iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

John O’Donoghue @drjohnodonoghue.bsky.social · 17/05/2026

Nail on the head, why would anyone include a citation that wasn’t “checked”? Every citation in every paper I’ve ever published is there for a reason, because it’s relevant and useful for the work. That’s research

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Royal Irish Academy @ria.ie · 23/04/2026

Thank you to our fantastic panellists, @drclairemurray.com , @akellyucc.bsky.social , @irishspacegal.bsky.social , @jessamynfairfield.bsky.social , and the wonderful moderator, @drjohnodonoghue.bsky.social , for last night's dynamic discussion about community engagement in science.

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Royal Irish Academy @ria.ie · 16/04/2026

Join us next Wed, 22 April to be part of our 'Good Science' discussion about finding the scientist in your community. Book your tickets: www.tickettailor.com/events/royal...

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John Rogers @johnrogers.bsky.social · 09/04/2026

Bloody hell. Researchers invented a disease, published two fake papers to see if LLM’s would ingest them and kick them up as fact — and then it broke containment and all the major AI’s bought in. Information pollution. www.nature.com/articles/d41...

nature.com

Scientists invented a fake disease. AI told people it was real

Bixonimania doesn’t exist except in a clutch of obviously bogus academic papers. So why did AI chatbots warn people about this fictional illness?

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John O’Donoghue @drjohnodonoghue.bsky.social · 11/03/2026

Delighted to recieve funding from the @researchireland.ie Discover programme. We have set ourselves a major challenge to see if we can co-create, deliver and evaluate a new inquiry based intervention to help engage everyone in the scientific process #InformalEd #IrishResearch #ChemSky #irishSky

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Royal Society of Chemistry @rsc.org · 11/03/2026

The Royal Society of Chemistry is at #LBF We’ll be showcasing our latest books and connecting with the publishing community. 📍 Come visit us at stand 7D81 #ChemSky

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John O’Donoghue @drjohnodonoghue.bsky.social · 18/02/2026

Looking forward to chatting with everyone at my @niscifest.bsky.social talk on Friday in @qubelfastofficial.bsky.social The @rsc.org have kindly provided a 30% discount for all attendees for my book! So if you don’t have a copy, come along! #Booksky #ChemSky nisciencefestival.com/event/onscre...

nisciencefestival.com

Onscreen Chemistry: | NI Science Festival

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John O’Donoghue @drjohnodonoghue.bsky.social · 17/02/2026

Excellent 👌 if you ever feel disheartened by arguing with idiots, know that someone else at the table (or social media feed) will hopefully appreciate you

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John O’Donoghue @drjohnodonoghue.bsky.social · 13/02/2026

Looking forward to this day next week for my return to #Belfast for the 2026 NI #ScienceFestival. Come and join me for an interactive talk about chemistry in the movies and TV, open to all ages with plenty of video clips #ChemSky #Chemistry #Science #BookSky nisciencefestival.com/event/onscre...

nisciencefestival.com

Onscreen Chemistry: | NI Science Festival

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Joshua W. Cotter @joshuawcotter.bsky.social · 10/02/2026

Make Art (1/4)

A rabbit in overalls and a goat in pants are sitting on the ground drawing pictures. The rabbit is saying “ART POSES A THREAT TO CORPORATOLRATIC SYSTEMS BECAUSE A PURPOSE OF ART IS TO REMIND THE INDIVIDUAL OF THEIR INHERENT AUTONOMY.”, the goat adds “THEIR HUMANITY.”

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Hannah Daly @hannahdaly.ie · 05/02/2026

There is an abundance of wind on the Irish electricity system this morning and the network operator is imploring me to use energy. Wouldn't it be nice if it was cheaper? My column today is an "explainer" on dynamic tariffs, which are coming this summer. www.irishtimes.com/science/2026...

