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Richard Van Noorden

@richvn.bsky.social
8.4K followers 2.2K following 701 posts

Features editor, Nature. E: r⟦dot⟧vannoorden⟦at⟧nature⟦dot⟧com or richardvannoorden⟦at⟧protonmail⟦dot⟧com. Signal: richvn.01 .

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Richard Van Noorden @richvn.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
At this stage more impactful to find evidence it hasn’t been checked eg fake references
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Nature @nature.com · 08/10/2026
International students in the US would face a $100,000 price tag to work a science job in the country after graduation under a proposal made public yesterday by the Trump administration go.nature.com/4AWqQi8
go.nature.com
US proposes $100,000 charge for international students to do post-graduate work
Proposed rule would choke off a crucial STEM talent pipeline, policy specialists say
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Max Kozlov @maxkozlov.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
After our investigation into sham honor societies, many universities quietly deleted posts congratulating their faculty on joining them. Others... are still posting new ones! @stonybrooku.bsky.social news.stonybrook.edu/newsroom/pre...
news.stonybrook.edu
Stony Brook University Professors Inducted into European Academy of Engineering - SBU News
Stony Brook University professors make up two of 14 members elected internationally STONY BROOK, NY – October 1, 2026 – Two professors from the State University of New York at Stony Brook (Stony Brook...
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Nature @nature.com · 08/10/2026
Russia's spare disclosures combined with unverified rumours of a lab accident have triggered a plague scare. Here's what scientists know — and what Russia won't say. go.nature.com/4AVaSoD
go.nature.com
Plague scare: what scientists know — and what Russia won’t say
Unverified rumours swirl around the death of a Siberian laboratory technician. Nature talks to a biosecurity specialist to unpack the fallout
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Norio Nakatsuji @norionakatsuji.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
[The science of superintelligence and why AI is still a useful word] “President Donald Trump wants to replace ‘artificial intelligence’ with ‘Super Intelligence’ — but there are questions about whether we’re there yet.” www.nature.com/articles/d41...
nature.com
The science of superintelligence and why AI is still a useful word
President Donald Trump wants to replace ‘artificial intelligence’ with ‘Super Intelligence’ — but there are questions about whether we’re there yet.
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Ed Morrish @edmorrish.com · 19/07/2025
another good way of thinking about what cracking value radio 4 is that it makes twenty hours of programming a day - news, drama, comedy, documentaries, a soap opera, arts - for about £90m/yr, while spotify pay joe rogan about £60m/year to listen gullibly to liars for about nine hours per week
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Bunnicula'd berries @frozen-cranberry.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
This is going to end up killing cc-by unless there's a carve out for AI stuff. This sucks.
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Columbia Journalism Review @columjournreview.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
Editors are facing an influx of AI-written pitches, including at science publications like mine. What now? www.cjr.org/analysis/fak...
cjr.org
Fake Caroline.
Editors are facing an influx of AI-written pitches, including at science publications like mine. What now?
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Philip Ball @philipcball.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
When people tell me I'm a fool not to use AI in my writing, I might point them to this. www.cjr.org/analysis/fak...
cjr.org
Fake Caroline.
Editors are facing an influx of AI-written pitches, including at science publications like mine. What now?
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Richard Van Noorden @richvn.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
I think he's referring to this work he co-authored lawzero.org/en/publicati...
lawzero.org
LawZero | The Scientist AI: Safe by Design, by Not Desiring
Scientific theories aspire to describe what is, as opposed to prescribe what ought to be. At LawZero, we take this idea as a design principle for safe artificial intelligence: that understanding—even ...
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Kerri Smith @kerri-smith.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
We were hoping we’d have to update the main portion of this quiz — but this year’s awardees were all men. Nonetheless, come test your knowledge: how many of the women who have won a science Nobel prize can you name? www.nature.com/immersive/d4...
nature.com
Can you name the women who have won a science Nobel prize?
Take Nature’s quiz on female Nobel laureates in physics, chemistry or physiology or medicine.
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Matthew Cobb @matthewcobb.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
A lot of excitement on here about the article in Science summarising the discoveries of @alistairsponsel.bsky.social and Brian Sutton, just published in the Journal of the History of Biology. Some people have asked, so here is what I think they show, and what are the implications:
link.springer.com
Photograph 49 is the Key to Understanding the History of Rosalind Franklin’s DNA Photograph 51 - Journal of the History of Biology
This essay, co-authored by a historian of science and an X-ray crystallographer, sheds new light on Rosalind Franklin’s Photograph 51. We refute the infamous claim that, unlike James Watson, Franklin ...
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Matthew Cobb @matthewcobb.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
11. I will not be taking questions.The story of a woman whose data was stolen by two ambitious men who then did not credit her seems to be too powerful to be overcome by mere facts. This is, of course, all Watson's fault because of how he presented events. We are all hoist by his petard.
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Davide Castelvecchi @castelvecchi.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
My latest, on OpenAI's dump www.nature.com/articles/d41...
nature.com
OpenAI posts 700 maths preprints online: mathematicians are up in arms
The firm used unreleased models to tackle hundreds of high-profile problems.
