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Comment by icapybara | Hacker News Reader

I’m a scientist on HN. It’s mostly fine here, but sometimes the articles on science can get a little cringey (armchair scientists proposing theories of quantum gravity in the comments, etc).

However, having seen the science community on Twitter, I don’t think a “HN for science” would be enjoyable.

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When you say "the science community on twitter", are you referring to a group of actual scientists, or the group of "science communicators" and misc academic hangers-on, plus non-scientists who interact with them?

Not OP, but I would refer to the actual scientists on twitter. It’s become a popular platform for sharing new papers or thoughts that might once have been blog posts.

However it can be very toxic and self-aggrandizing, even (especially?) among more senior faculty.

Science twitter is the reason I’m still on twitter, but there’s definitely days where I wonder if it’s worth it.

>However, having seen the science community on Twitter,

What's the problem with that community?

I assume he means it's made up entirely of armchair scientists. From what I've seen it's a lot of 12 year olds reposing mother jones or Vox articles who think they've discovered the solution to climate change. Science communities tend to be a lot more political and tend to attract more kids in my experience

No, the academic scientists on Twitter. It’s all PR and circle jerk, very little real scientific discussion.

IMO, the content can often be unrelated to science, as many tweets even by established scientists are about politics or other topics. There is also a large contingent of early career scientists trying to use twitter to get their name out there. Having a strong twitter presence can help assistant professors when to comes time for their tenure review, as peer name recognition does play a part in the decision (but there are other, better, non-Twitter ways to do this, too).

Imagine a bunch of professors trying to be “influencers” instead of real scientists and you’ll not be far off.

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