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S. Scott Graham

@sscottgraham.bsky.social

760 followers 430 following 410 posts

Writing about health, ethics, COI, rhetoric, AI, and anatomy museums (usually only 2-3 in any given act of writing) at UT-Austin. https://sscottgraham.com

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S. Scott Graham @sscottgraham.bsky.social · Apr 3

Sharing a little bit more about my NEH-sponsored research on anatomical museums today. I have no idea if this project will retain funding, but I am incredibly grateful for the NEH program officers and reviewers who have made so much humanities research possible. sscottgraham.com/archives/911

Entrance to Musem Vrolik. White brick corridor with fat trim black outlined doorway. Blue sign of museum name and posters of anatomical specimens on the wall.

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S. Scott Graham @sscottgraham.bsky.social · 14h

Just got falsely accused of using AI for something I worked hard on. Stop doing this! I know you think you can tell, but I promise you can't.

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S. Scott Graham @sscottgraham.bsky.social · 14h

My first LLM test was a peer teaching observation letter. The output was indistinguishable from human. It wasn't accurate to what happened in the classroom that day, but the impact of the letter on annual review or P&T would have been no different than the real one. (I submitted the real one!)

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S. Scott Graham @sscottgraham.bsky.social · 21h

There's a lot of research on prompting to improve outputs. Some is remarkably reliable. It might look like the prompt is trying to reach the LLM's "mind," but that's a dangerous assumption for both prompter & critic. Just b/c that's not happening, doesn't mean there aren't measurable improvements.

S. Scott Graham @sscottgraham.bsky.social · 21h

While it's certainly true that LLMs will never stop hallucinating, that doesn't mean prompting can't reduce hallucination rates. Medical researchers, in particular, are very used to provoking improvement empirically & measuring responses, all under the expectation that perfection is unattainable.

Trapping LLM Hallucinations Using Tagged Context Prompts

Recent advances in large language models (LLMs), such as ChatGPT, have led to highly sophisticated conversation agents. However, these models suffer from "hallucinations," where the model generates fa...

arxiv.org

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Reposted by S. Scott Graham

Andrea Kaston Tange @aktange.bsky.social · 2d

My latest: "Numerous studies show that majors in the humanities—typically, in departments of English, history, philosophy, religious studies, classics and languages—lead students to employment and life satisfaction outcomes as positive as those for majors traditionally championed as 'practical.'”

Counterpoint | Minnesota humanities graduates thrive in meaningful careers

"The stereotype of the underemployed history major is simply not true," professor Andrea Kaston Tange writes.

www.startribune.com

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Reposted by S. Scott Graham

bleary @bleary.off-the-records.com · 1d

If anyone needs me I will be in the museum, lying down next to the bog bodies.

Did people really memorize phone numbers before cell phones, or is that just a movie thing?
2? Questions
I was watching some old shows from the 90s and noticed people would just dial numbers from memory - like they'd call their friends or family without looking anything up.
Made me wonder if that was actually normal back then? Did people genuinely have all their important numbers memorized, or did most folks keep a little address book or written list nearby?

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Reposted by S. Scott Graham

Daniel S. Goldberg @profgoldberg.bsky.social · 3d

👀

I love being an AE for a journal that has SIs like this!

(I am the AE for Law & Bioethics at this journal but have absolutely nothing to do with this SI; I just think it’s cool!)

Dr. Regina Mueller @reginamueller.bsky.social · 3d

We’re excited to share a CfP for a Special Issue “Bioethics and Structural (In)justice” in Bioethics! We invite articles from all disciplines. Deadline: September 1, 2026
We can’t wait to read your contributions!
Regina Müller, Mirjam Faissner, Isabella Marcinski-Michel & Stefanie Weigold

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Reposted by S. Scott Graham

Alexander Douglas @axdouglas.bsky.social · 4d

I wonder if Dutch philosophy departments in the 1630s were only hiring in the philosophy of tulips.

Doctor Logic @saraluckelman.bsky.social · 4d

One might also say "hiring committees".

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S. Scott Graham @sscottgraham.bsky.social · 3d

This is giving me flashbacks to 1991 when every news story about the breakup of the USSR featured b-roll of breadlines.

Drew Harwell @drewharwell.com · 4d

Military families on day 9 of the shutdown lining up at the food bank

Reposted by S. Scott Graham

Melissa Terras @melissaterras.bsky.social · 5d

Job! Postdoc in Digital Cultural Heritage: Data Ethics & Software Ecosystems, on new EU funded grant. 3.5 years, @designinf.bsky.social, Edinburgh. Design ethical processes, & evaluate open source tools for Digital Cultural Heritage Objects, with me! elxw.fa.em3.oraclecloud.com/hcmUI/Candid...

