August 2024
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415 Reads
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2 Citations
Science
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August 2024
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415 Reads
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2 Citations
Science
August 2024
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8 Reads
Scientific research requires taking risks, as the most cautious approaches are unlikely to lead to the most rapid progress. Yet, much funded scientific research plays it safe and funding agencies bemoan the difficulty of attracting high-risk, high-return research projects. Why don’t the incentives for scientific discovery adequately impel researchers toward such projects? Here, we adapt an economic contracting model to explore how the unobservability of risk and effort discourages risky research. The model considers a hidden-action problem, in which the scientific community must reward discoveries in a way that encourages effort and risk-taking while simultaneously protecting researchers’ livelihoods against the vicissitudes of scientific chance. Its challenge when doing so is that incentives to motivate effort clash with incentives to motivate risk-taking, because a failed project may be evidence of a risky undertaking but could also be the result of simple sloth. As a result, the incentives needed to encourage effort actively discourage risk-taking. Scientists respond by working on safe projects that generate evidence of effort but that don’t move science forward as rapidly as riskier projects would. A social planner who prizes scientific productivity above researchers’ well-being could remedy the problem by rewarding major discoveries richly enough to induce high-risk research, but in doing so would expose scientists to a degree of livelihood risk that ultimately leaves them worse off. Because the scientific community is approximately self-governing and constructs its own reward schedule, the incentives that researchers are willing to impose on themselves are inadequate to motivate the scientific risks that would best expedite scientific progress.
January 2024
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133 Reads
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2 Citations
Journal of College Science Teaching
January 2024
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7 Reads
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
December 2023
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25 Reads
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7 Citations
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
December 2023
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273 Reads
Large language models (LLMs) are being increasingly incorporated into scientific workflows. However, we have yet to fully grasp the implications of this integration. How should the advent of large language models affect the practice of science? For this opinion piece, we have invited four diverse groups of scientists to reflect on this query, sharing their perspectives and engaging in debate. Schulz et al. make the argument that working with LLMs is not fundamentally different from working with human collaborators, while Bender et al. argue that LLMs are often misused and over-hyped, and that their limitations warrant a focus on more specialized, easily interpretable tools. Marelli et al. emphasize the importance of transparent attribution and responsible use of LLMs. Finally, Botvinick and Gershman advocate that humans should retain responsibility for determining the scientific roadmap. To facilitate the discussion, the four perspectives are complemented with a response from each group. By putting these different perspectives in conversation, we aim to bring attention to important considerations within the academic community regarding the adoption of LLMs and their impact on both current and future scientific practices.
July 2023
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3 Reads
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1 Citation
Science
July 2023
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21 Reads
Nature Medicine
June 2023
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35 Reads
Scientific research requires taking risks, as the most cautious approaches are unlikely to lead to the most rapid progress. Yet much funded scientific research plays it safe and funding agencies bemoan the difficulty of attracting high-risk, high-return research projects. Why don't the incentives for scientific discovery adequately impel researchers toward such projects? Here we adapt an economic contracting model to explore how the unobservability of risk and effort discourages risky research. The model considers a hidden-action problem, in which the scientific community must reward discoveries in a way that encourages effort and risk-taking while simultaneously protecting researchers' livelihoods against the vicissitudes of scientific chance. Its challenge when doing so is that incentives to motivate effort clash with incentives to motivate risk-taking, because a failed project may be evidence of a risky undertaking but could also be the result of simple sloth. As a result, the incentives needed to encourage effort actively discourage risk-taking. Scientists respond by working on safe projects that generate evidence of effort but that don't move science forward as rapidly as riskier projects would. A social planner who prizes scientific productivity above researchers' well-being could remedy the problem by rewarding major discoveries richly enough to induce high-risk research, but scientists would be worse off for it. Because the scientific community is approximately self-governing and constructs its own reward schedule, the incentives that researchers are willing to impose on themselves are inadequate to motivate the scientific risks that would best expedite scientific progress.
