Robert Lawrence
@roblawrencium.bsky.social
Science Editor/Writer in the Hudson Valley | Academia | DataViz | ASD Dad | NY transplant from UT/AZ
My corresponding dataviz:
November 6, 2025 at 5:57 PM
My corresponding dataviz:
The history of significant U.S. government shutdowns, updated as of today. There are other sources out there, but I based it primarily on Wikipedia data: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Governm...
November 6, 2025 at 2:19 PM
The history of significant U.S. government shutdowns, updated as of today. There are other sources out there, but I based it primarily on Wikipedia data: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Governm...
Post-election timeline cleanse: I like to start my day by watching my rocket killifish (Epiplatys annulatus) enjoy their breakfast of baby brine shrimp, so maybe you should too!
November 5, 2025 at 2:27 PM
Post-election timeline cleanse: I like to start my day by watching my rocket killifish (Epiplatys annulatus) enjoy their breakfast of baby brine shrimp, so maybe you should too!
Living in an old house in a semi-rural area, we catch mice inside from time to time. But this time I caught something different - I'm guessing a short tailed shrew. Fun fact: these are venomous.
November 4, 2025 at 2:23 PM
Living in an old house in a semi-rural area, we catch mice inside from time to time. But this time I caught something different - I'm guessing a short tailed shrew. Fun fact: these are venomous.
Seen on a brisk walk somewhere between Lake Minnewaska and Lake Awosting at a state park in NY. #hudsonvalley
October 27, 2025 at 3:28 AM
Seen on a brisk walk somewhere between Lake Minnewaska and Lake Awosting at a state park in NY. #hudsonvalley
Thanks all for the feedback. Some slight updates on this version, along with some further explanation on my neglected Medium page here: medium.com/metascientif...
October 21, 2025 at 5:52 PM
Thanks all for the feedback. Some slight updates on this version, along with some further explanation on my neglected Medium page here: medium.com/metascientif...
Academia hivemind: I'm trying to map out the NIH review process to the best of my knowledge (having never served on an study section myself). Does this look about right to you? Any feedback is appreciated!
October 20, 2025 at 6:43 PM
Academia hivemind: I'm trying to map out the NIH review process to the best of my knowledge (having never served on an study section myself). Does this look about right to you? Any feedback is appreciated!
Innisfree Garden near Millbrook, NY. Beautiful weekend to get out and step on crunchy leaves.
October 20, 2025 at 1:02 AM
Innisfree Garden near Millbrook, NY. Beautiful weekend to get out and step on crunchy leaves.
AI struggles to draw molecules correctly. May be surprising since there are discrete rules in chemistry for doing this that a machine (or O-Chem student) could learn, but that's not how AI operates. A good example of why it's problematic for many other things. www.chemistryworld.com/news/the-che...
October 15, 2025 at 1:01 PM
AI struggles to draw molecules correctly. May be surprising since there are discrete rules in chemistry for doing this that a machine (or O-Chem student) could learn, but that's not how AI operates. A good example of why it's problematic for many other things. www.chemistryworld.com/news/the-che...
Following on that story in the Atlantic this week, I looked up the prices of cocoa and made this graph. Annual averages adjusted for inflation. If your kids end up with nothing but bit-o-honey in their Halloween bags this year, you can blame the weather in Ghana and the cacao swollen shoot virus.
October 8, 2025 at 9:41 PM
Following on that story in the Atlantic this week, I looked up the prices of cocoa and made this graph. Annual averages adjusted for inflation. If your kids end up with nothing but bit-o-honey in their Halloween bags this year, you can blame the weather in Ghana and the cacao swollen shoot virus.
Weekend visit to Utah, and the mountains are really putting on a show.
September 28, 2025 at 2:09 PM
Weekend visit to Utah, and the mountains are really putting on a show.
Never been diagnosed. But I recall getting ready to go to my first high school dance, junior prom, and being excited about it. But I was equally excited that the pair of tokay gecko eggs in my terrarium had hatched that same day. (I kept that excitement to myself though)
September 23, 2025 at 5:19 PM
Never been diagnosed. But I recall getting ready to go to my first high school dance, junior prom, and being excited about it. But I was equally excited that the pair of tokay gecko eggs in my terrarium had hatched that same day. (I kept that excitement to myself though)
Also Brendan Carr in 2022: x.com/BrendanCarrF...
