Derek Lowe
@dereklowe.bsky.social
Medicinal chemist / chemical biologist, author of “In the Pipeline” at http://science.org/blogs/pipeline. [email protected] and on Signal at Dblowe.18
All opinions are mine; I don’t speak for my employer in any way.
All opinions are mine; I don’t speak for my employer in any way.
Reposted by Derek Lowe
Appalling. Martin Kulldorff, who was a lead author of the Great Barrington declaration which promoted mass infection with COVID and spread disinformation about vaccines, has been appointed HHS Chief science officer.
Chairman of vaccine committee leaves for new HHS job
The head of the CDC's vaccine advisory committee is leaving to take a leadership role within the Department of Health and Human Services.
www.statnews.com
December 1, 2025 at 10:54 PM
Appalling. Martin Kulldorff, who was a lead author of the Great Barrington declaration which promoted mass infection with COVID and spread disinformation about vaccines, has been appointed HHS Chief science officer.
Reposted by Derek Lowe
“Do you know how to make <insert illicit compound here>”
What’s the worst question someone can ask after you tell them your profession? For linguists, it’s definitely “how many languages do you speak?”, but I’m curious what else is happening to the rest of y’all out there?!
December 1, 2025 at 8:50 PM
“Do you know how to make <insert illicit compound here>”
Reposted by Derek Lowe
If you run across a gen A.I. slop 🤖💩 diagram in an academic journal, I’d love to know about it! Please fill out this form:
docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
Slop in journals is illuminating about journals’ quality control. And journals would like you to forget their mistakes.
#AcademicChatter
docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
Slop in journals is illuminating about journals’ quality control. And journals would like you to forget their mistakes.
#AcademicChatter
Slop graphics in academic journals
Use this form to share graphics (e.g., figures, covers, graphical abstracts) made using generative A.I. that have appeared in academic journals.
The plan is to compile these slop graphics in an ope...
docs.google.com
December 1, 2025 at 6:36 PM
If you run across a gen A.I. slop 🤖💩 diagram in an academic journal, I’d love to know about it! Please fill out this form:
docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
Slop in journals is illuminating about journals’ quality control. And journals would like you to forget their mistakes.
#AcademicChatter
docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
Slop in journals is illuminating about journals’ quality control. And journals would like you to forget their mistakes.
#AcademicChatter
Reposted by Derek Lowe
presented without comment
December 1, 2025 at 2:28 AM
presented without comment
Reposted by Derek Lowe
every trans person i see post about the OU suspension knows that the suspended target is trans & a grad student, & has an innate awareness that this is about purging trans employees. every cis person i see thinks the target is a rando professor & that this is about giving conservatives good grades
December 1, 2025 at 12:04 AM
every trans person i see post about the OU suspension knows that the suspended target is trans & a grad student, & has an innate awareness that this is about purging trans employees. every cis person i see thinks the target is a rando professor & that this is about giving conservatives good grades
Reposted by Derek Lowe
This is gonna seem like a nitpick, but I think it's significant: It's not a professor, it's a graduate TA.
Thinking back on my time as a TA thirty years ago, universities use TAs as cannon fodder, asking them to hold certain rigorous lines but reliably failing to support them.
Thinking back on my time as a TA thirty years ago, universities use TAs as cannon fodder, asking them to hold certain rigorous lines but reliably failing to support them.
OU has put the professor here on administrative leave:
December 1, 2025 at 1:18 AM
This is gonna seem like a nitpick, but I think it's significant: It's not a professor, it's a graduate TA.
Thinking back on my time as a TA thirty years ago, universities use TAs as cannon fodder, asking them to hold certain rigorous lines but reliably failing to support them.
Thinking back on my time as a TA thirty years ago, universities use TAs as cannon fodder, asking them to hold certain rigorous lines but reliably failing to support them.
Reposted by Derek Lowe
Reminder: Your enzyme having that name DOES NOT mean that's all it does.
Metabolic enzymes like PGDH have a bunch of substrates and the enzyme is usually named for the first and/or easiest to assay.
Regardless, cool report on a cool drug target
#chemsky #chemchat
Metabolic enzymes like PGDH have a bunch of substrates and the enzyme is usually named for the first and/or easiest to assay.
