The hottest Research Substack posts right now

And their main takeaways
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Do Prediction Technologies Help Novices or Experts More?

New Things Under the Sun • 224 implied HN points • 27 Jan 25
🕹 Technology Research
  1. AI can help both beginners and experts, but it depends on the tasks they are working on. Sometimes, beginners gain more because AI levels the playing field.
  2. In some cases, experts benefit more from AI. They can solve complex problems that AI cannot, while beginners still struggle with those.
  3. Prediction tools can make a big difference in innovation fields like mining and drug discovery. The impact varies based on expertise and the types of problems being addressed.

Quick Guide to Evaluating Weight Science Research

Weight and Healthcare • 439 implied HN points • 17 Sep 22
🏥 Health & Wellness Research
  1. When evaluating weight science research, look for the original source and check if it is peer-reviewed for credibility.
  2. Examine who funded the study and the researchers' affiliations for potential biases.
  3. For weight loss claims, consider factors like dropout rates, actual weight lost, and the duration of follow-up to critically assess the study's conclusions.

On clouds: where they come from, where they go

Climate Water Project • 176 implied HN points • 08 May 23
🔬 Science Research
  1. Clouds are formed by multiple global processes like atmospheric circulation patterns and wind movements.
  2. Jet streams in the upper atmosphere play a role in cloud formation and rain patterns.
  3. Land degradation, like deforestation, can impact cloud formation and the occurrence of extreme weather events like atmospheric rivers and hurricanes.

O-Day - Elevation plan

Remote View • 176 implied HN points • 19 Mar 23
🔬 Science Research
  1. Discussion on unique features found in Dr. Alexander Parkhomov's reactor
  2. Possible correlation between specific structures in LENR experiments and the VEGA 'Pyramid'
  3. Interesting insights from third-party video interview on the Giza Death Star Trilogy
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Science Fictions links for November 2024

Science Fictions • 275 implied HN points • 02 Dec 24
🔬 Science Research
  1. Alzheimer's research is still struggling, with some drugs not working as expected despite years of studies.
  2. There are problems in scientific publishing, like peer reviews being partly written by AI and retracted papers not giving clear explanations of their issues.
  3. Scandals and fraud in science keep happening, affecting public trust and raising questions about the credibility of some research.

Major biomedical publisher: Prenatal Exposure to [emergency-authorized drug] Induces [BrainDamage]-Like Behaviors in Male Neonatal Rats

DrV’s Newsletter, Notes, Essays, Articles, Videos, and Book Chapters • 98 implied HN points • 17 Jan 24
🏥 Health & Wellness Research
  1. Prenatal exposure to certain drugs can cause brain damage-like behaviors in male neonatal rats.
  2. Research findings may face censorship and impact researchers' careers.
  3. Supporting non-censoring platforms is important in the face of antiscientific censorship.

Responding to Weight Loss Recommendations

Weight and Healthcare • 379 implied HN points • 26 Oct 22
🏥 Health & Wellness Research
  1. When considering weight loss interventions, ask for five-year data to evaluate long-term effectiveness and potential side effects.
  2. Advocate for systemic change to focus on weight-neutral interventions to support health directly rather than simply aiming for weight loss.
  3. Challenge the current practices in weight loss research and intervention approval processes to prioritize transparency, honesty, and true informed consent.

Renovations to the ivory tower

The Bell Ringer • 59 implied HN points • 22 Mar 24
🚌 Education Research
  1. Understanding how people learn is crucial for effective teaching. Teachers need to know learning styles to help students better.
  2. There are new resources and issues focusing on how novices learn. This can guide both educators and parents in supporting students.
  3. The importance of evidence-based approaches in education is growing. Relying on research can improve teaching strategies and student outcomes.

The Sequence Opinion #691: The Thought Police: Should We Monitor AI’s Inner Dialogue?

TheSequence • 84 implied HN points • 24 Jul 25
🕹 Technology Research
  1. The new paper talks about monitoring AI's reasoning, which is called chains of thought. This could help us catch bad behavior in AI before it happens.
  2. Leaders in AI support this idea, suggesting monitoring can work alongside other safety measures we already have.
  3. However, there's a warning that as AI improves, this way of monitoring might not work as well in the future.

