Brigitte Nerlich

@bnerlich.bsky.social

2.2K followers 490 following 7.9K posts

Metaphor hunter, linguist, social scientist, blogger

blog: https://makingsciencepublic.com/
also sorted into categories at https://wakelet.com/@bnerlich
ORCID: 0000-0001-6617-7827

Videos

Psychology 23%

Communication & Media Studies 23%

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Brigitte Nerlich @bnerlich.bsky.social · Nov 17

So, I have created a starter pack for people interested in #metaphor. I bet I left a lot of people out. Please let me know if you want to be added. go.bsky.app/DvxejFX

Reposted by Brigitte Nerlich, Mark J. Brandt, Philip N. Cohen , and 3 more Brigitte Nerlich, Mark J. Brandt, Philip N. Cohen, Zen Faulkes, Patrick Präg, Florian Keusch

SocArXiv @socarxiv.bsky.social · 4h

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

Brigitte Nerlich @bnerlich.bsky.social · 4h

I was sitting in a car with an elderly person (not using social media) and we happened to catch a bit of the Media Show and I said 'Do you want me to tell you the line?' and the other person said 'No need, I know it'....

Brigitte Nerlich @bnerlich.bsky.social · 6h

From contamination to collapse: On the trail of a new AI metaphor – Making Science Public share.google/l3UvVo0ExR5Z...

From contamination to collapse: On the trail of a new AI metaphor

I wrote my first ever post about AI and ChatGPT on 6 January 2023. Amongst other things, I talked about the danger of ‘knowledge pollution’. I wanted to highlight the dangers of a gradual corruptio…

share.google

Brigitte Nerlich @bnerlich.bsky.social · 9h

In the olden days you needed an education to acquire knowledge, now you need an education to recognise knowledge....

Brigitte Nerlich @bnerlich.bsky.social · 10h

What about metaphors that map meanings between cognitive domains, for example, your example of "Meg breezed through security before arriving at her gate…" (in this case a rather stable and conventional mapping between a breeze and ease, so to speak)

Brigitte Nerlich @bnerlich.bsky.social · 10h

I can't find anything, but this was quite interesting lexiconia.art?page_id=362

AI Slop – LEXICONIA

lexiconia.art

Brigitte Nerlich @bnerlich.bsky.social · 11h

Ah in German it is, I think, "KI-Müll", "KI-Mist", or "KI-Schrott" (junk, scrap...) - this loses the sloppiness a bit but still

Brigitte Nerlich @bnerlich.bsky.social · 21h

So cool!

Reposted by Cas Mudde, Kim L. Scheppele, Lisa W. Fazio , and 23 more Cas Mudde, Kim L. Scheppele, Lisa W. Fazio, David Lazer, Brigitte Nerlich, Michael Nelson, Jacob Montgomery, Ingo Rohlfing, Karen Benjamin Guzzo, Aaron Sojourner, Nazita Lajevardi, Margot C. Finn, Steven Schmidt, Samantha Brennan, Juan Rocha, Brian Keegan, William Myers, Zen Faulkes, Matthew Lebo, Catherine J. Frieman, Georg Weizsäcker, Brooke Harrington, Stephen A. Meserve, Dan Hicks, Clark Gray, David Darmofal

Kristina Killgrove @killgrove.bsky.social · 21h

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

Reposted by Richard S.J. Tol, Dorothy Bishop, Brigitte Nerlich , and 8 more Richard S.J. Tol, Dorothy Bishop, Brigitte Nerlich, Richard McElreath, Martin Tomko, Peter Campbell, Andrew Livingstone, Olivier Morin, Zen Faulkes, John R. Kerr, David Spurrett

Smut Clyde, X-Ray Haruspex @smutclyde.bsky.social · 1d

Rate your score on Factor Fexcectorn.

Well done, Scientific Reports. pubpeer.com/publications...

Brigitte Nerlich @bnerlich.bsky.social · 1d

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inflati... - when they first talked about it under Biden I was VERY confused

Inflation Reduction Act - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Brigitte Nerlich @bnerlich.bsky.social · 1d

I wrote this about 'red and blue AI' in 2023.... the questions I ask are still worth asking now and with more urgency makingsciencepublic.com/2023/08/25/r...

Red and blue AI?

This is another post about artificial intelligence or AI, but it’s what one may call a bit ‘experimental’. I happened to think about an analogy and ran with it, but it might be a completely inappro…

makingsciencepublic.com

Reposted by Brigitte Nerlich, Dean Eckles, Richard Pettigrew

Saloni @scientificdiscovery.dev · 1d

Imagine you lived in the 18th century.

