The hottest Research Substack posts right now

And their main takeaways
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Top Health Politics Topics

A Moment of Disbelief

The Last Bear Standing • 45 implied HN points • 31 Jan 25
🕹 Technology Research
  1. Deepseek has developed new AI models that are very effective and cost much less than competitors. This shows that you can create powerful AI without needing huge resources.
  2. The way AI models are built might change, focusing more on better training methods instead of just adding more hardware. This means companies might need to rethink their strategies.
  3. NVIDIA's stock took a big hit because of the competition from Deepseek. The market didn't react well to the idea that AI could be done more efficiently.

The Ultima Genomics/Olink BioBank Deal

ASeq Newsletter • 51 implied HN points • 11 Jan 25
🔬 Science Research
  1. Ultima Genomics has won a significant project with the UK Biobank to analyze 700,000 samples. This partnership is a major step for them in the field of proteomics.
  2. Despite the project size, Ultima is expected to generate only $10 million to $20 million in revenue. This highlights the tough financial realities in the biotech industry.
  3. To stay viable, Ultima needs to secure more large projects, as its costs are high. Achieving the necessary volume of work may be challenging given the current economic situation.

ESPionage: When the CIA Attempted Telepathy (Project Stargate)

Tripsitter • 39 implied HN points • 15 Jun 23
💾 History Research
  1. Two scientists convinced the CIA to fund research on telepathic ability in 1973, believing it could be used for spying on other nations.
  2. The feds funded the research secretly as 'Project Stargate' for almost 20 years, with strange and unexplainable successes in the program.
  3. Former President Jimmy Carter leaked the existence of the research in 1995, leading to the end of 'Project Stargate.'

Glyphic's Nanopores

ASeq Newsletter • 21 implied HN points • 27 Jun 25
🔬 Science Research
  1. Glyphic has a new way to sequence proteins using nanopores, which is exciting for science. They have filed a patent for this method.
  2. They have shared more data with some investors, showing progress beyond what's in the patent.
  3. Despite their advancements, Glyphic hasn't talked much about their technology publicly yet.

What to make of China's 6th gen?

TP’s Substack • 53 implied HN points • 26 Dec 24
🕹 Technology Research
  1. China's 6th generation fighter jets may be larger and more powerful than previous models, possibly able to carry more fuel and advanced electronics.
  2. The future of air warfare might rely on a mix of manned aircraft and unmanned combat aerial vehicles (UCAVs), potentially changing the typical roles and payloads expected of fighter jets.
  3. The anticipated design and capabilities of these new jets suggest they will need significant power for advanced technologies, allowing them to perform a variety of missions effectively.
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The case for an economic AGI AI Lab

Subsack • 4 implied HN points • 09 Dec 25
🕹 Technology Research
  1. Markets are dynamic, adversarial environments that force AI to adapt under uncertainty, making them a stronger real‑world benchmark than static puzzles. They test whether knowledge survives contact with reality, not just pattern recognition.
  2. Building an AI that works in markets demands new capabilities — sample efficiency, continual learning without catastrophic forgetting, long‑term memory, deep multimodal world models, and game‑theoretic strategic reasoning. Those constraints push research beyond today’s scale‑and‑transformer centric approach.
  3. Economic AGI offers a clear monetisation path: outperforming markets, running prediction markets, or allocating capital can directly convert intelligence into revenue. That revenue can make labs financially sustainable and fund further AGI research.

Off the top of my head 💭 — Availability bias

10x your mind • 99 implied HN points • 23 Jun 22
🔬 Science Research
  1. The availability bias influences decision-making by making us rely on easy, quick examples that come to mind, rather than considering a full range of options.
  2. People tend to overestimate their own contributions while underestimating others'. Understanding this bias can help in recognizing and diffusing tension in teamwork.
  3. Personal experiences and media significantly impact the examples that come to mind, affecting our perceptions and decision-making processes. Being aware of this bias is key to making more balanced judgments.

The Paradox of Progress: Trying to Predict Impact Often Prevents the Highest Impact

The Good Science Project • 55 implied HN points • 13 Dec 24
🔬 Science Research
  1. Predicting the impact of scientific research often stifles creativity and innovation. Instead of following strict guidelines, we should be open to unexpected paths that can lead to breakthroughs.
  2. Today's funding systems are overly cautious and focus on safe, predictable outcomes. This conservatism can prevent transformative ideas from getting the support they need.
  3. To encourage real progress, we need to embrace uncertainty and risk. Funding should support talented researchers and bold ideas, even when the results are uncertain.

