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@moritz_negwer@mstdn.science avatar

moritz_negwer

@[email protected]

Neuroscientist by training, tinkerer by nature. Now scanning transparent mouse brains with light-sheet microscopes. Microscopy, clearing, data crunching, tinkering.

Working as postdoc at https://mastodon.nl/@radboudumc with Nael Nadif Kasri and Corette Wierenga, looking at neuron-distribution differences in mouse models of ASD.

Married, father of one. Toots in English, German, Dutch.

opted into tootfinder for full-text indexing. Check it out: https://www.tootfinder.ch/index.php?join=1

This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. Browse more on the original instance.

erinnacland , to academicchatter
@erinnacland@fediscience.org avatar

"Fewer U.S. scientists are pursuing postdoc positions, new data show" 📉

"The trend underscores concerns that the academic community is facing a postdoc shortage and that early-career scientists are increasingly favoring higher paid positions outside academia."

“It’s not a situation that’s good for the country.”

@academicchatter via @klangin https://www.science.org/content/article/fewer-u-s-scientists-are-pursuing-postdoc-positions-new-data-show

moritz_negwer ,
@moritz_negwer@mstdn.science avatar

@erinnacland @academicchatter @klangin folks, take note. I wonder whether something similar is happening in Europe.

18+ moritz_negwer , to academicchatter
@moritz_negwer@mstdn.science avatar

Holy cow, this is bad - check out the nonsensical figures in this review: completely generated in Midjourney (!!), not even re-labeling the gibberish text labels (!!!).

This was published by Frontiers in Cell and Developmental Biology, where the editorial office should have caught this and nuked it from orbit. Wow.

https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcell.2023.1339390/full

@academicchatter

18+ moritz_negwer OP ,
@moritz_negwer@mstdn.science avatar

@HolgerTDittmann @academicchatter If only! Frontiers actually publishes the reviewer's names, in the hope that the reputational risk leads to stricter enforcement. Not so in this case.

Vice apparently interviewed one of the reviewers, and he essentially said "not my problem": https://www.vice.com/en/article/dy3jbz/scientific-journal-frontiers-publishes-ai-generated-rat-with-gigantic-penis-in-worrying-incident

moritz_negwer OP ,
@moritz_negwer@mstdn.science avatar

@PhilippBayer @academicchatter

Gotta appreciate the nihilism on display here: If this paper is unlikely to ever get read closely enough for a citation, why bother to invest the time to write it in the first place?

As has been written elsewhere (can't remember where), this is the logical conclusion of "publish or perish".

moritz_negwer OP ,
@moritz_negwer@mstdn.science avatar

@richlv @HolgerTDittmann @academicchatter I mean I agree, the reviewer messed up here. But the entire chain of supposed checks before them did too.

I would argue that this is an especially egregious example of a wider trend. The current peer review system is not well prepared for the coming onslaught of cheap low-effort GenAI sludge.

Combine cheap generation and insufficiently calibrated bullshit detectors, plus huge incentives for publication, and we'll keep seeing more like this.

moritz_negwer OP ,
@moritz_negwer@mstdn.science avatar

@richlv @HolgerTDittmann @academicchatter Related: Adam Mastroianni argues in these blog posts that peer review is conceptually unfit to weed out bad science (and that may not matter all that much in the grand scheme of things). Well worth a read:

The rise and fall of peer review
https://www.experimental-history.com/p/the-rise-and-fall-of-peer-review

The dance of the naked emperors
https://www.experimental-history.com/p/the-dance-of-the-naked-emperors

Science is a strong-link problem
https://www.experimental-history.com/p/science-is-a-strong-link-problem

eharlitzkern , to academicchatter
@eharlitzkern@historians.social avatar

Submitted a work order to Facilities because there is a loud white noise in one of my classrooms. I am now being CC'd on every email as my work order is being passed around among people and departments and no one wants to do the job. And for every email, more and more people are being CC'd. 😁

I mean, who needs entertainment? Also, this explains SO MUCH about what is going on (or not going on) at this university.

@academicchatter

moritz_negwer ,
@moritz_negwer@mstdn.science avatar

@eharlitzkern @academicchatter That sucks, I hope one lone idealist sticks their neck out and gets something done.

