Alejandro Montenegro
@aemonten.bsky.social
Molecular Biologist (aemonten.github.io) 丨Chief Editor @ CSH Protocols (cshprotocols.cshlp.org) 丨Head of the Integrity in Publishing Group at CSHL Press 丨Chair "Molecular Biosystems Conference" (molbiosystems.com) 丨(Oxford) Comma King 丨Central Dogma Police
Pinned
🚀 Another edition of the Molecular Biosystems Conference is in the books! #mbiosys25
Thank you to our amazing speakers, participants, and sponsors, including ICGEB and @unubiolac.bsky.social, for making Puerto Varas a hub of exciting discussions on gene regulation and functional genomics. 🔽
Thank you to our amazing speakers, participants, and sponsors, including ICGEB and @unubiolac.bsky.social, for making Puerto Varas a hub of exciting discussions on gene regulation and functional genomics. 🔽
Thank you all. And we hope to see you again in 2027 for the premier conference on gene regulation in Latin America!
Love the meme.
November 25, 2025 at 11:30 AM
Love the meme.
Reposted by Alejandro Montenegro
Many thanks for your interest. You can find the published paper (free to download) and more info on this project with recent related papers at this link www.andrea-rapisarda.it/talent-vs-luck
Talent vs Luck
Andrea Rapisarda's homepage
www.andrea-rapisarda.it
November 25, 2025 at 10:07 AM
Many thanks for your interest. You can find the published paper (free to download) and more info on this project with recent related papers at this link www.andrea-rapisarda.it/talent-vs-luck
Same for sending emails about @molbiosystems.bsky.social 😅
The hardest part about writing a review article, is composing emails to your colleagues that don't immediately get flagged as spam
November 25, 2025 at 11:20 AM
Same for sending emails about @molbiosystems.bsky.social 😅
😭😭 #AISlop
Gemini 3 created this figure in under 30 seconds from a couple reference images and a one sentence prompt
So I’m at a loss for words, honestly #MicroscopyMonday
So I’m at a loss for words, honestly #MicroscopyMonday
November 24, 2025 at 8:42 PM
😭😭 #AISlop
Hey @ardemp.bskyverified.social, are you coming to Chile in person? Would be great to host you at Universidad Catolica if you are!
November 24, 2025 at 1:42 PM
Hey @ardemp.bskyverified.social, are you coming to Chile in person? Would be great to host you at Universidad Catolica if you are!
Reposted by Alejandro Montenegro
Or pay for some service to do most of it (and increase APC/subscription prices accordingly), then as you note, a human must make the call, adding even more cost. Note that all of this is desired/required by the research community who at the same time are complaining about high prices.
November 23, 2025 at 3:56 PM
Or pay for some service to do most of it (and increase APC/subscription prices accordingly), then as you note, a human must make the call, adding even more cost. Note that all of this is desired/required by the research community who at the same time are complaining about high prices.
Can we *please* stop rewarding bullying behavior in academic social media?
November 23, 2025 at 9:59 PM
Can we *please* stop rewarding bullying behavior in academic social media?
Reposted by Alejandro Montenegro
Heard an established successful neuroscientist dismissing junior scientists as "people at the bottom" 🤦♀️
You folks with lots of research funds & power: young scientists more than ever need our respect and support even if you don't agree with their ideas and approaches
#sfn2025
You folks with lots of research funds & power: young scientists more than ever need our respect and support even if you don't agree with their ideas and approaches
#sfn2025
November 17, 2025 at 7:35 PM
Heard an established successful neuroscientist dismissing junior scientists as "people at the bottom" 🤦♀️
You folks with lots of research funds & power: young scientists more than ever need our respect and support even if you don't agree with their ideas and approaches
#sfn2025
You folks with lots of research funds & power: young scientists more than ever need our respect and support even if you don't agree with their ideas and approaches
#sfn2025
Sometimes we'll accept papers that you think shouldn't have been accepted.Similarly, we'll sometimes reject papers that you think shouldn't have been rejected.
Making decisions is part of the job, & we try to make informed ones that we think are best for our journals.Disagreements will always exist
Making decisions is part of the job, & we try to make informed ones that we think are best for our journals.Disagreements will always exist
November 23, 2025 at 6:05 PM
Sometimes we'll accept papers that you think shouldn't have been accepted.Similarly, we'll sometimes reject papers that you think shouldn't have been rejected.
Making decisions is part of the job, & we try to make informed ones that we think are best for our journals.Disagreements will always exist
Making decisions is part of the job, & we try to make informed ones that we think are best for our journals.Disagreements will always exist
Also exactly the same that happens when comparing people from different institutions or countries.
When publication becomes a graduation requirement, the student’s fate depends far more on the efficiency of their environment than on their talent or effort. That’s not academic excellence, that’s structural luck.
November 23, 2025 at 3:04 PM
Also exactly the same that happens when comparing people from different institutions or countries.
Introducing ChronoSeq, "an automated single-cell RNA seq platform that achieves genome-wide profiling with a temporal resolution as brief as seven minutes. By integrating automated live-cell sampling with molecular time-barcoding, ChronoSeq captures rapid transcriptional dynamics with high fidelity"
Minute-scale single-cell transcriptomics enables dynamic modeling of cellular behavior
Dynamic cellular processes such as signaling, fate decisions, and intercellular communication unfold on minute timescales, a regime inaccessible to conventional transcriptomic methods. This temporal g...
www.biorxiv.org
November 23, 2025 at 2:55 PM
Introducing ChronoSeq, "an automated single-cell RNA seq platform that achieves genome-wide profiling with a temporal resolution as brief as seven minutes. By integrating automated live-cell sampling with molecular time-barcoding, ChronoSeq captures rapid transcriptional dynamics with high fidelity"
November 23, 2025 at 2:41 PM
Decisiveness is key for being a good editor.
