diff --git a/apps/website/content/blog/dg-news-july-2026.mdx b/apps/website/content/blog/dg-news-july-2026.mdx new file mode 100644 index 000000000..2587900e2 --- /dev/null +++ b/apps/website/content/blog/dg-news-july-2026.mdx @@ -0,0 +1,69 @@ +--- +title: "DG News: July 2026" +date: "2026-08-03" +author: "Discourse Graphs Team" +published: true +tags: + - newsletter +description: "The Obsidian plugin goes public, a new explainer on what a discourse graph is, and dispatches from the labs putting discourse graphs to work in cell biology, biophysics, and HCI research." +--- + +Hello and welcome to the July issue of the Discourse Graphs newsletter! There are no summer doldrums in the discourse graph universe — only hot new plugin releases and cool tips on how to use your graph to surf(ace) knowledge. + +## Announcing the Obsidian plugin public release + +We're happy to announce that the Discourse Graphs plugin is now public on [obsidian.md](https://obsidian.md/)'s community plugin browser! This means you can now install the plugin directly from the [Obsidian community page](https://community.obsidian.md/plugins/discourse-graph) or from the community plugins browser within the Obsidian app, rather than via [BRAT](https://discoursegraphs.com/docs/obsidian/welcome/installation). + +## Ask the docs: what is a discourse graph? + +We have a new discourse graph plugin release and a growing community — but what are we all so excited about? Dive into the reason for discourse graph season with [this short explainer](https://discoursegraphs.com/docs/obsidian/fundamentals/what-is-a-discourse-graph) on the discourse graph protocol, live from our website documentation. + +Diagram showing how claims get built: sources ground evidence, evidence supports or opposes claims, and claims address the question at hand + +## Dispatches from the frontier: a series on how discourse graphs are improving scientific research + +We've deployed discourse graph tools in labs across cell biology, biophysics, and human-computer interaction — 6+ labs including the [OASIS Lab](https://joelchan.me/lab/) at the University of Maryland, the [MATSUlab](https://sites.uw.edu/matsulab/) at the University of Washington, the [Holehouse Lab](https://www.holehouselab.com/) at Washington University School of Medicine, and the [Allen Institute for Cell Science](https://alleninstitute.org/cell-science) — as well as to individual researchers around the world. Here's what we've observed. + +### Better experiment planning and interpretation + +**Claim:** Discourse graphs surface knowledge artefacts that wouldn't otherwise exist — candidate results, unpublished measurements, lightbulb moments buried in email chains — informal evidence that never makes it into papers but shapes ongoing work. + +**Evidence:** A PhD biophysics researcher at McGill University used a map of questions, claims, and evidence — drawn from both literature and his own experiments — to reason about which experiments to conduct next, using their discourse graph to discover which hypotheses are well-supported and which are "baseless conspiracy theories" requiring further experiments (h/t Sean Moore). + +A lab's discourse graph canvas mapping questions, claims, and evidence for an ongoing research project + +**Evidence:** A cell biology researcher at the University of Washington referred to a specific piece of evidence (not a paper, not a claim) to argue for a faster timescale in their lab's osmotic shock experiments, adapting and improving their experimental design in real time. + +**Evidence:** Researchers in the MatsuLab drew on informal evidence sourced from correspondence to interpret a new result, used results published internally in the lab graph to ground a new measurement, and referenced evidence and source nodes from the shared lab knowledge base created months to years prior to scope out a new project. + +An annotated molecular structure with hand-drawn measurements, an example of the kind of informal evidence captured in a lab's discourse graph + +No piece of evidence is too small — or too unpublished — to spark a lightbulb moment. + +**Claim:** The granularity of discourse graphs and their friendliness to incorporating informal sources of knowledge make this kind of reasoning possible. + +Tune in next month when we explore how our pilot users are using discourse graphs to support better synthesis of their works-in-progress! + +We'd love to hear from you about how you've been using discourse graphs to accelerate your research. Please [contact us via email](mailto:discoursegraphs@gmail.com) to share your experiences! + +## Contributions + +- If you're interested in contributing to the project, please read our [guide on Github](https://github.com/DiscourseGraphs/discourse-graph/blob/main/CONTRIBUTING.md) for how to do so. +- We are also open to sponsors, collaborators, and grant opportunities. Please [contact us via email](mailto:discoursegraphs@gmail.com) regarding any of those. + +Thanks for reading and joining us on this journey to make science and research easier and more accessible for everyone. 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