#documenting science

[fotoniques]

“Interference Pattern” (1958) from Berenice Abbott’s book Documenting Science.

[hellsitegenetics]

Hey are you willing to BLAST Kat Bolstad’s page on the AUT website? She’s the researcher who voiced over the colossal squid video and it’s making me so mad that people’s hatred of generative AI is so strong that they’re trying to crowd out an incredible cephalopod researcher who frankly speaks with a similar cadence to David Attenborough (those documentary skills!!!) especially during a time where we need to encourage women in STEM. This is the real damage generative AI is doing.

https://academics.aut.ac.nz/kathrin.bolstad

String identified: Acat at ta AT a a caat , gatg t t a ac ca cg ca (, ct a t at). t at AT, at t t ata ata t (ta ttt, agt, .C.) a t ga Aa t, A. a caat t t aa T aa Tgaa, t ata ttt at & Atc ac (A), t t a Aa ac ttt (A), c ttt caga, a t t Ataa . at' a ac c a t ca a , a -a . a a gat c a a ca , a c a a a -ta t. a a atcat cta a t t t Atactc.

Closest match: Arctia caja genome assembly, chromosome: 13 Common name: Garden Tiger Moth

(image source)

[inyoureyes-415]

March for Science

March 7, 2025

Location: San Francisco, California

[mcromwell]

I love iNaturalist so much. Where else can you upload a picture of lizards having sex only to then be contacted by the Director of Lizard Fuckin' at Big Important Museum of Natural Sciences who asks to know more about said lizards fuckin' because he's heading an ongoing decade-long research project about lizard fuckin'

The Celebrities

[uchiha-gaeshi]

There were more Uchiha Sharingan users in the Warring States Era, BUT they still took up a minority of the clan. At most, 30-40% of clan members had it, and the rest just didn't have that dawg in them.

The Mangekyo was even rarer. I have a headcanon that while it wasn't uncommon to awaken it, that usually happened like 10 minutes before an inevitable death, sort of as a last resort defense measure. So like, there weren't a lot of Uchiha walking around with the Mangekyo (in fact people *alive* with it only popped up once every few generations), but a lot of recovered corpses would have tears of blood running on their face.

[whos-that-demon]

But yeah yall if you have time and are a US citizen or someone abroad who wants to help please save files from federal .gov related websites that involve lgbtq+ health, intersex health, women’s rights/health, reproductive health, DEI, climate change, and information about domestic violence.

The library of Alexandria is still burning but we can help by saving resources we come across locally and amassing things from the internet archive to put in with other resources. We can help save a lot of scientists data and other records of our existence. The time is now.

[borrelia]

guys this is bogus ^

it's not a peer-reviewed article, just a pdf microsoft put out. they surveyed just over 300 people. the respondents self-reported whether they were using critical thinking or not. the observation that participants were using "less critical thinking" when using genAI, was also conditional: people who were relying on AI to help them in a field with which they were unfamiliar reported less critical thinking regarding the AI's result, while people familiar with the field reported more. this is just saying "people who were able to critically analyze the AI output did so, and people who lacked enough context did not." same as people uncritically passing around confident-sounding tumblr posts full of misinformation vs the users who know it's bullshit and expend energy typing up paragraphs debunking it.

also it should go without saying, this is a study funded by microsoft to help them improve their ai products.

Finally, design could aim to enhance the ability to execute critical thinking. We find that knowledge workers often refrain from criti- cal thinking when they lack the skills to inspect, improve, and guide AI-generated responses. GenAI tools could incorporate features that facilitate user learning, such as providing explanations of AI reasoning, suggesting areas for user refinement, or offering guided critiques. The tool could help develop specific critical thinking skills, such as analysing arguments [72 ], or cross-referencing facts against authoritative sources. This would align with the motivation- enhancing approach of positioning AI as a partner in skill develop- ment.

the point of this paper is just to identify how to make genAI accomplish its stated goals as a product. it's not a peer-reviewed study, it's not actually saying genAI is rotting our brains. it's saying "oh oops, people who don't know better are taking wrong ai answers at face value, and people who do know better aren't actually helped by the answers. needs some fine-tuning!"

