David Bradley Sciencebase - Songs, Snaps, Science This is an RSS file. You can use it to subscribe to this data in your favourite RSS reader or to display this data on your own website or blog.

ChatGPT beam search and a GPT glossary
TL:DR – A number of people were reaching Sciencebase searching for the phrase ChatGPT beam search so I asked ChatGPT itself to give me a definition. I then asked it to create a glossary of common GPT terms. ChatGPT, the AI language model is essentially an incredibly sophisticated autocomplete program that responds to text prompts by predicting what might come next. Here’s its response to my prompt asking it for a definition of ChatGPT beam search: Beam search is a search algorithm used in Natural Language Processing (NLP) to find the most likely sequence of words or phrases that represent the best possible sol...
Source: David Bradley Sciencebase - Songs, Snaps, Science - March 1, 2023 Category: Science Authors: David Bradley Tags: Artificial Intelligence Source Type: blogs

Prompting MidJourney with emoji
TL:DR – You can paste emoji into a MidJourney prompt and it will generate some interesting art. Some of it seems wholly unrelated to the emoji. Everyone surely knows by now that you can create some intriguing images by sending an appropriate prompt to a bot, you can even send an image to some of them, such as MidJourney, and have it spit back something that it generates based on that input. Recently, I saw an interesting idea from Linus Ekenstam who was prompting MidJourney with emoji. My next favourite waste of time was obvious… Prompt: Male singer emoji, the one that looks like Aladdin Sane Bowie MidJourney ...
Source: David Bradley Sciencebase - Songs, Snaps, Science - February 28, 2023 Category: Science Authors: David Bradley Tags: Artificial Intelligence Source Type: blogs

Prompting AI with emoji
Everyone surely knows by now that you can create some intriguing images by sending an appropriate prompt to an AI bot, you can even send an image to some of them, such as MidJourney, and have it spit back something that it generates based on that input. Recently, I saw an interesting idea from Linus Ekenstam who was prompting MidJourney with emoji. My next favourite waste of time was obvious… Prompt: Male singer emoji, the one that looks like Aladdin Sane Bowie MidJourney art generated from the “male singer” emoji Prompt: Male and female singers and guitar emoji MidJourney art generated from the “ma...
Source: David Bradley Sciencebase - Songs, Snaps, Science - February 28, 2023 Category: Science Authors: David Bradley Tags: Artificial Intelligence Source Type: blogs

Spawn again – Operation PondLife 2023
I’ve not mentioned our wild garden pond for a while. It’s still thriving with iris, reed, and sedge shoots beginning to show already and it is just late February. Matt often checks on the frogs after dark and reported that there were a pair mating on the night of 26th February, which is a good sign, we might soon be with spawn again. We had spawn on 21st February 2021, but not until 5th March in 2020, nothing in 2019 when I’d only just resurrected the pond. This is how it looked in May 2019 when I first re-dug our garden pond (it’s just half the size of the original) This is how it looked in April 2...
Source: David Bradley Sciencebase - Songs, Snaps, Science - February 27, 2023 Category: Science Authors: David Bradley Tags: PondLife Source Type: blogs

Sciencebase social links
Please join me on your preferred social media platform, I’ll follow back as soon as I can, unless you tell me not to. I’ve put my links in a kind of relative activity order. Social Media Mastodon | Facebook | Twitter LinkedIn | Tumblr | Medium Photography Instagram | GuruShots | ImagingStorm | TikTok Music BandCamp | SoundCloud | Spotify | Youtube Incidentally, I’ve added some code to the Sciencebase backend so that readers can easily get to my other social media pages. All you have to do is use a link like this – https://sciencebase.com/social – but swap the word social in the link for whiche...
Source: David Bradley Sciencebase - Songs, Snaps, Science - February 27, 2023 Category: Science Authors: David Bradley Tags: Social Media Source Type: blogs

Avian influenza, bird flu, H5N1
A bird flu pandemic has killed thousands of wild birds over the last couple of years. Scientists have now seen infection in mammals, and very recently a person died from avian influenza and several close contacts show signs of  infection. The concern is that we might be headed for another H5N1 pandemic. Previous strains of H5N1 that infected people had a mortality rate of 60 percent. Avian influenza, bird flu, H5N1 There are fifteen known variants of avian influenza. The most virulent, and usually fatal in birds, are the H5 and H7 strains. There are then nine variants of the H5 strain and the type of most concern because ...
Source: David Bradley Sciencebase - Songs, Snaps, Science - February 27, 2023 Category: Science Authors: David Bradley Tags: Bird Flu Health and Medicine Vaccines Source Type: blogs

Meet GINA, Global INitiative for Asthma
TL:DR – Thanks to GINA I have not needed to use salbutamol to treat my asthma for three years at the time of writing. It’s three years since my asthma nurse introduced me to GINA, the Global INitiative for Asthma. It was a phone consultation because the then new virus SARS-CoV-2, which causes what became known as COVID-19, was beginning to spread. At the time, I was very worried that it would be a killer for me given my asthma. Eventually, medical science learned that people with asthma were not necessarily at any greater risk of morbidity and mortality. Anyway, it was nice to meet GINA. GINA contradicts some ...
Source: David Bradley Sciencebase - Songs, Snaps, Science - February 27, 2023 Category: Science Authors: David Bradley Tags: Asthma Health and Medicine Pharma Source Type: blogs

