Claus Wilke
@clauswilke.com
Computational biologist, data scientist, digital artist | he, him | http://clauswilke.com/ | Opinions are my own and do not represent UT Austin.
Just a regular reminder that there is absolutely no scientific evidence that caffeine (in moderation) is in any way problematic. Caffeine is this thing that you think should be bad for you but it's just not. Most studies suggest it has meaningful benefits. See reply for a recent example.
Cafes across the U.S. are embracing the low- and no-caffeine lifestyle, with options that are a far cry from dusty tea bags and rewarmed decaf. nyti.ms/3XKlqoj
February 9, 2026 at 6:57 PM
Just a regular reminder that there is absolutely no scientific evidence that caffeine (in moderation) is in any way problematic. Caffeine is this thing that you think should be bad for you but it's just not. Most studies suggest it has meaningful benefits. See reply for a recent example.
Let's be clear: Musk does not currently have a vehicle with the lift capacity and reusability required to build a city on Mars. He doesn't have a vehicle to build a city on the Moon either.
SpaceX to focus on Moon settlements instead of Mars?!? Wow, it is hard to overstate what a change -- what a climb-down -- this is for Musk. It has always been Mars for him. Full stop. Supposedly the goal behind *everything* he does.
February 9, 2026 at 6:09 PM
Let's be clear: Musk does not currently have a vehicle with the lift capacity and reusability required to build a city on Mars. He doesn't have a vehicle to build a city on the Moon either.
"Do you have any results?"
Without naming your job, tell me something you say over and over again at work.
"Where are your citations?"
"Where are your citations?"
Without naming your job, tell me something you say over and over again at work.
"No, you can't leave that here."
"No, you can't leave that here."
February 7, 2026 at 11:49 PM
"Do you have any results?"
Last week when we had our snowstorm here my local grocery store was all out of cheese except for this one. I wonder why nobody bought it. 😉
I'm also surprised this product is legally for sale to ordinary citizens.
I'm also surprised this product is legally for sale to ordinary citizens.
February 1, 2026 at 11:05 PM
Last week when we had our snowstorm here my local grocery store was all out of cheese except for this one. I wonder why nobody bought it. 😉
I'm also surprised this product is legally for sale to ordinary citizens.
I'm also surprised this product is legally for sale to ordinary citizens.
Nowak's name shouldn't be a surprise to anybody. He had an entire research institute funded by Epstein. This was widely known. The first time I ever encountered the name Epstein was in the acknowledgements of a Nowak paper, maybe in 2006 or so. (Don't remember the details.) 1/
For academics still paying attention, T
the names "Nowak" and "Kosslyn" appear several thousand times in the new Epstein files dump. You can search at www.justice.gov/epstein
the names "Nowak" and "Kosslyn" appear several thousand times in the new Epstein files dump. You can search at www.justice.gov/epstein
February 1, 2026 at 2:47 AM
Nowak's name shouldn't be a surprise to anybody. He had an entire research institute funded by Epstein. This was widely known. The first time I ever encountered the name Epstein was in the acknowledgements of a Nowak paper, maybe in 2006 or so. (Don't remember the details.) 1/
Reposted by Claus Wilke
I'm sure this is just fine. Nothing to see here. Just the ordinary up and down of markets.
January 29, 2026 at 2:26 AM
I'm sure this is just fine. Nothing to see here. Just the ordinary up and down of markets.
I'm sure this is just fine. Nothing to see here. Just the ordinary up and down of markets.
January 29, 2026 at 2:26 AM
I'm sure this is just fine. Nothing to see here. Just the ordinary up and down of markets.
Very relatable. My dog always insists I throw the ball, but then she never fetches so I have to go and pick it up. I bet it's so I get more steps in.
January 26, 2026 at 11:28 PM
Very relatable. My dog always insists I throw the ball, but then she never fetches so I have to go and pick it up. I bet it's so I get more steps in.
Hotter hot take: Always do citations by hand. All automated citation systems introduce massive formatting mistakes. (Link to relevant blog post: clauswilke.com/blog/2015/10...)
Hot take: it's 2026 we don't need to be manually doing citations or asking llms to do them overleaf should just autogenerate the citations from dois
January 24, 2026 at 5:39 PM
Hotter hot take: Always do citations by hand. All automated citation systems introduce massive formatting mistakes. (Link to relevant blog post: clauswilke.com/blog/2015/10...)