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Kevin Morgan @drkevinmorgan.bsky.social · 30/01/2026

And the following week (20th Feb), why not see chemistry jump off the page (and screen) and into conversation with @drjohnodonoghue.bsky.social from @tcddublin.bsky.social and @rsc.org Hosted in the David Keir Building, you can book for Onscreen Chemistry here: nisciencefestival.com/event/onscre...

nisciencefestival.com

Onscreen Chemistry: | NI Science Festival

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John O’Donoghue @drjohnodonoghue.bsky.social · 28/01/2026

We’re hiring! Come join us to setup, lead and evaluate a new Education and Public Engagement (EPE) project. We want someone who will make this project their own and we will provide them with all the guidance they need #ChemSky #educationsky #researchsky universityvacancies.com/trinity-coll...

universityvacancies.com

Research Fellow in Chemistry Education and Public Engagement (EPE) | University Vacancies Ireland

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John O’Donoghue @drjohnodonoghue.bsky.social · 04/01/2026

I agree, the more AI content I see from someone, the less I want to engage with them… if social media doesn’t adapt to encourage authentic human content, it’s going to lose all relevancy … which will have widespread consequences for digital advertising & promotion

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Ciara | Ciaraíoch 🎨 @ciaraioch.bsky.social · 28/12/2025

Don't think I've spoken to a single artist who didn't struggle this Christmas, and I spoke to a lot, so even if it's not my work I'd really encourage people to try to support a local artist that you like instead of big corporations - every single sale makes a real, tangible difference to their life.

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Ciara | Ciaraíoch 🎨 @ciaraioch.bsky.social · 03/12/2025

First year selling my art at Christmas without the Other site, where most of my sales came from, as well as losing US orders to new tariffs, so it'll be a tough one - I put huge work into every order, so even if you can't buy, shares help get them in front of eyes. GRMA! www.ciaraioch.com/artprints

Collage of prints from my site

#SpéirGorm #SpéirGhorm #Ireland

One of the handwritten gift notes that I can include for free with all orders, if desired.

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John O’Donoghue @drjohnodonoghue.bsky.social · 12/12/2025

Once again struggling to part ways with the lovely packaging from @ciaraioch.bsky.social! It always comes so beautifully packaged ☺️ #Christmas #IrishArtist #supportirish

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Dr. Katja Thieme (she/they) @katjathieme.bsky.social · 03/12/2025

„CSU—US’s largest public uni system—went all-in with a $17mill partnership with OpenAI. . .CSU unveiled its grand technological gesture just as it proposed slashing $375mill from its budget. While admin cut ribbons on AI, they were cutting faculty positions, academic programs, student services.“

currentaffairs.org

AI is Destroying the University and Learning Itself

Students use AI to write papers, professors use AI to grade them, degrees become meaningless, and tech companies make fortunes. Welcome to the death of higher education.

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Ciara | Ciaraíoch 🎨 @ciaraioch.bsky.social · 03/12/2025

📌 ciaraioch.com is now taking Christmas orders for prints, cards, and vouchers - each archival-quality print on heavy art paper is made in Ireland, ships internationally in eco-friendly packaging with discount tracked postage, and comes with a FREE card and treats for every customer 🎁 #SpéirGorm

Photograph of a display of prints, surrounded by Christmas decorations and fairy lights, against a white fluffy background

#SpéirGorm #SpéirGhorm #Ireland #Art #Christmas #ArtistsOnBluesky #BuyLocal #ShopIrish

Cartoon of a little rook building a snowman in the shape of a crow, and a photograph of the same image as Christmas cards against a red brick background - there's one free with every order.

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Olivia Guest · Ολίβια Γκεστ @olivia.science · 06/09/2025

Finally! 🤩 Our position piece: Against the Uncritical Adoption of 'AI' Technologies in Academia: doi.org/10.5281/zeno... We unpick the tech industry’s marketing, hype, & harm; and we argue for safeguarding higher education, critical thinking, expertise, academic freedom, & scientific integrity. 1/n

Abstract: Under the banner of progress, products have been uncritically adopted or
even imposed on users — in past centuries with tobacco and combustion engines, and in
the 21st with social media. For these collective blunders, we now regret our involvement or
apathy as scientists, and society struggles to put the genie back in the bottle. Currently, we
are similarly entangled with artificial intelligence (AI) technology. For example, software updates are rolled out seamlessly and non-consensually, Microsoft Office is bundled with chatbots, and we, our students, and our employers have had no say, as it is not
considered a valid position to reject AI technologies in our teaching and research. This
is why in June 2025, we co-authored an Open Letter calling on our employers to reverse
and rethink their stance on uncritically adopting AI technologies. In this position piece,
we expound on why universities must take their role seriously toa) counter the technology
industry’s marketing, hype, and harm; and to b) safeguard higher education, critical
thinking, expertise, academic freedom, and scientific integrity. We include pointers to
relevant work to further inform our colleagues.

