Hugh Shanahan
@hughshanahan.bsky.social
Professor of Open Science at Royal Holloway, University of London. He/Him/Hugh. Co-chair of CODATA-RDA schools. Dad. Irish agus ó Chiarraí. More details at orcid.org/0000-0003-1374-6015. Also at @HughShanahan@mastodon.ie
I am very much under renovation.
I am very much under renovation.
Reposted by Hugh Shanahan
Defence conferences. One of the few places where there is a huge queue for the men’s toilets and none for the women.
November 25, 2025 at 12:35 PM
Defence conferences. One of the few places where there is a huge queue for the men’s toilets and none for the women.
Reposted by Hugh Shanahan
Two miles of ice core on the shelf at our national ice core facility in Lakewood, Colorado. The WAIS Divide core from West Antarctica is a 3400m long (deepest US core, 2nd deepest ice core ever) 68,000 year old record of high resolution climate.
November 24, 2025 at 5:03 PM
Two miles of ice core on the shelf at our national ice core facility in Lakewood, Colorado. The WAIS Divide core from West Antarctica is a 3400m long (deepest US core, 2nd deepest ice core ever) 68,000 year old record of high resolution climate.
Fifteen Years
xkcd.com
November 24, 2025 at 11:28 PM
Reposted by Hugh Shanahan
One year ago we launched the MetaROR (MetaResearch Open Review) publish-review-curate platform. This has been one of the most exciting things I've been involved in over the past year.
Very grateful to everyone who has contributed to the development of MetaROR!
Very grateful to everyone who has contributed to the development of MetaROR!
🎈 Time flies! Exactly one year ago today @rorinstitute.bsky.social and @aimosinc.bsky.social launched MetaROR, a platform to publish metaresearch through the publish-review-curate approach.
Over the course of the year, we published 28 articles reviewed by 59 different reviewers.
[1/3]
Over the course of the year, we published 28 articles reviewed by 59 different reviewers.
[1/3]
MetaROR Turns One - MetaROR
An exciting year of open, community-driven evaluation of metaresearch One [...]
metaror.org
November 21, 2025 at 2:10 PM
One year ago we launched the MetaROR (MetaResearch Open Review) publish-review-curate platform. This has been one of the most exciting things I've been involved in over the past year.
Very grateful to everyone who has contributed to the development of MetaROR!
Very grateful to everyone who has contributed to the development of MetaROR!
Reposted by Hugh Shanahan
Here is the very simple explanation to this entirely unsurprising finding. ‘Poetry’ is just another way of saying ‘language’ but in a highly stressed format. LLMs are definitionally incapable of language (ironically).
Looks like LLMs are *very* vulnerable to attack via poetic allusion: "curated poetic prompts yielded high attack-success rates (ASR), with some providers exceeding 90% ..."
https://arxiv.org/html/2511.15304v1
https://arxiv.org/html/2511.15304v1
November 21, 2025 at 8:57 AM
Here is the very simple explanation to this entirely unsurprising finding. ‘Poetry’ is just another way of saying ‘language’ but in a highly stressed format. LLMs are definitionally incapable of language (ironically).
Reposted by Hugh Shanahan
Nails it.
November 19, 2025 at 3:22 PM
Nails it.
Laughed then cried
In an ironic and possibly predictable turn of events, the conference has received “an unusually large proportion” of off-topic abstracts that show signs of being written by generative AI.
Research integrity conference hit with AI-generated abstracts
The first of three themes for next year’s World Conference on Research Integrity will be the risks and benefits of artificial intelligence for research integrity. In an ironic and possibly predicta…
retractionwatch.com
November 19, 2025 at 7:58 AM
Laughed then cried
Prey is such a great movie. Its reputation is going to grow over the years.
November 13, 2025 at 10:43 PM
Prey is such a great movie. Its reputation is going to grow over the years.
Reposted by Hugh Shanahan
Looking for a long read to go with your coffee this morning? The Line is a project of incredible hubris - we got the story of how it unravelled.
NEW: The End of the Line: the centrepiece of Saudi Arabia’s Neom gigaproject - a 500m tall, 170km long wall-like building intended ultimately to house 9 million people - can’t get out of the ground, say more than 20 former Neom architects, engineers and senior executives.
ig.ft.com/saudi-neom-l...
ig.ft.com/saudi-neom-l...
