It’s been a hot minute since last update on this lab note page. Things since last write up had been quite hectic, both in good and bad sense.

RAND Report: Why biology still favors the offense in biosecurity

Licensing spans areas of library work such as promoting open access, helping people navigate publication rights, advocating for open infrastructure, and the technological elements of research and learning. When used well, open licences can underpin a lot of possibilities for finding, accessing, creating, and preserving scholarly work.

I’ve always been uncomfortable around historical re-enactors at museums – people who are walking around in period costume while visitors in modern clothes are browsing the exhibits.

Ein Gastbeitrag von Rômulo Lima Lateinamerika gilt seit Jahrzehnten im Bereich Open Access als Vorreiter. Das Diamond-Open-Access-Modell (DOA-Modell) für wissenschaftliche Zeitschriften ist in der Region sehr weit verbreitet. Bei diesem Modell zahlen weder Autor*innen noch Leser*innen Gebühren.

Generative AI (genAI) is now ubiquitous in research. The field of academic publishing is struggling with an overwhelming mass of genAI slop and where to draw the line between acceptable and unacceptable genAI use. GenAI not only offers new opportunities, as is widely touted, but also creates numerous new problems and challenges, not least for responsible research. What does it mean to use genAI responsibly? Is it even possible?

Die gesellschaftspolitische Debatte über Flucht und Migration ist von einem Versicherheitlichungsdiskurs geprägt, der Zuwanderung als Sicherheitsrisiko konstruiert, restriktive Maßnahmen zum Schutz der nationalen Sicherheit begünstigt und dabei häufig neue Unsicherheiten für Geflüchtete erzeugt.

Today, exactly 20 years ago I started this blog. Two years ago I decided to upgrade my blog to one with version control. A decision I am still very excited about. It allowed me to start innovating my blog again. As part of this, and following the step Lars took ealier, I registered my blog with Rogue Scholar and I started migrating blog posts from blogger.com to my new location. I completed the years 2005, 2006, 2007, and 2008 now.

Click here for the version in Portuguese Welcome back to our series of case studies of research funders using the Grant Linking System.

7–8 September 2026 | Sheffield, UK & online (co-located with RSECon26) Join a global gathering of leaders and change-makers advancing strategic coordination, sustainability, and collaboration across the research software community. IRSC fosters global cohesion, community connection, and strategic impact to strengthen research software as a vital part of research and innovation.

This is a long post. It started focused on ultrafaint dwarfs, but can’t avoid more general issues. In order to diagnose non-equilibrium effects, we have to have some expectation for what equilibrium would be. The Tully-Fisher relation is a useful empirical touchstone for that. How the Tully-Fisher relation comes about is itself theory-dependent.