Smallpox kills 1 in 3 cases. Yet you can’t culture pathogens, don’t know germ theory, and have no idea what a virus is. How would you invent a vaccine?

In a new episode of HARD DRUGS, we trace the history of vaccines!

The history of vaccines

open.spotify.com

Brigitte Nerlich @bnerlich.bsky.social · 1d

Ah, my first student research assistant job was working through file-cards for Peter Wunderli who was working on Saussure and that was one reason why I became interested in the history of linguistics

Reposted by Dorothy Bishop, Brigitte Nerlich, Jonathan Wolff

Prof Sheena Cruickshank @sheencr.bsky.social · 1d

RFKJr has cut ALL mRNA vax research in the USA where all the work discussed in this thread was developed. Other countries can step in. But the rhetoric about mRNA vax from the likes of him are HUGELY harming the trust in mRNA vaccine technology. We address common questions n myths here

independentsage.org

Reposted by Brigitte Nerlich

Paul Knoepfler @stemcells.bsky.social · 1d

Nucleus Genomics faces criticism as it and other firms promise embryo optimization despite unresolved scientific, ethical questions ipscell.com/2025/11/nucl... elective IVF #stemcells

Nucleus Genomics faces criticism as it and other firms promise embryo optimization despite unresolved scientific, ethical questions - The Niche

Stem cell biologist discusses how elective IVF firm Nucleus Genomics faces serious accusations including of plagiarism.

ipscell.com

Brigitte Nerlich @bnerlich.bsky.social · 2d

I really enjoyed that and learned a lot!

Reposted by Brigitte Nerlich

✨ A Goddess has NO KING ✨ @the-goddess-speaks.bsky.social · 2d

Historian Rutger Bregman is a well-respected proponent of a universal basic income. The Guardian has called him “the Dutch wunderkind of new ideas.”

The BBC invited Bregman to give this year’s Reith Lecture series.

Before airing, the BBC removed one sentence from his lecture, “A Time of Monsters.”

Brigitte Nerlich @bnerlich.bsky.social · 3d

Not too bad. Still have my part-time cat Cleo that comes to visit which is nice 🐈

Reposted by Brigitte Nerlich

Humanists UK @humanists.uk · 3d

Some of the most important words ever written: 'Endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved.' – Charles Darwin, 'On the Origin of Species'. It was published #OnThisDay 1859.

‘Thus, from the war of nature, from famine and death, the most exalted object which we are capable of conceiving, namely, the production of the higher animals, directly follows.
There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed into a few forms or into one; and that, whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved.’

Charles Darwin
Naturalist and humanist

Brigitte Nerlich @bnerlich.bsky.social · 3d

Sean Trott, over at The Counterfactual, explores the metaphor 'ChatGPT is grown not made' - great post, also quotes a nice metaphor "attention heads are a “matchmaking service for words”);" #AI #metaphors
seantrott.substack.com/p/is-chatgpt...

Is ChatGPT "grown, not made"?

What we do and don't know about large language models.

seantrott.substack.com

Reposted by Brigitte Nerlich

STCmicrobeblog @stcmicrobeblog.bsky.social · 3d

The Cost of Forgetting

by Chelsi — Vaccines have made a world that is safer and healthier. But, vaccines have made us comfortable enough to forget.

The Cost of Forgetting

by Chelsi — Vaccines have made a world that is safer and healthier. But, vaccines have made us comfortable enough to forget.

smallthingsconsidered.blog

Brigitte Nerlich @bnerlich.bsky.social · 3d

Wow, that is absolutely fantastic!!! Will have to watch that episode!!

Reposted by Brigitte Nerlich

El área de Broca 🧠 ✒️ @elareadebroca.bsky.social · 4d

Las metáforas se usan comúnmente en la literatura o el teatro con el fin de crear imágenes alegóricas, retóricas o analogías varias. Pero otras veces las usamos en nuestra vida diaria para simplificarnos la vida.

Brigitte Nerlich @bnerlich.bsky.social · 4d

climate chaos and political entropy - what a combination

Brigitte Nerlich @bnerlich.bsky.social · 4d

This guest post by my colleague Andrew Maynard is a bit of a palate cleanser between all my explorations of metaphors for AI. It is about Cambridge Dictionary's word of the year: #parasocial. makingsciencepublic.com/2025/11/23/p...