Journal editors, if you put anyone through 2-3 revisions, that should be enough for you to show some gosh darned leadership and either decide (a) it is publishable without further review, or (b) it will not be published in your journal, and it's only fair to tell the authors so.
a woman says it 's time to make some decisions up here
Alt: Lizzo, looking glorious in gold velvet, says it's time to make some decisions up in here
media.tenor.com
November 23, 2025 at 2:34 PM
Decisiveness is key for being a good editor.
Reposted by Alejandro Montenegro
Among the many maddening things about journal publishing is the total lack of assurance that good faith efforts at revision will result in a pub rather than endless rounds of review & maybe still rejection. Could all be solved with a higher bar for R&R decisions & more decisive editorial leadership.
November 22, 2025 at 3:30 PM
Among the many maddening things about journal publishing is the total lack of assurance that good faith efforts at revision will result in a pub rather than endless rounds of review & maybe still rejection. Could all be solved with a higher bar for R&R decisions & more decisive editorial leadership.
And yet, and for like everything else about academia, there is a separate side of social media that hold the opposite position, one that prefers to eliminate all that editorial control
In addition to more desk rejects so we don't waste literally everyone's time with manuscripts that won't make it, editors need to exercise their discretion to say "Based on reviews you should revise X, X, & X. You get one shot. Fix it all & we'll publish. If you don't convince me, I'll reject."
November 22, 2025 at 11:31 PM
And yet, and for like everything else about academia, there is a separate side of social media that hold the opposite position, one that prefers to eliminate all that editorial control
Betteridge's law of headlines
Do we value the right things in academia?
@weghornlab.bsky.social (@crg.eu)& @marcdemanuel.bsky.social (@ibe-barcelona.bsky.social) reflect on how researchers are often evaluated by quantity over quality
🎧 https://open.spotify.com/episode/25YX8BI0F62iP7OgD1Pehe?si=d53879e1ad824d31
#ScienceWithAView
@weghornlab.bsky.social (@crg.eu)& @marcdemanuel.bsky.social (@ibe-barcelona.bsky.social) reflect on how researchers are often evaluated by quantity over quality
🎧 https://open.spotify.com/episode/25YX8BI0F62iP7OgD1Pehe?si=d53879e1ad824d31
#ScienceWithAView
November 22, 2025 at 8:46 PM
Betteridge's law of headlines
Reposted by Alejandro Montenegro
I do not like your AI slop
I do not want this worthless glop
I do not read its overviews
I don't care what Grok says is true
I do not like it here nor there
I'm tired of it everywhere
I do not want this worthless glop
I do not read its overviews
I don't care what Grok says is true
I do not like it here nor there
I'm tired of it everywhere
November 22, 2025 at 1:15 AM
I do not like your AI slop
I do not want this worthless glop
I do not read its overviews
I don't care what Grok says is true
I do not like it here nor there
I'm tired of it everywhere
I do not want this worthless glop
I do not read its overviews
I don't care what Grok says is true
I do not like it here nor there
I'm tired of it everywhere
Yes
Do you still need #human #editors to get your #research #papers in the best shape? #Generative #AI lacks “the nuance, emotion, & contextual awareness that human copyeditors bring. Instead of replacing humans, AI might be highlighting how essential human editorial insight is.” tinyurl.com/58nwf3rzMM
Copyediting in the Age of AI: A Look at the Future and Why Human Copyeditors Still Matter
tinyurl.com
November 22, 2025 at 8:18 PM
Yes
Made the mistake of opening Twitter: the amount of AI in Life Sciences grifters in there is just insane.
November 22, 2025 at 8:17 PM
Made the mistake of opening Twitter: the amount of AI in Life Sciences grifters in there is just insane.
November 22, 2025 at 8:01 PM
Another thing that is making this an "interesting" time to be the head of Integrity in Publishing at a scientific publisher 🥲
We really need major oversight at institutions, before things are sent for publication. Data provenance is key.
We really need major oversight at institutions, before things are sent for publication. Data provenance is key.
I tried an even harder example on Gemini Pro image generation and this is quite scary/amazing. I asked for a microscopy image of around 20 HeLa cells, GFP tagged 20% nuclear, 10% membrane, +1 nuclear staining, + overlap. Image below and prompt in the following post.
November 22, 2025 at 7:52 PM
Another thing that is making this an "interesting" time to be the head of Integrity in Publishing at a scientific publisher 🥲
We really need major oversight at institutions, before things are sent for publication. Data provenance is key.
We really need major oversight at institutions, before things are sent for publication. Data provenance is key.
*some* journals, not all.
Really, journals charge for the cover? That's a new low
November 22, 2025 at 2:56 PM
*some* journals, not all.
You read what you can, with an honest attempt at being comprehensive. If you missed something, hopefully the editors/reviewers will point it out. If they don't, well, it happens; a reader or the authors might mention it, and now you know.
We haven't been able to "read everything" for many years.
We haven't been able to "read everything" for many years.
How do we make sense of scientific literature that is growing explosively to the point where no-one could read all the relevant papers, and is contaminated with fraudulent and LLM-generated papers? I think that science isn't currently equipped to deal with this, and we need to. #science #metascience
November 21, 2025 at 1:59 PM
You read what you can, with an honest attempt at being comprehensive. If you missed something, hopefully the editors/reviewers will point it out. If they don't, well, it happens; a reader or the authors might mention it, and now you know.
We haven't been able to "read everything" for many years.
We haven't been able to "read everything" for many years.