Figure 1. A cartoon set theoretic view on various terms (see Table 1) used when discussing the superset AI
(black outline, hatched background): LLMs are in orange; ANNs are in magenta; generative models are
in blue; and finally, chatbots are in green. Where these intersect, the colours reflect that, e.g. generative adversarial network (GAN) and Boltzmann machine (BM) models are in the purple subset because they are
both generative and ANNs. In the case of proprietary closed source models, e.g. OpenAI’s ChatGPT and
Apple’s Siri, we cannot verify their implementation and so academics can only make educated guesses (cf.
Dingemanse 2025). Undefined terms used above: BERT (Devlin et al. 2019); AlexNet (Krizhevsky et al.
2017); A.L.I.C.E. (Wallace 2009); ELIZA (Weizenbaum 1966); Jabberwacky (Twist 2003); linear discriminant analysis (LDA); quadratic discriminant analysis (QDA).

Table 1. Below some of the typical terminological disarray is untangled. Importantly, none of these terms
are orthogonal nor do they exclusively pick out the types of products we may wish to critique or proscribe.

Protecting the Ecosystem of Human Knowledge: Five Principles

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Josh McCrain @joshmccrain.bsky.social · 18/11/2025

new paper by Sean Westwood: With current technology, it is impossible to tell whether survey respondents are real or bots. Among other things, makes it easy for bad actors to manipulate outcomes. No good news here for the future of online-based survey research

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Erik Derycke @derycke.bsky.social · 02/11/2025

“Universities are not tech companies. Our role is to foster critical thinking, not to follow industry trends uncritically.”

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John O’Donoghue @drjohnodonoghue.bsky.social · 09/10/2025

Good article from Richie Kirwan about the Joe Wicks health/protein bar documentary which had plenty of ridiculous dark lab imagery & scaremongering. I also witnessed someone tell a stranger on the #London tube this week that they should check the ingredients of a bar they were eating #SciComm #Food

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Compound Interest | Chemistry infographics @compoundchem.com · 08/10/2025

The 2025 #NobelPrize in Chemistry was awarded today for the development of metal-organic frameworks, molecular sponges with applications in gas storage, water purification and more: www.compoundchem.com/2025/10/08/2... #ChemSky 🧪

Infographic on the 2025 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, awarded to Susumu Kitagawa, Richard Robson, and Omar M. Yaghi for the development of metal-organic frameworks. The infographic explains that metal-organic frameworks are molecular sponges built up from metal ions and organic compounds that act as linkers. Small molecules such as gases can move into and out of cavities in these frameworks. The graphic highlights some of the MOFs the laureates have developed and concludes by looking at possible future uses of MOFs, including gas storage and extracting water from air.

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C&EN (Chemical & Engineering News) @cenmag.bsky.social · 08/10/2025

The 2025 #NobelPrize in Chemistry has been awarded to Susumu Kitagawa, Richard Robson and Omar M. Yaghi “for the development of metal–organic frameworks.” Stay tuned for the full story to come! cen.acs.org/people/nobel... #ChemNobel #Chem #Chemistry #chemsky 🧪

cen.acs.org

The 2025 chemistry Nobel goes to MOFs

Susumu Kitagawa, Richard Robson and Omar M. Yaghi win the prize for developing metal–organic frameworks

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Prof Sam Illingworth @samillingworth.com · 01/10/2025

UPEN (the Universities Policy Engagement Network) just published my piece on Slow AI. Encouraging to see academics & policymakers valuing reflection over speed. upen.ac.uk/resources/th... How do you pause with AI? #GenAI #AI #SlowAI #SciComm #Policy

upen.ac.uk

The Case for Slow AI in Academic and Policy Engagement – UPEN

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John O’Donoghue @drjohnodonoghue.bsky.social · 01/10/2025

A great round up the issues in academic publishing, particularly the metrics. I feel AI is also highlighting these issues since many AI models have been inadvertently trained on retracted papers. Goodhart's law states: "When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure." #Research

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Margot Finn @eicathomefinn.bsky.social · 24/09/2025

'In a preprint posted on medRxiv on 12 September1, researchers identified more than 400 such papers published in 112 journals over the past 4.5 years'. Link to preprint: www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1...

nature.com

Journals infiltrated with ‘copycat’ papers that can be written by AI

Tools such as ChatGPT can be used to generate almost-identical research papers that pass standard plagiarism checks. Hundreds are thought to have been published.

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Neil Lewis, Jr. @neillewisjr.bsky.social · 27/12/2024

I've shared this quote before but I'll share it again, as it's one I've been thinking about a lot as I've watched how our oligarchs have been behaving over the past few months.

