The reason I can’t work on this project for the time being is because I need to find a job. If any of y’all have a job for me in the Houston area, please do reach out. View quoted note →

Hey all, I’m excited to share something I’m working on. It is a scientific research journal built on nostr. I think nostr is the perfect architecture to build something that does research publishing better than what is the standard right now. To name a few key things I envision with this project: 1. Research accessible by anyone. Scientific knowledge should not be restricted to a select few. This is not to say that there isn’t value in expertise, but to say that there is also value in diversity of thought that can only come from those who were not educated in the same system as many experts. 2. Comments can be left to explain, criticize, suggest research ideas to a specific part of a paper using highlights. 3. Research moves faster because it is cheaper and easier to publish, and becuase more people can interact with it. I’ve had this project in mind for quite a while, practically since I first learned about nostr. I don’t know how to code though. So this project is my first real foray into vibe coding. That being said, this project barely works when I use it, and likely won’t work when you try it. Further, it is currently a very limited version of what I believe a research journal built on nostr can be. I am posting this, in part, as a bookmark. I have other priorities right now and will not continue working on this project at least until January. I do plan to return to it and make it something great. I really do believe in it. I hope to continue building and sharing my vision for this, and I hope to talk more with you all about it. I know many of you have some serious developer/nostr wisdom that I want to make use of. I’ve built a client that you can access here:

Nostr Research Journal

A decentralized research journal on the Nostr protocol with Lightning payments

It currently has a lot of papers I published while building and testing different features. Please excuse that mess. I also built an associated relay: wss://nostr-research-relay.duckdns.org

Turns out pursuing your dreams is gratifying

Telling my brother about nostr. I said “anyone can run a relay” He says “quadriplegics can’t run a relay” Fair point.

Vibe coding

What is in your heart?

Rewatching The Big Short. It begins with a Mark Twain quote, "It ain't what you don't know that gets you into trouble. It's what you know for sure that just ain't so."

Bluebird by Charles Bukowski there's a bluebird in my heart that wants to get out but I'm too tough for him, I say, stay in there, I'm not going to let anybody see you. there's a bluebird in my heart that wants to get out but I pour whiskey on him and inhale cigarette smoke and the whores and the bartenders and the grocery clerks never know that he's in there. there's a bluebird in my heart that wants to get out but I'm too tough for him, I say, stay down, do you want to mess me up? you want to screw up the works? you want to blow my book sales in Europe? there's a bluebird in my heart that wants to get out but I'm too clever, I only let him out at night sometimes when everybody's asleep. I say, I know that you're there, so don't be sad. then I put him back, but he's singing a little in there, I haven't quite let him die and we sleep together like that with our secret pact and it's nice enough to make a man weep, but I don't weep, do you?

Called in sick to work this morning and made the 7 hour haul to Mobile, Alabama for @NOSTRBAMA 2025. Met weirdos. Talked more freely than I’ve managed to in a while. Connected. I’m thankful to have attended and glad I told myself to go do the crazy thing.

Why and how did you get your sh*t together?

This seems like a good opportunity to do an #introductions since I never did a proper nostr introduction so here I am. I’m Carson and I joined nostr about 2 years ago when I saw Jack Dorsey tweet his npub. As I learned about nostr, I got excited because it actually fixes the issue of censorship, and serves as a protocol engineered for free speech. I'd been mostly off social media for a few years (more because It's easy to waste time on and I’m worried about how it’ll affect my brain down the line). Nostr introduced me to bitcoin, and though I haven’t read as deep as I’d like into it yet, it seems to be pretty cool. I am in my senior year of college. I will be graduating with a BS in Materials Science and Engineering in a few short months. I chose this path because of the interest in nanomaterials (carbon nanotubes, more specifically) I developed in high school. While in school, I got a job working in a nanomaterials research lab, where I became associate manager (until I quit today!). Through working in research for nearly four years and reading research for five years, I have come to think research and research publishing could benefit from change. It is in my goals this year to learn to code and build what I see as the solution to the issues with research, and share that here with y’all. One of my main goals at the moment is to find a job for when I graduate. I’m really interested in moving to the Austin or Houston areas. However, I recognize that I am at the mercy of life and the opportunities I encounter. I am entrepreneurial, fast learning, and motivated to work hard, given the right environment. I love talking to and learning from people, biking, reading, wristwatches, cars and motorcycles (and fixing them). There’s lots more to me that I’ll try to share over time. I haven't engaged a ton with the community on here, but I've followed some of y’all for a long time, and am happy to be a witness to the awesomeness here. Here’s to getting to know you all better and getting more involved this year! View quoted note →