The hottest Academic Research Substack posts right now

And their main takeaways
Category
Top Science Topics

"Republic.com 2.0" is a terrible book title

Never Met a Science • 61 implied HN points • 06 Jan 25
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Political Communication Academic Research Social media Empirical Studies
  1. Academic research often focuses heavily on citing previous works, sometimes forgetting to build on fresh ideas. It's important to also look forward and explore new questions.
  2. There’s a debate about how much theory should inform empirical research. Striking a balance between solid theory and real-world relevance is crucial for effective studies.
  3. The conventions of academic writing can limit exploration of current issues in digital media. Researchers should prioritize relevant topics instead of strictly following old academic norms.

Free Sociology

Bet On It • 246 implied HN points • 07 Feb 25
🎭️ Culture Sociology Libertarianism Political theory Academic Research Community Building
  1. Sociology often seems aligned with progressive views, making it seem like sociology and libertarianism are opposites. However, there are ways for them to connect and have important discussions.
  2. Many classical liberal ideas can lead to important research questions in sociology, especially about how free markets can help reduce poverty. This perspective is different from the common focus on the inevitability of poverty in capitalism.
  3. There is a need for a different approach within sociology that appreciates freedoms like free speech and limited government, rather than just focusing on government regulation or anti-capitalist views.

The Pathogenic Academic Lobby

A Biologist's Guide to Life • 99 implied HN points • 10 Feb 24
🔬 Science Academic Research Virology Ethics Pandemic Preparedness
  1. The history of the COVID-19 pandemic traces back to controversial research on potentially pandemic pathogens conducted by influential scientists before the pandemic began.
  2. A group called Scientists For Science, formed by key researchers, lobbied for the continuation of risky research on enhancing potentially pandemic pathogens, prioritizing academic pursuits and funding over clear benefits or safety precautions.
  3. The public may not be aware of the ongoing conflicts of interest, power struggles, and lobbying efforts within the scientific community regarding high-risk research, highlighting the need for transparency, accountability, and ethical guidelines in handling dangerous pathogens.

March Madness Forecasts: FiveThirtyEight vs. Betting Markets

Mike’s Blog • 78 implied HN points • 07 Apr 23
💰 Finance Data Analysis Forecasting Academic Research Sports
  1. Betting markets slightly outperformed FiveThirtyEight in predicting NBA, NFL, and MLB games.
  2. New data collected for March Madness shows both FiveThirtyEight and betting markets performed similarly, and neither significantly outperformed.
  3. Hypothesis: Both betting markets and experts may have worse accuracy in playoffs and tournaments compared to regular season games.
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And now for something completely different

New Things Under the Sun • 192 implied HN points • 07 Jun 23
📚 Literature Societal collapse Academic Research
  1. Existential Crunch is a living literature review discussing societal collapse and academic research on the topic.
  2. The field of societal collapse research is still early in its development and urgent given current warnings of potential collapse.
  3. Initiatives like living literature reviews can support the synthesis of academic research on policy-relevant topics.

Inside Alpaca: The Language Model from Stanford University that can Follow Instructions and Match GPT-3.5

TheSequence • 203 implied HN points • 06 Apr 23
🕹 Technology Language Models Artificial Intelligence Academic Research
  1. Alpaca is a language model from Stanford University that can follow instructions and is smaller than GPT-3.5.
  2. Instruction-following models like GPT-3.5 have issues with false information, social stereotypes, and toxic language.
  3. Academic research on instruction-following models is challenging due to limited availability of models similar to closed-source ones like OpenAI's text-davinci-003.

Lecture 1: Categories, Functors, & Naturality

Quantum Formalism • 0 implied HN points • 07 Mar 23
🚌 Education Mathematics Online Learning Computer Science Academic Research Networking
  1. Category theory is important in various fields like functional programming, formal verification, machine learning, and quantum information science.
  2. Connecting with experts like Brian Hepler can provide valuable insights and opportunities in mathematical research.
  3. The course emphasizes sharing knowledge and encouraging more people to learn the language of Category theory.