End of The Line: how Saudi Arabia’s Neom dream unravelled
Mohammed bin Salman’s utopian city was undone by the laws of physics and finance
ig.ft.com
November 9, 2025 at 11:11 AM
Looking for a long read to go with your coffee this morning? The Line is a project of incredible hubris - we got the story of how it unravelled.
Reposted by Hugh Shanahan
Revised preprint: "Establishing trust in automated reasoning"
osf.io/preprints/me...
Scientific reasoning is automated via software and machine learning. Users rarely understand their inner workings. They are exempt from peer review. Should we trust them? Why?
A summary 🧵
🧪 #metasci #compsci
osf.io/preprints/me...
Scientific reasoning is automated via software and machine learning. Users rarely understand their inner workings. They are exempt from peer review. Should we trust them? Why?
A summary 🧵
🧪 #metasci #compsci
August 29, 2023 at 9:49 AM
Revised preprint: "Establishing trust in automated reasoning"
osf.io/preprints/me...
Scientific reasoning is automated via software and machine learning. Users rarely understand their inner workings. They are exempt from peer review. Should we trust them? Why?
A summary 🧵
🧪 #metasci #compsci
osf.io/preprints/me...
Scientific reasoning is automated via software and machine learning. Users rarely understand their inner workings. They are exempt from peer review. Should we trust them? Why?
A summary 🧵
🧪 #metasci #compsci
Lynda points out that even though a relatively small number of data sources have been shut down by the US Federal government, many more are affected through letting go of staff - death by a thousand cuts.
November 6, 2025 at 9:23 AM
Lynda points out that even though a relatively small number of data sources have been shut down by the US Federal government, many more are affected through letting go of staff - death by a thousand cuts.
First talk by Lynda Kellam from the University of Pennsylvania who co-founded the Data Rescue Project talking on redilience in times of crisis. #ResilienceWorkshop
November 6, 2025 at 9:16 AM
First talk by Lynda Kellam from the University of Pennsylvania who co-founded the Data Rescue Project talking on redilience in times of crisis. #ResilienceWorkshop
A delight to be at the Resilience in times of crisis workshop in Leiden being run by Kathleen Gregory and @loubezuidenhout.bsky.social
November 6, 2025 at 8:40 AM
A delight to be at the Resilience in times of crisis workshop in Leiden being run by Kathleen Gregory and @loubezuidenhout.bsky.social
Reposted by Hugh Shanahan
Going to the Charleston Conference? Join Meredith Goins, Executive Director of WDS as she presents: The World Data System: Serving as a Voice for Trusted Data Repositories as a Critical Piece of the Scientific Enterprise
📆Tomorrow! 6 Nov, 2025, 03:20 PM - 04:00 PM (EDT)
#chsconf2025
📆Tomorrow! 6 Nov, 2025, 03:20 PM - 04:00 PM (EDT)
#chsconf2025
November 5, 2025 at 1:00 PM
Going to the Charleston Conference? Join Meredith Goins, Executive Director of WDS as she presents: The World Data System: Serving as a Voice for Trusted Data Repositories as a Critical Piece of the Scientific Enterprise
📆Tomorrow! 6 Nov, 2025, 03:20 PM - 04:00 PM (EDT)
#chsconf2025
📆Tomorrow! 6 Nov, 2025, 03:20 PM - 04:00 PM (EDT)
#chsconf2025
Reposted by Hugh Shanahan
I see it's time for me to make the point again that the poppy is a fundraising campaign for the Royal British Legion, a specific, mundane entity that is not exempt from scrutiny and does not own the concept of remembrance.
You can read its 2024 accounts here: storage.rblcdn.co.uk/sitefinity/d...
You can read its 2024 accounts here: storage.rblcdn.co.uk/sitefinity/d...
November 5, 2025 at 11:17 AM
I see it's time for me to make the point again that the poppy is a fundraising campaign for the Royal British Legion, a specific, mundane entity that is not exempt from scrutiny and does not own the concept of remembrance.
You can read its 2024 accounts here: storage.rblcdn.co.uk/sitefinity/d...
You can read its 2024 accounts here: storage.rblcdn.co.uk/sitefinity/d...
Thanks Chatham House for reposting. I think this gets the more times you watch it!
"You left Europe because you wanted less boats. You have more boats. You left Europe because you wanted more investment. You have less investment."
