Zen Faulkes
LightNews LightNews
banner
doctorzen.net
Zen Faulkes
@doctorzen.net
2.3K followers 320 following 3.4K posts

Home page: http://DoctorZen.net. Biologist. Author of Better Posters book and blog. Collector of academic hoaxes.

Videos
Environmental science 49%
Geography 13%
Posts Replies Media Videos

doctorzen.net
Zen Faulkes @doctorzen.net · 1h
While I don’t think it’s good for the #AFLW competition that just three teams have been so dominant (Crows, Lions, and North) I am on the edge of my seat for this Grand Final. Either outcome will be legendary: a perfect season for North or the biggest upset by the Lions.

doctorzen.net
Zen Faulkes @doctorzen.net · 3h
Engaewa sp.?

doctorzen.net
Zen Faulkes @doctorzen.net · 10h
Coming soon!

New species 🐁, new challenges on the next season of…
Tattoo Rescue

doctorzen.net
Zen Faulkes @doctorzen.net · 10h
Introduce yourself with five animals you’ve seen in the wild:

Blepharipoda occidentalis
Emerita analoga
Emerita benedicti
Lepidopa benedicti
Lepidopa websteri

🦀
napaaqtuk.bsky.social Dr. Kat Napaaqtuk❄️ @napaaqtuk.bsky.social · 13h
Introduce yourself with 5 animals you've seen in the wild:

Caribou
Ravens
Seals
Kea
Turkeys
mostlymammoths.bsky.social Jeanne Timmons @mostlymammoths.bsky.social · 14h
Introduce yourself with 5 animals you've seen in the wild:

Moose
Humpback whales
Giraffes
African Elephants
West African or Nile monitor lizard

doctorzen.net
Zen Faulkes @doctorzen.net · 12h
More A.I. slop in journals.

From an author who seems to have never published a paper before.

Writing about autism while working in a vocational college devoted mainly to publishing.

Researchers need oppose slop in a more organized way.

neurodojo.blogspot.com/2025/11/more...
More A.I. slop with the autism bicycle
It’s Scientific Reports turn to be embarrassed for publishing obvious generative A.I. slop . The nonsensical bicycle, the bizarre almost wo...
neurodojo.blogspot.com

Reposted by Dustin Mulvaney, Richard Waite, Zen Faulkes , and 1 more

napaaqtuk.bsky.social
Dr. Kat Napaaqtuk❄️ @napaaqtuk.bsky.social · 13h
Introduce yourself with 5 animals you've seen in the wild:

Caribou
Ravens
Seals
Kea
Turkeys
mostlymammoths.bsky.social Jeanne Timmons @mostlymammoths.bsky.social · 14h
Introduce yourself with 5 animals you've seen in the wild:

Moose
Humpback whales
Giraffes
African Elephants
West African or Nile monitor lizard
kslivensky.bsky.social Katie Slivensky @kslivensky.bsky.social · 14h
Introduce yourself with 5 animals you've seen in the wild:

Kangaroo rat
Fin whale
Moose
Grizzly bear
American crocodile

doctorzen.net
Zen Faulkes @doctorzen.net · 14h
Yes. It's a trust problem, not a "nuts and bolts of peer review methodology" problem. NSF directors have long had considered peer reviews advisory, and it's been generally okay.

doctorzen.net
Zen Faulkes @doctorzen.net · 14h
One would hope.

And yet.

neurodojo.blogspot.com/2025/11/sham...
Shame on <i>Philosophical Transactions B</i> for using slop covers
Hat tip to Natalia Jagielska for pointing out that the latest cover of Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B is ChatGPT genera...
neurodojo.blogspot.com

doctorzen.net
Zen Faulkes @doctorzen.net · 15h
Is there an academic group whose goal is to reduce the amount of A.I. slop in scientific publishing? #AcademicChatter #AcademicSky

doctorzen.net
Zen Faulkes @doctorzen.net · 16h
🤔

Got to think on that one.

doctorzen.net
Zen Faulkes @doctorzen.net · 16h
This appears to be from this article:

graphite.io/five-percent...

Can’t find a date on it, so don’t know how new it is.

doctorzen.net
Zen Faulkes @doctorzen.net · 16h
I’m with this in principle, but I wish I knew what this looks like in practice.

doctorzen.net
Zen Faulkes @doctorzen.net · 17h
One possibility is that this figure was not part of the original manuscript and was added in a revision. Yes, it should still have been caught, but it might go some way in explaining why it wasn’t.

Reposted by Dorothy Bishop, Brigitte Nerlich, Wolfgang Crämer , and 1 more

jacksonwryan.com
Jack Ryan 🙏🧪 @jacksonwryan.com · 23h
On the Factor Fexcectorn and autism bicycle AI slop study: I got an answer from Springer Nature this morning that this scientific paper will be retracted! 🧪

Full story: nobreakthroughs.substack.com/p/riding-the...
Riding the Autism Bicycle to Retraction Town
Does anyone *really* know their Factor Fexcectorn?
nobreakthroughs.substack.com

doctorzen.net
Zen Faulkes @doctorzen.net · 1d
Researchers stop submitting their manuscripts there so the journal has nothing to publish.

