many students in biotech and life sciences. Some have promising ideas for improving human health, but they need help to start a company that can turn those ideas into products or se...
040
Stephen Turner @stephenturner.us · 26/09/2026
Personal essay, weekend edition. My relationship with AI is changing. 1.8k words, 8 min reading time. doi.org/10.59350/bh7...
doi.org
My relationship with AI is changing
When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do, sir?
06615
Reposted by Stephen Turner
Richard McElreath 🐈‍⬛ @rmcelreath.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Thoughts and prayers for research data managers everywhere. You are not alone. We will get through this together techcommunity.microsoft.com/blog/excelbl...
techcommunity.microsoft.com
Excel now supports multiple values in a single cell | Microsoft Community Hub
Lists, arrays in cells, and nested arrays introduce new ways to store and organize related information, helping you keep data together without sacrificing...
2842186
Stephen Turner @stephenturner.us · 24/09/2026
More from @carlzimmer.com 🎁🔗 www.nytimes.com/2026/09/24/s...
nytimes.com
Anthropic’s A.I. Is Teaching Itself Biology. Now It’s Made Its First Discovery. (Gift Article)
Scientists at the company announced their first finding: a group of enzymes whose function is unknown.
010
Stephen Turner @stephenturner.us · 24/09/2026
www.chronicle.com/article/the-...
chronicle.com
The Most AI-Exposed College Graduates Are Entering Another Great Recession
A new Census Bureau report offers concrete evidence of how certain majors are faring in the job market — which may shift what students choose to study.
010
Stephen Turner @stephenturner.us · 24/09/2026
Graduating into Disruption: Labor Market Outcomes for AI-Exposed College Majors www2.census.gov/library/work...
www2.census.gov
110
Stephen Turner @stephenturner.us · 24/09/2026
Hear me out. New overlay journal. No APCs, but submitters pay a fee to submit. E.g. $1200. $400 goes to each of 2 reviewers. If accepted, $400 goes to journal admins, editors, hosting fees, etc. If rejected, $400 returned to authors. Cuts down on slop. Reviewers get paid. What am I missing?
300
Stephen Turner @stephenturner.us · 24/09/2026
$100 in Claude Code cloud credits claude.ai/code/claim-c...
120
Stephen Turner @stephenturner.us · 23/09/2026
How to fix AI in higher ed: a thread 🧵 1/999:
040
Stephen Turner @stephenturner.us · 23/09/2026
Book rec. Old, but fantastic intro to cryptography for people like me who know nothing about cryptography. Intertwines historical narrative with technical explainers, from Mary Queen of Scots through a deep dive on Turing's attack on the German Enigma machine cipher. www.amazon.com/dp/038549532...
amazon.com
The Code Book: The Science of Secrecy from Ancient Egypt to Quantum Cryptography: Singh, Simon: 9780385495325: Amazon.com: Books
The Code Book: The Science of Secrecy from Ancient Egypt to Quantum Cryptography [Singh, Simon] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. The Code Book: The Science of Secrecy from Ancient ...
021
Stephen Turner @stephenturner.us · 23/09/2026
Probably the wrong platform to post anything remotely positive about AI, but reading through this and Dario’s X post, it’s pretty exciting stuff www.anthropic.com/news/claude-...
anthropic.com
Claude discovers a novel enzyme system
In early results from our new life sciences research lab, Claude agents found an enzyme system whose function is still unknown.
270
Stephen Turner @stephenturner.us · 23/09/2026
Anthropic is a biotech firm now www.youtube.com/watch?v=DdCE...
youtube.com
Inside Anthropic's molecular biology lab
YouTube video by Anthropic
283
Stephen Turner @stephenturner.us · 23/09/2026
Demos / more info at scientist-two.github.io. I'm really looking forward to reading the paper (with an open mind!), but idk, I just can't get behind "86 papers autonomously generated across eight AI domains" as a good thing for scientific inquiry right now when we're all already drowning in slop.
