Science journo at @science.org, writing about science & society, research integrity, and other places where the scientific rubber hits the road. 🇿🇦🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🇷🇸 Tip? Find me on Signal at cathleen_ogrady.14https://bsky.app/profile/cathleenogrady.bsky.socialhttps://bsky.app/profile/cathleenogrady.bsky.social/post/3lptydjl6ek2lLast week, a preprint reporting expert consensus on smartphones and teen mental health sparked a kerfuffle. Critics are saying the evidence in the field is too thin to support consensus, and that the findings of the paper have been communicated badly: https://www.science.org/content/article/social-media-consensus-paper-causes-social-media-uproar23 May 2025 15:51 +0000at://did:plc:jzzphuxllummtl6ydgd56db5/app.bsky.feed.post/3lptydjl6ek2lhttps://bsky.app/profile/cathleenogrady.bsky.social/post/3lp7nykqab22eA massive health dataset has spawned a wealth of cookie-cutter "research Mad Libs" papers that don't tell us anything useful, but flood the literature with noise. Possibly AI-generated, possibly paper mill origin. https://www.science.org/content/article/low-quality-papers-are-surging-exploiting-public-data-sets-and-ai15 May 2025 13:53 +0000at://did:plc:jzzphuxllummtl6ydgd56db5/app.bsky.feed.post/3lp7nykqab22ehttps://bsky.app/profile/cathleenogrady.bsky.social/post/3llygvnhp2k2wSmart and important story from @rebekahwhite.bsky.social. Some geoengineering experiments have brought nearby communities on board; others have failed to get support. What should scientists do to genuinely engage with people about their concerns? https://www.science.org/content/article/geoengineering-fight-climate-change-if-public-can-convinced04 Apr 2025 12:42 +0000at://did:plc:jzzphuxllummtl6ydgd56db5/app.bsky.feed.post/3llygvnhp2k2whttps://bsky.app/profile/cathleenogrady.bsky.social/post/3lksnydbhjk25This is awesome: "As we incorporated [ASL vocab] into the course, we found that students who relied solely on an interpreter started to outperform hearing students ... Deaf students also began to seek out research opportunities more often than they did previously." https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-024-00738-w20 Mar 2025 12:07 +0000at://did:plc:jzzphuxllummtl6ydgd56db5/app.bsky.feed.post/3lksnydbhjk25https://bsky.app/profile/cathleenogrady.bsky.social/post/3lkduucgsi22jLanguage is the social&cognitive air that humans breathe. It underlies our thinking, connection, education. So what happens when, as a young child, you don't get access to it? Implants can help deaf kids hear – but that's not always enough to give them language 🧪 https://www.science.org/content/article/implants-can-help-deaf-kids-hear-many-still-struggle-spoken-language14 Mar 2025 15:00 +0000at://did:plc:jzzphuxllummtl6ydgd56db5/app.bsky.feed.post/3lkduucgsi22jhttps://bsky.app/profile/cathleenogrady.bsky.social/post/3lkduucgsi22jLanguage is the social&cognitive air that humans breathe. It underlies our thinking, connection, education. So what happens when, as a young child, you don't get access to it? Implants can help deaf kids hear – but that's not always enough to give them language 🧪 https://www.science.org/content/article/implants-can-help-deaf-kids-hear-many-still-struggle-spoken-language14 Mar 2025 15:00 +0000at://did:plc:jzzphuxllummtl6ydgd56db5/app.bsky.feed.post/3lkduucgsi22jhttps://bsky.app/profile/cathleenogrady.bsky.social/post/3lj65kkdefk2oGreat thread from @jbakcoleman.bsky.social on my story about ecologists reaching different conclusions from the same data. Should we be worried? Maybe about analytical ability – but maybe not so much about science's ability to reach a clear answer. 🧪 [contains quote post or other embedded content]27 Feb 2025 14:55 +0000at://did:plc:jzzphuxllummtl6ydgd56db5/app.bsky.feed.post/3lj65kkdefk2ohttps://bsky.app/profile/cathleenogrady.bsky.social/post/3lip3ozpnr22rOne of the wackier stories I've reported in a while. Shady outfits are selling slots on UK "patents" to academics – only they aren't patents, they're just cribbed pictures of crazy, meaningless designs: [contains quote post or other embedded content]21 Feb 2025 15:12 +0000at://did:plc:jzzphuxllummtl6ydgd56db5/app.bsky.feed.post/3lip3ozpnr22rhttps://bsky.app/profile/cathleenogrady.bsky.social/post/3ldo3cmmvs225Scientists are protesting a move from the UK Medical Research Council that could spell the end of historic research units focusing on areas of strategic national importance, such as epidemiology, toxicology, and virology: https://www.science.org/content/article/funding-overhaul-threatens-historic-u-k-research-units19 Dec 2024 14:26 +0000at://did:plc:jzzphuxllummtl6ydgd56db5/app.bsky.feed.post/3ldo3cmmvs225https://bsky.app/profile/cathleenogrady.bsky.social/post/3ldjepxics223It took four days from submission to publication, and nearly five years from publication to retraction. After campaigning by many, many scientists, and an investigation by Elsevier, an infamous paper on hydroxychloroquine as a COVID-19 treatment has been retracted. 🧪 https://www.science.org/content/article/infamous-paper-popularized-unproven-covid-19-treatment-finally-retracted?utm_campaign=Science&utm_medium=ownedSocial&utm_source=Bluesky17 Dec 2024 17:31 +0000at://did:plc:jzzphuxllummtl6ydgd56db5/app.bsky.feed.post/3ldjepxics223