The hottest Research Substack posts right now

And their main takeaways
Category
Top Health Politics Topics

How I Developed the 10 Usability Heuristics

Jakob Nielsen on UX • 75 implied HN points • 15 Feb 24
🕹 Technology Research
  1. Jakob Nielsen's 10 usability heuristics were developed through factor analysis to explain a database of usability problems, with the final list chosen for its explanatory power.
  2. The initial heuristics in 1989 were based on opinion and teaching needs, while the refined 1994 list was derived through systematic research and factor analysis.
  3. The 10 heuristics have remained relevant for 30 years due to their grounding in fundamental mismatches between humans and machines, and their broad, general applicability across different user interfaces.

If results are too good to be true, you can't exclude harms

Vinay Prasad's Observations and Thoughts • 71 implied HN points • 07 Mar 24
🏥 Health & Wellness Research
  1. Results that seem too good to be true may not be accurate and can hide potential harms or biases.
  2. Confounded studies, where data is influenced by other factors, can be misleading and unhelpful in drawing conclusions.
  3. It's important to consider the full data and potential biases in research studies, especially when interpreting studies involving vaccinations during pregnancy.

Barney the purple robot dinosaur and the importance of being embodied in AI

Robots & Startups • 19 implied HN points • 14 Oct 23
🕹 Technology Research
  1. The Open X-Embodiment Repository holds over 1 million robot trajectories across 22 different embodiments, showing improvements in robot models and performance.
  2. Researchers are already observing enhanced generalization and performance in models like RT-1-X and RT-2-X, indicating promising outcomes from the research.
  3. Exploring embodied AI, as seen through projects like Barney the purple robot dinosaur, highlights the importance of physical form in artificial intelligence development.

February 2023 Updates

New Things Under the Sun • 144 implied HN points • 27 Feb 23
🔬 Science Research
  1. Local interactions expose us to new ideas better than remote interactions.
  2. Transportation advancements, like new subway systems, can lead to more innovation and collaboration.
  3. Collaborating with people from different local environments, even remotely, can boost innovation.

IROS 2023 best papers on demand

Robots & Startups • 19 implied HN points • 10 Oct 23
🔬 Science Research
  1. IROS on Demand for 2023 is available to the public for free until Oct 9th the following year.
  2. Other posts worth reading about IROS include insights from Robohub.org and Silicon Valley Robotics.
  3. Access more content and a 7-day free trial by subscribing to Robots & Startups.
Get a weekly roundup of the best Substack posts, by hacker news affinity:

126 | Is Alzheimer's a Foodborne Illness? (incredible new research) | Corruption in Food Supply Chains | Who ya Gonna Call...

The Rotten Apple • 73 implied HN points • 19 Feb 24
🏥 Health & Wellness Research
  1. Alzheimer's disease may have a link to foodborne pathogens, such as _Helicobacter pylori_, found in raw milk, vegetables, and meat, potentially transmitted through contaminated food practices.
  2. Corruption in food supply chains poses serious risks to consumer safety and the environment, illustrated by cases like the China melamine milk scandal and the Brazil 'weak meat' scandal.
  3. Corruption in food supply chains comes in various forms like bribery, embezzlement, and abuse of functions, impacting food safety compliance and fair trade practices, highlighting the importance of transparency and strong enforcement measures.

Babble Hypothesis

Brain Lenses • 19 implied HN points • 16 Feb 23
🔬 Science Research
  1. Research suggests speaking more can be linked to leader emergence.
  2. Speaking more doesn't guarantee leadership perception or promotion.
  3. Be skeptical of the Babble Hypothesis due to earlier study limitations.

Birth Of A Science

Adjacent Possible • 126 implied HN points • 15 May 23
🔬 Science Research
  1. Life expectancy has doubled in the past century due to reducing infant and child mortality, not old people living longer lives.
  2. Projected average life expectancy of 100 in the second half of this century is a positive development, but not a groundbreaking one.
  3. There is a debate in the scientific community about breaking the Calment boundary of 115 years and achieving life expectancies of 120 and beyond, requiring a paradigm shift in understanding aging.