Prime Minister Edi Rama of Albania on the UK's decision to leave the European Union.
Watch in full ➡️ bit.ly/4qkZnS0
Prime Minister Edi Rama of Albania on the UK's decision to leave the European Union.
Watch in full ➡️ bit.ly/4qkZnS0
November 1, 2025 at 9:40 AM
Thanks Chatham House for reposting. I think this gets the more times you watch it!
Reposted by Hugh Shanahan
Happy Halloween, Cerberus!
October 31, 2025 at 2:01 PM
Happy Halloween, Cerberus!
Reposted by Hugh Shanahan
How to create data dictionaries for all your reserch projects!
How to ensure your research data is error-free & understandable by other users & your future self?🗂️ This tutorial by LMU OSC is on documenting & validating data in R to make it more reusable.
Self-Paced Tutorial of the Day: Data Documentation & Validation using R📑 lmu-osc.github.io/data-documen...
Self-Paced Tutorial of the Day: Data Documentation & Validation using R📑 lmu-osc.github.io/data-documen...
lmu-osc.github.io
October 31, 2025 at 11:45 AM
How to create data dictionaries for all your reserch projects!
Reposted by Hugh Shanahan
A spooky Samhain single for the day that’s in it by my sister Molly May. Amazing what she’s achieved with a budget of zero. Check it out mollymayoleary.bandcamp.com/track/ghost?...
October 31, 2025 at 9:30 AM
A spooky Samhain single for the day that’s in it by my sister Molly May. Amazing what she’s achieved with a budget of zero. Check it out mollymayoleary.bandcamp.com/track/ghost?...
Well this is quite depressing. The only way is see here is to return to invigilated exams/tests. Yes this will be stressful for students but it's the only mechanism for assessment which is in some way scalable.
arstechnica.com/culture/2025...
arstechnica.com/culture/2025...
Caught cheating in class, college students “apologized” using AI—and profs called them out
Time for some “life lessons.”…
arstechnica.com
October 31, 2025 at 9:50 AM
Well this is quite depressing. The only way is see here is to return to invigilated exams/tests. Yes this will be stressful for students but it's the only mechanism for assessment which is in some way scalable.
arstechnica.com/culture/2025...
arstechnica.com/culture/2025...
Reposted by Hugh Shanahan
I know a lot of people are already spreading this info, but hoping to spread it a little further: donating to a food bank, food pantry, or food distribution mutual aid group is really important right now, as TFG and the fucking GOP are shutting down snap benefits on November 1. I'll link to a few
October 29, 2025 at 2:16 PM
I know a lot of people are already spreading this info, but hoping to spread it a little further: donating to a food bank, food pantry, or food distribution mutual aid group is really important right now, as TFG and the fucking GOP are shutting down snap benefits on November 1. I'll link to a few
Reposted by Hugh Shanahan
Absolutely disgusting. BBC News - Ex-BBC editor stopped from flying due to Parkinson's felt 'humiliated'
www.bbc.com/news/article...
www.bbc.com/news/article...
Ex-BBC editor stopped from flying due to Parkinson's felt 'humilated'
Mark Mardell was left feeling 'humiliated' after he was told he could not board a flight.
www.bbc.com
October 28, 2025 at 3:00 PM
Absolutely disgusting. BBC News - Ex-BBC editor stopped from flying due to Parkinson's felt 'humiliated'
www.bbc.com/news/article...
www.bbc.com/news/article...
Reposted by Hugh Shanahan
"You left Europe because you wanted less boats, you have more boats. You left Europe because you wanted more investment. You have less investment."
Prime Minister Edi Rama of Albania on the UK's decision to leave the European Union.
Watch in full ➡️ bit.ly/4qkZnS0
Prime Minister Edi Rama of Albania on the UK's decision to leave the European Union.
Watch in full ➡️ bit.ly/4qkZnS0
October 25, 2025 at 8:00 AM
"You left Europe because you wanted less boats, you have more boats. You left Europe because you wanted more investment. You have less investment."
Prime Minister Edi Rama of Albania on the UK's decision to leave the European Union.
Watch in full ➡️ bit.ly/4qkZnS0
Prime Minister Edi Rama of Albania on the UK's decision to leave the European Union.
Watch in full ➡️ bit.ly/4qkZnS0