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Kelly Sovacool

@kelly.sova.cool
1.3K followers 2K following 264 posts

Bioinformatics Software Engineer. PhD from Schloss Lab at UMich. sovacool.dev 🏃🏻‍♀️🚴🏻‍♀️🧗🏻‍♀️ #python #rstats #nextflow #snakemake she/her My views are my own.

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Reposted by Kelly Sovacool
Tressie McMillan Cottom @tressiemcphd.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Technology enthusiasts severely overestimate the average person’s desire or willingness or capacity to build and use AI agents. I understand some work roles that could mandate or encourage it but that is no way a tech revolution. Agents are best for structured, clearly delineated tasks.
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c0nc0rdance @c0nc0rdance.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
The obvious conclusion (to me): if you have proprietary research & you upload it into the Plagiarism Nexus, it's not YOUR proprietary research anymore. Behave accordingly.
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Laura Helmuth @laurahelmuth.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Not everybody knows this, and everybody should. On Sept. 26, 1983, a Soviet nuclear warning system alerted Stanislav Yevgrafovich Petrov that the U.S. had launched a missile attack. He did not retaliate, preventing WWIII. This is a post about AI. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanisl...
en.wikipedia.org
Stanislav Petrov - Wikipedia
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Joe Bak-Coleman @jbakcoleman.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Had my first email arising from what seems to be an LLM-guided spite-check of my published code. Anyone else experienced this yet? I'm pulling the repo and verifying the possible error, will happily correct if need be but this seems like a great way to DDoS scientists. #metascience #AcademicSky
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Ira Hyman @irahyman.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
The nightmare of how LLMs will be used to attack researchers. I can see this also being used to attack academics in general for not agreeing with the tech overlords.
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Mark Histed @markhisted.org · 22/09/2026
The idea of AI curing all diseases is, IMO, silly. Biomedical research is mostly limited by data, not ideas. Imagine saying AI will build a world-champion basketball team by replacing basketball coaches with hyperintelligent AI. You see the problem. Someone still needs to dribble and make shots.
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Sarah McAnulty, Ph.D. @sarahmackattack.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
A couple weeks ago I heard a joyful shriek from across the street. My neighbor kids, who I planted milkweed for, found 2 monarch caterpillars by their stoop. This week, those monarchs hatched. Our block is fully concrete, .3 miles to the closest green space. But we’re supporting the life cycle 🥰
A freshly hatched monarch butterfly
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Jeremy Yoder says no war @jbyoder.org · 20/09/2026
Papers are written by humans and for humans and there is no technological intervention that is going to turn them into a noiseless transmission medium; sometimes you just have to read what the other guys wrote and figure it out as best you can
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Jeremy Yoder says no war @jbyoder.org · 20/09/2026
ALMOST EVERY PEER REVIEWED PAPER HAS A SUMMARY OF KEY POINTS RIGHT BELOW ITS TITLE
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Anthony Moser @anthonymoser.com · 15/09/2026
i've been sending my robot to the gym all year but i still have trouble lifting things
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Kelly Sovacool @kelly.sova.cool · 14/09/2026
you know it's bad when IT starts typing sudo commands in your terminal...
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David Ho @davidho.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
I wrote this quickly at a bus stop and didn't realize it would go viral, or else I would have worded it better. But the point is that the media is too credulous about AI killing everyone in 10 years (how?) when climate change is killing people now and will only get worse (we know exactly how).
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Minnesotan Kaiju @whisperingpines.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
It's actually surprising how important machine learning is but how worthless LLMs are. Tons of drugs have already been developed with machine learning
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Trans-Inclusive Misogynist @deletethenats.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
It's also not the same computer, they just really want you to think it is.
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Tobias Wilson-Bates @phdhurtbrain.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
Almost everyone in a library is existing as the best available version of themselves.
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Annalee @flowerhorne.com · 11/09/2026
There are very real safety concerns we need to address with generative LLMs. Deepfakes, privacy, AI psychosis, etc We don't need to entertain goofy nonsense from people claiming they're inventing the torment nexus from the science fiction classic "Dipshit That's Not The Torment Nexus Go Outside."
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Daniel S. Katz @danielskatz.org · 10/09/2026
CS talk challenge: Give a talk where *all* the slides are just xkcd comics
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Tim Crane @timcrane.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
Let's headline this bit:
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Kelly Sovacool @kelly.sova.cool · 03/09/2026
When you cook for someone a special meal you know they‘ll love, and then they scarf it down and ask for more… You can get that feeling by planting native plants!!