Birding and wording
TL:DR – An answer to the question why are so many science writers also birders? Someone on social media asked me as a science writer why so many science writers are also birders. My initial thoughts were as follows: Well, to be a science writer, I think you have to be curious, analytical, interested in lots of stuff…a polymath. Birds are interesting, identification requires analysis, writing about them is fun and if you’re a togger [birder-photographer], you always have a decent photo to illustrate your article. Short-eared Owl One possible explanation for the prevalence of birding among science writers ...
Source: David Bradley Sciencebase - Songs, Snaps, Science - February 25, 2023 Category: Science Authors: David Bradley Tags: Artificial Intelligence Birds Science Stuff Source Type: blogs

Knots landing again
We spent the night in North Norfolk and were up well before dawn to get to Knots Landing (RSPB Snettisham) in time for the high tide and the potential for a Wader Spectacular. We were not disappointed. The weather was damp and drizzly and very cold and we got soaked through, but we witnessed tens of thousands of Knot (Calidris canutus) murmurating over the advancing tide as we headed for the landing site. Most have at this point already been pushed off the deluged mudflats of The Wash, their low-tide feeding grounds, and into the air. Within minutes, the murmurs flood the banks of the inland lagoons with birds crammed tigh...
Source: David Bradley Sciencebase - Songs, Snaps, Science - February 23, 2023 Category: Science Authors: David Bradley Tags: Birds Source Type: blogs

ChatGPT interviews Sciencebase
TL:DR – I prompted ChatGPT to come up with some questions to interview me, I then asked it to act as me and to provide answers to its own questions on my behalf. Aside from a couple of factual errors, the results are eerily close to how I might have responded. In my previous article, I wrote about prompting ChatGPT to come up with a list of 20 questions to ask me as an experienced science writer with a penchant for wildlife photography. Originally, I planned to come up with my own answers…but what’s the point in that? So, having asked it to act as a journalist to come up with the questions, I then asked ...
Source: David Bradley Sciencebase - Songs, Snaps, Science - February 21, 2023 Category: Science Authors: David Bradley Tags: Artificial Intelligence Source Type: blogs

ChatGPT to interview Sciencebase
I prompted the language model to come up with 20 questions to ask me as an experienced science writer with a penchant for wildlife photography. I need some time to come up with my answers! Actually…how about I asked ChatGPT to act as me and generate answers for me… What inspired you to pursue a career in science journalism, and how did you get your start in the field? How did you first become interested in wildlife photography, and how has it influenced your science writing over the years? Can you share some of your favorite wildlife photography moments and what they taught you about the natural world? How do...
Source: David Bradley Sciencebase - Songs, Snaps, Science - February 21, 2023 Category: Science Authors: David Bradley Tags: Artificial Intelligence Source Type: blogs

Dual antidote for cyanide and carbon monoxide poisoning
TL:DR – Scientists have developed a life-saving antidote for exposure to the deadly gases hydrogen cyanide and carbon monoxide. Scientists have made a groundbreaking discovery in the field of antidote development by creating a synthetic heme-model compound that has the potential to save lives in the event of simultaneous poisoning by carbon monoxide and hydrogen cyanide, which are frequently encountered in building fires. The compound, which has been tested on mice, resulted in an impressive 85% survival rate and rapid recovery. The chemical group known as heme is at the heart of hemoglobin, the oxygen-carrying mole...
Source: David Bradley Sciencebase - Songs, Snaps, Science - February 20, 2023 Category: Science Authors: David Bradley Tags: Chemistry Health and Medicine Source Type: blogs

More on choosing the best Mastodon server
TL:DR – Mastodon is a decentralized social network. It consists of thousands of different sites, or instances, all running the Mastodon software but each with its own character, community, and rules. When choosing an instance to join, you are best served by choosing one that aligns with your interests and values. You should consider the following when choosing your first Mastodon instance. Remember, you can always switch later and take any followers you gain with you. Community: The first thing to consider when choosing an instance is the community that it represents. Each instance has its own set of users with thei...
Source: David Bradley Sciencebase - Songs, Snaps, Science - February 19, 2023 Category: Science Authors: David Bradley Tags: Social Media Source Type: blogs

TL:DR – Too long, didn ’ t read
TL:DR – Adding article summaries to my blog posts to help readers better navigate the 3700 Sciencebase posts. Back in the days of print journalism, we used to write our copy, attach a headline and perhaps a strapline. For a news story, the article would usually follow a kind of pyramid structure. The headline telling pretty much the whole story, the strapline expanding on it a little, then the article building on the conventional Who, Why, What, Where, and When etc. Of course, once editors got their hands on it, your sacred text might be shredded and at the very least the headline and strapline would be stripped awa...
Source: David Bradley Sciencebase - Songs, Snaps, Science - February 15, 2023 Category: Science Authors: David Bradley Tags: Sciencebase Stuff Source Type: blogs

Choosing the best Mastodon server
TL:DR – There are lots of Mastodon servers, choosing the best is down to personal needs. Choose one in your niche that has a good number of users, more than one admin, and a good financial base. If you’re new to Mastodon, then have a quick read of my Mastodon FAQ to get an idea of what it’s all about. Social media tool Mastodon is essentially a network of connected websites all running the same software. Users refer to these websites as instances. You can think of an instance as being a specialist group on another famous social media system. But each instance or server is owned and managed independently ...
Source: David Bradley Sciencebase - Songs, Snaps, Science - February 15, 2023 Category: Science Authors: David Bradley Tags: Social Media Source Type: blogs