The Metascience Observatory

Researching reproducibility and creating the best and most comprehensive toolkit for "AI peer review" and forensic metscience. Run by @moreisdifferent.

[The Metascience Observatory @MetascienceObs]

We ran our image duplication detection system on 1,000 papers. The papers 1. have one author who has a retraction according to @RetractionWatch, 2. are not retracted, and 3. have no image-related @PubPeer comments. We use AI to screen findings & suppress false positives... (1/3)

[Sholto David @addictedtoigno1]

Today I am sharing a new preprint and accompanying blog post. Hundreds of published papers include impossible western blots showing protein expression in cell lines that have deleted or mutated genes. These clumsy mistakes are widespread and repeated by LLMs.

[Retraction Watch @RetractionWatch]

Cell Press investigating editor-in-chief accused of soliciting bribes from authors.
https://t.co/d19wCaqD88

[The Metascience Observatory @MetascienceObs]

Will is doing excellent work on making it easier to run clinical trials in the US!

[White House OSTP 47 @WHOSTP47]

Dr. Willy Chertman of @HHSgov joins the Science: A New Golden Age Summit to discuss metascience and the process of improving scientific policy in the federal government.

Full remarks:

[White House OSTP 47 @WHOSTP47]

Dr. Willy Chertman of @HHSgov joins the Science: A New Golden Age Summit to discuss metascience and the process of improving scientific policy in the federal government.

Full remarks:

[Dan Elton 🔍 @moreisdifferent]

This is a big one - Opus 5.5's explainer for the 2026 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 👀

I had it do a deep dive into the history of optogenetics. The video covers the contributions of Boyden, Pan, Deisseroth, Nagel, Hegemann, Bamberg, Miesenböck, Zhang, and 15 others..

[The Metascience Observatory @MetascienceObs]

Very cool!

[ResearchHub @ResearchHub]

⚡ Peer reviews are getting even faster on ResearchHub!

With incentivized reviewers submitting within 7 days, we're shortening the submission window for new peer-review bounties from 14 to 7 days.

The first 7-day bounty is now live.
Submit a review → https://t.co/nxZ14b3lZn

[The Metascience Observatory @MetascienceObs]

@juliankissa @aubreydegrey @biogerontology @geochurch @M_S_Ringel how did you get so many famous people in one room!?! impressive!!

[The Metascience Observatory @MetascienceObs]

The first Focused Research Organization in mathematics -- exciting!

[White House OSTP 47 @WHOSTP47]

At the Science: A New Golden Age Summit, @Leonard41111588 discusses Focused Research Organizations and the critical role they play in scientific discovery.

Full remarks:

[The Metascience Observatory @MetascienceObs]

Amazing! Ben is great

[White House OSTP 47 @WHOSTP47]

@Spec__Tech's @Ben_Reinhardt joins the Science: A New Golden Age Summit to discuss the work of his organization and the novel role it plays in the broader scientific ecosystem.

Full remarks:

[The Metascience Observatory @MetascienceObs]

@WHOSTP47 @banksianr @AGamick @judgeglock @AsteraInstitute Great selection of panelists! 🙏

[The Metascience Observatory @MetascienceObs]

The Metascience Observatory strongly supports Focused Research Organizations, the NSF's new X-Labs program, and more generally experiments in institutional design and new ways of organizing scientific research.

[White House OSTP 47 @WHOSTP47]

X-Labs and new institutions of discovery are poised to revolutionize the scientific process, a key focus of the Science: A New Golden Age Summit.

Full panel between @banksianr, @AGamick, @judgeglock, and Steven Moss of @AsteraInstitute discussing these institutional innovations:

[Dan Elton 🔍 @moreisdifferent]

Explainer for the 2026 Nobel Prize in Physics (Opus 5.5)🤯

[Director Michael Kratsios @mkratsios47]

My full fireside conversation with @patrickc at the Science: A New Golden Age Summit.

We discussed building new institutions for discovery, accelerating scientific progress, and how America can move faster on the hardest scientific challenges.

[Dan Elton 🔍 @moreisdifferent]

Very exciting to see what @WillyInTheWorld has been up to @ HHS. Operation Trailblazer is a new initiative to make the US the #1 place in the world for clinical trials. Right now many trials are being moved overseas due to lower cost and better government support (faster, easier)

[Dan Elton 🔍 @moreisdifferent]

I had Claude create an explainer for the 2026 Nobel Prize in Chemistry 😍

[The Metascience Observatory @MetascienceObs]

@JohnnyTStine @PrestonWEstep is that satire? lol

[The Metascience Observatory @MetascienceObs]

Preston Estep, one of our advisors, is doing some interesting work modernizing variolation for the 21st century, enabling new techniques for self-protection from dangerous viruses.

See https://t.co/SZqftMxVx8 for an overview.

[Preston Estep @PrestonWEstep]

Check out my Substack post: Modernizing Variolation, Part 2. A case report on the second consecutive time I avoided getting ill by using MV when all others living in my home were sick with a respiratory illness. https://t.co/KwdMGRe0T8 If your kids are back in school you need to read this!

[The Metascience Observatory @MetascienceObs]

@USTranshumanist @GStolyarovII @PrestonWEstep @jamessinka @IanHuyett @moreisdifferent we are co-sponsoring!

[The Metascience Observatory @MetascienceObs]

"We measure AI-generated writing in the dissertations of a near-census of US STEM PhD graduates from 2019 to 2026 and link graduates to their subsequent employment. AI writing is absent before 2023, present in 29% of dissertations filed in 2026, and rapidly growing." (link below)

[The Metascience Observatory @MetascienceObs]

@Stanford Where's Ed Boyden? https://t.co/UvNlZ98fK5

[Dan Elton 🔍 @moreisdifferent]

WHERE'S ED BOYDEN?

Oh. He was only a PhD student when he co-invented optogenetics and performed the first demonstration, so he gets no credit. Instead his advisor gets all the credit.

From National Academy of Sciences: Boyden, "in parallel to his PhD, as an independent side project, co-invented optogenetic control of neurons."

One of the worst snubs in Nobel history IMO!