David Crotty
@dacrotty.bsky.social
Executive Director and Publisher, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press. Head Chef at The Scholarly Kitchen. Ex-Publishing Consultant, Ex-Editor-in-Chief, Ex-Scientist, Ex-etc. All opinions my own.
Reposted by David Crotty
It's weird to not only have lived through an information revolution but also now living through its undoing, all within less than a generation.
Google at its peak was basically the best information retrieval system in human history and they and every competitor decided going from there to “you didn’t want answers you wanted half-assed auto-complete 80%-wrong hallucinations” in a few years was the right idea
November 25, 2025 at 12:19 PM
It's weird to not only have lived through an information revolution but also now living through its undoing, all within less than a generation.
What we did before Google www.instagram.com/reel/DRZ0j5x...
Instagram
Create an account or log in to Instagram - Share what you're into with the people who get you.
www.instagram.com
November 25, 2025 at 1:38 AM
What we did before Google www.instagram.com/reel/DRZ0j5x...
Reposted by David Crotty
“Do more for less!” Plus of course “Make things more complicated but easier!”
November 23, 2025 at 4:07 PM
“Do more for less!” Plus of course “Make things more complicated but easier!”
Reposted by David Crotty
From @aip-publishing.bsky.social: cost of a peer reviewed article is $2700 (*before* you start giving back to the community). Would like to see a more detailed split, but it does align with estimates from eLife and EMBO #ScientificPublishing
www.stm-publishing.com/cost-transpa...
www.stm-publishing.com/cost-transpa...
Cost Transparency at AIP Publishing: Why We’re Sharing Our True Costs
AIP Publishing is committed to building a more inclusive and vibrant future for the physical sciences. Open science can accelerate global progress by breaking barriers to open and fair research commun...
www.stm-publishing.com
November 23, 2025 at 12:46 PM
From @aip-publishing.bsky.social: cost of a peer reviewed article is $2700 (*before* you start giving back to the community). Would like to see a more detailed split, but it does align with estimates from eLife and EMBO #ScientificPublishing
www.stm-publishing.com/cost-transpa...
www.stm-publishing.com/cost-transpa...
Reposted by David Crotty
Image screening is going to fail. We need audit trails for data provenance.
I tried an even harder example on Gemini Pro image generation and this is quite scary/amazing. I asked for a microscopy image of around 20 HeLa cells, GFP tagged 20% nuclear, 10% membrane, +1 nuclear staining, + overlap. Image below and prompt in the following post.
November 22, 2025 at 4:21 PM
Image screening is going to fail. We need audit trails for data provenance.
Reposted by David Crotty
Seems like that Gmail thing isn't true but maybe there's a lesson here about what happens when you keep turning new features on by default and you make it difficult or impossible to turn them off, and also what happens when you lump useful machine learning in with forced slop under the "AI" label
November 22, 2025 at 3:24 PM
Seems like that Gmail thing isn't true but maybe there's a lesson here about what happens when you keep turning new features on by default and you make it difficult or impossible to turn them off, and also what happens when you lump useful machine learning in with forced slop under the "AI" label
I’ve never worked for a journal that charged authors for a cover. Are those paid-for covers labeled as “advertising“?
*some* journals, not all.
Really, journals charge for the cover? That's a new low
November 22, 2025 at 3:11 PM
I’ve never worked for a journal that charged authors for a cover. Are those paid-for covers labeled as “advertising“?
Reposted by David Crotty
"If the data is accurate...it would call into question the business model of OpenAI and nearly every other general-purpose LLM vendor" www.ft.com/content/fce7...
How high are OpenAI’s compute costs? Possibly a lot higher than we thought
Inference inferred, revenue reconstructed, cash burn quantified
www.ft.com
November 22, 2025 at 2:13 PM
"If the data is accurate...it would call into question the business model of OpenAI and nearly every other general-purpose LLM vendor" www.ft.com/content/fce7...
Reposted by David Crotty
Plus: a quick guide to the two-step process for opting out.
If You Use Gmail, You're Going To Want To Turn Off This 1 Automatic Setting ASAP
Plus: a quick guide to the two-step process for opting out.
www.huffpost.com
November 21, 2025 at 7:52 PM
Plus: a quick guide to the two-step process for opting out.
Reposted by David Crotty
Everyone teaching right now sees lots of evidence for this. Students using LLMs are, to varying degrees, incapable of independently doing the things they are supposedly learning, the same way that students copying answers from a solutions manual then struggle to do something similar on an exam.
November 21, 2025 at 1:40 PM
Everyone teaching right now sees lots of evidence for this. Students using LLMs are, to varying degrees, incapable of independently doing the things they are supposedly learning, the same way that students copying answers from a solutions manual then struggle to do something similar on an exam.