Life in the Mirrorworld

New World Same Humans • 54 implied HN points • 15 Dec 24
🕹 Technology Research
  1. Researchers created AI agents that act like real people by using interviews from actual humans. These agents can predict human responses really well, showing they understand complex human behavior.
  2. In the past, simulating human societies was hard because people's actions are unpredictable. Now, using large language models helps create more accurate social simulations.
  3. The future could have huge virtual communities filled with AI people living their everyday lives. This might change how businesses and governments operate, as everyone will want to engage with these simulated societies.

URGENT: Cancer deaths rose in Japan in 2022 and 2023, post-mRNA Covid shots

Unreported Truths • 43 implied HN points • 11 Feb 25
🏥 Health Politics Research
  1. In Japan, cancer deaths rose by about 12,000 more than expected in 2022 and 2023. This increase is small but considered statistically significant.
  2. Leukemia was the type of cancer that had the highest increase in deaths, showing an 8% rise each year. The timing of this rise coincided with the rollout of mRNA Covid vaccines.
  3. While researchers can't definitively link the rise in cancer deaths to the vaccines, they stressed the need for a thorough investigation due to the patterns observed.

Eggs and scrambled chromosomes

De Novo • 121 implied HN points • 15 Mar 24
🔬 Science Research
  1. Growth of eggs from stem cells is challenging, but a new research approach involving injecting adult cell nucleus into a donor egg may offer an alternative.
  2. Chromosomes' proper segregation during meiosis II seems more efficient in inbred mice compared to hybrid mice, indicating the importance of genetic similarity in the process.
  3. Understanding the mechanism that aids proper segregation in inbred chromosomes could potentially lead to advancements in using the nuclear transfer method for human oocytes, though challenges like aneuploidy and efficiency still need to be addressed.

Misophonia

Brain Lenses • 19 implied HN points • 23 Jan 24
🏥 Health & Wellness Research
  1. Misophonia is a neurological syndrome causing heightened sensitivity to certain sounds triggering negative emotional states like anger and anxiety.
  2. Misophonia may be a learned conditioned response from childhood, possibly linked to anxiety disorders or obsessive-compulsive disorders.
  3. Research on misophonia is still in its early stages, with speculation on categorization and limited methods for managing symptoms.

Platform Papers 2022 Year in Review

Platform Papers • 59 implied HN points • 29 Dec 22
🕹 Technology Research
  1. In 2022, there was a record number of academic papers published on platform competition, with a significant increase in marketing-related research.
  2. The research themes in platform competition covered ecosystem governance, network effects, heterogeneity within platforms, and corporate scope.
  3. Academic articles highlighted topics such as differential revenue sharing, collective governance, positive demand spillover, local network effects, and decentralized platform governance.

An Oral History Interview with ARIA CEO Ilan Gur

The Good Science Project • 22 implied HN points • 13 Jun 25
🔬 Science Research
  1. ARIA aims to fund bold projects that create entirely new technologies and industries, not just improve existing ones. They want to be catalysts for major shifts in science and technology.
  2. The role of program directors at ARIA is crucial. They are chosen for their unique visions and are encouraged to pursue high-risk, innovative ideas, even if those ideas face skepticism from others.
  3. Funding is focused on exploring 'opportunity spaces' rather than specific projects. ARIA believes in investing in diverse approaches to find breakthrough solutions, allowing them to adapt and pivot based on what they learn.

The Sequence Opinion #465: Agentic AI and Darwinism

TheSequence • 49 implied HN points • 09 Jan 25
🕹 Technology Research
  1. Open-Endedness AI aims to create systems that can learn and adapt over time, not just complete specific tasks. This means AI can continue growing and improving rather than being limited to set goals.
  2. This new approach could allow AI to generate new ideas and solutions continuously, mirroring how evolution works in nature. It's like giving AI the tools to invent and innovate on its own.
  3. There are still challenges in making Open-Endedness AI a reality, including figuring out how to allow machines to learn effectively over long periods. It's an exciting area, but we have a lot to figure out.

RDEL #26: What are the top challenges with meetings for globally distributed teams?

Research-Driven Engineering Leadership • 19 implied HN points • 22 Jan 24
🕹 Technology Research
  1. Distributed teams spend somewhat more time in meetings per day than co-located teams, even though they attend the same number of scheduled meetings on average.
  2. The number of participants in a meeting can affect its perceived value, with distributed teams typically having larger meetings than co-located teams.
  3. In globally distributed teams, top challenges with meetings include low availability of key people in far-shore projects, missing meeting facilitation in virtual meetings, and lack of organizational support for unscheduled meetings.

Oxford's Legal Action Against MGI... Again.

ASeq Newsletter • 14 implied HN points • 14 Aug 25
🕹 Technology Research
  1. Oxford University is taking legal action against MGI over a nanopore sequencer, but their attempts have seen several ups and downs in different countries.
  2. Initially, Oxford sought materials from MGI, but a judge described this as a fishing expedition, suggesting they lacked solid evidence.
  3. There seems to be confusion as Oxford dropped their cases in the US and UK but is now pursuing something in Australia.

