Adam Kleczkowski
@aklecz.bsky.social
570 followers 2.6K following 140 posts
Mathematician and statistician working on human, animal and plant diseases. Likes reading, writing and music. ORCID: 0000-0003-1384-4352 Google scholar tinyurl.com/akleczkowski/ Articles authory.com/AdamKleczkowski/ Blog statisticallyinsignificant.blog
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aklecz.bsky.social
As usual, a great pleasure to be at the @planthealthscot.bsky.social annual conference.

A poster on Ips typographus, and a talk on #AI in #planthealth #PlantScience
A man in front of a poster board
aklecz.bsky.social
What a feeling - just submitted to @ukri.org a large £3m grant application with 5 universities/collaborators.

It is my third application this year, first as a PI, total value £7m.

@unistrathclyde.bsky.social
aklecz.bsky.social
It's this time of the year. It will be a delicious breakfast tomorrow.

#fungi #mushrooms
Mushrooms, one held by hand, more in a basket Mushrooms in a basket
aklecz.bsky.social
Carcassonne! Our favourite family game!

Bought Dominion and will be reading it when travelling to Nottingham for the BSPP conference next week.
Reposted by Adam Kleczkowski
Reposted by Adam Kleczkowski
deonandan.bsky.social
Well, you're the FDA Commissioner, so tell us. What do the data say?

No? Here, I'll help you.

Thread [1/5 ]

CDC: deaths within 42 days of mRNA vaccination were below background (expected) rates in every age group, including ages 6 months–17 years

www.cdc.gov/acip/downloa...
aklecz.bsky.social
You will be surprised how easily and quickly it could happen, see 1930s Germany or Soviet Union.
aklecz.bsky.social
On genAI bubble:

"Once, men turned their thinking over to machines in the hope that this would set them free. But that only permitted other men with machines to enslave them."

F. Herbert, Dune
aklecz.bsky.social
Bovine Tb was rampant then and other bacterial diseases.

Souring milk was an alternative.

bTB is back, at least in the UK.
aklecz.bsky.social
One week until the @bspp.bsky.social #PPATH25 conference:

www.bspp.org.uk/conference-i...

See you all there, and please come to our special session on the Artificial Intelligence revolution in plant pathology research!

#PlantScience
Conference Information Page – Plant Pathology 2025 (#PPATH2025) and Early Careers Plant Pathology 2025 (#ECPP2025) – BSPP – The British Society for Plant Pathology
www.bspp.org.uk
aklecz.bsky.social
And, quoting from Laura Spinney's Pale Rider:

"...trust is not something that can be built up quickly. If it is not in place when a pandemic declares itself, then however good the information being circulated, it probably won’t be heeded."
aklecz.bsky.social
It is indeed one of the most important graphs of the 2020s.

Sadly, for their own reasons, politicians missold the vaccination and that created a backlash. We lost people's trust.

This is what I wrote in June 2021:

statisticallyinsignificant.blog/2021/06/07/c...
aklecz.bsky.social
Defining "succeed" is the key here. It is already an excellent microblogging site, with (so far) largely balanced views, little spam and no ads, and - most importantly - a lot of interesting, dedicated people writing interesting posts.

I now hardly ever read X and find Threads/Instagram unusable.
aklecz.bsky.social
🤣
ncdominie.bsky.social
There are signs in the lift foyer directing prospective computer science students to Level 11.

So far I've resisted the temptation to get out a biro and append the words "(base ten)".
Reposted by Adam Kleczkowski
deonandan.bsky.social
I love looking at this graph, showing it to my students, and sharing it on social media, even though it unerringly brings out the trolls.

This is the efficacy curve of Pfizer's mRNA COVID vaccine.

This, people, is what ended the emergency phase of the COVID pandemic. Despite what RFK Jr says.
aklecz.bsky.social
Low sensitivity and specificity are a big problem with AI-powered tools.

The application determines whether such levels can be tolerated. But if it sends the wrong message, better not to implement.

My blog from the COVID era:
statisticallyinsignificant.blog/2020/09/22/f...
pwgtennant.bsky.social
A very important caveat to the "AI stethoscope" that was completely ignored by many news outlets.

Yet a high false positive rate can make a screening tool more harmful than useful.

How can we encourage health journalists to be more critical of AI press releases?

Cc @mgtmccartney.bsky.social
euronews.com
About two-thirds of patients who were flagged by the AI stethoscope as potentially having heart failure did not actually have it.
Reposted by Adam Kleczkowski
katherineschof8.bsky.social
These are incredibly useful tips for all teachers and professors starting a new academic year...
adzebill.bsky.social
Wikipedia editors trying to fend off the onslaught of AI crap have crowdsourced some telltale signs of LLM-generated writing; it might be handy for editors and proofreaders generally. Thanks to @ellenrykers.com for pointing me to it. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikiped...
Wikipedia:Signs of AI writing - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org