Reposted by David Crotty
It’s widely known (and, I think, pretty uncontroversial) that learning requires effort — specifically, if you don’t have to work at getting the knowledge, it won’t stick.
Even if an LLM could be trusted to give you correct information 100% of the time, it would be an inferior method of learning it.
Even if an LLM could be trusted to give you correct information 100% of the time, it would be an inferior method of learning it.
Relying on ChatGPT to teach you about a topic leaves you with shallower knowledge than Googling and reading about it, according to new research that compared what more than 10,000 people knew after using one method or the other.
Shared by @gizmodo.com: buff.ly/yAAHtHq
Shared by @gizmodo.com: buff.ly/yAAHtHq
November 21, 2025 at 12:49 PM
It’s widely known (and, I think, pretty uncontroversial) that learning requires effort — specifically, if you don’t have to work at getting the knowledge, it won’t stick.
Even if an LLM could be trusted to give you correct information 100% of the time, it would be an inferior method of learning it.
Even if an LLM could be trusted to give you correct information 100% of the time, it would be an inferior method of learning it.
Easily the best album ever with the title “Let it Be” The moment it all clicked for the Replacements — before it fell apart wapo.st/3LWw0pm
The moment it all clicked for the Replacements — before it fell apart
‘Let It Be,” the Replacements’ 1984 album, hit a sweet spot they would never again find. Drummer Chris Mars and guitarist Tommy Stinson discuss a new RE-release.
wapo.st
November 21, 2025 at 3:42 PM
Easily the best album ever with the title “Let it Be” The moment it all clicked for the Replacements — before it fell apart wapo.st/3LWw0pm
Reposted by David Crotty
This is true in theory, but decades later self-archiving hasn't exactly won hearts and minds either. It's almost like running a profitable business and using those profits to pay professionals to do their job is worthwhile when it comes to dissemination of scholarly work.
November 17, 2025 at 9:47 PM
This is true in theory, but decades later self-archiving hasn't exactly won hearts and minds either. It's almost like running a profitable business and using those profits to pay professionals to do their job is worthwhile when it comes to dissemination of scholarly work.
Reposted by David Crotty
Many journal sites are down. But you know which one is NOT?
That of CSH Protocols!
So, check out the definitive source of technique-related reviews and laboratory protocols in the life sciences.
cshprotocols.cshlp.org
That of CSH Protocols!
So, check out the definitive source of technique-related reviews and laboratory protocols in the life sciences.
cshprotocols.cshlp.org
November 18, 2025 at 3:03 PM
Many journal sites are down. But you know which one is NOT?
That of CSH Protocols!
So, check out the definitive source of technique-related reviews and laboratory protocols in the life sciences.
cshprotocols.cshlp.org
That of CSH Protocols!
So, check out the definitive source of technique-related reviews and laboratory protocols in the life sciences.
cshprotocols.cshlp.org
Reposted by David Crotty
I'd guess that 85-90% of American scientists would be ineligible for future funding under this law, maybe close to 100% in the R1 universities. So much for funding proposals based on scientific merit.
Apart from being sinophobes, the people pushing this have no clue how science or higher ed works.
Apart from being sinophobes, the people pushing this have no clue how science or higher ed works.
“The prohibited activities would include joint research, co-authorship on papers, and advising a foreign graduate student or postdoctoral fellow. The language is retroactive, meaning any interactions during the previous 5 years could make a scientist ineligible for future federal funding.”
U.S. Congress considers sweeping ban on Chinese collaborations
Researchers speak out against proposal that would bar funding for U.S. scientists working with Chinese partners or training Chinese students
www.science.org
November 14, 2025 at 11:31 AM
I'd guess that 85-90% of American scientists would be ineligible for future funding under this law, maybe close to 100% in the R1 universities. So much for funding proposals based on scientific merit.
Apart from being sinophobes, the people pushing this have no clue how science or higher ed works.
Apart from being sinophobes, the people pushing this have no clue how science or higher ed works.
Reposted by David Crotty
Goodhart’s Law of AI
I know, let's prescreen them with AI, then hoomins only have to look at a few... Then everyone can use a similar tool before they submit to make sure th
November 14, 2025 at 1:38 PM
Goodhart’s Law of AI
Reposted by David Crotty
![[Scene is a kitchen - a middle aged woman called JANET is boiling peas at the stove. A younger more colourfully dressed woman named LIZ approached her.]
JANET:
Ugh...
LIZ:
What's up?
JANET:
I am so bored of cooking peas!
LIZ:
Have you tried...
AI peas?
JANET:
AI peas?