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Philip Ball @philipcball.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
It feels very good to have been the editor who handled Soai's 1995 paper in Nature on autocatalytic amplification of an enantiomeric excess - now known as the Soai reaction. This seemed a curiosity at the time, but we clearly made the right call.
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Evan Urquhart @evanurquhart.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
I have said in the past that there are uses I think are acceptable - and that's still true. Advanced validated academic research seems fine. I'm not sure there's a single other use that I currently believe is safe or morally okay.
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Richard Van Noorden @richvn.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
Love your stuff! Trying to come up with the names on the fly a bit different I think - though I saw you got them all right ;)
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Nature @nature.com · 07/10/2026
None of this year's science Nobel Prizes have gone to women. The number of these prizes to go to women remains at 27 out of more than 600. See how many you can name in our quiz: www.nature.com/immersive/d4...
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Richard Van Noorden @richvn.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
So, no women won Nobel science prizes this year, meaning the number of female winners remains at 26. How many of them can you name? Take the challenge here (I've seen one person say they got them all first try, which is very impressive). @nature.com www.nature.com/immersive/d4...
nature.com
Can you name the women who have won a science Nobel prize?
Take Nature’s quiz on female Nobel laureates in physics, chemistry or physiology or medicine.
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James O'Malley @jamesomalley.co.uk · 07/10/2026
Holy shit. Someone has decompiled the Adobe suite, rebuilt it in Rust and released it as open source. Either all software is dead or the US copyright laws are about to receive an update. getartcraft.com/apps
getartcraft.com
Crafting Apps: open-source creative tools
Image editing, vector illustration, video, photography, PDFs, motion graphics and page layout: seven native, open-source apps from the ArtCraft team, built in Rust and free to use.
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Matt Binder @mattbinder.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
the tech industry is about to invent books
Andrew Yeung 
@andruyeung
X.com
We created gyms because modern day work no
longer required physical activity. Without exercise,
our muscles atrophy.
I predict we'll need gyms for our brains too, once Al
starts doing our knowledge work.
10:53 PM • 10/4/26 • 1.3M Views
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Nature @nature.com · 07/10/2026
BREAKING: The Nobel Prize in Chemistry has been awarded to to Henri B. Kagan and Kenso Soai “for the discovery of non-linear effects and autocatalysis in asymmetric organic synthesis.” More to follow.
A photo of the Nobel medal
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Richard Van Noorden @richvn.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
Kagan and Soai deserve it, but is this the Nobel Committee adding another award for what they already rewarded in 2001? (Knowles, Noyori and Sharpless for chiral catalysis - i.e. asymmetric organic synthesis)? Even at that time some were saying Kagan in particular missed out. Discuss!
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Dan Garisto @dangaristo.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
Scoop: For nearly a year, NSF has struggled to make new grants. Now we know that it will not catch up. In fact, NSF will award just 6,100 new grants—a 30% y/o/y decline, itself down from a previous avg. of 11,000+. In fact, the last time NSF awarded so few grants was in the early '80s.
nature.com
Exclusive: NSF set to issue lowest number of new grants in four decades
The US science-funding agency is withholding $1 billion of its budget so that the money can go to a special White House project.
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Dr Dean Burnett @drdeanburnett.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
"By using AI, tasks like essays that used to take hours can be completed in minutes!" Sure, like how if I arrive at the gym and immediately go for a shower, my workout is done in record time. And if I throw my sandwiches straight in the bin, I can finish my lunch in under 10 seconds.
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Richard Van Noorden @richvn.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
I also find that the modern edifice of statistics helps me hugely to think about how chance plays a part in so many patterns in life, and to recognise how we‘re ‘fooled by randomness‘.
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Richard Van Noorden @richvn.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
What about Darwin’s discovery of evolution? Displacing certainty in religion. What about the uncertainty principle and relativity?
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Richard Van Noorden @richvn.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
(from Feynman: www.feynmanlectures.caltech.edu/I_01.html )
feynmanlectures.caltech.edu
The Feynman Lectures on Physics Vol. I Ch. 1: Atoms in Motion
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Richard Van Noorden @richvn.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
This one doesn't count as a great truth?
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Nature @nature.com · 06/10/2026
BREAKING: The Nobel Prize in Physics has been awarded to Francis Halzen “for decisive contributions to the IceCube Neutrino Observatory and the discovery of high-energy neutrinos of astrophysical origin.” More to follow.
A photo of the Nobel medal
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Andrew Deck @andrewdeck.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
ChatGPT is adding the signatures of real New Yorker cartoonists to its AI-generated images. So far, I've found the signatures of more than 15 contributors. "It’s slop, and unlike the other slop that I’ve encountered, this is slop that’s pretending to be me." www.niemanlab.org/2026/10/chat...
Left: A cartoon generated by ChatGPT and signed with Emily Flake’s signature that was posted to a Reddit forum in June. Right: A real Emily Flake cartoon published in The New Yorker on August 20, 2026 and licensed via The Cartoon Bank.
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Richard Van Noorden @richvn.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
nature.com
The top cancer success stories of the past 50 years, by the numbers
Outcomes have improved drastically in the United States for some forms of the disease, but those for others continue to lag.