September 18, 2025 at 3:52 PM
Also Brendan Carr in 2022: x.com/BrendanCarrF...
We are now beyond satire.
September 18, 2025 at 12:11 PM
We are now beyond satire.
Touching some grass at the always lovely Lake Minnewska today, and capturing a hint of autumn in the foliage.
September 14, 2025 at 1:24 AM
Touching some grass at the always lovely Lake Minnewska today, and capturing a hint of autumn in the foliage.
Somewhat related, I gathered data recently on the top 10 box office movies for each year going back to 1990, and sorted them based on my non-scientific categorization of whether they were sequels, remakes of past films, or original films. This is what it looks like.
September 3, 2025 at 2:43 PM
Somewhat related, I gathered data recently on the top 10 box office movies for each year going back to 1990, and sorted them based on my non-scientific categorization of whether they were sequels, remakes of past films, or original films. This is what it looks like.
Someone from my grad school lab found some of my old samples in the -80 freezer, from circa 2009 and wanted me to know. And this is why we make a aliquots my friends.
July 19, 2025 at 12:07 PM
Someone from my grad school lab found some of my old samples in the -80 freezer, from circa 2009 and wanted me to know. And this is why we make a aliquots my friends.
Great analysis of 15m abstracts in PubMed showing trends in word usage, influenced largely by LLMs. Also, "Delve" is such an odd word when you think about it. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
July 10, 2025 at 2:25 PM
Great analysis of 15m abstracts in PubMed showing trends in word usage, influenced largely by LLMs. Also, "Delve" is such an odd word when you think about it. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
As the US flirts with war in Iran, it's important to note that any nuclear threat there is largely one that we created when Trump pulled out of the JCPO agreement in 2018. It can't be overstated how stupid that was. More explanation here: medium.com/cognitive-fe...
June 18, 2025 at 9:22 PM
As the US flirts with war in Iran, it's important to note that any nuclear threat there is largely one that we created when Trump pulled out of the JCPO agreement in 2018. It can't be overstated how stupid that was. More explanation here: medium.com/cognitive-fe...
The room I use for an office has a window that a previous tenant covered with drywall. I finally asked the landlord for permission to cut out the drywall around the window. So nice to have natural light and fresh air in here!
June 9, 2025 at 7:04 PM
The room I use for an office has a window that a previous tenant covered with drywall. I finally asked the landlord for permission to cut out the drywall around the window. So nice to have natural light and fresh air in here!
Parents' basement clutter cleanout update #3: I'm afraid that if I throw out what I found in the bottom drawer, it will come find me to torment me for the rest of my days.
May 27, 2025 at 8:54 PM
Parents' basement clutter cleanout update #3: I'm afraid that if I throw out what I found in the bottom drawer, it will come find me to torment me for the rest of my days.
Trying to get rid of some clutter in my parents' basement. Wild that people routinely kept crystal glassware with 24% lead. Looks beautiful tho.
May 27, 2025 at 3:53 PM
Trying to get rid of some clutter in my parents' basement. Wild that people routinely kept crystal glassware with 24% lead. Looks beautiful tho.
Here's my dataviz of the Penn Wharton analysis on this from 5/20. Share it as you like, the working class need to see how they are getting screwed by this.
May 21, 2025 at 3:25 AM
Here's my dataviz of the Penn Wharton analysis on this from 5/20. Share it as you like, the working class need to see how they are getting screwed by this.
Here's an alternate visualization I made of the data (using their updated numbers from 5/20) for anyone interested. Full Penn Wharton data and info here: budgetmodel.wharton.upenn.edu/issues/2025/...
May 21, 2025 at 12:51 AM
Here's an alternate visualization I made of the data (using their updated numbers from 5/20) for anyone interested. Full Penn Wharton data and info here: budgetmodel.wharton.upenn.edu/issues/2025/...
Penn Wharton has run the numbers on the "Big Beautiful Bill" that is going through the House right now. Borrowing from their latest data, I made this chart showing how income is expected to change for different groups. budgetmodel.wharton.upenn.edu/issues/2025/...
May 20, 2025 at 6:37 PM
Penn Wharton has run the numbers on the "Big Beautiful Bill" that is going through the House right now. Borrowing from their latest data, I made this chart showing how income is expected to change for different groups. budgetmodel.wharton.upenn.edu/issues/2025/...