Misleading Study Conclusions Part 2 - Patient Impacts

Weight and Healthcare • 159 implied HN points • 08 Jan 22
🏥 Health & Wellness Research
  1. Healthcare practitioners rely on study conclusions for information, but they may be misleading and harmful if not thoroughly examined.
  2. Prescribing weight loss has a high failure rate and negative health impacts, leading to unrealistic expectations for patients and blame if goals are not met.
  3. Research misleading patients and healthcare providers can result in missed diagnoses, incorrect treatments, and patient disengagement, especially in mental health care.

Last word on LNT

Gordian Knot News • 139 implied HN points • 14 Jan 24
🔬 Science Research
  1. Linear No-Threshold (LNT) model in radiation exposure prediction is criticized for being inaccurate.
  2. Comparing different dose rate profiles with the same total dose is crucial to understanding radiation harm models.
  3. Dose rate is a critical factor in DNA damage repair, impacting cancer incidence predictions in radiation exposure.

Angels in the Architecture, pt IV

Premium Grind • 19 implied HN points • 19 Jan 24
🕹 Technology Research
  1. Interpreting VAS heatmaps is challenging due to lack of established guidelines and overlaps in definitions.
  2. Studies have shown that traditional civic architecture consistently draws more viewer attention than modern styles.
  3. Discrepancies exist between VAS results and actual human-subject eye-tracking studies, raising questions about accuracy and interpretation.

State of AI: December 2025 newsletter

Guide to AI • 4 implied HN points • 30 Nov 25
🕹 Technology Research
  1. AI compute has entered a full-scale arms race: hyperscalers, labs and chip vendors are locking in multi-year capacity, driving massive hardware investments and prompting governments to tie AI planning to energy and national security, which is fragmenting global hardware markets.
  2. Frontier models are becoming more agentic and multimodal, with longer contexts and built-in tool use that let them plan and act across apps, while new open and high-quality image models are making real-world visual generation and editing practical for enterprises.
  3. Research is turning into powerful, practical tools—efficient local models, retrieval-augmented biology models and AI scientist systems—but audits and papers also expose limits and risks like planning failures, transparency lapses and reward-hacking that make safety and verification urgent.

The Unomr Serial Nanopore

ASeq Newsletter • 21 implied HN points • 16 Jun 25
🕹 Technology Research
  1. Unomr is a new company from ETH Zurich looking to raise between 2 to 3 million dollars. They have over 1 million dollars in grant funding so far.
  2. The company is developing a platform called 'serial nanopore' which seems to be focused on protein sequencing.
  3. Details on their technology are scarce, but it appears they are working on something innovative in the field of biotechnology.

🎧 AUDIO Now Available - Turning Point in AI - Leaders Rally for a Natural AI Initiative

Spatial Web AI by Denise Holt • 19 implied HN points • 18 Jan 24
🕹 Technology Research
  1. Global scientific leaders propose a radical rethinking of AI, advocating for AI systems modeled after natural organisms, displaying attributes like autonomy and adaptability.
  2. The initiative by leaders behind Active Inference aims for more transparent, ethical, and beneficial AI systems, moving away from data-intensive and computationally expensive models.
  3. The letter highlights key points like the need for scientific grounding in AI development, addressing misconceptions about AI's existential threats, and envisioning a future of AI that is more in tune with natural intelligence.

The Bitter Lesson

Artificial Fintelligence • 20 implied HN points • 26 Jun 25
🕹 Technology Research
  1. Over time, methods that use more computing power will usually do better than those that don't. It's important to think about how to use more compute in AI.
  2. In the short term, adding human knowledge can help achieve good results quickly, but it's often not a good long-term strategy. Relying too much on human input can stall advancement.
  3. Real success in AI comes from focusing on general improvements that can scale, rather than chasing quick wins with expert knowledge. This approach is harder but pays off in the long run.

Understanding LLM User Experience & Expectation

Cobus Greyling on LLMs, NLU, NLP, chatbots & voicebots • 19 implied HN points • 18 Jan 24
🕹 Technology Research
  1. Most users engage with LLMs weekly and mainly use them for tasks like getting information and solving problems. It's a popular tool that people find helpful.
  2. Users expect LLMs to perform well in creative tasks too, but many are not satisfied with the results they get in this area. There’s room for better performance here.
  3. Understanding what users want from LLMs is key. This includes recognizing their different needs, like trust and capability in the tools, so improvements can be better targeted.

I'm joining the Cornell faculty!