Reposted by Claus Wilke
Huge congratulations @nboyd.bsky.social with Mosaic that absolutely killed in the competition! 𝑩𝒊𝒏𝒅𝑪𝒓𝒂𝒇𝒕2 did also pretty well with the second highest hit rate in the competition!
proteinbase.com/collections/...
proteinbase.com/collections/...
proteinbase.com
January 22, 2026 at 8:29 AM
Huge congratulations @nboyd.bsky.social with Mosaic that absolutely killed in the competition! 𝑩𝒊𝒏𝒅𝑪𝒓𝒂𝒇𝒕2 did also pretty well with the second highest hit rate in the competition!
proteinbase.com/collections/...
proteinbase.com/collections/...
Reposted by Claus Wilke
Here are the success rates of de novo pipelines based on which designs I could actually identify the methods for.
January 22, 2026 at 3:48 PM
Here are the success rates of de novo pipelines based on which designs I could actually identify the methods for.
Median day with Claude Code is comparable to running the dishwasher? That doesn't seem like massive energy use. When was the last time you worried about running the dishwasher? (Maybe you should?)
Whenever I read discourse on AI energy/water use that focuses on the "median query," I can't help but feel misled. Coding agents like Claude Code send hundreds of longer-than-median queries every session, and I run dozens of sessions a day.
On my blog: www.simonpcouch.com/blog/2026-01...
On my blog: www.simonpcouch.com/blog/2026-01...
January 21, 2026 at 5:52 AM
Median day with Claude Code is comparable to running the dishwasher? That doesn't seem like massive energy use. When was the last time you worried about running the dishwasher? (Maybe you should?)
Reposted by Claus Wilke
An interesting bit of history:
In 1916, Denmark sold the Danish West Indies to the US. You may know of them as the US Virgin Islands. As part of this sale, the US recognized Danish authority over Greenland.
The text of the complete, ratified agreement is here: www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/...
In 1916, Denmark sold the Danish West Indies to the US. You may know of them as the US Virgin Islands. As part of this sale, the US recognized Danish authority over Greenland.
The text of the complete, ratified agreement is here: www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/...
January 19, 2026 at 7:06 AM
An interesting bit of history:
In 1916, Denmark sold the Danish West Indies to the US. You may know of them as the US Virgin Islands. As part of this sale, the US recognized Danish authority over Greenland.
The text of the complete, ratified agreement is here: www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/...
In 1916, Denmark sold the Danish West Indies to the US. You may know of them as the US Virgin Islands. As part of this sale, the US recognized Danish authority over Greenland.
The text of the complete, ratified agreement is here: www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/...
An interesting bit of history:
In 1916, Denmark sold the Danish West Indies to the US. You may know of them as the US Virgin Islands. As part of this sale, the US recognized Danish authority over Greenland.
The text of the complete, ratified agreement is here: www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/...
In 1916, Denmark sold the Danish West Indies to the US. You may know of them as the US Virgin Islands. As part of this sale, the US recognized Danish authority over Greenland.
The text of the complete, ratified agreement is here: www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/...
January 19, 2026 at 7:06 AM
An interesting bit of history:
In 1916, Denmark sold the Danish West Indies to the US. You may know of them as the US Virgin Islands. As part of this sale, the US recognized Danish authority over Greenland.
The text of the complete, ratified agreement is here: www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/...
In 1916, Denmark sold the Danish West Indies to the US. You may know of them as the US Virgin Islands. As part of this sale, the US recognized Danish authority over Greenland.
The text of the complete, ratified agreement is here: www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/...
Reposted by Claus Wilke
I highly recommend this feed. I find that it generates a steady stream of interesting skeets.
Enjoying the For You feed? Give it a like ♡ to help more people discover it: bsky.app/profile/did:...
The more people use it -> the more feedback we get -> the better we can make it for you.
The more people use it -> the more feedback we get -> the better we can make it for you.
January 14, 2026 at 11:25 PM
I highly recommend this feed. I find that it generates a steady stream of interesting skeets.
Reposted by Claus Wilke
Welcome to everyone joining Bluesky from twitter. Someone will be assigned to you to misunderstand one of your jokes and scream at you shortly.
January 10, 2026 at 6:43 PM
Welcome to everyone joining Bluesky from twitter. Someone will be assigned to you to misunderstand one of your jokes and scream at you shortly.
I'm convinced large labs are a survival mechanism in a hypercompetitive funding environment. You need the critical mass to write the big papers that allow you to get the next round of funding. 1/2
I've often wondered why so many academic scientists want large labs (i.e., numerous graduate students, postdocs, etc).
