Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Kevin Bonham @kevinbonham.com · 14h

"fundamentally, the premise of the document is inconsistent with our core belief that scientific funding should be based on scientific merit alone."

Any institution planning to capitulate needs to articulate why they disagree with this. Powerful message from MIT 🧪

orgchart.mit.edu/letters/rega...

Regarding the Compact | MIT Organization Chart

orgchart.mit.edu

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Kevin Bonham @kevinbonham.com · 14h

Typst is the #julialang of typesetting languages - I hope to never write LaTeX again!

Now, if I could only convince my bio collaborators to use it for manuscript writing + git version control 🤔

Typst @typst.app · 15h

We need your help to get Typst 0.14 over the finish line: The release candidate with accessible PDFs, character-level justification (not even in LaTeX!), and more landed today! Check your documents, packages and against "Typst 0.14.0 Testing" on the web or the new compiler.

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Kevin Bonham @kevinbonham.com · 1d

Ah yes, I remember this chapter in that science philosophy classic "Conjectures, Refutations, and Making Shit Up", by Karl Popper (1962) 🧪

archive.org/details/karl...

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Reposted by Kevin Bonham

Drug Monkey @drugmonkey.bsky.social · 1d

"We're doing the studies to make the proof."

This is not how Gold Standard Science works. Or any science. You do the study to TEST THE HYPOTHESIS, not to prove yourself right.

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 1d

RFK Jr on Tylenol and autism: "It is not proof. We're doing the studies to make the proof."

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Kevin Bonham @kevinbonham.com · 1d

Make complex shapes in inkscape! Video 4 in an ongoing set of tutorials - using Inkscape for scientists 🧪

youtu.be/7SfNC-QCDQQ

Inkscape for scientists 4 - Complex shapes

YouTube video by Kevin Bonham

youtu.be

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Reposted by Kevin Bonham

Carl Zimmer @carlzimmer.com · 2d

Today my @nytimes.com colleagues and I are launching a new series called Lost Science. We interview US scientists who can no longer discover something new about our world, thanks to this year‘s cuts. Here is my first interview with a scientist who studied bees and fires. Gift link: nyti.ms/3IWXbiE

nyti.ms

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Kevin Bonham @kevinbonham.com · 3d

Reviewer 1: I didn't believe it will work

Reviewer 2: she's certain it will work, so clearly not ambitious enough.

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Reposted by Kevin Bonham

Heran Darwin, PhD @heran.bsky.social · 3d

If it wasn't clear, this ad is for tenure track Microbiology faculty at the assistant professor level😬

Heran Darwin, PhD @heran.bsky.social · 3d

We're hiring! Check out our ad and please re-post or forward to interested #Microbiology parties: apply.interfolio.com/174783

Apply - Interfolio {{$ctrl.$state.data.pageTitle}} - Apply - Interfolio

apply.interfolio.com

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Reposted by Kevin Bonham

Jean-Yves Tinevez @jytinevez.bsky.social · 3d

Job alert!

We are looking for a bioimage analysis to work in an image analysis core facility in beautiful Paris. Can I ask you to share this opportunity with your networks?

See also on the forum:
forum.image.sc/t/research-e...

Research engineer in Bioimage Analysis for the researchers of the inIdEx FORMULA

Hi all We are looking for a bioimage analysis to work in an image analysis core facility in beautiful Paris. Can I ask you to share this opportunity with your networks? The position is in the Instit...

forum.image.sc

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Reposted by Kevin Bonham

Simon Danisch @simi.bsky.social · 3d

Finally announcing Bonito.jl! 🎉 A Julia web framework that went from "neglected prototype" to something I'm genuinely proud of.

Reactive UIs, rich widgets, Makie integration, deploy anywhere (Jupyter/VSCode/web/static HTML)
makie.org/website/blog...

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Kevin Bonham @kevinbonham.com · 4d

I mean that's clearly a macrophage...

Sholto David @sholtodavid.bsky.social · 5d

Recent MDPI paper including diagram of a bacterial cell with a mitochondrion 🤦‍♀️ The authors propose a mechanism for the toxicity of silver nanoparticles: "Ag+ ions in AgNPs bombard the bacterial mitochondria’s electron transport chain, resulting in cell death".

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Kevin Bonham @kevinbonham.com · 4d

This has been roughly my experience. I don't have nearly the same Open Source maintenance burden as Chris, but I've found claude code is fine for simple tedious stuff, but not great for anything complicated.

Chris Rackauckas @chrisrackauckas.bsky.social · 4d

Claude code sucks... but it's still very useful! Check out this blog post that details how Claude is deployed to solve problems in the #Julialang #SciML open source scientific computing infrastructure.

stochasticlifestyle.com/claude-code-...

#llm #vibecoding #physics #opensource #oss

Claude Code in Scientific Computing: Experiences Maintaining Julia's SciML Infrastructure - Stochastic Lifestyle

Claude Code in Scientific Computing: Experiences Maintaining Julia’s SciML Infrastructure So it’s pretty public that for about a month now I’ve had 32 processes setup on one of the 64 core 128gb RAM s...

www.stochasticlifestyle.com

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Kevin Bonham @kevinbonham.com · 5d

Is each chat a separate mind or are they each ephemeral thoughts that contribute to the whole?