Age of Invention: More the Merrier

Age of Invention, by Anton Howes • 720 implied HN points • 22 Dec 23
💾 History Research
  1. The author is sharing transcripts and notes from Samuel More's travel diaries about inventions and industries.
  2. The author has made over 100,000 words of transcripts available online for free for researchers.
  3. The post includes recommended reads from the author related to history, animals, and London's history.

The Sequence AI of the WeeK #690: Team Memories & Multi‑Agent Minds: Inside Reflection AI’s Asymov

TheSequence • 84 implied HN points • 23 Jul 25
🕹 Technology Research
  1. Reflection AI is a new lab in AI that focuses on making software engineering smarter and more efficient. Their goal is to connect how humans understand language with how computers understand code.
  2. Their first model, Asymov, represents a change from traditional single-function models to a system that uses multiple agents. This setup helps it understand tasks better and do them more accurately.
  3. The post goes deep into how Reflection AI has evolved and what makes Asymov special. It shares detailed insights for those who want to learn more about this advanced technology.

Gregor Mendel's Vanishing Act

Asimov Press • 232 implied HN points • 12 Jan 25
🔬 Science Research
  1. Gregor Mendel, known as the father of genetics, did much more than just his famous pea experiments. He worked across various scientific fields and made important discoveries about inheritance long before it was fully understood.
  2. Sadly, many of Mendel's notes and findings were destroyed after his death, leaving behind an incomplete representation of his life’s work. This loss means we might never fully appreciate the depth of his contributions.
  3. Mendel's educational journey was filled with challenges, including health issues that impacted his ability to become a teacher. Ironically, these struggles led him to his groundbreaking research in genetics, which changed biology forever.

The Genetic History of the British Isles

Holodoxa • 139 implied HN points • 16 Nov 23
🔬 Science Research
  1. Exploring genetic history through ancient DNA analysis is a fascinating discipline with different names like paleogenomics and genetic anthropology.
  2. Genetic studies on the British Isles, like the book 'Saxons, Vikings, and Celts,' highlight the complexities of genetic ancestry, including the influence of different ancient populations like the Bell Beaker culture.
  3. Haplogroup analysis, focusing on Y and mtDNA, provides insights into ancestry, although it may have limitations due to genetic drift, selection, and incomplete picture of the genome.

A Couple of Links

The Heart Attack Diet • 39 implied HN points • 29 Apr 24
🏥 Health & Wellness Research
  1. Seed oils can turn into trans-fats when exposed to heat, potentially having negative health effects
  2. Nutrition 'science' can be inconsistent and may lack conclusive evidence on the effects of seed oils
  3. Research in nutrition science is challenging and can lead to differing interpretations of data

About "artificial intuition"

Silicon Reckoner • 98 implied HN points • 11 Jan 24
🔬 Science Research
  1. Mathematicians have two sides to their work: creating new ideas and proving statements.
  2. Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) could potentially encompass all human competences, including mathematical creativity.
  3. Artificial Intuition is being explored to assist mathematicians in generating new ideas and collaborating with AI.

The Ultimate Resource Guide for Active Inference AI | 2024 Q1

Spatial Web AI by Denise Holt • 98 implied HN points • 10 Jan 24
🕹 Technology Research
  1. Active Inference AI is an emerging paradigm shift that mimics biological intelligence, offering a new framework for explainable and human-governed AI.
  2. The Ultimate Resource Guide for Active Inference AI | 2024 Q1 provides a comprehensive repository of research papers, educational materials, videos, interviews, and top people to follow in the field.
  3. The future of AI is moving towards shared, distributed, and multi-scale intelligence, rooted in biological mechanics, enabling a new era of explainable and collaborative AI without the need for massive amounts of data.

