Richard Van Noorden
@richvn.bsky.social
7.9K followers 2.1K following 390 posts
Features editor, Nature. E: r⟦dot⟧vannoorden⟦at⟧nature⟦dot⟧com or richardvannoorden⟦at⟧protonmail⟦dot⟧com. Signal: richvn.01 . (Currently on parental leave, to April 2026).
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richvn.bsky.social
On everyone‘s list for years! the industrial scale commercialisation is more recent of course - I wonder if that caught the Nobel Committee attention.
Reposted by Richard Van Noorden
kms163.bsky.social
So excited for this Nobel! Fabulous. And do read my feature unpicking what these materials are being used for.
richvn.bsky.social
A Chemistry Nobel for the invention of MOFs! Here’s a great article on what these materials are and why they’re now being used to eg harvest water and suck up carbon dioxide. Congrats to Kitagawa, Robson and Yaghi! #ChemNobel
By @kms163.bsky.social | @nature.com
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
richvn.bsky.social
A Chemistry Nobel for the invention of MOFs! Here’s a great article on what these materials are and why they’re now being used to eg harvest water and suck up carbon dioxide. Congrats to Kitagawa, Robson and Yaghi! #ChemNobel
By @kms163.bsky.social | @nature.com
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Reposted by Richard Van Noorden
nature.com
BREAKING: The Nobel Prize in Physics has been awarded to John Clarke, Michel H. Devoret, and John M. Martinis "for the discovery of macroscopic quantum mechanical tunnelling and energy quantisation in an electric circuit"

Stay tuned for more.
A Nobel medal
Reposted by Richard Van Noorden
neilwithers.bsky.social
The laureates' 'prize-earning' papers in Phys Rev Lett, Phys Rev B from 1985 + 1987 have 276, 342 and 518 citations [Scopus] - low for Nobel-winning work, maybe?
[1/2]
Reposted by Richard Van Noorden
nature.com
This year’s Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine has been awarded to three scientists for discovering a class of immune cells that help to prevent the body from attacking its own tissues

go.nature.com/3VNrH1s
Medicine Nobel goes to scientists who revealed secrets of immune system ‘regulation’
Mary Brunkow, Fred Ramsdell and Shimon Sakaguchi discovered cells that protect the body from autoimmune diseases.
go.nature.com
Reposted by Richard Van Noorden
gbrumfiel.bsky.social
Well gang, it's happened: OpenAI has built a platform filled exclusively with fake, AI content.

I've been playing with it for a few days, and I think it's safe to say we're basically kissing reality goodbye.

Here's the story: www.npr.org/2025/10/03/n...

And some thoughts 🧵
Reposted by Richard Van Noorden
sungkim.bsky.social
I know people are submitting AI-generated papers and some are AI-assisted, but…

There were 26,646 new submissions to arXiv in September 2025.
Reposted by Richard Van Noorden
maxkozlov.bsky.social
EXCLUSIVE: In her first interview all year, Susan Monarez, CDC director for only 29 days, tells me why Trump/RFK fired her and where this is all headed.

The CDC director is an “inherently political position, but that doesn’t mean that it has to be politically compromised”, she tells @nature.com.
Exclusive: ex-CDC director talks about why she was fired
“I would never do that, as a scientist,” Susan Monarez says of being asked to approve changes to vaccine recommendations without knowing the details.
www.nature.com
Reposted by Richard Van Noorden
Reposted by Richard Van Noorden
maxkozlov.bsky.social
NEW: Nature trained AI to predict which NIH grants from 2014 would have been cut if the Trump admin had its way back then — and what science would have been lost to history.

"The results show the damage that cuts in funding can do to research, and the unpredictable nature of the research process."
Reposted by Richard Van Noorden
elisecutts.bsky.social
Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin ✨ figured out what stars are made of ✨ when she was just 25. 🔭🧪

Her PhD thesis basically established the Harvard astro department — at a time when Harvard didn't officially allow woman students.

I wrote this little profile to mark the 100th anniversary of her thesis:
Reposted by Richard Van Noorden
Reposted by Richard Van Noorden
reeserichardson.bsky.social
This investigation is WILD. Props to @joelving.bsky.social!
retractionwatch.com
A professor of physics in Iraq was permanently dismissed last week after a government investigation found he orchestrated a massive fraudulent publishing scheme involving hundreds of thousands of dollars paid into his bank account by unwitting researchers.

An exclusive from @joelving.bsky.social.
Exclusive: Iraqi physicist fired by ministry over massive publishing scam
Oday A. Al-Owaedi A professor of physics in Iraq was permanently dismissed last week after a government investigation found he orchestrated a massive fraudulent publishing scheme involving hundreds…
retractionwatch.com
Reposted by Richard Van Noorden
retractionwatch.com
A professor of physics in Iraq was permanently dismissed last week after a government investigation found he orchestrated a massive fraudulent publishing scheme involving hundreds of thousands of dollars paid into his bank account by unwitting researchers.

An exclusive from @joelving.bsky.social.
Exclusive: Iraqi physicist fired by ministry over massive publishing scam
Oday A. Al-Owaedi A professor of physics in Iraq was permanently dismissed last week after a government investigation found he orchestrated a massive fraudulent publishing scheme involving hundreds…
retractionwatch.com
richvn.bsky.social
“… not all large-scale research into mRNA vaccines in the United States is being dismantled … even as the US Department of Health and Human Services pulls back, the country’s military continues to bankroll parts of the same research.”
By Elie Dolgin | @nature.com
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Reposted by Richard Van Noorden
maxkozlov.bsky.social
Yesterday's presser is perhaps the most glaring example of the discrepancy between the Trump admin's words (gold standard science! rigor! reproducibility!) and their actions (citing a couple correlative studies to make massive policy changes).

Placebo RCTs for thee, observational study for me.
Reposted by Richard Van Noorden
retractionwatch.com
Exclusive: Journal bans drug safety database papers as they flood the literature

FAERS is one of several publicly available datasets being exploited by paper mills, pumping hundreds of often meaningless and sometimes misleading papers into the scientific literature, @katetravis.bsky.social reports.
Exclusive: Journal bans drug safety database papers as they flood the literature
celafon/iStockPhoto Starting around 2023, a curious trend took hold in papers on drug safety monitoring. The number of articles published on an individual drug and its link to specific adverse even…
retractionwatch.com
richvn.bsky.social
But given how pathetic Turnitin etc seem to be at doing this, it’s still a striking advance for something I thought would be extremely difficult.
richvn.bsky.social
I suppose they can keep updating and retraining as new models come out.