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Mike Cook @mtrc.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Every AI/HCI paper I review now just sounds like this.
Research [25] shows that people [26] enjoy the feeling of winning games [3,5,19]. Enjoying things can lead to longer life expectancy [2], higher economic productivity [9,22,33-40,302] and improve mental health [9]. Yet many games still include losing players [67,4]. A recent study showed that less than half of the players in a Chess [1] match win on average [42]. We have developed an LLM-driven co-creative [66], user-led [11], mixed-initiative [80] assistant for Chess [2], through which players can redefine the rules of Chess [3] using generative AI prompting such that they are the winner of Chess [4]. A study (n=3) showed that 100\% of people felt better, healthier and more self-actualised after using our tool, showing that this may be the way forward for games and human culture more broadly in the future.
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Rowan Hooper @rowhoop.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Rosalind Franklin had already noted the helical structure of DNA in photograph 49!
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Dan Jagger @auditorynerves.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Can you name the women who have won a science Nobel prize? 🧪🔬🧬⚛️ Since the Nobel prizes were first awarded in 1901, few women have been recognized in the categories of physics, chemistry & physiology or medicine. Take Nature’s quiz on female Nobel laureates here: www.nature.com/immersive/d4...
nature.com
Can you name the women who have won a science Nobel prize?
Take Nature’s quiz on female Nobel laureates in physics, chemistry or physiology or medicine.
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Nature @nature.com · 05/10/2026
Karl Deisseroth, Peter Hegemann and Georg Nagel win the 2026 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their work on optogenetics, which has revolutionized neuroscience go.nature.com/4yBpO9O
go.nature.com
Medicine Nobel awarded for brain ‘switch’ that controls neurons with light: live updates
Karl Deisseroth, Peter Hegemann and Georg Nagel win the 2026 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their work on optogenetics, which has revolutionized neuroscience.
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Nature @nature.com · 05/10/2026
"In terms of opening our eyes to a new way of looking at things, this sort of discovery is, I think, illuminating" Listen to new Nobel Prize winner Karl Deisseroth talk about his work on the Nature Podcast 🔊 Recorded in 2023 go.nature.com/4xXPY5p
go.nature.com
How an increased heart rate could induce anxiety in mice
Hear the biggest stories from the world of science | 01 March 2023
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Nature @nature.com · 05/10/2026
BREAKING: The 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.” More to follow.
A photo of the Nobel medal
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Nature @nature.com · 05/10/2026
Can you name the women who have won a science Nobel prize? go.nature.com/3Tkl2OL
go.nature.com
Can you name the women who have won a science Nobel prize?
Take Nature’s quiz on female Nobel laureates in physics, chemistry or physiology or medicine.
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Dewie @judgedewie.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
OMG I had to check my work emails regarding an extra case in court tomorrow and I've just read this from an HR person. "on a knee to nose basis" A KNEE TO NOSE BASIS 😳
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Richard Van Noorden @richvn.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
It does seem like they just didn‘t look carefully enough.
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Richard Van Noorden @richvn.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
“But Plöderl notes that this seems to be because the Iranian trial was graded as of ‘uncertain’ risk of bias, lumping it in with the low/uncertain group for the analysis.” (2/2) ‘Seems to be’ cos not explicitly stated in 2016 meta-analysis — based on 2020 meta-analysis
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Richard Van Noorden @richvn.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
Extra reporting cut for length: “Cipriani’s team also conducted a subgroup analysis, checking whether trials they judged to have a ‘high risk’ of bias produced substantially different findings from trials rated at ‘low or uncertain risk’ of bias. They found no difference.” (1/2)
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Richard Van Noorden @richvn.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
Well — there’s a comment from the lead author of the 2016 and 2020 studies in the article.
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Richard Van Noorden @richvn.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
Tbf the latest Cochrane review, 2021, excluded this study — though it appears somewhat fortuitously: they excluded all comparison studies with tricyclics, so this one dropped out too.
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Richard Van Noorden @richvn.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
FYI @retractionwatch.com www.nature.com/articles/d41...
nature.com
Prozac use for childhood depression skewed by single flawed medical trial
One small study in Iran swayed meta-analyses in favour of antidepressant use in children, researchers say.
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Richard Van Noorden @richvn.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
(She deserved to win a Nobel, I mean!)
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Richard Van Noorden @richvn.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
she deserved it and got the Wolf Prize the year after. physicsworld.com/a/twenty-thr...
physicsworld.com
Twenty-three nominations, yet no Nobel prize: how Chien-Shiung Wu missed out on the top award in physics – Physics World
Mats Larsson and Ramon Wyss reveal why Chien-Shiung Wu never won a Nobel prize
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Kara Gavin @karagavin.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
Hey @learnedleague.com players, #Jeopardy fans and #womeninSTEM folks - this is a worthy challenge. (My physicist husband and I collaborated and were still humbled by our performance.)
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Alex Turnbull @alejandroturnbull.space · 13/08/2026
Oceans of digital ink have been spilt wondering whether humans can correctly align AI. Now we face the truest test: can AI correctly align a dumbass human
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