Regardless, cool report on a cool drug target
#chemsky #chemchat
Inhibition of 15-hydroxy prostaglandin dehydrogenase promotes cartilage regeneration
Aging or injury to the joints can lead to cartilage degeneration and osteoarthritis (OA), for which there are limited effective treatments. We found that expression of 15-hydroxy prostaglandin dehydro...
www.science.org
November 30, 2025 at 9:28 PM
Reposted by Derek Lowe
Uh-oh, our first #ScienceSky showdown in #ChemSky #BioChemistry
Can Bluesky be a place to sort scientific disagreements, a place to constructively air grievance and concern? We shall see. Fighting words start here:
Can Bluesky be a place to sort scientific disagreements, a place to constructively air grievance and concern? We shall see. Fighting words start here:
Why the brand of phase separation proposed by Tony Hyman is pseudoscientific and why it makes him incompatible with leadership of EMBL @embl.org, a major European institution in Molecular Biology #MolecularBiology
🧵A thread
#science #PhaseSeparation #BlueSkyScience #AcademicBluesky #BioSky
🧵A thread
#science #PhaseSeparation #BlueSkyScience #AcademicBluesky #BioSky
November 29, 2025 at 6:01 PM
Uh-oh, our first #ScienceSky showdown in #ChemSky #BioChemistry
Can Bluesky be a place to sort scientific disagreements, a place to constructively air grievance and concern? We shall see. Fighting words start here:
Can Bluesky be a place to sort scientific disagreements, a place to constructively air grievance and concern? We shall see. Fighting words start here:
Thread: this is the opposite of transparency, and it is the opposite of actual scientific and epidemiological investigation:
Dr. Prasad send an email to CBER suggesting changes to the approval for respiratory vaccines based, apparently, on the conclusion of an unpublished investigation into VAERS report by unknown people. A few thoughts beyond what was already reported, based on the full email: 1/n
November 29, 2025 at 6:36 PM
Thread: this is the opposite of transparency, and it is the opposite of actual scientific and epidemiological investigation:
I believe that we are about to see a major scientific conflict play out here on BlueSky, for better or for worse. I'll weigh in on this on the blog once I'm sure that I understand everyone's positions:
Why the brand of phase separation proposed by Tony Hyman is pseudoscientific and why it makes him incompatible with leadership of EMBL @embl.org, a major European institution in Molecular Biology #MolecularBiology
🧵A thread
#science #PhaseSeparation #BlueSkyScience #AcademicBluesky #BioSky
🧵A thread
#science #PhaseSeparation #BlueSkyScience #AcademicBluesky #BioSky
November 29, 2025 at 5:41 PM
I believe that we are about to see a major scientific conflict play out here on BlueSky, for better or for worse. I'll weigh in on this on the blog once I'm sure that I understand everyone's positions:
Fewer than have really been needed.
@dereklowe.bsky.social has swears! They've used 28 profanities in their last 1,299 posts.
🥇 "bullshit" (10 times)
🥈 "hell" (8 times)
🥉 "crap" (4 times)
🥇 "bullshit" (10 times)
🥈 "hell" (8 times)
🥉 "crap" (4 times)
November 29, 2025 at 2:01 PM
Fewer than have really been needed.
Hey @profanity.accountant , how bad is it over here?
November 29, 2025 at 3:55 AM
Hey @profanity.accountant , how bad is it over here?
Introduce yourself with five animals you’ve seen in the wild:
Quetzal
Jefferson salamander
Fisher
Brown-throated sloth
Scissor-tailed flycatcher
Quetzal
Jefferson salamander
Fisher
Brown-throated sloth
Scissor-tailed flycatcher
Introduce yourself with 5 animals you've seen in the wild:
Moose
Beaver
Black bear
Humpback Whale
Gray Whale
Moose
Beaver
Black bear
Humpback Whale
Gray Whale
Introduce yourself with 5 animals you've seen in the wild:
bison
pronghorn
sandhill crane
gopher tortoise
manatee
bison
pronghorn
sandhill crane
gopher tortoise
manatee
November 28, 2025 at 11:38 PM
Introduce yourself with five animals you’ve seen in the wild:
Quetzal
Jefferson salamander
Fisher
Brown-throated sloth
Scissor-tailed flycatcher
Quetzal
Jefferson salamander
Fisher
Brown-throated sloth
Scissor-tailed flycatcher
Reposted by Derek Lowe
The same thing would have happened here, you know, had we actually locked the guy up like he deserves.
‘Foam that’s washed away’: support dissolves as Bolsonaro starts 27-year jail term | Jair Bolsonaro | The Guardian www.theguardian.com/world/2025/n...
‘Foam that’s washed away’: support dissolves as Bolsonaro starts 27-year jail term | Jair Bolsonaro | The Guardian www.theguardian.com/world/2025/n...