[tj-crochets]

Hey some advice for work: If you are a dealing with someone in a customer service position, do not ask them "Hey, every time we talk you sound frustrated with me. Why is that?" There's no good answer the customer service person can give. Like, the answer is you have taken seven emails, several of them mislabeled, to send me 40+ attachments for a process that (according to your own words!) should have only required 12 attachments. I have had to manually go through each document multiple times. Yes I am frustrated because I handle this paperwork for dozens of people every day and it usually takes less than 5 minutes and we are going on the second hour of this. What I ended up saying was "I'm from California. We just sound like this"

[manicali]

I could’ve been like. A literal genius. Instead I am attempting to reconstruct a sci-fi project while watching Dan and Phil make sex jokes about golf. I’m both deeply disappointed in myself and very happy

[gorjee-art]

Having a crisis over what a nerd I am when I’m slowly starting to realize that I kinda like doing office work………

[soggypotatoes]

got frustrated today bc watched a lecture on the history of quantitative psychology, right, and then like 2/3rds of the way through the lecturer is like.. 'of course, what you might notice.. is that everyone i've mentioned is a middle aged white man'

and then goes on to speak about how more recently cross cultural studies are being done and culture is being brought into focus, etc. cause like, our assessment is to critique a historical research paper.

i honestly kinda hate this though. if you see the problem, why just lamely point it out and act like 'ah well, it is the way it is..'?

anyway, spending a few hours today researching female quantitative psychologists in history (many of which worked with the men we learned about) and.. would it be a bit much if i put together a word document of everything i find and sent it to him with the suggestion that maybe acknowledging the diversity of the field *that has always been there* might be good..?

i dont want to be annoying and jump the gun. as an undergrad. but like. guys... they EXIST

after spending last week reading about Sabrina Spielman and her (ignored) contributions (that we are still taught but by other ((male)) names) i'm a bit fed up with academia thinking that pointing out inequality is enough

[inyoureyes-415]

March for Science

March 7, 2025

Location: San Francisco, California

[shmorp-mcdurgen]

The catalyst

Recovered Black Mesa documents from the experiment, #2 of ____

(Pg. 1)

Stage Two: Resonance Cascade Simulation (RCS)

Section 2: Resonance Cascade Simulation

The Resonance Cascade Simulation (RCS) is a revolutionary advancement in Black Mesa’s incident prevention/preparation technology, where a replica of multiple wings of Black Mesa’s main facility were constructed to give the appearance of the real facility. Here is where the rest of the test will take place, as soon as the simulated Resonance Cascade Catalyst is complete. We hope that this experiment will prepare us in case of a real Resonance Cascade event, and thus can potentially prevent one entirely. 

Dr. Freeman is to be put in the RCS as soon as the Catalyst is complete and he is sufficiently unconscious. It is crucial to place him under anesthesia to not cause alarm as he is moved from the real Black Mesa Facility into the replica. (REMINDER: it is of UTMOST IMPORTANCE that Freeman is to be unaware of the test taking place, as to make this simulation as accurate as possible. Failure to comply with this rule will result in career termination.) It is to be noted that despite the simulated AMS failure being in a controlled environment, there is room for error and potentially even injury in the case of Dr. Freeman being within the chamber as it happens. However we believe the HEV suit will be enough to protect him throughout the process.

To make the RCS even more realistic, we have contained multiple species from multiple expeditions to [CENSORED TEXT] within the testing facility. Though it is to be noted that certain species remain too great of a liability to keep within the same facility as the subject. We hope these specimens will help make the cross-dimensional-travel of anomalies more predictable in the case of a real Resonance Cascade event happening, and more importantly, teaching us how to deal with, and/or dispose of these specimens.

Notes: Freeman is a smart man. Hiding the true nature of this test is for his own good.