010
Stephen Turner @stephenturner.us · 23/09/2026
Google research: ScientistTwo: Pioneering the Human Knowledge Frontier with Autonomous AI arxiv.org/abs/2609.19644
140
Stephen Turner @stephenturner.us · 23/09/2026
new productivity bar for P&T www.washingtonpost.com/education/20...
washingtonpost.com
Using AI, a professor wrote 200 papers this year. Researchers are alarmed.
An online platform removed 257 papers written or co-written by the University of Chicago’s Nicholas Polson after other academics raised questions.
111
Stephen Turner @stephenturner.us · 23/09/2026
"Because Opus 5.5 is comparable to Claude Mythos 5.1 in biology and cybersecurity, we’re deploying it with safeguards similar to those on Claude Fable 5.1." www.anthropic.com/claude-opus-...
anthropic.com
Introducing Claude Opus 5.5
Claude Opus 5.5 leads in agentic coding and knowledge work, and costs 40% less to run than Opus 5 on typical workloads.
020
Stephen Turner @stephenturner.us · 23/09/2026
Pacing the frontier
000
Stephen Turner @stephenturner.us · 22/09/2026
Read this, and really everything they're writing and doing at @securebio.org 👇
031
Stephen Turner @stephenturner.us · 22/09/2026
It's a silly measure (papers^0.75 / h-index), but happy to see I'm low on the slop index percentile 🙃 slop-index.com/researcher/3...
120
Reposted by Stephen Turner
BF Francis Ouellette @bffo.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
From @stephenturner.us on #PairedEnds | AI + Biosecurity in 4 minutes | #OpenScience #Education #Bioinformatics #Genomics #Biosecurity #AI #StephenOnTV #ScienceInTheNews #Great4Minutes | 🧬🖥️🧪🔓 ⬇️ blog.stephenturner.us/p/ai-biosecu...
blog.stephenturner.us
AI + Biosecurity in 4 minutes
I got four minutes on live TV news to take on an important but nuanced topic.
062
Stephen Turner @stephenturner.us · 22/09/2026
Biggest takeaway: Not either-or: We can make beneficial use easier, dangerous use harder or impossible. We need better measurements of AIxBio capabilities and better understanding of AI uplift in bio so we can better prioritize and calibrate risk reduction responses.
011
Stephen Turner @stephenturner.us · 22/09/2026
1. OAI incident was a warning shot 2. Be skeptical of doomsday countdowns 3. AI doesn't make you a biologist overnight 4. Take risks seriously but don't overstate them 5. Layered defenses 6. AI is moving fast, calibrated governance must keep pace www.cbs19news.com/news/inside-...
cbs19news.com
Inside the Numbers 09/21
Stephen Turner from the UVA School of Data Science comes to the CBS19 studios to talk about artificial intelligence.
211
Stephen Turner @stephenturner.us · 22/09/2026
Went on live TV news last night talking about AI safety and #biosecurity
3202
Stephen Turner @stephenturner.us · 21/09/2026
VAISI, the student-organized Virginia AI Security Initiative, has a great event lineup www.vaisi.org/events
001
Stephen Turner @stephenturner.us · 20/09/2026
Sunday relief: Ctenophores Aren’t Just Beautiful. They’re Biological Wonders www.quantamagazine.org/ctenophores-...
072
Stephen Turner @stephenturner.us · 20/09/2026
Rumor has it ICLR has over 50k submissions. Can anyone in the know verify? seems like this could really break the conference paper review system.
000
Stephen Turner @stephenturner.us · 19/09/2026
Wahoowa
081
Stephen Turner @stephenturner.us · 18/09/2026
www.reuters.com/world/anthro...
reuters.com
EXCLUSIVE: Anthropic quietly sets up biology lab as it ramps AI drug program
At a time when fears of AI are gripping the public, the startup has built a wet lab — or ​place for physical experiments — in the San Francisco Bay Area, two people familiar with the matter said.
040