‘Foam that’s washed away’: support dissolves as Bolsonaro starts 27-year jail term
Brazil shows little sign of feared rightwing rebellion, with only a few die-hards protesting outside prison
www.theguardian.com
November 28, 2025 at 10:59 PM
The same thing would have happened here, you know, had we actually locked the guy up like he deserves.
‘Foam that’s washed away’: support dissolves as Bolsonaro starts 27-year jail term | Jair Bolsonaro | The Guardian www.theguardian.com/world/2025/n...
‘Foam that’s washed away’: support dissolves as Bolsonaro starts 27-year jail term | Jair Bolsonaro | The Guardian www.theguardian.com/world/2025/n...
Reposted by Derek Lowe
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...
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
November 28, 2025 at 5:25 AM
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...
Full story: nobreakthroughs.substack.com/p/riding-the...
Leftover basmati rice
November 28, 2025 at 5:03 PM
Leftover basmati rice
Exactly! Right next to that little 11th magnitude field star, but so clearly not a star itself. Between 4 and 5 AM it moved from one side of the star to the other in my 140x field of view, and it continues to motor along night by night.
It was cold out in that field at 4am this morning!
But worthwhile just to get my own unimpressive photos of interstellar comet 3I/Atlas. 🔭
But worthwhile just to get my own unimpressive photos of interstellar comet 3I/Atlas. 🔭
November 28, 2025 at 3:05 PM
Exactly! Right next to that little 11th magnitude field star, but so clearly not a star itself. Between 4 and 5 AM it moved from one side of the star to the other in my 140x field of view, and it continues to motor along night by night.
Well, I did see it! It was touch and go with the clouds here, but there was an unmistakable fuzzy interloper in just the right spot.
I feel a bit like a lunatic, but I’ve set my telescope up outside to get up at 4 AM. That’s when the interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS will be visible - and even though it’ll just be a faint smudge in the eyepiece, I’d like to see it with my own eyes!
November 28, 2025 at 2:52 PM
Well, I did see it! It was touch and go with the clouds here, but there was an unmistakable fuzzy interloper in just the right spot.
Reposted by Derek Lowe
Hey @nature.com, have you got an explanation for how the hell THIS happened? & especially why you accepted a paper with such a bizarre piece of genAI slop in it?!
& more to the point, why we should take you seriously at all going forward?
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
& more to the point, why we should take you seriously at all going forward?
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
November 27, 2025 at 3:03 PM
Hey @nature.com, have you got an explanation for how the hell THIS happened? & especially why you accepted a paper with such a bizarre piece of genAI slop in it?!
& more to the point, why we should take you seriously at all going forward?
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
& more to the point, why we should take you seriously at all going forward?
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
I feel a bit like a lunatic, but I’ve set my telescope up outside to get up at 4 AM. That’s when the interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS will be visible - and even though it’ll just be a faint smudge in the eyepiece, I’d like to see it with my own eyes!
November 28, 2025 at 4:23 AM
I feel a bit like a lunatic, but I’ve set my telescope up outside to get up at 4 AM. That’s when the interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS will be visible - and even though it’ll just be a faint smudge in the eyepiece, I’d like to see it with my own eyes!
Reposted by Derek Lowe
I'm a big fan and have made this a few times from your holiday synthesis column. That color change with the lime juice addition is something. Thinking I'll make it again tomorrow!
November 28, 2025 at 1:19 AM
I'm a big fan and have made this a few times from your holiday synthesis column. That color change with the lime juice addition is something. Thinking I'll make it again tomorrow!
If this is pre-1975 (and it certainly looks it!) then these Nervine tablets were a straight mixture of bromide salts. Bromides had well-known tranquilizing effects, but well-known toxic side effects that got them removed from the over-the-counter market.
November 27, 2025 at 3:27 AM
If this is pre-1975 (and it certainly looks it!) then these Nervine tablets were a straight mixture of bromide salts. Bromides had well-known tranquilizing effects, but well-known toxic side effects that got them removed from the over-the-counter market.
And finally pie #3. This one is just the classic pumpkin, and the recipe is the one printed on the Libby’s can! This one was last because there is basically nothing that can go wrong with it.
November 27, 2025 at 2:52 AM
And finally pie #3. This one is just the classic pumpkin, and the recipe is the one printed on the Libby’s can! This one was last because there is basically nothing that can go wrong with it.
Second pie of the day: chocolate pecan.
November 26, 2025 at 10:32 PM
Second pie of the day: chocolate pecan.