In some versions of Buddhism, "reincarnation" is just that in each moment, we are dying and being reborn, as each thought arises and passes away.

(To be clear, I don't actually think this about LLMs)

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Reposted by Kevin Bonham

Drug Monkey @drugmonkey.bsky.social · 5d

This administration once claimed they were going to make sure grants were only funded on pure merit.

Mallory Harris, PhD @malar0ne.bsky.social · 5d

IMO this hasn't gotten enough attention: a recent memo at NIH announces that peer review will be devalued in determining which grants get funded, granting more power to political appointees to make decisions based on the admin's whims over scientific merit

kffhealthnews.org/news/article...

Changes at NIH Give Political Appointees Greater Power To Fund or Block Research - KFF Health News

The National Institutes of Health’s long-held standard of peer review for grantmaking has been subverted by President Donald Trump and NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya, who gave unprecedented power to po...

kffhealthnews.org

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Kevin Bonham @kevinbonham.com · 5d

It's probably more involved than a skeet thread will accommodate, but I think there's something about evolving with bodies in the world that led to consciousness. Intelligence or complexity alone won't do it.

But that's just a guess.

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Kevin Bonham @kevinbonham.com · 5d

What I mean is, people seem fixated on intelligence or creativity or other things to try to hold humans apart. But AI systems might reach or surpass humans on all of this and still not be conscious.

And AIs may already be smarter than some animals who are nevertheless more conscious.

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Kevin Bonham @kevinbonham.com · 5d

Heh, there *are* people that think pebbles are conscious (en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panpsyc...). I am not one of those.

I definitely don't think it's impossible for machines to be conscious, and I think a lot of the objections to LLM consciousness miss the point quite profoundly.

Panpsychism - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

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Kevin Bonham @kevinbonham.com · 6d

... like self-awareness etc, but it won't actually have any experience - the proverbial philosophical zombie. We're tuned to find agency in everything, including rocks and the weather, doing the same for something that talks back will be much easier, even if there are no lights on upstairs

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Kevin Bonham @kevinbonham.com · 6d

The problem is much more fundamental - we don't know if LLMs are conscious because we don't know how to look for consciousness.

That said, I think the bigger danger is something that convinces everyone that it's conscious by appearing to have the things we *think* consciousness is needed for...

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Kevin Bonham @kevinbonham.com · 6d

Comprehension of inputs and self-awareness are not actually consciousness, though.

I would argue that we don't really comprehend our own inputs (eg we don't see wavelengths, we experience color), and there are plenty of creatures that I'd argue have consciousness that are only dimly self-aware.

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Kevin Bonham @kevinbonham.com · 6d

I hope my rep @whipkclark.bsky.social and senators @warren.senate.gov and @edmarkey.bsky.social are keeping this in mind - lots of MA jobs in biomedical research (including mine) on the line, and that's just the economics of it.

I don't know how we'll recover from the loss of generations of talent

Jenna Norton @jenna-m-norton.bsky.social · 7d

Shared how the greater shutdown of NIH science has been underway since January on @msnbc.com today.

We need Congress to stand firm to protect science, democracy and the American people.

www.msnbc.com/katy-tur/wat...

Furloughed NIH worker: Left office with 'pit' in my stomach about future of our country

On day three of the government shutdown, around 750,000 federal employees are furloughed as the White House threatens mass firings as early as today. Furloughed NIH Program Director Jenna Norton joins...

www.msnbc.com

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Reposted by Kevin Bonham

T. Ryan Gregory 🇨🇦 @tryangregory.bsky.social · 6d

www.consumerreports.org/electronics/...

How to Turn Off AI Tools Like Gemini, Apple Intelligence, Copilot, and More - Consumer Reports

AI features are crowding into Google search, Gmail, iPhones, Windows laptops, and other products. If you're suffering from AI overload, these settings can help.

www.consumerreports.org

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Reposted by Kevin Bonham

Erin Green @erinrgreen.bsky.social · 6d

Job alert ‼️ UChicago Micro is hiring! Open to tenured/tenure track faculty at all levels in any area of microbiology. Come join our amazing and growing department. apply.interfolio.com/174404

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Kevin Bonham @kevinbonham.com · 6d

Lol, "negotiate?" With what leverage, exactly?

AZ Faust @azfaust.bsky.social · 7d

A couple of related-unrelated thoughts that have swirling in my head:

1. This is a bad time to become a new PI in the US. Probably the worst since WWII. If you're negotiating for a position, know your road is way harder than it was for the people on your TT committee. Negotiate accordingly.

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Kevin Bonham @kevinbonham.com · 7d

Most of those illustrator skills will still be useful - it wasn't all wasted!

I've probably got 20x more time spent in illustrator than inkscape (I've got a whole series of tutorials from 10 years ago on that youtube.com/playlist?lis...), but I find nearly everything is transferrable

Adobe Illustrator for Scientists - YouTube

A series of tutorials on using Illustrator, that's targeted at the tools and methods that are most likely to be used by scientists.

youtube.com