At a party given by a billionaire on Shelter Island, Kurt Vonnegut informs his pal, Joseph Heller, that their host, a hedge fund manager, had made more money in a single day than Heller had earned from his wildly popular novel Catch-22 over its whole history. Heller responds, “Yes, but I have something he will never have … enough.” Enough. I was stunned by the simple eloquence of that word—stunned for two reasons: first, because I have been given so much in my own life and, second, because Joseph Heller couldn’t have been more accurate. For a critical element of our society, including many of the wealthiest and most powerful among us, there seems to be no limit today on what enough entails.

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Olivia Guest · Ολίβια Γκεστ @olivia.science · 21/09/2025

Getting close to 50k views and I'm wondering is it just everybody is scared to say this and pleased I did? Because if there's so many of us who agree, trust me I'd know if 1k people disagreed with me let alone 50k, why are we letting AI ruin our universities? Together we can turn back the tide.

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Evan Spotte-Smith (they/them) @ewcss.info · 11/09/2025

Spot on, and so glad @cenmag.bsky.social published this piece. I consider myself extremely lucky — in my PhD, I was well resourced, had a lot of freedom, and I worked in a mostly positive group culture. Still, I was horribly overworked and had severe mental health struggles. #AcademicSky ⚗️ 🧪 (1/4)

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John O’Donoghue @drjohnodonoghue.bsky.social · 10/09/2025

This is now the second use of the term “cold spots” I’ve seen in relation to commuting to university in the UK. What is the definition of a cold spot? Is it time or distance based? Either way, we have freezing spots in Ireland! 🤣 we have students & staff commuting across the entire country #HigherEd

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John O’Donoghue @drjohnodonoghue.bsky.social · 31/08/2025

After presenting the feedback from our project at the Variety in Chem Ed & Physics HigherEd conference in Liverpool this week, we’ve collected a LOT more at @dublinmaker.bsky.social! Our research ambassadors are engaging with hundreds, while I cut up fliers #DublinMaker #VicePhec25 #ChemEd #SciComm

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John O’Donoghue @drjohnodonoghue.bsky.social · 26/08/2025

I was just reminded of an interesting “chemistry from theatre” nugget. Before electric lighting, candles were the only way to light up theatres and stage shows. Then, in 1816, Thomas Drummond invented the “limelight”, which he originally designed for lighthouses #Chemistry #Thread #ChemSky

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John O’Donoghue @drjohnodonoghue.bsky.social · 23/08/2025

“All we need now is for Starmer to take a dislike to The 2 Johnnies, and he’ll have alienated every different genre of Irish person between the ages of 25 and 35” 🤣

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John O’Donoghue @drjohnodonoghue.bsky.social · 21/08/2025

This time last week we had a great time in @rsc.org Burlington House #London for my book launch. Thanks to everyone who joined us, especially @andrestrujado.bsky.social for this absolutely fantastic silver mirror coke bottle! Onscreen Chemistry is available now in bookstores #BookLaunch #ChemSky

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John O’Donoghue @drjohnodonoghue.bsky.social · 09/07/2025

Hello little Red-tailed BumbleBee, welcome to our garden today. On the menu you’ll find flowers from courgettes, onions, and tomato’s as well as pansies, roses and hydrangeas. I finally found some time to enjoy our garden after a busy academic year #Summer #Garden #Pollinators

A red tailed bumble bee on an onion flower

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Jonathan Tonkin @jdtonkin.bsky.social · 08/07/2025

Publication rates before and after tenure: clear decline post-tenure in non-lab-based fields and sustained in lab-based fields. Super interesting. arxiv.org/pdf/2411.10575

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John O’Donoghue @drjohnodonoghue.bsky.social · 04/07/2025

We need a ban on disposable vapes in Ireland as soon as possible!

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Carl Hendrick @carlhendrick.substack.com · 14/06/2025

NEW POST on AI, learning and why knowing stuff still matters. carlhendrick.substack.com/p/the-most-i...

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Nash @radiodeadair.com · 11/06/2025

Deep Blue is 30 years old and was capable of defeating chess grand champions. It could be housed in a single cabinet. ChatGPT spans untold data centers devouring massive amounts of electricity and it got its ass whipped by an 8 bit gaming console from the 1970s.

extremetech.com

ChatGPT Lost a Chess Game to an Atari 2600

And on the 'Beginner' difficulty level, too.