Conclusion of section:

Power AMS to 105% to begin simulated AMS failure scenario

Begin RCS

(Pg. 2)

INCIDENT LOG: #40

TIME OF INCIDENT: 10:24 AM, December 13th, 1998

CAUSE OF INCIDENT: Technical Malfunction

PERSON(S) INVOLVED IN INCIDENT: Gordon Freeman

INCIDENT TYPE: Workplace Injury/death

DESCRIPTION OF INCIDENT:

At approximately 10:24 AM MST, a malfunction occurred involving the Anti Mass Spectrometer, where a stray beam struck Dr. Gordon Freeman between the lower Thoracic and Lumbar sections of his spinal cord. Due to this area being primarily the HEV’s visible undersuit rather than an armored section, it proved to not be enough to withstand the entirety of the shock. Freeman Suffered near instantaneous lower body paralysis, along with heart failure. Freeman also underwent convulsions, restricting his ability to remove himself from the situation. When the AMS had reached a state of stabilization, allowing personnel to enter the chamber, they found Freeman unresponsive aside from minor erratic muscle spasms. They found that his lower back was severely damaged, along with the HEV undersuit.

Damage to the HEV suit was minimal, though holes caused by the shock needed to be repaired. The protective cover over the Life Support Module was damaged, and unable to be reattached. However, the Life Support Module is still intact and functioning as expected. 

Freeman appears to be healing despite tremendous damage. The HEV suit took most of the hit, allowing Freeman to heal relatively without problem. Due to the HEV’s extraordinary biomatter repair technology, Freeman’s heartbeat has returned, along with stable brain activity and nervous system control, meaning he is no longer paralyzed. (It is to be noted that he awoke during examination, but was quickly put under anesthesia to prevent further pain, any potential alterations to the test results, and any further mental strain from the resurrection.) 

Planned initial Termination was going to be three (3) hours after the RCS had begun, however due to this horrible oversight from the engineers in the Lambda team, the first test had taken place prematurely. However, Freeman appears to have healed completely from this incident. This is promising.

FOLLOW UP ACTION(S):

Monitor possible HEV malfunctions

Monitor Freeman’s physical health and recovery from this incident

Resume test as initially planned without further delay.

[lurafita]

Mundane AU randomness

So, I once asked in the discord server what sporty hobby mundane malec would have. And we settled on Magnus doing parkour, and Alec doing nature documentaries, where he has to climb through cave systems and do deep dives and such. Now I'm just thinking of Alec having a youtube channel where he usually uploads his nature documentary stuff, and during those he sometimes let slip about his boyfriend, (like: "This type of bird likes to build their nest in extremely precarious places to discourage predators. Which just keeps reminding me of that stunt that my boyfriend did last week at that construction site…"), and then his fans were like: Tell us more about your boyfriend! - and then Alec made a video where he followed Magnus around as if Magnus was one of those exotic animals that Alec is filming. 🤣

[brutal-nemesis]

Wip game, baby

Thanks for the tag, @spookyboywhump!

Rules: make a new post with the names of all the files in your wip folder, regardless of how non descriptive or ridiculous. let people send you an ask with the title that most intrigues them, and then post a little snippet or tell them something about it! and then tag as many people as you have wips.

Having like no wips always comes in handy for times like these <3

sickly victorian boy

uuuuuuuuuuhhhhhhhhhh

And that's it (⌐■_■)

Taggin @yet-another-heathen @toyybox hahaha only two >:) but if other people wanna play GO FOR IT GAMERS

[princeofallbones]

Some more examples of the famous "zombie spiders" Found in the cellar of an abandoned home. They are just cellar spiders (Pholcus phalangioides) attacked by a specific type of fungus they're prone to nurture. The moist environment with little to no airflow makes it extremely easy for the fungus to spread from spider to spider. I tried for macro photos, but my light was trashy and the camera wouldn't pick up on the details. Will probably try again eventually.

I think death is fascinating and to be forever frozen while embraced by the fungus thriving out of your own mortal shell is beautiful. It's the same vessel, it's just a matter of who inhabits it.