But it’s a “If only people would just…” solution, and people never “just…”.

doctorzen.net
Zen Faulkes @doctorzen.net · 1d
Post something random or you'll have an awful December
Max and cheese ice cream

doctorzen.net
Zen Faulkes @doctorzen.net · 1d
In a previous case of A.I. shop in a journal, one reviewer specifically said he did not consider the graphics to be his problem. He only thought the text was important.

betterposters.blogspot.com/2024/02/ai-g...
AI-generated rat image shows that scientific graphics are undervalued
The big story on science social media last week was this figure: No, it doesn’t make any sense, and that’s because it was made with generati...
betterposters.blogspot.com

doctorzen.net
Zen Faulkes @doctorzen.net · 1d
Ultimately, everything that appears in a journal is the responsibility of the editor-in-chief.

doctorzen.net
Zen Faulkes @doctorzen.net · 1d
I think this one I stumbled across still wins for its WTFness:

neurodojo.blogspot.com/2016/03/the-...
The craziest recommendation form I have ever completed
As a professor, you write recommendations for student regularly. One came in this morning, so I started filling it out. First questions were...
neurodojo.blogspot.com

Reposted by Zen Faulkes

defector.com
Defector @defector.com · 1d
When a Canadian says “It’s a bit of a gong show down there," what are they talking aboot? defector.com/how-a-campy-...
How A Campy 1970s Game Show Became Part Of Canada's National Lexicon | Defector
On tiny Hornby Island northwest of Vancouver, after the Women’s World Cup in the summer of 2015, our bed-and-breakfast host was telling us about the town. The pizza place in the park is terrific, he…
defector.com

Reposted by Cas Mudde, Ingo Rohlfing, Karen Benjamin Guzzo , and 5 more

elizabethbitmeehan.com
Elizabeth (Bit) Meehan, PhD @elizabethbitmeehan.com · 1d
FYI: law and science, political science, and sociology all still have DDRIG programs run outside of the NSF but funded by NSF. The rest of these programs unfortunately do not.

I run the political science DDRIG.
killgrove.bsky.social Kristina Killgrove @killgrove.bsky.social · 2d
NEW from me - NSF cancels grant scheme for social science research.

Seems the NSF quietly archived ALL calls for DDRIG grants in the SBE directorate. This is a massive blow for PhD students wanting to do cutting-edge social science research. 🏺🧪
Today's biggest science news: Doomed comet explodes | Comet 3I/ATLAS course alteration | Dark matter detected?
Wednesday, Nov. 26, 2025: Your daily feed of the biggest discoveries and breakthroughs making headlines.
www.livescience.com

doctorzen.net
Zen Faulkes @doctorzen.net · 1d
Anyone grappling with rethinking assessment may be interested in DORA’s guide:

sfdora.org/resource/pra...

Reposted by Zen Faulkes

standupforscience.bsky.social
Stand Up for Science! @standupforscience.bsky.social · 1d
We've got merch! Instead of giving your bucks to Bezos, why not get a gift that fuels the fight for science? Shop small this holiday season, and stand up for science! www.standupforscience.net/merch

Reposted by Brigitte Nerlich, Carl T. Bergstrom, Mark J. Brandt , and 12 more

socarxiv.bsky.social
SocArXiv @socarxiv.bsky.social · 1d
In light of record submission rates and a large volume of AI-generated slop, SocArXiv recently implemented a policy requiring ORCIDs linked in the OSF profile of submitting authors, and narrowing our focus to social science subjects. Today we are taking two more steps:
/1

doctorzen.net
Zen Faulkes @doctorzen.net · 1d
I wrote a “How to” book for conference posters that’s a great present for early career researchers or a lab resource!

If you’d like to give one a a gift with a little something extra, DM me for a bookplate!

pelagicpublishing.com/products/bet...

Reposted by Zen Faulkes

ronentk.me
Ronen Tamari @ronentk.me · 1d
"Open Software as a positive force in the world is entirely contingent on its ability to distribute power. To date it has facilitated the opposite."
This piece from @erlend.sh is such a banger! V excited for next week's @scenius.bsky.social open source panel with him 🔥

Reposted by Caroline Krafft, Juan Cole, Zen Faulkes , and 2 more

victorerikray.bsky.social
Victor Ray @victorerikray.bsky.social · 1d
Nearly every mechanism that made my career possible—Ford, NSF, Harvard BiGS—is gone or on the way to the chopping block.
epopppp.bsky.social Beth Popp Berman @epopppp.bsky.social · 1d
This means NSF dissertation improvement grants in the social sciences are simply...not happening.
killgrove.bsky.social Kristina Killgrove @killgrove.bsky.social · 2d
NEW from me - NSF cancels grant scheme for social science research.

Seems the NSF quietly archived ALL calls for DDRIG grants in the SBE directorate. This is a massive blow for PhD students wanting to do cutting-edge social science research. 🏺🧪

Reposted by Kevin J. Anchukaitis, Tom Clark, Mark J. Brandt , and 15 more

epopppp.bsky.social
Beth Popp Berman @epopppp.bsky.social · 1d
This means NSF dissertation improvement grants in the social sciences are simply...not happening.
killgrove.bsky.social Kristina Killgrove @killgrove.bsky.social · 2d
NEW from me - NSF cancels grant scheme for social science research.

Seems the NSF quietly archived ALL calls for DDRIG grants in the SBE directorate. This is a massive blow for PhD students wanting to do cutting-edge social science research. 🏺🧪
Today's biggest science news: Doomed comet explodes | Comet 3I/ATLAS course alteration | Dark matter detected?
Wednesday, Nov. 26, 2025: Your daily feed of the biggest discoveries and breakthroughs making headlines.
www.livescience.com

doctorzen.net
Zen Faulkes @doctorzen.net · 1d
The “Just eat the invasive species” idea doesn’t have a particularly good track record of success, as far as I know.

Reposted by Zen Faulkes

sjportugal.bsky.social
Steve Portugal @sjportugal.bsky.social · 1d
We had a new paper out yesterday in @royalsocietypublishing.org Biology Letters. About how the cranial feathers of male Golden and Lady Amherst’s Pheasants affect their visual fields. Nice to see it picked up The New York Times and Science. Paper link below.