Reposted by Andy McMillanNobel Prize @nobelprize.org · 13hBREAKING NEWS The 2026 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine has been awarded to Karl Deisseroth, Peter Hegemann and Georg Nagel “for their discoveries concerning light-gated ion channels and optogenetics.” 14941465
Reposted by Andy McMillanGretchen McCulloch @gretchenmcculloch.com · 01/10/2026Huh. Today in "always look up the etymology because sometimes you're just repeating a myth but sometimes it's weirder and more incredible than you could have possibly imagined" www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/c... 10703261
Reposted by Andy McMillanThe Questionable Authority @questauthority.bsky.social · 01/10/2026The order in the 3d Cir case finding that AI training is not fair use, in the context of the use of headnotes/summaries of caselaw is out. While I get that a lot of people will like the outcome, it's a terrible decision that's likely to benefit big business. www2.ca3.uscourts.gov/opinarch/252...www2.ca3.uscourts.gov 15919
Reposted by Andy McMillanDerek Lowe @dereklowe.bsky.social · 29/09/2026The craziest compound-impurity story I’ve ever heard:science.orgNow That's An Impurity Story 1010143
Reposted by Andy McMillanjadehawk "FREE ŁINK" @jadehawk.bsky.social · 28/09/2026quite sure that's actually also how you radicalize people, to begin with. i don't know why it works, but for some reason people will assess the conclusions of an argument critically, but not its premises. so you can get ppl to believe dire shit by putting it in the premises instead the conclusions 17431
Reposted by Andy McMillanCZEdwards @czedwards.bsky.social · 27/09/2026So I want to talk about something that’s a side piece to the Roko’s Basilisk cult: This concept that “by putting them in proximity to women who like men and aren't scared of men“ If you really like men, then something you want is for them to realize that criticism is a form of care. 45511
Reposted by Andy McMillanCheryl Rofer @cherylrofer.bsky.social · 20/09/2026I'm reading this article now and am wondering why I haven't seen more about it. It's by Dexter Filkins, who is knowledgeable in the areas of Kushner's "diplomacy." I'll keep comments closed until I've finished the article.share.googleJared Kushner’s Dollar DiplomacyJared Kushner represents the kind of Washington figure for whom public office serves as a means to extraordinary wealth. 416174
Reposted by Andy McMillanChanda Prescod-Weinstein 🌌 @chanda.blacksky.app · 18/09/2026“these attempts to distance themselves from trans rights isn’t really winning anyone over, and might actually be hurting them, in some small way.” — @evanurquhart.bsky.social newrepublic.com/article/2154...newrepublic.comTranscript: How Purple-State Democrats Should Talk About Trans IssuesJournalist Evan Urquhart argues that swing-state Democratic candidates are going too far in distancing themselves from transgender rights. 612225
Reposted by Andy McMillanStephen Nuñez @socio-steve.bsky.social · 10/09/2026Dividing up AI users in 3 categories: Wizard: approaches AI academically & with appropriate guards & wards. Treats it like a tool. Warlock: Makes a pact for power with an alien entity without considering the costs. Is corrupted by the whispers. Cleric: worships their new machine god. Is insane. 23474121
Reposted by Andy McMillanAsheesh Kapur Siddique @asheeshks.org · 16/09/2026More than any higher ed development in recent memory, institutional subsidies for AI at R1 universities prove that austerity is a choice. It is not “too expensive” to invest in a humanities research infrastructure; rather, it is a choice that R1 universities make not to & subsidize AI instead. 4644255
Reposted by Andy McMillanTom Pepinsky @tompepinsky.com · 16/09/2026the hardest thing for the politician-bureaucrats to understand -- but which NSF staff *absolutely do* understand and always have -- is that you actually make scientific progress by giving young people money and promising not to bother them 430084
Reposted by Andy McMillanSunny Moraine @dynamicsymmetry.bsky.social · 14/09/2026Related: I think modern politicians have fallen into thinking of “persuasion” as always synonymous with “marketing” and I’m really not convinced that’s the case 1355
Reposted by Andy McMillanBugs, Yaoist @bugsmaytrix.bsky.social · 11/09/2026i need people to start responding to questions about trans women in sports with "what the hell is wrong with you?? why do you care about this all of a sudden? why do you want to impose insane, invasive rules just to stop some 8th grader from hanging out with her friends after school" at the minimum 71037253
Andy McMillan @mcawmcmillan.bsky.social · 10/09/2026For the overlap of #ChemSky and #music - one of the people in my department pointed me to this paper laying out the similarities of molecular vibrations and music onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...onlinelibrary.wiley.com 110
Reposted by Andy McMillanMichelle Rapp ➡️ MagicCon Atlanta @kilnfiendpotter.bsky.social · 09/09/2026Catholicism has a lot to answer for, but it has NEVER been anti-science or anti-vaccine. I can feel the Vatican from here trying their damndest to not mutter: "What the everloving fuck?' www.reddit.com/r/atheism/s/...reddit.comFrom the atheism community on Reddit: Supreme Court declines Catholic mother’s bid for son’s vaccine exemption in N.Y. | The justices tackled the issue of religious rights versus public health mandate...Explore this post and more from the atheism community 372