A monarch caterpillar on a butterfly milkweed. The caterpillar has eaten almost all of the leaves off them stem it is on. Milkweed is its favorite!! In fact milkweed plants (members of the genus Asclepias) are the only host plants for monarch caterpillars.
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Kelly Sovacool @kelly.sova.cool · 31/08/2026
either Zenodo or Zotero should consider switching names. I don’t care which one! There’s just only enough room in my brain for one 6-letter 3-syllable Z-word related to publications / citations.
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Gravel Influencer @gravelinfluencer.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
A writer I work with sent a colleague a letter to review and she responed with edits and a note that she "asked AI for help." Please don't do this, especially if it's something that is supposed to be attributed to you. We don't want AI feedback! We want to make sure it's consistent with your voice.
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Kelly Sovacool @kelly.sova.cool · 12/08/2026
First-year butterfly milkweed in bloom — the first to bloom in my new native garden! Featuring a monarch caterpillar munching away.
A photo of butterfly weed (asclepias tuberosa), just starting to bloom. This plant was started from seed 8 months ago. A monarch caterpillar can be seen near the flower buds.
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Erin 🌱 @wearegonnafindout.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
It has been an incredible day to watch butterflies and hummingbirds from my office window. Native plant gardening freaking rules
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Colin Carlson @colincarlson.bsky.social · 10/08/2026
I wrote about a reason not to use generative AI in your writing that I haven't seen anyone talking about. Once I realized this, banning GenAI in our lab's writing became a no-brainer. Feel free to share, I think this is probably useful especially for trainees: www.carlsonlab.bio/thoughts/the...
carlsonlab.bio
The only reason you’ll ever need not to write with AI — The Carlson Lab
Over the last year, our lab has been developing a policy on AI use. To do this, we did three main things: We read a lot of academic publications and tech news. We set up an #ai channel on our la...
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Olivia Guest · Ολίβια Γκεστ @olivia.science · 08/08/2026
exactly 💯 on LLMs: they simulate the output we call language, not the cognitive capacity we call language!
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Tom-The Accursed Poster [3.89 cubits] @siropsalot.bsky.social · 09/08/2026
As someone who has been in the daata center space and Data/ML space for a long time it's wild how they've managed to take such boring subjects and absolutely trash their reputation.
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Katie Mack @astrokatie.com · 06/08/2026
I understand that funding bodies want to go all in on AI as the shiny new innovation thing. But if all the grants start going to AI at the expense of everything else then the research sector is going to end up looking like a farm with dozens of threshers hacking away in a field with no wheat.
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Kelly Sovacool @kelly.sova.cool · 06/08/2026
hot take: it is better not to have an image/graphic at all for your blog/talk/flyer/poster than to make one with genAI
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Krista Koeller @kristalerista.bsky.social · 06/08/2026
One of the things that frustrates me most is that LLMs are being sold as an everything tool, which means you’re all in or all out. It’s turned into this weird purity thing. But I want there to be room for nuance and conversations about appropriate use-cases and the philosophy behind objections.
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Jacquelyn Gill @jacquelyngill.bsky.social · 06/08/2026
One of most heartbreaking things about Hank Green turning to LLMs is that he gets to do science communication full-time to a massive audience and is well-resourced. He doesn't need to cut corners or outsource his thinking. Meanwhile, there are so many people doing amazing work with zero resources.
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Kelly Sovacool @kelly.sova.cool · 06/08/2026
it sucks when GitHub Actions is down, merging pull requests with happy little green check marks is where I get about 60% of my dopamine on a given work day
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lauren @lauren.rotatingsandwiches.com · 03/08/2026
i started this train of thought as a joke but now i do think there's something to the idea that the way to sell the green revolution to the US public is that we're being denied Good Deals on cheap chinese cars and solar panels and there's nothing more unamerican than saying we can't have a good deal
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Kendra "Gloom is My Beat" Pierre-Louis @kendrawrites.com · 26/07/2026
A reminder that running the dishwasher twice is actually still superior to handwashing.
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Colin Carlson @colincarlson.bsky.social · 25/07/2026
My colleagues have been far too cautious to embrace the Leopards Eating Faces Health Action movement, for reasons I cannot understand
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Kelly Sovacool @kelly.sova.cool · 19/07/2026
Manual transmission is wayyy more fun to drive. But when we were looking to replace my car, the math wasn’t mathing: an Equinox EV ended up being better financially as long as we keep it for 5 years or more. And we usually keep our cars til death (catastrophic breakdown) do us part.
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▲ndrusi @andrusi.bsky.social · 18/07/2026
Using ChatGPT as your search engine is like using a refrigerator as your air conditioner.
