Maxim Cherkashin
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mcherkashin.bsky.social
Maxim Cherkashin
@mcherkashin.bsky.social
810 followers 930 following 820 posts
Once did an experiment, and can't stop.
Postdoc: sonicating things to help light get through them, photoacoustics, biomedical optics,
Dad of 2
Takes in: coffee and music, outputs: questions
Posts Replies Media Videos
mcherkashin.bsky.social
Hey #bochum and #Ruhrgebiet , tomorrow @scienceslam.de takes over the stage of Schauschpielhaus Bochum!
Five speakers, five topics, five talks, yours truly among them.

Some tickets are still available, if you can make it - come nerd out together ;)

Event link: www.science-slam.com/termine/boch...
Map of the Bochum Theater seat selection with photographs of evening's speakers on the stage
November 25, 2025 at 7:38 PM
Reposted by Maxim Cherkashin
mads100tist.bsky.social
I am begging people to *please* stop using these tools to make a point or make fun of them. We do not need to further refine them or kill the planet to make a point. We should stop using them to make them irrelevant.
November 24, 2025 at 8:11 PM
Reposted by Maxim Cherkashin
mcnees.bsky.social
An excerpt from the “Should I Use an LLM?” section of my syllabi. 🎢
A bigger problem is that using an LLM short circuits the process of thinking through questions and developing strategies to answer them. It's not that an LLM never gets things right; they often produce correct output. But correct outputs are limited to material in the model's training data - questions we already know how to answer. Is that why you're here? To answer questions we already know how to answer? Whether you are studying Physics or English or Business, all your instructors are trying to help you learn how to answer questions for yourself. Part of that training involves questions we already understand, because that's an effective way of learning processes that can be applied to questions we don't understand. This is one of the most important aspects of your college education and it takes practice. Asking an LLM may or may not generate a correct answer, but either way it prevents you from practicing and learning these processes.
November 21, 2025 at 2:56 PM
Reposted by Maxim Cherkashin
realscientists.de
TGIF - Ein Glück, es ist Freitag!

Ich versuche mir den Freitag weitestgehend freizuhalten, denn der steht im Fokus für:

Stress-Management & Produktivität

Heute bin ich im homeoffice und habe außer ein paar kurzen online meetings nun die Zeit, selbstbestimmt meinen Tag zu verbringen.
a frog is laying on a leaf in the water with the words `` me '' above it .
ALT: a frog is laying on a leaf in the water with the words `` me '' above it .
media.tenor.com
November 21, 2025 at 8:54 AM
Reposted by Maxim Cherkashin
realscientists.de
🧵 Thread👇
Heute Nachmittag im Fokus:

Wissenschaftliche Karrierewege

An der Uni wird oft nur das Karriereziel Professur diskutiert, aber der Weg dahin ist schwer, wenig planbar und die anderen Berufsoptionen sehr vielfältig (und zumeist sogar besser).
spongebob is writing on a piece of paper with a pen .
ALT: spongebob is writing on a piece of paper with a pen .
media.tenor.com
November 19, 2025 at 3:21 PM
Reposted by Maxim Cherkashin
cingraham.bsky.social
JAMA study: NIH grant terminations disrupted 3.5% of active clinical trials, affecting over 74,000 patients and resulting in a $1.81 billion funding loss. More than 115 active cancer trials were disrupted. www.ajmc.com/view/nih-gra...
NIH Grant Terminations Disrupt 1 in 30 Clinical Trials, Impacting Over 74,000 Participants | AJMC
Infectious disease was hit hardest by funding cuts to NIH grant for clinical trials that did not align with the Trump administration's priorities.
www.ajmc.com
November 19, 2025 at 8:31 PM
mcherkashin.bsky.social
Nervenzusammenbruch aber als Ausdauersport
November 18, 2025 at 9:35 AM
Reposted by Maxim Cherkashin
hansonmark.bsky.social
In the age of AI slop, true expertise is even more important to value.

Experts are the people who get so annoyed about the precise way to describe something they dedicate their lives to it (see excellent blog: www.experimental-history.com/p/thank-you-...).

We need them and their journals.

7.2/n
Thank you for being annoying
OR: whack 'em if you got 'em
www.experimental-history.com
November 11, 2025 at 11:52 AM
Reposted by Maxim Cherkashin
racheledini.bsky.social
At risk of flogging a dead horse: this whole letter is a reminder that the creative process is an end in and of itself, and vital to self-actualisation. You can’t experience BECOMING, as he puts it, by outsourcing it to ChatGPT.
michaelwarburton.bsky.social Michael Warburton @michaelwarburton.bsky.social · 15d
In 2006 a high school English teacher asked students to write to a famous author & ask for advice.

KURT VONNEGUT - born 103yrs ago today - was the only one to respond.

His reply was a doozy.
November 11, 2025 at 10:44 AM
mcherkashin.bsky.social
What a list!
spie.org SPIE @spie.org · 21d
Congratulations to the finalists of the 2026 Prism Awards!🥂

24 products across eight categories have been named for their outstanding innovation in photonics. Winners will be announced on 21 January at #PhotonicsWest. 💡

Read the press release: spie.org/news/innovat...

#PhotonicsPrism #SPIE
Green and black background with text reading: "Prism Awards 2026 Finalists"
November 6, 2025 at 9:37 PM
Reposted by Maxim Cherkashin
alexfreu.de
Optimismus ist, wenn man einen Kalender für 2026 kauft.
October 24, 2025 at 2:31 PM
mcherkashin.bsky.social
I try once again!
💡 🧪
mcherkashin.bsky.social Maxim Cherkashin @mcherkashin.bsky.social · Oct 22
I haven't posted about it here yet, but actually applications for our MSc Programme Lasers and Photonics at @ruhr-uni-bochum.de Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology are open until 15.11!