Reposted by Andy McMillantunes to make you run away @whippoorwont.bsky.social · 07/09/2026"people are anthropomorphizing LLMs because they are so astonishingly good at processing human thought and language" people will anthropomorphize a chair if you put the stitches in the right place. 425174233863
Reposted by Andy McMillanW. Brian Lane (he/him), PhD @wbrianlane.bsky.social · 02/09/2026In order for prior knowledge to be useful, it must be activated, appropriate, accurate, and sufficient. Recall Knowledge, five degrees of proficiency (counting untrained), and learning how to learn (adding level if trained) makes Pathfinder2e amazingly accurate to the psychology of learning. 131
Reposted by Andy McMillanJason Kuznicki @jkuznicki.bsky.social · 02/09/2026This is so important. Voters don’t want policy triangulation to hit just the right level of this or that. They aren’t principled moderates. Voters want to take part in a narrative. They want it so badly that they’re trying out hating Canada. How can liberals channel the hunger for narrative? 0156
Reposted by Andy McMillanClaire Willett @clairewillett.bsky.social · 02/09/2026like some of it documents history that archaeologists and anthropologists can at least partially verify, but some of it is poetry or song, and then there's a bunch of letters, and then John gets high at the end and starts yelling about dragons. you've gotta let the metaphors just wash over you, man 247734
Reposted by Andy McMillanClaire Willett @clairewillett.bsky.social · 02/09/2026you do not under any circumstances gotta hand it to Life Teen but I'll tell you, "the Bible is not a book, it's a library" is one of the most useful things I've ever heard a Catholic theologian say 253353
Reposted by Andy McMillanClaire Willett @clairewillett.bsky.social · 27/08/2026okay! Kendra asked for some suggestions here, and I'm going to offer something like a Litany of the Saints for all your "dear God, please let It™️ happen soon" prayer intentions there's no one immediate obvious candidate, but an "Avengers, assemble" approach to these folks might be worth trying: 22763189
Reposted by Andy McMillanZen Faulkes @doctorzen.net · 27/08/2026The real American 🇺🇸 “brain drain” isn’t that a few established scholars might get new jobs outside the US, it’s the enormous number of grad students - particularly international grad students - who can’t or won’t study in the US now or in years to come. That’s the body blow. 9397107
Reposted by Andy McMillanFaine Greenwood @faineg.com · 26/08/2026I suspect this is a common sentiment (this is also how I feel) 1642066
Reposted by Andy McMillanMike Barthel @mikebarthelauthor.com · 25/08/2026And this performance of “In the Pines” with her family—she emphasized music as a communal experience, and an expression of your culture—the place you grew up and the people you grew up with, the people who are still with you; the songs you heard, the songs you still sing. youtu.be/cIf4QGwnfLg?...youtu.beDolly Parton with her seven sibling and parent INTHE PINESYouTube video by KayxY_CTv 129055
Reposted by Andy McMillanCZEdwards @czedwards.bsky.social · 25/08/2026Polis, you fucking schmuck. We TOLD you. And you know what it didn’t get you? Any emergency disaster relief, any back down on NCAR, anything at all. You got rolled by the biggest jackass in the GOP. 16417
Reposted by Andy McMillanIron Spike @ironspike.bsky.social · 13/08/2026New Redwall miniseries looks dope but I wish they'd gone for a less realistic style 142655
Reposted by Andy McMillanMartin Lersch @khymos.org · 08/08/2026What makes a batter a waffle batter?🔎🧇 If you've made a few, you know one when you see it. But try to write down the rule and you'll struggle. I spent some time thinking about that question. Here's what came out of it 🧵 295
Reposted by Andy McMillanRadley Balko @radleybalko.bsky.social · 08/08/2026They're just coming right out and saying it. When body camera footage makes them look bad, no one sees it. When it serves a proagandistic purpose, everyone sees it. 511969712
Reposted by Andy McMillanAdam Serwer @adamserwer.bsky.social · 01/08/2026It is funny that this person thinks “immigrants defended the union while native born whites sought to destroy it in the name of slavery” is an argument against immigrants being Americans. This is precisely the point, nothing about being born here makes you better bsky.app/profile/aphc... 14148501008
Reposted by Andy McMillanLux 🌸 Alptraum @luxalptraum.com · 01/08/2026Love to wind people up by pointing out that technically Alfred is the batman not Bruce 65810
Reposted by Andy McMillanbocchi minh @kinseijoshi.bsky.social · 24/07/2026yuri doesn't just make you human, it makes you very good at math apparently 3583236
Reposted by Andy McMillanRandall Munroe @xkcd.com · 24/07/2026Calibration Nobel xkcd.com/3275/ 225222688
Andy McMillan @mcawmcmillan.bsky.social · 24/07/2026a lot of issues with the study described here that’s getting me thinking about things i need to add discussion when I’m teaching about crispr 010
