To be clear: If you funnel thousands of scientists into a massive, broad grant pool, but use "agency priorities" or geography to decide who actually gets the money, it's true that bottom-up science becomes top-down quickly Both are true: fewer targeted NOFOs, more political influence on grants

The NIH typically an average of 780 notices of funding opportunities (NOFOs) a year. In the 14 months since Trump came into office, the NIH has posted a grand total of 84. That drop is "striking" says Michael Lauer, former deputy director for extramural research for 15 years at the NIH.

I got excited when I saw that NIH might have received its first apportionment from OMB today. Alas, it's for ARPA-H. OMB still has not given NIH a dime for non-salary, non-emergency expenses from the spending bill that was signed into law on Feb 3.

Following @joshuasweitz.bsky.social post and discussions with him and the Vox story, I have estimated R01 success rates for each NIH institute and center with enough awards for this to be meaningful. A long 🧵... 1/25

Are you at #COSYNE2026? Swing by the Simons Foundation booth to learn more about the organization and @thetransmitter.bsky.social. #neuroskyence

Connect with us at #COSYNE2026! Stop by the Simons Foundation booth to learn more about our career and funding opportunities, research, and available resources. #science #neuroscience

Happy to announce I've launched a new service for the fly community: flyRoom, a web-based comprehensive stock manager for all your fly pushing needs. Organise all your stocks, maps all your genotypes, plan your crosses, print and scan your labels. Give it a try and let your colleagues know!

This new interview doesn’t mention that Bazelon’s work is paid for by Joe Manchin, Rupert Murdoch’s son James, Mike Bloomberg and others. That doesnt mean the research is wrong, but it was produced with the goal of reinforcing centrists’ preferred strategy bsky.app/profile/nste...

I have a new comment piece out in Nature today. rdcu.be/e7LVS 1/6

I didn’t realize that much like Patel and the other chuds in this admin, Mullin’s just a wittle guy with a complex

Markwayne Mullin never served in US military, but often speaks as if he did www.theguardian.com/us-news/live...

Texans scrambled to find their polling places after Republicans strategically refused to hold a joint primary that would've let both parties hold their primaries at the same locations. “This is the GOP voter suppression that Dems must come together to overcome in November,” one state official said.

Senate Dem looking at funding Trump's war, per Politico: Jack Reed (RI): @reed.senate.gov Gary Peters (MI): @peters.senate.gov Tim Kaine (VA): @kaine.senate.gov Elissa Slotkin (MI): @slotkin.senate.gov Chris Coons (DE): @coons.senate.gov Jeanne Shaheen (NH): @shaheen.senate.gov

Funded by NIH + NSF. No private investor funds a 16-week mouse study on OL gene biology. Federal science builds the foundation industry stands on. Neurological disease costs the U.S. $800B/year. This is what the return on that investment looks like. #NIH #NSF #TaxpayerInvestment #Neurotech

While photographing the zombie ants at Danum Valley, I noticed this funky larva chomping on and ultimately devouring the entire fungus stalk growing out of the ant’s head. I knew that Ophiocordyceps fungi have been used in traditional medicine for centuries. Turns out other animals consume them too.

New tools are transforming Drosophila research—from FlyBase updates and genome annotations to CRISPR and imaging innovations. Our latest blog post highlights key advances and why citation matters. Can’t attend #Dros26? Read more: buff.ly/OuYRtkV 1/2🧵

Big effort, exciting results - our paper on the constraints of thermal limits in tropical insects is now out in @nature.com! 🦋🐝🪰🪲🦗 @ecoresearchzoo3.bsky.social @biologie-uniwue.bsky.social @uni-wuerzburg.de

When a fly lands on your arm, how does your nervous system decide where to swat? By reconstructing tactile axons in a Drosophila connectome, we found a leg somatotopic map and downstream circuits that sample the map to initiate targeted grooming Led by Leila Elabbady, PhD doi.org/10.64898/202...

NMB is dead! Long live NBMB!

CNN put together a montage of the regime's incoherent talking points about Trump's war on Iran

Wendy Valencia Montoya Receives Weintraub Graduate Student Award for Groundbreaking Thesis on the Evolution of Sensory Worlds 🧠 🧪🧬 #AcademicSky #higherEd www.mcb.harvard.edu/department/n... @nbellono.bsky.social @rachellegaudet.bsky.social @basicsci.fredhutch.org @harvardoeb.bsky.social

Congrats to Wendy Valencia-Montoya on a superstar PhD co-advised by Naomi Pierce. By seamlessly integrating molecular biology with ecology + evolution, Wendy truly transformed how our lab approaches science - can’t think of better compliment than that! @harvardmcb.bsky.social @harvardoeb.bsky.social

... and for a little glimpse of comparative data, see figure 4. These are EPG neurons (head direction cells of the central complex) across a range of species, from earwigs to bees.