Israel: An In-Depth Look at Its Thriving Space Tech Ecosystem

Space Ambition • 219 implied HN points • 09 Jun 23
🕹 Technology Research
  1. Israel has a strong space tech startup scene with over 6,000 active startups. This impressive number shows how innovative and entrepreneurial the country is.
  2. The Israeli space community includes various organizations like the Israel Space Agency and numerous private companies working together on exciting space projects, boosting collaboration and development.
  3. Israel's history of challenges has driven its focus on innovation, helping it become a leader in space technology despite being a small nation with limited resources.

Will AI transform law?

AI Snake Oil • 648 implied HN points • 24 Jan 24
🕹 Technology Research
  1. The idea of AI replacing lawyers is plausible but not well-supported by current evidence.
  2. Applications of AI in law can be categorized into information processing, creativity/judgment tasks, and predicting the future.
  3. Evaluation of AI in law needs to advance beyond static benchmarks to real-world deployment scenarios.

The Sequence AI of the Week #777: Thinking Fast, Thinking Cheap: Thinking Fast, Thinking Cheap: The Nemotron 3 Blueprint

TheSequence • 14 implied HN points • 24 Dec 25
🕹 Technology Research
  1. NVIDIA launched the Nemotron 3 family (Nano, Super, and Ultra), establishing a new baseline for open-weight AI and moving into the reasoning-model race.
  2. The models use a hybrid Mamba-Transformer Mixture-of-Experts design, and Nemotron 3 Nano achieves a new state-of-the-art for the 30B parameter class, showing strong efficiency and performance.
  3. This release signals a shift away from brute-force dense Transformers toward more architecture-efficient, cost-effective models that matter for enterprises and researchers.

AI makes scientists more productive and less happy

Philosophy bear • 264 implied HN points • 30 Nov 24
🕹 Technology Research
  1. AI helps scientists work faster and discover more new materials, increasing their productivity significantly.
  2. However, many scientists feel less happy because they spend less time on creative idea generation, which they found enjoyable.
  3. The gap between top and bottom performers in science has widened, with skilled researchers benefiting more from AI, leading to concerns about inequality in the field.

Version 2 of the Vitamins and Minerals 101 Cliff Notes

Harnessing the Power of Nutrients • 419 implied HN points • 14 Oct 22
🏥 Health & Wellness Research
  1. The Vitamins and Minerals 101 Cliff Notes have been updated with key points from recent biotin research.
  2. Access to the updated Cliff Notes is available for free to Masterpass members and those who pre-ordered the book.
  3. For those who haven't qualified for free access, the updated Cliff Notes can be purchased for $2.99, offering practical insights from 18 years of nutritional research.

The Sequence Research #663: The Illusion of Thinking, Inside the Most Controversial AI Paper of Recent Weeks

TheSequence • 105 implied HN points • 13 Jun 25
🕹 Technology Research
  1. Large Reasoning Models (LRMs) can show improved performance by simulating thinking steps, but their ability to truly reason is questioned.
  2. Current tests for LLMs often miss the mark because they can have flaws like data contamination, not really measuring how well the models think.
  3. New puzzle environments are being introduced to better evaluate these models by challenging them in a structured way while keeping the logic clear.

Making Sense of the ChatGPT User Experience

UX Psychology • 158 implied HN points • 25 Aug 23
🕹 Technology Research
  1. Conversational AI tools like ChatGPT are transforming human-computer interaction by enabling natural language conversations on various topics.
  2. Studies show that features enhancing productivity and enjoyment, while ensuring accuracy, play a crucial role in shaping user experiences with ChatGPT.
  3. While ChatGPT offers benefits like enhanced productivity and user satisfaction compared to traditional methods, there are also notable risks like misinformation that need to be addressed through thoughtful design and transparency.

The Creator's Blind Spot

UX Psychology • 158 implied HN points • 28 Jun 23
🕹 Technology Research
  1. Understanding the psychology of AI creators is crucial as they may have an overly optimistic view of their own creations, known as the Inventor's Bias Effect.
  2. Inventors may view their products more positively due to personal identification with their creations, indicating biased decision-making.
  3. The importance of diverse input in decision-making processes to prevent overblown expectations about fairness and efficiency in AI tools.