Playing the game vs. finding a cheat code

De Novo • 99 implied HN points • 10 Sep 23
🔬 Science Research
  1. Playing the game versus using cheat codes can be applied to various situations like growing oocytes and making Pokémon.
  2. Advantages of playing normally: it may take longer but strengthens understanding; button mashing can lead to quicker results but might have unforeseen issues.
  3. In different scenarios, like making natural products or evaluating computer code, deciding between conventional methods or shortcuts is crucial.

Free Electricity Out Of The Air! Did Nikola Tesla Have It Right All Along?

Resiliency Tech • 19 implied HN points • 05 Jul 23
🔬 Science Research
  1. Nikola Tesla is revered for his inventions and experiments with harnessing electricity from the air.
  2. Scientists are now exploring hygroelectricity, generating electricity from humidity in the air using nanotubes.
  3. Projects like CATCHER aim to commercialize the concept of hygroelectricity, which could potentially exceed Europe's power requirements by 500 times.

Links #4

Splitting Infinity • 19 implied HN points • 03 Oct 23
🔬 Science Research
  1. Featured topics include a New State Solution for Israel and Palestine, companies in technology, and innovations throughout history.
  2. Specialized teams can offer higher-quality and healthier food efficiently than home cooking, potentially changing kitchen dynamics.
  3. Research highlights advancements in electron beams, extreme bandit problem solutions, and potential uses of superoscillation technologies.

The most valuable MVP

Better After a Nap • 19 implied HN points • 22 Aug 23
🕹 Technology Research
  1. The initial product or feature is not static; teams always have plans to iterate and improve after launch.
  2. User contexts, expectations, and external factors like technology evolution, legislation, and resource constraints require continuous refinement of products.
  3. The true MVP in product development is the customer, who expects fully formed, functional products, not works in progress.

The Context Window Dillema

Davis Treybig • 19 implied HN points • 24 Jul 23
🕹 Technology Research
  1. The driving factor limiting context window size is the quadratic scaling of self-attention in transformers.
  2. New research explores alternative mechanisms like Hyena Operators, State Space Models, and hierarchical attention to improve context window efficiency.
  3. Emphasis is placed on the importance of context curation and retrieval systems over simply increasing context window size for effective LLM performance.

This Week in LLM Land

Prompt Engineering • 19 implied HN points • 28 May 23
🕹 Technology Research
  1. ChatGPT conversations are now shareable to prevent screenshot sharing and misinformation.
  2. Tree-of-thoughts prompting is a new approach where LLM is prompted with multiple initial steps and evaluates each one.
  3. A new highly performant open-source model called Guanaco outperforms previous models and was fine-tuned using a new approach named QLoRA.

How anomalies drove my social science research

America in Crisis • 19 implied HN points • 12 Aug 23
🚌 Education Research
  1. Anomalies in stock market cycles and economic growth patterns can challenge existing models and lead to new insights.
  2. Exploring how cultural evolution impacts business practices and economic policies can provide a framework for understanding shifts in stock market valuations and economic growth.
  3. Government economic policies influenced by political cultural evolution play a key role in shaping business cultures and impacting economic trends.

Google DeepMind Mafia

Sector 6 | The Newsletter of AIM • 19 implied HN points • 13 Aug 23
🕹 Technology Research
  1. Google DeepMind has created several groundbreaking AI technologies, including AlphaGo and AlphaFold, that are changing various fields. These innovations highlight the lab's leadership in AI research.
  2. The lab, founded in 2010, combines top talents in AI, fostering a strong community of innovators. It's known for building a team that excels at problem-solving.
  3. Recently rebranded to Google DeepMind, this organization is now also seen as a launching pad for tech entrepreneurs, referred to as 'Google DeepMind Mafia', who are tackling real-world issues.

Digest 5/26/23

axialdaily • 19 implied HN points • 26 May 23
💼 Business Research
  1. Axial partners with inventors and founders in early-stage life sciences companies.
  2. Carbon Biosciences is focused on expanding the gene therapy toolbox, especially for cystic fibrosis.
  3. Scientist David Schaffer focuses on evolving next-gen AAV vectors for gene therapy.

Why the Fuck is Everyone so Fat?

The Heart Attack Diet • 19 implied HN points • 25 May 23
🏥 Health & Wellness Research
  1. The article questions why obesity is widespread and suggests it may be linked to something in the environment, particularly in processed food.
  2. There is a debate between medical science attributing obesity to sloth and gluttony and alternative ideas such as poisoning by environmental contaminants.
  3. The text highlights the lack of understanding about what specifically in processed food contributes to health problems like obesity.