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Education in Chemistry @rsc-eic.bsky.social · 23/05/2025

Our colleague, and Onscreen Chemistry author, @drjohnodonoghue.bsky.social‬ spoke to the @chemistryworld.com‬ team about his book. Watch the webinar: www.chemistryworld.com/webinars/ons... And read more on Breaking Bad in your May print issue of EiC and at: edu.rsc.org/analysis/the...

chemistryworld.com

Onscreen chemistry: The portrayal of chemical science in film and TV

Join us to discover the real-life chemistry that inspires the art of the silver screen

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Prof. Emily Nordmann @emilynordmann.bsky.social · 20/05/2025

Very pleased to have this out in the wild now, @jillymackay.bsky.social, Hronska and I looked at how HE staff understand the terms blended, hybrid, and hyflex learning and whilst there is relative consensus regarding blended and hyflex (when known), the use of hybrid is a bit of a mess #AcademicSky

How do higher education staff understand the terms hybrid, hyflex and blended learning? Choice, modality and uncertainty
Emily Nordmanna*, Barbora Hronskaa and Jill R.D. MacKayb

aSchool of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, Scotland; bRoyal (Dick) Veterinary School, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, Scotland

Received: 19 September 2024; Revised: 13 February 2025; Accepted: 31 March 2025; Published: 15 May 2025

Many universities implemented blended and hybrid delivery for the first time during the COVID-19 pandemic, and as such, the use of terms that relate to various manifestations and implementations of blended learning has increased significantly by all higher education stakeholders. However, the meaning ascribed to these terms is often inconsistent and can lead to confusion, making it difficult to set expectations clearly for both staff and students. This study aimed to investigate how higher education staff understand and use these terms and to identify sources of confusion and barriers to adopting standardised definitions. We surveyed 152 higher education staff and asked them to provide definitions of each term as well as completing a categorisation task. An applied thematic analysis identified two factors that were present across definitions: choice (no choice, student choice and choice not specified) and modality (mixed but separate, dual delivery and mixed not otherwise specified). Our findings reveal significant discrepancies in understanding, particularly regarding hybrid learning, which was often conflated with other modalities and involved definitions where neither choice nor modality was clearly specified. Blended learning was most consistently defined and identified as involving separate online and in-person components with no student choice as to the modality in which they could engage with each component. Hyflex learning, despite being less familiar to many participants, was accurately associated with dual delivery and …

Bar chart showing that you might as well be guessing when it comes to what people will say is hybrid

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Chemistry World @chemistryworld.com · 16/05/2025

Learn more about the fascinating world of the big and small screen through a chemist’s eye in our free webinar Onscreen chemistry: The portrayal of chemical science in film and TV with author @drjohnodonoghue.bsky.social, streaming now! www.chemistryworld.com/webinars/ons...

chemistryworld.com

Onscreen chemistry: The portrayal of chemical science in film and TV

Join us to discover the real-life chemistry that inspires the art of the silver screen

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John O’Donoghue @drjohnodonoghue.bsky.social · 15/05/2025

We had an absolutely spectacular day last weekend to climb Ireland’s tallest mountain again, Carrauntoohil. It was hot and tough, but hugely satisfying to have such an amazing view at the top #Ireland #climbing #Kerry

Ireland’s tallest lake, nestled in the rock as we made our way up

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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 07/05/2025

i think the biggest public relations coup AI boosters scored was calling it “AI.” people genuinely think it is an intelligence, and that when they query it, it is providing reasoned answers

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Compound Interest | Chemistry infographics @compoundchem.com · 30/04/2025

Happy birthday to the electron! ⚛️ #OTD in 1897, Joseph J Thomson announced his identification of the electron — the first subatomic particle to be discovered. www.compoundchem.com/2018/04/30/e... #ChemSky 🧪

Today in Chemistry History infographic on the discovery of the electron in 1897 by Sir Joseph J Thomson. Thomson discovered the electron, found the first evidence for isotopes of stable elements, and won the Nobel Prize in Physics for ‘investigations on the conduction of electricity by gases’. An annotated diagram of the cathode ray apparatus Thomson used to discover the electron is shown. The rays were deflected by an electric field. Comparing this with how much they were deflected by a magnetic field, he deduced that cathode rays were made of negatively charged particles, which he termed ‘corpuscles’. The discovery led to his ‘plum pudding’ model of the atom, with electrons scattered throughout a cloud of positive charge.

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