Reposted by Andy McMillanJess McLaughlin, PhD (they/them) @jfmclaughlin92.bsky.social · 24/07/2026"Hey Jess, why do you spend so much of the classroom time of your genetics course talking about ethics?" 616149
Reposted by Andy McMillanDEI Speedwagon @myrrlyn.net · 17/07/2026you stupid mother fucker (markwayne not eugene) we tricked the entire world into sending their smartest hardest working people here and then tricked those same people into staying permanently instead of going back to their home country you are BLOWING UP OUR SPOT 753905843
Reposted by Andy McMillanHealth Nerd @gidmk.bsky.social · 14/07/2026My new piece in Slate takes a look at the concept of "ultra" processed foods and why the whole thing is so bizarrely unscientific slate.com/technology/2...slate.comOne of the Biggest Boogeymen on Our Grocery Shelves Needs a Better NameIt’s all about the vibes. 165712
Reposted by Andy McMillanGwen Snyder is uncivil @gwensnyder.bsky.social · 11/07/2026I don't think these times have been a solvent for decency at all. This has been a precipitation process. It has made decent people coalesce & show themselves. We're also seeing how many people had just been superficially feigning decency, because that used to be a social/professional expectation. 271037197
Reposted by Andy McMillanPierre-Edouard Danjou @pe-danjou.bsky.social · 07/07/2026After several years of work and testing, I'm delighted to share that our paper on teaching mass spectrometry instrumentation is now available on ChemRxiv! chemrxiv.org/doi/full/10.... #ChemEd #MassSpec #SciComm #ULCO #UCBL 2149
Reposted by Andy McMillanJason Kuznicki @jkuznicki.bsky.social · 29/06/2026In Project 2025, Republicans' first proposal was to save the family by protecting children from diversity. In Project 2029, Democrats' first proposal is to save the family by protecting children from diversity. 1189
Reposted by Andy McMillanDerek Lowe @dereklowe.bsky.social · 29/06/2026One prominent group has been totally silent about the Trump administration’s latest attempt to grab control of all federal science funding. That’s the biopharma companies, and their suddenly shy, quiet CEOs. Here’s the calculation they’re making:science.orgSpeaking Up: Who Is, and Who Isn't 45424
Andy McMillan @mcawmcmillan.bsky.social · 26/06/2026Every city's got an ominous megastructure. while most people might point to Blucifer for denver we also have the Articulated Wall 020
Reposted by Andy McMillanClaus Wilke @clauswilke.com · 25/06/2026The most important question is: What is a story? How does it differ from just talking about stuff? The key point is the emotional reaction. The goal in telling a story is to evoke an emotional reaction in your audience. No emotional reaction, no story. 3/ 163
Reposted by Andy McMillanClaus Wilke @clauswilke.com · 25/06/2026People always say "tell a story" but then don't explain how to do so! How is that helping? If we knew how to tell a story we wouldn't need the advice in the first place. 1/ 27833
Andy McMillan @mcawmcmillan.bsky.social · 24/06/2026For some perspective, my dad who had been republican as long as I I’ve known his politics is now planning to vote in the dem primary mostly to vote against hickenlooper and Bennett since finds they’ve been useless as senators and seems open to the more progressive Weiser and Gonzales. 110
Reposted by Andy McMillanOlivia Just Wants Tech To Be Fun Again @kingdomfantasy6.bsky.social · 23/06/2026Cackling because asking Seattle to cancel Pride and perhaps tone it down is absolutely guaranteeing this will be the Pridest Pride Celebration to ever Pride. 46924
Reposted by Andy McMillanEmily M. Bender @emilymbender.bsky.social · 14/06/2026I have been working on societal impacts of language technology since late 2016, and my nightmare example since pretty early on has been using automatic transcription in emergency services systems. And today I learn it's happening *in my own city* www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news... Short 🧵>>seattletimes.comSeattle uses AI to help triage, divert 911 medical callsThe Seattle Fire Department started using AI technology during live 911 calls in 2023. There hasn't been any public review process. 22918435
Reposted by Andy McMillanT. Greg Doucette @gregdoucette.bsky.social · 14/06/2026This. 1000 times this. There have been *literal decades of research* on the deadweight economic loss that comes from corruption. It's both widely known and widely studied since before Hakeem Jeffries was born 316747
Reposted by Andy McMillanZen Faulkes @doctorzen.net · 03/06/2026It is tasteless for Marcia McNutt, the president of the National Academy of Science, Engineering, and Mathematics, to JOKE about the exploitation of students. Students who are watching their hope of a scientific career burning up in front of their eyes. 314052
Reposted by Andy McMillanJosh Mayfield @bean525.bsky.social · 22/05/2026I'd REALLY appreciate it if anyone who sees this would try out my text generators so I can iron out any remaining bugs. Please, and thank you! trek.epicrandomness.comtrek.epicrandomness.comStar Trek Title Card GeneratorMake your own era-accurate Star Trek episode title cards in seconds. Boldly go! 162347961465