The Guild of Scientific Troubadours

The Guild of Scientific Troubadours

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computer science

Satellites are the weak link in keeping secrets.

30 October 2025 grant 0

Wired has an unsettling bit of tech reporting on how easy it is to see nearly all of our secrets with about $800 worth of equipment. Phone calls, internet searches, Signal chats, troop positions,… Read the rest “Satellites are the weak link in keeping secrets.”

AI detects melanoma with 99% accuracy.

21 October 2025 grant 0

Northeastern Global News reports on a positive use for artificial intelligence, with a system that outperforms other techniques by helping doctors spot potentially deadly skin cancers… Read the rest “AI detects melanoma with 99% accuracy.”

Computers are beating humans at predicting future outcomes.

21 September 2025 grant 0

Time (not a science magazine, but…) has a story on the Metaculus forecasting cup (not a scientific experiment, but…), which offers a $5,000 prize to members who successfully… Read the rest “Computers are beating humans at predicting future outcomes.”

Scientific illustration of an electronic brain, a glowing network of light spilling up from a city and into a colossal floating brain overhead, blue and purple lights against a black sky.

Science Art: How ChatGPT visualizes itself.webp, by ChatGPT

25 August 2025 grant 0

Yes, this is AI art. But it is AI art that is by AI and about AI.

From the image description on Wikimedia Commons:

ChatGPT 4 generated this image based on the following prompt: “Generate

… Read the rest “Science Art: How ChatGPT visualizes itself.webp, by ChatGPT”

Salt Typhoon (probably) has peeked into all sorts of U.S. gov’t computers.

17 July 2025 grant 0

IT Pro echoes the warning of cybersecurity professionals that, since the Pentagon reported on China’s Salt Typhoon group broaching a U.S. National Guard system, we should assume… Read the rest “Salt Typhoon (probably) has peeked into all sorts of U.S. gov’t computers.”

ADHD diagnosed by looking deeply into your eyes.

21 May 2025 grant 0

Science Alert carries news of a Korean research project that used AI to study images of the fundus, an area of the back of the eye, to successfully pinpoint patients with attention-deficit… Read the rest “ADHD diagnosed by looking deeply into your eyes.”

Growing worry over “ChatGPT-induced psychosis”

10 May 2025 grant 0

Futurism reports on anecdotal evidence of ChatGPT conversing with people in a human-like way and … drawing them further and further into an authoritative-sounding, real-feeling… Read the rest “Growing worry over “ChatGPT-induced psychosis””

AI can’t beat Pokémon

26 March 2025 grant 0

Something for your inner 12-year-old to feel superior about, as published in Ars Technica. Anthropic’s Claude AI, pretty helpful at summarizing documents and parsing transcripts,… Read the rest “AI can’t beat Pokémon”

TechDirt is a democracy blog.

14 March 2025 grant 0

Have I cited TechDirt here before? I’m pretty sure I have. Anyway, in a sign of the weird times today, they’ve just come out and said that because they’re an outlet for … Read the rest “TechDirt is a democracy blog.”

Scientific illustration of air traffic control reading a plane's position on an instrument panel, while radar waves bounce in graphic zig-zags off an airplane flying high over a mountain range.

Science Art: Opportunities for Design & Development Engineers…, 1966.

12 March 2025 grant 0

This is the illustration from a full-page ad from the Hughes Aircraft Company in the Jan/Feb 1966 issue of Information Display magazine.

This isn’t selling a product — at least… Read the rest “Science Art: Opportunities for Design & Development Engineers…, 1966.”

AI to translate cat faces.

5 March 2025 grant 0

Nature: Scientific Reports wants you to know why your cat is making faces at you. They’ve published a study that uses artificial intelligence to decipher “CatFACS codings”… Read the rest “AI to translate cat faces.”

SONG: Hashtag Exclamation (#!%^)

25 February 2025 grant 0

SONG: “Hashtag Exclamation (#!%^)”. (OGG version here.)

ARTIST: grant.

SOURCE: Based on “‘Just give me the f***ing links!’—Cursing disables Google’s… Read the rest “SONG: Hashtag Exclamation (#!%^)”

Get better searches by swearing at Google.

3 February 2025 grant 0

How are we teaching the learning-machines to speak? Ars Technica reports on the discovery (or revelation, maybe) that it’s possible to do away with that infuriating, inaccurate… Read the rest “Get better searches by swearing at Google.”

Lucid dreaming by phone

21 December 2024 grant 0

Science News shares an app created by Northwestern University neuroscientists that’s designed to cue your almost-sleeping brain to launch you into a lucid dream:

Before bed, the

… Read the rest “Lucid dreaming by phone”

Daddy-daughter alien decoding.

27 October 2024 grant 0

The European Space Agency reports on the team who successfully decoded an “alien” transmission actually sent by a probe orbiting Mars as part of a multidisciplinary project… Read the rest “Daddy-daughter alien decoding.”

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  • University of South Florida : Tenure-Track Faculty Position in Aquatic Ecotoxicology
  • University of Virginia: Professorships in Climate and the Environment
  • University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill: Professor and Chair of Pharmacology
  • University of Illinois Chicago - College of Applied Health Sciences : Associate Professor
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  • University College London: Dean of the Faculty of Brain Sciences
Honorary Troubadours
  • Jonathan Coulton, Contributing Troubadour for Popular Science.
  • Laura Veirs, who knows her way around a polysyllable.
  • Thomas Dolby, godfather of scientific pop.
  • Squeaky, fact-based rock about fusion containment & rocket science.
  • Cosmos II, a.k.a. Boston University astronomer Alan Marscher.
  • Dr. Fiorella Terenzi, astrophysicist who makes music from cosmic radio sources.
  • Dr. Jim Webb, astronomy professor and acoustic guitarist.
  • Artichoke, the band behind 26 Scientists, Vols. I and II.
  • They Might Be Giants, unrelenting proponents of scientific popular song.
  • Symphonies of Science, the people who make Carl Sagan and others sing.
  • Giant Squid, doom metal about the sublime horrors of marine biology.
  • Gethan Dick,6 scientists, 6 musicians, 1 great album
Related Projects
  • Squid Pro Crow
  • Grant Bandcamp
  • Grant Soundcloud
  • Penitential Originals Playlist
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"Is it a fact—or have I dreamt it—that, by means of electricity, the world of matter has become a great nerve, vibrating thousands of miles in a breathless point of time?"
— Nathaniel Hawthorne, The House of the Seven Gables, 1851

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