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Tressie McMillan Cottom @tressiemcphd.bsky.social · 17/07/2026
I am losing my mind. Chat isn’t a search engine. this isn’t normal. framing it as normative is slimy. Tone, vibes all bad.
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Mark Peifer (He, him) @peiferlabunc.bsky.social · 14/07/2026
Let's learn a lesson from the nearly 500K of us who mobilized to comment on the OMB rules. We can leave the sidelines, take action and it can make a difference. After 15 months of inaction, our scientific societies finally woke up and mobilized members. It doesn't stop there 1/n
496,769 comments received
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Kelly Sovacool @kelly.sova.cool · 13/07/2026
I'm presenting poster C-049 at #ISMB2026 #BOSC2026 on Wednesday: "Anatomy of a modular toolchain for reproducible bioinformatics workflows" (Poster C-049). Please reach out if you're here and would like to meet up, and stop by my poster if you want to talk about reproducible software!
The anatomy of our modular toolchain for reproducible bioinformatics workflows. The central component is a Bioinformatics Workflow or Pipeline repository. Lines extend out of the Workflow to the other components: a Python package containing helper functions for a custom CLI, reusable Nextflow modules and sub workflows, Docker recipes, Documentation website, and Continuous integration. Each of these components contribute to scalability, reusability, and reproducibility of bioinformatics pipelines.
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Kelly Sovacool @kelly.sova.cool · 08/07/2026
I‘ve resisted the urge to build a wildlife pond all spring and summer long, so as I treat I can make a mini barrel pond now, right??
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Jason Rasgon @vectorgen.bsky.social · 03/07/2026
The NIH is an ENORMOUS bargain for the American people. Do folk think that private industry will do the background slog work for drug discovery for 250K direct costs?
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BWJones @bwjones.bsky.social · 03/07/2026
When I explain to peeps how much we do in research labs for how few $$, they simply don’t believe me. I once explained it to a famous person from Pixar, he looked me square in the eye and said “You mean all the cancer, vision, and Alzheimer’s grants work that way? You’ve gotta be %#ing kidding me!”
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MOTH👑MONARCH 🤖🔪 Robot Knife Fight Recovery Zone @mothmonarch.bsky.social · 16/07/2025
how have so many people become entranced by this idea the chatbot can "know" anything or is even capable of "truth" or "lying"? it is an algorithm that will spit out text that statistically most likely answers your question. it has no awareness, no knowledge. it is foolish to anthropomorphize it.
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Kelly Sovacool @kelly.sova.cool · 30/05/2026
Currently listening to a playlist that so far has included Herb Alpert, Tame Impala, Star Wars soundtrack (Duel of the Fates), and now Lil Nas X. Confused by the range but not upset about it!
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Stephen Morrison @stephen-morrison.bsky.social · 24/05/2026
That's what I don't understand about professionals using A.I.: Don't they have something they really want to say? Isn't that why they're writing?
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Nicole Bedera @nbedera.bsky.social · 22/05/2026
For anyone else who wants a not-AI search engine:
theguardian.com
Leave big tech behind! How to replace Amazon, Google, X, Meta, Apple – and more
A handful of companies monopolise the web, with unprecedented access to our data. But there are many more ethical – and often distinctively European – alternatives
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Kelly Sovacool @kelly.sova.cool · 21/05/2026
The new "I do my own stunts" in the age of genAI: I make my own diagrams and presentation slides 😎
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Kelly Sovacool @kelly.sova.cool · 21/05/2026
TIL
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Lisa Fazio @lkfazio.bsky.social · 21/05/2026
I asked my slack group of learning scientists - from @ludmilanunes.bsky.social Morehead et al. (2019) did a meta-analysis that showed a very small advantage of handnotes. link.springer.com/article/10.1... Flanigan et al. (2024) showed the same pattern link.springer.com/article/10.1...
link.springer.com
How Much Mightier Is the Pen than the Keyboard for Note-Taking? A Replication and Extension of Mueller and Oppenheimer (2014) - Educational Psychology Review
Many students use laptops to take notes in classes, but does using them impact later test performance? In a high-profile investigation comparing note-taking writing on paper versus typing on a laptop ...
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hmenager.bsky.social @hmenager.bsky.social · 24/04/2026
🧬 Join us for the @openbio.bsky.social @bosc.bsky.social CollaborationFest (CoFest), focused on open source and open science — happening right after #ISMB2026 and #BOSC2026! Registration (free!) and organization details can be found at: 🌐 www.open-bio.org/events/bosc-...
open-bio.org
CollaborationFest 2026
CollaborationFest 2026 will be a collaborative work event at which participants work together to contribute code, documentation, training materials, and challenging analysis problems and use cases. If...
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