Research Report: Incorrectness Cascades (Corrected)

From AI to ZI • 19 implied HN points • 09 May 23
🔬 Science Research
  1. Large Language Models tend to produce more incorrect answers when primed with previous incorrect answers
  2. Explicitly flattering the AI does not significantly increase the likelihood of it producing incorrect answers
  3. Statistical tests show strong evidence that incorrectness cascades can occur in AI language models

RDEL #10: How much does task significance improve performance?

Research-Driven Engineering Leadership • 19 implied HN points • 18 Sep 23
💼 Business Research
  1. Connecting work with impact significantly improves performance. Demonstrated impact on performance by showing employees how their work benefits others.
  2. Engineers can lose empathy for the significance of their work especially on internal-facing teams. Engineering managers must find ways to connect engineering work with the end user to boost performance.
  3. Tying engineering tasks to real outcomes for customers boosts empathy and productivity. Strategies like sharing customer feedback and shadowing customer success teams can help engineers understand the impact of their work.

Discovering New Writing Topics With AI

Grant's Writing • 19 implied HN points • 02 May 23
🕹 Technology Research
  1. AI can help generate new writing topics by exploring different directions for your post.
  2. Using AI as a research assistant involves giving specific and detailed instructions for better results.
  3. Prompting AI for new directions involves providing detailed context and being descriptive in asking for output.

Trusted #002 - Finding Common Ground on AI Safety

Trusted • 19 implied HN points • 11 Apr 23
🕹 Technology Research
  1. AI Safety is recognized as a real problem by many experts in the field.
  2. Stopping AI capabilities development is impractical, as restrictions are unlikely to be effective.
  3. Public support is crucial for government action on AI Safety, as regulations need to address broader concerns like job loss and surveillance.

Debunking Dunning-Kruger

The Grey Matter • 19 implied HN points • 01 Aug 23
🔬 Science Research
  1. The Dunning-Kruger effect is likely a statistical artifact, not a genuine psychological phenomenon
  2. The popular interpretation of the Dunning-Kruger effect as 'the dumbest people think they're the smartest' is a distortion
  3. Replication of the Dunning-Kruger effect through simulation suggests it may not be a real psychological finding

My defense

Holly Elmore • 19 implied HN points • 22 Aug 23
🔬 Science Research
  1. The author shares a popular post discussing Baker's Law and the evolution of sex.
  2. The author provides a recorded rehearsal of their defense lecture.
  3. The author includes links to the slides and dissertation for further reference.

Standardized usability questionnaires: which one to use?

UX Psychology • 79 implied HN points • 16 Dec 21
🕹 Technology Research
  1. Standardized usability questionnaires have many advantages like objectivity, reliability, and validity.
  2. There are various post-test standardized usability questionnaires available, such as QUIS, SUMI, PSSUQ, SUS, and SUPR-Q, each with unique features and applications.
  3. Choosing the right questionnaire depends on factors like the nature of the project, stage of research, goals of the study, and budget limitations.

What is DarkBERT?

The PhilaVerse • 123 implied HN points • 24 May 23
🕹 Technology Research
  1. DarkBERT is a large language model designed for the Dark Web.
  2. It excels in ransomware leak detection, notable thread detection, and threat phrase inference.
  3. Automating analysis with DarkBERT could reduce the workload of cybersecurity specialists.

The RLHF battle lines are drawn

Democratizing Automation • 139 implied HN points • 27 Feb 23
🕹 Technology Research
  1. Big companies lead in RLHF space and focus on protecting their advantage.
  2. Open-source companies are behind but trying to catch up, facing challenges in resources and legalities.
  3. Corporate communication about safety is strategic, and lack of model release can lead to trust issues.

Ultima Genomics...$80 Genome...$0 Genome...

ASeq Newsletter • 21 implied HN points • 26 Feb 25
🔬 Science Research
  1. Ultima Genomics has improved its sequencer, allowing more output per run and lowering costs significantly. This means sequencing the genome will cost around $80 now.
  2. The new technology uses larger features which help boost throughput without needing complex techniques. This makes the process simpler and more efficient.
  3. While these changes are great for users, their long-term impact on the company’s survival is uncertain. It’s important that they remain financially viable to continue providing these benefits.