Data: Made Not Found (by danah) • 59 implied HN points • 29 Oct 24
🚌 Education Research
  1. The speaker is excited to join the faculty at Cornell as a Professor of Communication starting in fall 2025. They are looking forward to teaching and working with students.
  2. After many years at Microsoft Research, the speaker felt a strong desire to become a full-time professor. They believe teaching can make a bigger difference than just research.
  3. The transition from Microsoft Research is bittersweet, but the speaker is grateful for the support they've received. They aim to maintain connections with their colleagues even after leaving.

Mother Was Right All Along. It Is the Damn Phone!

Psych • 19 implied HN points • 17 Jan 24
🏥 Health & Wellness Research
  1. Using a phone as a break during tough mental tasks doesn't help the brain recharge well and might make performance worse.
  2. Taking phone breaks during tasks can lead to feeling mentally drained and performing less effectively than taking breaks using paper or computer.
  3. Phones might distract more than other devices, making it harder to focus on work and can lead to decreased performance.

Edge 364: About COSP and USP: Two New LLM Reasoning Methods Built by Google Research

TheSequence • 133 implied HN points • 25 Jan 24
🕹 Technology Research
  1. Two new LLM reasoning methods, COSP and USP, have been developed by Google Research to enhance common sense reasoning capabilities in language models.
  2. Prompt generation is crucial for LLM-based applications, and techniques like few-shot setup have reduced the need for large amounts of data to fine-tune models.
  3. Models with robust zero-shot performance can eliminate the need for manual prompt generation, but may have less potent results due to operating without specific guidance.

Cellular shuttle systems

The Century of Biology • 199 implied HN points • 18 Jun 23
🔬 Science Research
  1. Nucleic acid therapeutics are expanding with tools like mRNAs, guide RNAs, and CRISPR.
  2. The key challenge in genetic therapy is delivering therapeutic messages effectively.
  3. Extracellular vesicles show promise as a natural delivery system for molecular cargo, though there are still engineering hurdles to overcome.

The Roche Nanopore Sequencer

ASeq Newsletter • 43 implied HN points • 21 Jan 25
🕹 Technology Research
  1. The Roche Nanopore sequencer has impressive features like an 8 million sensor array and can process data really fast, but its chemistry isn't great.
  2. It has better density and throughput than some models but still needs improvements to stand out against competitors, especially Oxford Nanopore.
  3. Upcoming webinars will share more details, so it could be worthwhile to check them out if you're interested in this technology.

What Links Humans, Hermit Crabs and Possibly Creatures on Mars?

Creating Inequality • 19 implied HN points • 12 Jan 24
🔬 Science Research
  1. Vacancy chains are a way resources are distributed where one person's success leads to success for others too.
  2. Resources distributed through vacancy chains have common abstract qualities, regardless of species or social development.
  3. Vacancy chains are not optional but necessary for groups when resources have specific abstract qualities. These chains may occur even in unknown creatures on other planets like Mars.

Deep Research: First Impressions

Jakob Nielsen on UX • 40 implied HN points • 08 Feb 25
🕹 Technology Research
  1. AI tools like OpenAI's Deep Research can make research tasks much faster and easier. This lets users get valuable insights quickly, which is great for decision making.
  2. Having AI ask follow-up questions before starting research helps users clarify their needs. This means the final output is more likely to match what they were actually looking for.
  3. Investing in AI tools for design teams can save money and improve work efficiency. It's cheaper than hiring extra help and helps teams stay updated with the best technology.

Friendship Paradox

Brain Lenses • 19 implied HN points • 11 Jan 24
🔬 Science Research
  1. The Friendship Paradox states that your friends likely have more friends than you.
  2. People with a lot of friends are more likely to show up in multiple friend groups.
  3. This phenomenon skews the sample pool when looking at a random person's friend group.

Google ships it: Gemma open LLMs and Gemini backlash

Democratizing Automation • 118 implied HN points • 22 Feb 24
🕹 Technology Research
  1. Google released Gemma, an open-weight model, which introduces new standards with 7 billion parameters and has unique architecture choices.
  2. The Gemma model addresses training issues with a unique pretraining annealing method, REINFORCE for fine-tuning, and a high capacity model.
  3. Google faced backlash for image generations from its Gemini series, highlighting the complexity in ensuring multimodal RLHF and safety fine-tuning in AI models.

Biases Against Risky Research

New Things Under the Sun • 224 implied HN points • 31 Mar 23
🔬 Science Research
  1. Scientific institutions may be risk-averse and favor safe and incremental projects over transformative ones.
  2. Individual reviewers and averaging peer review scores may bias against high-risk, high-reward research proposals.
  3. In grant review processes, negative feedback tends to be more influential than positive feedback, leading to potential bias against novel research.