Directly to application portal:
lap-application.rub.de
More info: www.lap.rub.de
💡🧪
LAP
The application period for the upcoming summer semester 2026 starts on the 1st of October 2025 and ends on 15th of November 2025 for non-EU applicants, and on the 15th of January 2026 for EU citizens.
lap-application.rub.de
October 23, 2025 at 4:06 PM
mcherkashin.bsky.social
I haven't posted about it here yet, but actually applications for our MSc Programme Lasers and Photonics at @ruhr-uni-bochum.de Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology are open until 15.11!

Directly to application portal:
lap-application.rub.de
More info: www.lap.rub.de
💡🧪
LAP
The application period for the upcoming summer semester 2026 starts on the 1st of October 2025 and ends on 15th of November 2025 for non-EU applicants, and on the 15th of January 2026 for EU citizens.
lap-application.rub.de
October 22, 2025 at 11:18 AM
Reposted by Maxim Cherkashin
emilymbender.bsky.social
Oh FFS. Because what overburdened peer review systems really need is more noise between the reviewers & ACs. Yeah, that's the ticket.

aaai.org/aaai-launche...

>>
Screenshot of AAAI automated review announcement reading: 1. Supplementary First-Stage Reviews: LLM-generated reviews will be included as one component of the initial review stage, providing an additional perspective alongside traditional human expert evaluations. 2. Discussion Summary Assistance: LLMs will assist the Senior Program Committee (SPC) members by summarizing reviewer discussions, helping to highlight key points of consensus and disagreement among human reviewers.
October 6, 2025 at 7:17 PM
Reposted by Maxim Cherkashin
shahanmemon.bsky.social
The future of peer review is here.

Introducing Nature Instant!

We've automated rejection so you can get disappointed faster. Because why wait 6 months for reviewer 2 when you can get roasted by an #AI in seconds?

Here is how it works.

#AI4Science #PeerReview #FictionScience #FiSci #AAAI #ScAISci
Showing a fictitious system for submitting manuscripts called "Nature Instant" showing bot choices for authors to choose from as initial AI-based peer reviewers. The bots are trained on real human reviewer data.
October 5, 2025 at 6:17 AM
mcherkashin.bsky.social
It seems very in a bit of low of activity here, and Photonics feed recently is mainly announcements💡

Hey, forces of light, how are you all coping?
October 6, 2025 at 7:22 PM
mcherkashin.bsky.social
Planmäßige Zugtrennung aber außergewöhnlich im Köln
June 27, 2025 at 7:19 PM
Reposted by Maxim Cherkashin
realscientists.de
Ich mag meinen Beruf echt gerne, aber ist natürlich nicht alles Friede Freude Eierkuchen, mit vielen strukturellen Problemen.

zB geht die Chance in der Wissenschaft beschäftigt zu bleiben mit dem Alter rapide bergab. #IchBinHanna

www.datenportal.bmbf.de/portal/de/gr...
Hauptberufliches wissenschaftliches und künstlerisches Personal nach Alter, höchstem Hochschulabschluss und Beschäftigungsart
June 22, 2025 at 1:38 PM
mcherkashin.bsky.social
Dieser wissenschaftliche Nachwuchs ist etwas rausegewachsen
#IchbinHanna
Mittel-30-jährige Mann der nicht mehr im eine Hochstuhl passt und drauf sitzt
June 26, 2025 at 6:43 AM
mcherkashin.bsky.social
hey photonics people 💡🔬, is anyone in Munich next week?
@optica.org @spie.org
Screenshot of a map segment with icon of the train on the tracks, in the corner current speed is shown: 245.8 km/h
June 22, 2025 at 10:08 AM
Reposted by Maxim Cherkashin
astrokatie.com
Chatbots — LLMs — do not know facts and are not designed to be able to accurately answer factual questions. They are designed to find and mimic patterns of words, probabilistically. When they’re “right” it’s because correct things are often written down, so those patterns are frequent. That’s all.
June 19, 2025 at 11:21 AM
Reposted by Maxim Cherkashin
realscientists.de
Sieht aus wie eine Koralle, aber es ist tatsächlich eine Gehirnzelle, ein Neuron. Das ist eine 3D-gedruckte Purkinje-Zelle, die man im Kleinhirn einer Ratte gefunden hat.

(natürlich ist die in Wirklichkeit kleiner und nicht blau 🙂)
Eine Hand hält ein filigranes, leuchtend blaues, 3D-gedrucktes Purkinje Neuron mit verzweigten Dendriten.
June 18, 2025 at 2:54 PM
mcherkashin.bsky.social
Oh, finally, a good duration for a postdoc contract
June 7, 2025 at 9:48 AM
Reposted by Maxim Cherkashin
bwjones.bsky.social
I count 55 emails back and forth between 8 people to make a simple computer purchase. 35 of those emails concern a $30 difference in price because of a backorder.

When people talk about inefficiencies in academia, it's because the MBAs enforce auditing as control rather than letting people work.
June 4, 2025 at 5:39 PM
Reposted by Maxim Cherkashin
astrokatie.com
If you burn down a forest, you don't miss out on lumber for just that season. You have to replant all the trees, nurture them, and wait for them to grow.

The science and research budget cuts happening now are wanton, senseless arson. Recovery, if it ever happens, will take generations.
June 3, 2025 at 9:02 PM