The hottest Open Science Substack posts right now

And their main takeaways
Category
Top Science Topics

Experiments that never see the light of day

Briefly Bio • 19 implied HN points • 31 Oct 24
🔬 Science Open Science
  1. Many experiments go unpublished because they're too small or inconclusive. Even if they don't seem important, they really help build bigger discoveries.
  2. It's important for scientists to share these lesser-known experiments. Sharing can help the whole field of science progress faster.
  3. Open science encourages collaboration. Scientists and companies should talk to each other about new ways to share research.

Inventing the Methods Section

Asimov Press • 380 implied HN points • 12 Jan 26
🔬 Science Open Science
  1. Over time, methods went from practical, detailed recipes to short, sidelined Methods sections, and that shift makes many experiments hard or slow to reproduce.
  2. A lot of essential lab know-how is tacit and doesn’t fit cleanly into text, so videos, protocol repositories, and supplements help but face sustainability and credit problems and still treat methods as second-class outputs.
  3. Fixing this requires new infrastructure (versioning, executable protocols, automation, recorded workflows, cloud labs) and changing incentives so people are rewarded for sharing and improving methods, not just for novel results.

Import AI 350: Neural architecture search at Facebook scale; hunting cancer with PANDA; European VCs launch a science lab

Import AI • 279 implied HN points • 27 Nov 23
🕹 Technology Open Science
  1. An AI system called PANDA can accurately identify pancreatic cancer from scans, outperforming radiologists.
  2. Facebook developed Rankitect for neural architecture search, which has proven to create better models than human engineers alone.
  3. A European open science AI lab called Kyutai has been launched with a focus on developing large multimodal models and promoting open research.

A Good Science Manifesto

The Good Science Project • 26 implied HN points • 11 Dec 25
🔬 Science Open Science
  1. Science funding should prioritize producing reliable, useful knowledge and reward being right, supporting both risky exploratory work and goal-oriented projects.
  2. Funders must cut heavy administrative burdens and require open sharing of data and methods so others can verify and build on results quickly.
  3. The funding system should be more flexible and diverse: experiment with new funding models, provide stable support for infrastructure and staff scientists, and distribute support more evenly across career stages.

Data Deficits

A Biologist's Guide to Life • 9 implied HN points • 13 Dec 25
🕹 Technology Open Science
  1. Data, not just compute or model design, is often the limiting factor for high-performance bio-AI, so who controls unique, high-quality data will largely determine competitive success.
  2. Public scientific databases can catalyze big breakthroughs (e.g., AlphaFold) but they also let fast-following competitors benefit without having contributed equally, creating a public-goods problem.
  3. Policy matters: investing in data generation and open sharing without rules to ensure reciprocity or strategic protection can create a one-sided "data deficit," so governance must balance openness with safeguarding national advantage.
Get a weekly roundup of the best Substack posts, by hacker news affinity:

Addressing Research Fraud

The Good Science Project • 89 implied HN points • 27 Jan 25
🔬 Science Open Science
  1. The Good Science Project aims to help investigate research fraud and support whistleblowers. They want to make it easier for people to report misconduct in science.
  2. Research fraud is a common problem, with many scientists admitting to questionable practices. Reports suggest that a significant number of researchers have seen or engaged in misconduct.
  3. The project plans to provide legal and educational resources for those worried about speaking out against fraud. They want to empower more people to come forward about their concerns.

Extremely Open Science

Rabbit Thoughts • 39 implied HN points • 17 Jan 24
🔬 Science Open Science
  1. The author will work on a scientific project completely in the open in 2024, streaming and recording sessions for an hour per week.
  2. The project aims to show the process from scratch to help junior researchers understand and learn from the experience of dealing with minor issues.
  3. The author is choosing a question for the project that can be followed along at home with just a personal laptop or desktop computer.

Science Fictions links for November 2023

Science Fictions • 275 implied HN points • 19 Nov 23
🔬 Science Open Science
  1. The Science Fictions Substack shares interesting, amusing, and depressing bad-science links.
  2. Scientific fields like Alzheimer's and physics face issues with scientific fraud and retractions.
  3. Open Science practices like pre-registering studies can lead to high replication rates.

New ways to make scientific advancements?

Digital in bio • 19 implied HN points • 04 Dec 23
🔬 Science Open Science
  1. Technological progress is advancing at an unprecedented rate, driven by diverse sources like companies and academia.
  2. Institutions like Bell Labs in the past and present-day industrial R&D labs showcase the benefits of structured, well-funded research initiatives.
  3. Non-profit organizations focusing on open science are emerging as crucial players in the scientific community, promoting collaboration, transparency, and interdisciplinary advancement.