Postdoctoral Research Associate (Digital Cultural Heritage Data Ethics & Software Ecosystems)

We are looking for a Postdoctoral Research Associate in Digital Cultural Heritage Data Ethics & Software Ecosystems to join the Institute for Design Informatics, Edinburgh College of Art.

elxw.fa.em3.oraclecloud.com

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S. Scott Graham @sscottgraham.bsky.social · 5d

A non-trivial subset seems to mainly be a way of making efforts to induce trust look like efforts to demonstrate trustworthiness

S. Scott Graham @sscottgraham.bsky.social · 6d

I love this story with my entire heart and soul. www.bbc.com/news/article...

US scientist Dr Fred Ramsdell was on the last day of a three-week hike with his wife Laura O'Neill and their two dogs, deep in Montana's grizzly bear country, when Ms O'Neill suddenly started screaming.

But it was not a predator that had disturbed the quiet of their off-grid holiday: it was a flurry of text messages bearing the news that Dr Ramsdell had won the Nobel Prize for medicine.

Dr Ramsdell, whose phone had been on airplane mode when the Nobel committee tried to call him, told the BBC's Newshour Programme that his first response when his wife said, "You've won the Nobel prize" was: "I did not."

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S. Scott Graham @sscottgraham.bsky.social · 9d

thanks!

S. Scott Graham @sscottgraham.bsky.social · 9d

Impressive results, but the lack of academic or student writing in the test sets are a bit of a red flag for me. I see from your other post that you don't rely on it exclusively, and I appreciate that.

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S. Scott Graham @sscottgraham.bsky.social · 9d

I'm particularly interested in studies like this this show only 35% of instructors could consistently identify AI writing. (I worry lists the one on Wikipedia increases the undue confidence.) jalt.journals.publicknowledgeproject.org/index.php/ja...

View of Can instructors detect AI-generated papers? Postsecondary writing instructor knowledge and perceptions of AI | Journal of Applied Learning and Teaching

jalt.journals.publicknowledgeproject.org

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S. Scott Graham @sscottgraham.bsky.social · 9d

Many faculty are confident they can identify AI submissions. The data mostly says otherwise. Some students are confident they can identify AI-generated faculty feedback. Anyone seen any studies on this yet? I suspect this might be easier since the individualization gap is probably greater.

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Reposted by S. Scott Graham

Jeremy Snyder @jsnyder.bsky.social · 10d

Great piece on the massive conflicts of interest when private equity firms own IRBs that they then use to assess drug trials for their own companies.

@hollylynchez.bsky.social: "If you are just focused on turnaround time, that doesn’t tell you really anything about quality.”

How Private Equity Oversees the Ethics of Drug Research

www.nytimes.com

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S. Scott Graham @sscottgraham.bsky.social · 11d

Jennifer for me 🤷‍♂️

S. Scott Graham @sscottgraham.bsky.social · 12d

I can think if six different ways to agree with you here

Reposted by S. Scott Graham

Comfortably Numb @numb.comfortab.ly · 13d

Bluesky feed is like

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we're doomed
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we're doomed
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we're doomed
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cute kitty!
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we're doomed
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we're doomed
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[adult content]
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we're doomed
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S. Scott Graham @sscottgraham.bsky.social · 14d

This is the next iteration of “participants were 138 undergrads looking for extra credit it psych 102”

Jamie Cummins @jamiecummins.bsky.social · 27d

Can large language models stand in for human participants?
Many social scientists seem to think so, and are already using "silicon samples" in research.

One problem: depending on the analytic decisions made, you can basically get these samples to show any effect you want.

THREAD 🧵

The threat of analytic flexibility in using large language models to simulate human data: A call to attention

Social scientists are now using large language models to create "silicon samples" - synthetic datasets intended to stand in for human respondents, aimed at revolutionising human subjects research. How...

arxiv.org

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S. Scott Graham @sscottgraham.bsky.social · 15d

I've defaulted to "The Shituation"

This skeet will self destruct @pardoguerra.bsky.social · 15d

The This-Is-Fine-cene

Tressie McMillan Cottom @tressiemcphd.bsky.social · 15d

“The current climate” etc.

Reposted by S. Scott Graham

Dave Vanness @djvanness.bsky.social · 15d

A lot of people think that every international student admitted means one fewer spot for domestic students, when the opposite is more likely true - the tuition revenue international students bring allows public universities to provide substantial discounts to domestic students, improving access.

Nick Fleisher @nickfleisher.bsky.social · 15d

30% drop year over year!

Amid visa restrictions, international freshmen enrollment plummets at UW-Madison

This year’s number of international freshmen is the lowest recorded since at least 2015.

www.jsonline.com

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S. Scott Graham @sscottgraham.bsky.social · 19d

Was the argument more about the first L or the second L?

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S. Scott Graham @sscottgraham.bsky.social · 19d

Do historians have established guidelines for when to use and not use parenthetical lifespans, e.g. "Herman Boerhaave (1668-1738)"? I can't discern the rules from reading and google's search disaster just wants to give me population statistics.