June 2023
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87 Reads
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4 Citations
Mathematical Biosciences
Defending against novel, repeated, or unpredictable attacks, while avoiding attacks on the 'self', are the central problems of both mammalian immune systems and computer systems. Both systems have been studied in great detail, but with little exchange of information across the different disciplines. Here, we present a conceptual framework for structured comparisons across the fields of biological immunity and cybersecurity, by framing the context of defense, considering different (combinations of) defensive strategies, and evaluating defensive performance. Throughout this paper, we pose open questions for further exploration. We hope to spark the interdisciplinary discovery of general principles of optimal defense, which can be understood and applied in biological immunity, cybersecurity, and other defensive realms.
... Nesse emaranhado de discursos sobram sugestões sobre o que fazer, e o que deixar de fazer, em relação a essas questões complexas. Por consequência, surgem informações, mas principalmente muitas desinformações (Allchin, 2024). ...
January 2024
Journal of College Science Teaching
... Because of the impact of individual behavior on trajectories of the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been an increased interest in coupling epidemiological and behavioral models, and in understanding the potential feedback between these processes [26]. Evolutionary game theory provides a mathematical framework to model how individuals adjust their behavior in response to the state of their population. ...
Reference:
Seasonal social dilemmas
December 2023
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
... Thus, rising incidences of cyber-crime have become a matter of concern for all. Derogation of privacy, unauthorized data alteration or destruction, data theft, stealing of financial information from clients, etc., are some of the vital consequences of cyber-crimes [9]. The present Internet scenario worldwide is reminiscent of the 19th century Gold Rush in the United States. ...
June 2023
Mathematical Biosciences
... The proposals for an IPCC-equivalent governing body for the digital sector, if successful, can accelerate actions and bring about standards, transparency, and accountability. 20 ...
May 2023
Nature
... Mickey (2019) explained that "the theory of homophily argues that people are attracted to similar others to facilitate trust, communication, and reciprocity" (see also Horta et al. 2022, p. 2;McPherson et al. 2001). As Y. S. Wang et al. (2023) noted, "homophily [. . .] has been found to structure professional as well as socio-emotional relationships" (p. ...
April 2023
... Enhancing cybersecurity awareness and promoting responsible online behaviors can help mitigate the risks associated with malware infections. d) Leveraging Threat Intelligence: Just as the immune memory response helps faster and more effective immune responses to reinfection, leveraging threat intelligence can enhance cybersecurity incident response capabilities by collecting and analyzing information about malware and attack patterns [16]. ...
January 2023
SSRN Electronic Journal
... Tortured phrases are one example of the misuse of scientific language in neurodegeneration research including falsification, overstatement, and misuse of causal language, and each leads to misunderstanding and other harms (Table 1). Researchers and editors should work to combat language misuse like tortured phrases as part of a larger struggle against misinformation and misunderstanding of diseases [5]. Sylvain Lesné's potential fabrication of the toxicity of the Aβ*56 oligomer in Alzheimer's Disease [2] • Promotes misunderstanding of the disease entity • Leads to waste of research resources Therapeutic overstatement Metabolic enhancement protocols of Alzheimer's Disease [3] promoted in scientific articles, the lay press, and for-profit books based on individual case studies without any kind of control group ...
December 2022
Nature Medicine
... At this point, a vaccine is extremely important. 25 Current studies suggest focusing on the possibility of mpox outbreaks in susceptible populations and among children, pregnant women, and immunocompromised individuals, whose vaccine use needs more research. However, cancer patients tend to have higher levels of hesitancy to receive vaccines, and elucidating the sources of their hesitancy and the factors influencing it is important to promote vaccination. ...
September 2022
The Lancet
... Similarly, Schneider later investigated the ways in which living systems acquire information through evolutionary processes using Shannon information [432]. More recently, McGee et al. used ideas from computational learning theory and presented a revised and more robust version of Kimura's initial assessment [433], and Hledík et al. analysed ...
July 2022
... Today the internet provides access to an interconnected sea of information that was simply unimaginable even 20 years ago. The common assumption is that this is a good thing as the internet offers us answers to questions about everything from how to fix a broken bicycle to our concerns about health issues (Osborne, J., 2022). ...
May 2022