After 5 years of developing, a new preprint from the lab - introducing our workflow for comparative insect connectomics, aimed at democratizing connectomics. @erc.europa.eu @lundvision.bsky.social @biologylu.bsky.social Read it here: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

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NSF Update (Awards through 2/27/26) Directorates to follow 1/10

So anyway I guess this is what it feels like to be one of the tiny humans running through the streets while the giant supervillain monsters are fighting by throwing passengers trains and apartment buildings at each other

Have you ever asked yourself, how insect brains represent places? And whether insects do have place cells? Then move to Germany this summer and start your PhD in my lab. We conduct tetrode recordings from bumblebees that freely forage laboratory mazes. 🧠🐝#BeeSpace @erc.europa.eu @neuroethology.org

This paper on how the brain may do gradient descent is very cool: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Meanwhile, NASA got its funding, but with a catch. The OMB quietly slapped unprecedented restrictions on 10 specific science programs — including an Earth-threatening asteroid and a Venus mission — demanding more details before the agency can spend a dime.

@annaryba.bsky.social's paper on the neural underpinnings of intraspecific behavioral variation is now out in @currentbiology.bsky.social Highly recommend! -> Paper identifies neural substrate for variation in promiscuity among Drosophila melanogaster strains🧪 www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Little smart critters..🪰🐝🐜 Cognitive primitives of the insect brain: Trends in Cognitive Sciences www.cell.com/trends/cogni...

A player rushed to save a seagull after it was whacked by a soccer ball, performing CPR to revive the bird.

Wow, hello new followers! Whether you use it as an escape, or to spur you toward action, please add the SciArt Feed 🐡 to your skyline, and you’ll see: 🎨 Hundreds of artists 🧪 Science-focused 🥳 No NFTs or gen AI ✨ Inspiration every day 🧡 Pin & Like here:

Breaking MS NOW: Agents with the FBI's elite evidence response team were delayed in reaching the scene of a mass shooting at Brown U. in December because there was no FBI plane available. Kash Patel was in south Florida at the time with one of the FBI's two available jets.

BREAKING NEWS: Otter goes for a ride!

Steve has parked the car badly. Again.

Let's talk about James A. Harris, the co-discoverer of Rutherfordium and Dubnium, elements 104 & 105. He was the 1st African-American to be involved in the creation of a new element. Born Waco, TX in March 1932 BS in Chemistry at HBU Hutson-Tillotson College in Austin, TX.

At Bergen Aquarium's Researchers' night last Friday, we shone a (UV) light on cnidarians ✨ We invited visitors to observe fluorescence in symbiotic sea anemones, discover their life cycle and - of course - to get their own UV-paint tattoo 🎨 Very grateful for a fun evening of science!

here is a comprehensive history of the use of agar in microbiology by corrado nai 👇 🙏 thx for pointing this out @microbingle.bsky.social earlier, corrado told the story of fanny angelina hesse in STC. #MicroSky

What's more shocking than ICE's plan to cram as many 8,500 humans into massive, soul-crushing warehouses? Seeing the actual DHS floor plan that echoes slavery ships and history's worst gulags with no rec space but a gun range for guards My new column on the camps www.inquirer.com/opinion/ice-...

His assistant public affairs director insisted the FBI director was not in Italy for the Winter Olympics.

This is the most incredible footage of blue whales I’ve ever seen

You have until March 3rd to apply for the Cajal summer school on Quantitative Approaches to Behavior and VR at Champalimaud! Come surf and track animals with us 🏄🪰🐟🚶 cajal-training.org/on-site/quan...

I've emerged from my faculty job app cocoon to open up the Etsy shop for a bit. Come grab some #Drosophila swag and support @flybase.bsky.social ! All proceeds are donated, here's the belated donation from December's sales.

Chow time! This critically endangered hawksbill sea turtle is dining on sponge and tunicates, but much of the tastiest bits grow on the underside of coral and rubble where no sunlight hits, so he’s got to work for it.

The webpage warning chlorine dioxide & raw camel milk are NOT cures for autism (they can kill you) has disappeared, courtesy of 🧠🪱 & co. The throughline of flipping facts, & cozying up to quack cures persists; this all makes Americans less safe & less healthy. RFK Jr’s MAHA mission accomplished?🙄