Today it occurred to me that we learn how to run a lab from our own advisors and statistically, at least, tend model our labs on theirs.
(1/2)
Today it occurred to me that we learn how to run a lab from our own advisors and statistically, at least, tend model our labs on theirs.
(1/2)
December 21, 2025 at 10:03 PM
I'm convinced large labs are a survival mechanism in a hypercompetitive funding environment. You need the critical mass to write the big papers that allow you to get the next round of funding. 1/2
Reminder that similar mistakes can easily arise in Python.
December 21, 2025 at 3:28 PM
Reminder that similar mistakes can easily arise in Python.
It is 2025 and this error is still a thing. Biggest software company in the world. 🤦
December 18, 2025 at 1:00 AM
It is 2025 and this error is still a thing. Biggest software company in the world. 🤦
Become a colleague in my department!
Applications close in four days, December 15.
Applications close in four days, December 15.
My department at UT Austin is looking to hire an Assistant Professor in Evolutionary Biology, broadly defined. Feel free to reach out to me with any questions you may have.
apply.interfolio.com/177547
apply.interfolio.com/177547
Apply - Interfolio
{{$ctrl.$state.data.pageTitle}} - Apply - Interfolio
apply.interfolio.com
December 11, 2025 at 7:15 PM
Become a colleague in my department!
Applications close in four days, December 15.
Applications close in four days, December 15.
Reposted by Claus Wilke
Python people, please embrace missing values. I want the output with all the observations, not only the filtered ones without missing values. If I need filtering, I will do it myself.
November 26, 2025 at 8:16 AM
Python people, please embrace missing values. I want the output with all the observations, not only the filtered ones without missing values. If I need filtering, I will do it myself.
The peptide discussion highlights how little people know about chemistry. Peptides are such a huge group of chemicals treating them as one thing is absurd. Many peptides are perfectly safe. (Your food is full of peptides.) Others are toxic. Every peptide needs to be evaluated as its own thing.
"The growing popularity of these drugs [peptides]
shows that many people will experiment with them long before science confirms they work or are safe."
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/18/w...
my review erictopol.substack.com/p/the-peptid...
shows that many people will experiment with them long before science confirms they work or are safe."
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/18/w...
my review erictopol.substack.com/p/the-peptid...
The Internet Loves Peptide Therapy. Is It Really a Miracle Cure?
www.nytimes.com
November 25, 2025 at 3:34 PM
The peptide discussion highlights how little people know about chemistry. Peptides are such a huge group of chemicals treating them as one thing is absurd. Many peptides are perfectly safe. (Your food is full of peptides.) Others are toxic. Every peptide needs to be evaluated as its own thing.
The statistical test you would run in this situation to ask whether there was a difference in outcomes is called a chi-square test. And it will tell you in no uncertain terms that you can absolutely not distinguish between 17 and 21 deaths among 22,000 people. It's noise. P = 0.6267.
November 24, 2025 at 3:05 PM
The statistical test you would run in this situation to ask whether there was a difference in outcomes is called a chi-square test. And it will tell you in no uncertain terms that you can absolutely not distinguish between 17 and 21 deaths among 22,000 people. It's noise. P = 0.6267.
Preliminary NTSB report, UPS Flight 2976. Left engine separated due to fatigue cracks.
www.ntsb.gov/investigatio...
www.ntsb.gov/investigatio...
November 20, 2025 at 6:10 PM
Preliminary NTSB report, UPS Flight 2976. Left engine separated due to fatigue cracks.
www.ntsb.gov/investigatio...
www.ntsb.gov/investigatio...
This seems important. Current AI models can't read graphs. They "see" what they expect to see, even if the data shows something else.
Introducing bluffbench, a new tool to evaluate how well LLMs actually see data plots.
When we trick LLMs with secret #RStats transformations, they can miss the visual contradiction.
bluffbench helps us measure this "blind spot" in AI coding agents. Learn more: posit.co/blog/introdu...
When we trick LLMs with secret #RStats transformations, they can miss the visual contradiction.
bluffbench helps us measure this "blind spot" in AI coding agents. Learn more: posit.co/blog/introdu...
When plotting, LLMs see what they expect to see - Posit
Data science agents need to accurately read plots even when the content contradicts their expectations. Our testing shows today's LLMs still struggle here.
posit.co
November 19, 2025 at 4:58 PM
This seems important. Current AI models can't read graphs. They "see" what they expect to see, even if the data shows something else.