A curated list of AI-powered tools to assist with literature review, writing, data analysis, and teaching.

Frontier Models (The Engines)

These are not simple chatbots; they are reasoning engines. With the right prompting strategy (giving context, persona, and constraints), they can draft entire manuscripts, synthesize vast literature, and code complex pipelines. If you use them lazily, you get garbage. If you drive them like a Ferrari, you win.

• ChatGPT (OpenAI)

  The original heavy hitter. The "o1" model is currently the king of complex reasoning. If you are using the free version (GPT-3.5 or 4o-mini) for science, you are wasting your time. Pay for the real tools.

• Claude (Anthropic)

  Currently the best prose writer of the bunch. It sounds less "robotic" than the others and handles massive text inputs (like whole books) beautifully. If you need to draft a paper, start here.

• Gemini (Google)

  Fully integrated into the Google ecosystem and has a massive context window. Can be brilliant at multimodal tasks, but can also be confidently wrong. Don't let it do your thinking for you - check its work. Currently this is my go-to for many tasks.

The power of these tools is highly dependent on your prompting. See my guide to prompting - especially the "mega-prompts" section, which is where the real capability is unlocked.

Prompt Engineering (Tools to Build Tools)

If you are building complex workflows (mega-prompts), you cannot just type into a chat window. You need environments that let you test, iterate, and save your "source code."

• Anthropic Workbench

  The best place to build prompts. It has a "Generate a Prompt" feature where you describe a task, and it writes a structured mega-prompt for you. Essential for system prompt testing.

• OpenAI Playground

  Stop using the normal ChatGPT interface for complex tasks. The Playground lets you edit the "System" message separately from the "User" message, which is critical for getting the AI to stay in character.

• Fabric (GitHub)

  An open-source project by Daniel Miessler. A massive library of "Patterns" (mega-prompts) for analyzing life, science, and security. A goldmine for seeing how experts structure their requests.

• PromptPerfect

  Takes your rough prompt and rewrites it into a detailed, optimized version. Good for learning how to be more specific.

• TypingMind

  A much better UI for ChatGPT/Claude. Lets you create a "Prompt Library" where you can save your favorite mega-prompts and call them up with a slash command (e.g., /review).

Literature Search & Discovery

• Google NotebookLM

  AI research assistant that lets you upload your own PDFs and sources to answer questions and summarize content strictly from your material. Can generate podcast-style audio summaries of documents you provide.

• Elicit

  Automates literature reviews by finding relevant papers and summarizing key takeaways in a table format.

• ResearchRabbit

  Visualizes citation networks to help you discover new papers relevant to your seed collection.

• Consensus

  AI-powered search engine that extracts and aggregates answers to scientific questions directly from peer-reviewed literature.

• Scite

  Smart citation tool that classifies citations to show whether a paper supports, mentions, or contrasts with the cited claim.

• Google Scholar AI

  Gemini chat with access to Google Scholar. Great for finding papers that speak to a complex idea or question.

• Google Scholar PDF Reader

  Chrome extension that adds an AI sidebar to online PDFs to generate outlines and summaries while you read.

• Connected Papers

  Creates a graph of similar papers based on co-citation and bibliographic coupling.

• Scholarcy

  Breaks down complex papers into digestible flashcards, highlighting key findings and methodology.

Writing & Editing

• Paperpal

  AI writing assistant trained on academic manuscripts to check grammar and style against journal standards.

• Writefull

  Provides language feedback using a database of published scientific papers to ensure academic tone.

• DeepL

  Highly accurate AI translation tool useful for clarifying complex phrasing.

• Grammarly

  Standard tool for catching typos, tone issues, and basic grammatical errors.

Data Analysis & Coding

• GitHub Copilot

  AI pair programmer that integrates into code editors (RStudio/VS Code) to autocomplete code.

• Julius AI

  Data analysis assistant that lets you upload datasets and ask questions in plain English to generate plots.

• RTutor

  Generates R code and plots by asking questions in natural language; great for syntax checks.

Figures & Visualization

• BioRender

  Industry standard for creating professional biological diagrams and pathways.

• Adobe Firefly

  Generative tool integrated into Adobe apps to create vector graphics and illustrations from text.

• Midjourney / DALL-E

  Generative AI tools for conceptual cover art or presentation backgrounds.

Teaching & Presentations

• Gamma

  Generates polished slide decks and presentations from a simple text outline.

• Curipod

  Interactive presentation tool that uses AI to generate polls and questions to engage students.

• Quizlet

  Automatically generates flashcards and practice tests from lecture notes.

Productivity & Lab Management

• Otter.ai

  Meeting assistant that records audio and generates summaries of lab meetings.

• Notion

  Workspace tool with AI to help organize lab wikis and summarize protocols.