LIZ:
They're peas with AI!
[Liz holds up to us a packet of peas labelled: Pea-i AI - Peas with AI].
LIZ:
Al-powered peas harness the potential of your peas
JANET:
What
LIZ [Now a voiceover as we cut to a whizzy technology diagram of peas all connected by meaningless dotted lines]
Why not take your peas to the next level with Al Peas' new Al tools to power your peas?
[Show a techno diagram of a pea with a label reading 'AI' pointing to a random zone in it]
LIZ:
Each pea has Al in a way we haven't quite worked out yet but it's fine
[Show Janet and Liz now in a Matrix-style world of peas]
LIZ:
With Al peas you can supercharge productivity and make AI work for your peas!
JANET:
What
LIZ:
Shut up
LIZ:
Our game-changing Pea-Al gives you the freedom to unlock the potential of the power of the future of your peas workflow
From opening the bag of peas
to boiling the peas
to eating the peas
To spending millions on adding Al to the peas and then having to work out what that even means.
JANET:
Is it really necessary to-
LIZ [Grabbing Janet by the collar]:
THE PEAS HAVE GOT AI, JANET
[Cut to an advert ending screen, with the bag of peas and the slogan:
AI PEAS: Just 'Peas' for god's sake buy the AI peas.
[Ends]](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:4m3we4apbjayclzcnhwe3pfp/bafkreiayqa37f7kik7l7s7fbtfp2sir5ckb662ry2lylinyjrfa2rkvvka@jpeg)
Reposted by David Crotty
every company in 2025
November 12, 2025 at 5:59 PM
every company in 2025
New issue of @brieferyet.bsky.social out today. A look at Wiley’s intriguing new AI offerings, journals backflip from S2O to subscription status (and why this is a good thing), how big is too big for a journal, two new publishing manifestos, and OUP buys Karger. www.ce-strategy.com/the-brief/ga...
Gateway(s) | Clarke & Esposito
Wiley’s new AI offerings, journals backflip from S2O, giant journals, manifestos, OUP buys Karger
www.ce-strategy.com
November 11, 2025 at 12:19 PM
New issue of @brieferyet.bsky.social out today. A look at Wiley’s intriguing new AI offerings, journals backflip from S2O to subscription status (and why this is a good thing), how big is too big for a journal, two new publishing manifestos, and OUP buys Karger. www.ce-strategy.com/the-brief/ga...
Reposted by David Crotty
HISTORIAN OF THE LIFE SCIENCES position at CSHL!
I’m thrilled to announce that the CSHL Center for Humanities and the History of Modern Biology is inviting applications for this position.
This is a remarkable opportunity to join a unique, internationally recognized institution and the Center
I’m thrilled to announce that the CSHL Center for Humanities and the History of Modern Biology is inviting applications for this position.
This is a remarkable opportunity to join a unique, internationally recognized institution and the Center
Career Opportunities | Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Careers
www.schooljobs.com
November 10, 2025 at 4:52 PM
HISTORIAN OF THE LIFE SCIENCES position at CSHL!
I’m thrilled to announce that the CSHL Center for Humanities and the History of Modern Biology is inviting applications for this position.
This is a remarkable opportunity to join a unique, internationally recognized institution and the Center
I’m thrilled to announce that the CSHL Center for Humanities and the History of Modern Biology is inviting applications for this position.
This is a remarkable opportunity to join a unique, internationally recognized institution and the Center
Reposted by David Crotty
In my teenage bedroom at dawn listening to Patti Smith cause @jennpelly.bsky.social pitchfork.com/reviews/albu...
Patti Smith: Horses
Read Jenn Pelly’s review of the album.
pitchfork.com
November 9, 2025 at 11:32 AM
In my teenage bedroom at dawn listening to Patti Smith cause @jennpelly.bsky.social pitchfork.com/reviews/albu...
Reposted by David Crotty
This Historian of Life Sciences three-year position at Cold Spring Harbord Lab, NY is worth a look. #HistSci
www.schooljobs.com/careers/cshl...
www.schooljobs.com/careers/cshl...
Career Opportunities | Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Careers
www.schooljobs.com
November 8, 2025 at 4:16 PM
This Historian of Life Sciences three-year position at Cold Spring Harbord Lab, NY is worth a look. #HistSci
www.schooljobs.com/careers/cshl...
www.schooljobs.com/careers/cshl...
This reminds me of one of my favorite @kawulf.bsky.social posts on the subjectivity of historical narratives scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org/2015/12/21/w...
November 8, 2025 at 5:59 PM
This reminds me of one of my favorite @kawulf.bsky.social posts on the subjectivity of historical narratives scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org/2015/12/21/w...