Jason Locasale, PhD
@LocasaleLab
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scientist, former tenured professor at Duke School of Medicine (metabolism nutrition health cancer), academic and scientific reform [email protected]
Raleigh, NC
Joined March 2015
As some of you know, I left academia in 2024. I’ve been quiet, but I’ll start sharing more soon. My situation is partly unique — but largely reflects deeper problems in academia and biomedical research.
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This is not just in the studies departments. This is deep inside the hard science STEM fields as well.
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I left a successful academic career in STEM after publishing 200+ papers. I believed in science and truth but learned the system valued optics over integrity, conformity over courage. In academia, bureaucracy replaced discovery, egos replaced expertise, and silence replaced.
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RT @SketchesbyBoze: As the university system collapses and millions succumb to tech-induced brain rot, the concept of the autodidact—a self….
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RT @LocasaleLab: In my later days, I was sometimes spending 4-6 hours a day on post award grant paperwork. Not writing proposals, not brai….
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We are not having many productive discussions about NIH. I've had private conversations with so many colleagues on NIH issues. Their general content is rarely if ever mentioned in any public forum. Many, especially if you walk over to reddit or bluesky, say "everything is.
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RT @flowidealism: I’m very critical of academia beyond STEM, but more often these days I’m hearing that even STEM is broken. See @Locasale….
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💯.
Can AI take jobs of shit posters?.
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A major source of irreproducibility in basic (not clinical work where statistical is more relevant) science comes from the high profile journals being overextended. Merit is often defined by the status or impact factor of the journal. For basic science journals, the higher.
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In my later days, I was sometimes spending 4-6 hours a day on post award grant paperwork. Not writing proposals, not brainstorming research ideas, not generating preliminary data, just going back and forth with different admins on what forms they wanted me to fill out, me.
@LocasaleLab I think you may underestimate the enthusiasm within academia to shed bureaucratic bloat - cutting indirect funds should come with real regulatory relief that facilitates major cost savings. So far that hasn't happened.
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Why do you have to be an influencer to be considered successful at anything these days 😂.
why do you have to be a fucking influencer to be a great founder 😭😭😭.
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Agree completely - my doctorate from MIT almost meaningless, my Harvard postdoctoral training meaningless as well, my initial instructor level faculty position at Harvard - less than meaningless.
Credentialism is already crumbling. In tech, sales, and digital marketing nobody cares about diplomas, only results. Google, Apple, Whole Foods dropped degree requirements, and one of my 18-year-old digital marketers will earn $200k this year. Merit markets are spreading faster.
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I love how these concepts are so trendy now. The experts are treated like rockstars and professional athletes. Much of the math for AI/LLMs was developed a long time ago to solve physics problems like how molecules in a gas can condense to form a liquid. Back in the.
Lagrangians are often used in physics for deriving the energy of mechanical systems. But are they useful for neural networks and AI? . It turns out they are extremely helpful for working with energy-based models and energy-based Associative Memories. You need to specify a
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This was why I often felt so out of place at some of these universities. I wanted intellectual cultivation but my colleagues mostly focused on careerism.
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This is an important point for education at all levels. A very small percentage are interested in education for intellectual development. For most the purpose is vocation. This was my experience at high school, bachelors, doctoral and postdoctoral levels - average schools.
“This is the position of the higher learning in America. The universities are dependent on the people. The people love money and think that education is a way of getting it. They think too that democracy means that every child should be permitted to acquire the educational.
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I’m thinking of doing an assessment on this famous irreproducibility paper. Ten years out is enough time to see what parts of the science does and doesnt hold up. Hint - the paper itself may not be reproducible.
In one famous 2012 paper that attempted to reproduce 53 "landmark" studies in cancer biology:. Only 6 papers' findings could be successfully replicated, or just 11% of the top papers in the field. 89% of the top papers were not independently reproducible.
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RT @LocasaleLab: The NIH spends $40B+ annually, yet science is stagnating. Why? The system rewards mediocrity, bureaucracy, and conformity….
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RT @ehlJAMA: @Holden_Culotta Having spent nine years as a full-time deputy editor JAMA, I can attest to the fact that there is a great deal….
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There is probably some fundamental truth here. Older papers in the fruit fly field generally "reproduce". The reason is likely very simple: the conclusions and scope of the papers are much smaller than what we are used to now.
Lemaitre lab did a review of reproducibility of conclusions from over 60 years of studies in fruit fly immunology. Guess what they found?.
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Graduate students are rightfully concerned about bullying and harassment by professors. True mentorship means empowering students, respecting their intellectual autonomy, and fostering an environment of trust not dominance. When universities create conditions where truth is.
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Science is about asking 'why' and chasing truth, not grants. Scientists need systems where curiosity drives discovery.
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