I've observed that besides anything else they do, modern administrations are fantastically skilled at diffusion of responsibility. Your problem is bounced around until the entire institution has given it a good hard look and declared it "not our reaponsibility". Note that fixing your actual problem is strictly optional in this framework.

ninokadic , to philosophy
@ninokadic@mastodon.social avatar

What's your position regarding consciousness? Broad physicalism (we'll have a scientific explanation one day) or broad anti-physicalism (science can't give a complete account)? Or something else?

Please repost after voting, I'm genuinely curious! 🤔

@philosophy @philosophyofmind

moritz_negwer ,
@moritz_negwer@mstdn.science avatar

@ninokadic @philosophy @philosophyofmind

Interesting discussions here. My (cellular neurobiologist's) intuition would roughly be: I'm optimistic about our ability to find a reasonable set of measurable markers for consciousness in humans.
I'm considerably less optimistic about us agreeing on an explanatory framework, let alone its validity beyond humans. It's too easy to get lost in semantics, IMO.

(Mostly writing this to smuggle this webcomic into the conversation: https://dresdencodak.com/2009/01/27/advanced-dungeons-and-discourse/ )

petersuber , to academicchatter
@petersuber@fediscience.org avatar

I just signed this open letter & hope you will too.
https://www.openpetition.de/petition/online/open-letter-to-the-german-rectors-conference-hrk-on-the-use-of-social-media

"We call on…higher ed institutions in Germany to shut down their accounts on #X (formerly )…Their presence on X/Twitter is incompatible w [their] remit to provide information because disinformation & political smear campaigns are condoned there…[A] presence should be established on …whose decentralised…design is much more compatible w the rules of democratic & sustainable cooperation."

@academicchatter

moritz_negwer ,
@moritz_negwer@mstdn.science avatar

@petersuber @academicchatter Just signed!

erinnacland , to academicchatter
@erinnacland@fediscience.org avatar

Postdoctoral fellows are "expected to sacrifice evenings and weekends, and to neglect [their] social life and holidays, all for a career that offers no guarantees. The short-term nature of postdoc contracts prevents [...] settling down and starting a family,"

A Nature survey found that postdocs in their 30s are "more negative about job prospects, job security and work–life balance," and have more mental health challenges.

"We feel that we are falling behind in life.”

@academicchatter

moritz_negwer ,
@moritz_negwer@mstdn.science avatar

@erinnacland @academicchatter

As a mid-30s postdoc working through the evening on my second vacation day while the family sleeps, this resonates with me a lot.

Hopefully it will get better as the todo-debt overhang wears off over the course of the vacation. I came here for the beach and sea, not the wifi and teamviewer!

koen_hufkens , to academicchatter
@koen_hufkens@mastodon.social avatar

"... what is the point of asking scientists to write documents that can be easily created with AI? What value are we adding?"

The point never was to add value, it was to f-ing gatekeep you fool.

If things were fair, projects were selected based a cut-off value. The remaining (sizeable) pool would then be used to draw grants through lottery. Those on tenure track get a participation badge when ranking in this pool.

@academicchatter

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-03238-5

moritz_negwer ,
@moritz_negwer@mstdn.science avatar

@koen_hufkens @academicchatter good points. I read this article as follows:

  • The non-scientific parts of a grant application used to be a (somewhat flawed) costly signal.
  • Now ChatGPT has made text cheaper, these sections lose their signaling function. So why bother?

I have seen a similar dynamic play out elsewhere with ChatGPT, culminating in the dismissal "why should I bother to read what no one has bothered to write?" I wonder what a science funder's version of this would look like.

Private
moritz_negwer ,
@moritz_negwer@mstdn.science avatar

@philippsteinkrueger @DrKEichhorn @academicsunite Interessante Beiträge und Diskussion, danke dafür. Ich habe den größten Teil meiner akademischen Laufbahn in NL verbracht und war entsprechend verwundert über die 19.-jahrhunderigkeit in der deutschen Unilandschaft.

In NL sind die Departments i.d.R. eine Sammlung von Tenure-Track Professoren, bei denen sich die Leute aber ab dem Start Prof. nennen dürfen. Die Abstufungen sind dann halt in dem Zusatz: asst/assoc/full Prof.

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