[TI-02] first independent note

spencer's paradoxes • 157 implied HN points • 19 Feb 23
🕹 Technology Research
  1. Embodied attention and speculating new data materials are being explored.
  2. Exploring the future of data and what communal software could look like.
  3. Launching a website for gathering internet dreams to understand what people want from the internet.

Newsletter updates

The Counterfactual • 59 implied HN points • 12 Mar 24
🕹 Technology Research
  1. A guide on Large Language Models (LLMs) has been translated into Spanish, highlighting the complexities in translating technical terms accurately.
  2. The author recently participated in a podcast discussing philosophical questions about LLMs, sharing insights on topics like grounding and validity.
  3. Ongoing research aims to determine if LLMs can help measure and improve how easy texts are to read, with plans for future experiments to test this.

The Wake-Up Call

Field Guide to the Anthropocene • 157 implied HN points • 09 Jun 23
🔬 Science Research
  1. Awe is important for our well-being and can lead to happiness, kindness, and connection with others and the natural world.
  2. Experiencing awe is about being aware and open-hearted to the mysteries of existence, it's about feeling connected to something greater.
  3. Awe can be found in everyday experiences and can have positive effects on mental and physical health, encouraging altruism and reducing egocentrism.

Betting-Against-Beta is Over

Policy Tensor • 157 implied HN points • 04 Mar 23
💰 Finance Research
  1. Betting-Against-Beta pattern has vanished and CAPM is working fine now
  2. Constraints on leverage post-GFC led to a return of risk premium
  3. Research shows revival of CAPM and the end of the betting-against-beta trade

How Intelligent is the Average Rationalist?

sebjenseb • 157 implied HN points • 03 Jul 23
🔬 Science Research
  1. The average IQ of rationalists may not be as high as self-reported values suggest, with estimates pointing to an average IQ between 125-130.
  2. Analysis of SAT and IQ scores of rationalists indicates an estimated average IQ of about 133.6 after accounting for biases.
  3. Educational attainment and plausible assumptions suggest the average IQ of internet rationalists is between 125-130, considering selection for educational attainment.

Spreading Misinformation

The Heart Attack Diet • 119 implied HN points • 01 Dec 23
🏥 Health & Wellness Research
  1. There is a debate happening about whether seed oils are bad for humans, with evidence cited on both sides.
  2. Medical studies show that overeating saturated fats can lead to more liver and visceral fat accumulation, while overeating polyunsaturated fats can lead to more lean tissue accumulation.
  3. The study comparing saturated and polyunsaturated fats suggests they don't behave the same way in the body, impacting fat and lean tissue storage differently.

10x your mind 🧠

10x your mind • 479 implied HN points • 12 May 22
🚌 Education Research
  1. Underutilizing mental abilities is common; many of us make suboptimal decisions in various aspects of life.
  2. Training our minds is crucial for making smarter decisions and improving overall well-being; psychologists and neuroscientists provide valuable insights.
  3. Awareness of common mental mistakes and cognitive biases is key to enhancing decision-making and reaching our full potential.

The Sequence Research #543: The Leaderboard Illusion Challenges Chatbot Arena Type Benchmarks

TheSequence • 119 implied HN points • 16 May 25
🕹 Technology Research
  1. Leaderboards in AI help direct research by showing who is doing well, but they can also create problems. They might not show the whole picture of how models really perform.
  2. The Chatbot Arena is a way to judge AI models based on user choices, but it has issues that make it unfair. Some big labs can take advantage of the system more than smaller ones.
  3. To make AI evaluations better, there need to be rules that ensure fairness and transparency. This way, everyone gets a fair chance in the AI race.

Turning NPS into action: how to make the most out of a... dubious metric*

UX Psychology • 218 implied HN points • 14 Dec 22
💼 Business Research
  1. NPS (Net Promoter Score) measures customer loyalty based on likelihood of recommendation. Responses are categorized into Promoters, Passives, and Detractors.
  2. To make the most of NPS, ensure it is measured properly by defining target audience, using standardized surveys, analyzing data regularly, and avoiding biases.
  3. Despite NPS limitations, leverage its open-ended question for uncovering user pain points, recruiting research participants, involving all team members, complementing with other metrics, and using it strategically.