🧪 #alzheimers #neuroskyence Tune in for a wide-ranging discussion on the current state of Alzheimer's disease research (genetics, diagnostics, treatments). Many thanks to Dr. Maya Adam and her Health Compass podcast team for covering the topic and having me on. med.stanford.edu/health-compa...

🧪 #publichealth #cdc www.npr.org/sections/sho... Dr. Susan Monarez gave a masterclass in calm, rational, truthful Senate testimony at the CDC hearing. Stuck to her guns even when faced with Senator Mullin's coercive lie about there being a recording of her conversation with RFK Jr. Strong work!

#freespeech #1stamendment #jimmykimmel I'm not a constitutional lawyer, but even a neurologist can see that Jimmy Kimmel getting canned does not bode well for the future of free speech in this country. America's Finest News Source may be on to something: theonion.com/report-you-t...

#publichealth #charliekirk #guncontrol I care relatively little about a murderer's ideology and much more about a murderer's easy, legal access to weapons designed to kill many humans quickly. Less media speculation about ideology and more media and citizen pressure for meaningful gun control.

Spot on takedown of RFK Jr's baloney approach to science by @glaucomflecken.bsky.social You are encouraged to freeze video on the list of possible causes of autism.

🧪 #publichealth I was weighing whether it is more shameful and disingenuous to liken vaccine mandates to slavery or to pretend you are destroying world-class scientific research institutes to battle antisemitism...finally decided I didn't need to choose. www.nytimes.com/2025/09/03/u...

#birds White-Breasted Nuthatch hopping the perimeter around its house. Nice little squawk at the end.

#birds Anna’s Hummingbird slaking its thirst.

#birds Soothing Steller’s Jay duet

Senator Cassidy has zero credibility in terms of reining in Secretary Kennedy at this point. This was, nonetheless, a nice little logic trap set up to snare the Secretary by preying on his sycophantic, Trumpian lapdog tendencies.

#birds Snowy egret in the mossy southern reaches of the San Francisco Bay.

#birds Weird little spot for this red-tailed hawk to hang out

🧪 #birds #birding Red-tailed hawk mantling unknown prey, revealing rabbit, finishing rabbit, one-legged hopping into shade to eat rabbit. And H. I. McDunnough's doleful incantation echoes once again in my ears, "It's a hard world for little things".

#birds Pair of acorn woodpeckers

🧪 #publichealth With all the stops/restarts, firings/rehirings, grant terminations/non-terminations, and funding delays--even ignoring its anti-science stance--this is not a Department of Health and Human Services that is going to make America the least bit healthy. www.nytimes.com/2025/08/27/h...

#birds Great horned owls (the parent with the deep hoot is up and to the left where the eyes get pointed)

#birds Nuttall’s woodpecker (I’m reasonably, but not completely, certain). Sound on if you miss old hunt and peck typewriting.

🧪 A clear, thorough debunking of the pseudo-science behind the vaccines-cause-autism movement. The discredited father/son team and their « home laboratory » are a driving force behind RFK JR’s assault on vaccines. The son is now a senior data analyst at HHS. www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

#birds Winking great horned owl

#Ukraine #politics Apt typo in the WSJ this morning. I think Trump has already managed to forget our common position with Europe on Ukraine. No need for the meeting.

🧪 #publichealth Nothing builds confidence in the FDA like childish, Laura Loomer-driven firings and re-hirings of division heads. I am grateful to all HHS employees who are actually managing to do their jobs amid all the chaos. www.nytimes.com/2025/08/09/u...

#birds Red-shouldered hawk announcing itself.

🧪 #publichealth Paging Doctor/Senator Bill Cassidy...Paging Doctor/Senator Bill Cassidy. America would like to know how your "unprecedently close collaborative working relationship" with Secretary Kennedy is going. www.nytimes.com/2025/08/05/h...

🧪 #squirrel Meet Stanford’s elusive albino squirrel!

🧪 #publichealth #neuroskyence A rare piece of good news out of D.C. www.statnews.com/2025/07/31/n...

Michael Roth, the president of Wesleyan University, gives me hope that our colleges and universities can survive this onslaught. Takes some courage, though.

#birds Northern harrier harrying over Lake Lagunita

#birds Steller’s jay rooting around at the base of a palm.

#bunny #rabbit Bunny out

#bunny #rabbit Bunny in

🧪 #publichealth #science Secretary Kennedy's timing is amazing. On Independence Day weekend he has claimed the record for most US measles cases in a year in the quarter century since it was declared eradicated. And he still has 6 months to pile up more cases. publichealth.jhu.edu/ivac/resourc...

#birds Vacillating back and forth in my head, baby crow…baby raven…baby crow but I think I’m sticking with baby crow (mostly based on Merlin’s ID of photo and call).

#birds (Unfairly named) lesser goldfinch executes a perfect lavender touch-and-go

#birds Slo-mo spotted towhee

#birds Sound on, choppers incoming!

Powerful editorial from the paper of record. theonion.com/letter-to-co...

#birds Dark-eyed junco coming in hot.

🧪 #publichealth #alzheimer tinyurl.com/yc8fj67y Perfectly justifiable position for the NHS to take. Even if you accept the anti-amyloid trial results at face value (I don't), the effect sizes are so small that patients/families are unlikely to notice any "slowing of decline". +high risk + high cost

🧪Cutting NIH funding by 40% is unprecedented. It will hobble US biomedical research for a generation by depleting training funds for scientists. It will also lead to substantial job loss, in red states and blue states alike (see NC and MO below from this NYT graphic). Call your reps and senators.

🧪 #publichealth #VaccinesWork tinyurl.com/57zc4zck Very Orwellian notion that the way to "re-establish public confidence in vaccine science" is to fire an entire panel of experts. Sen. Bill Cassidy M.D. got played when he voted to approve RFK Jr. (on the promise that the panel would be maintained).

🧪 #publichealth #BethesdaDeclaration Bravo to the courageous NIH scientists who put the Bethesda Declaration together. Non-NIH researchers are also encouraged to sign in support (see bottom of landing page). www.standupforscience.net/bethesda-dec...

🧪 #aging We have no rigorous evidence to support supplements touted as slowing aging or preventing dementia. SAVE your MONEY. Exercise, drink less, don't smoke, eat a heart-smart diet, see your doc. Not catchy enough for a book or podcast but that's where we're at. www.statnews.com/2025/06/05/t...

🧪 #neurology tinyurl.com/4jhjxy9x Removing blood clots in stroke patients can save lives and minimize disability. Renee Zhao and her Stanford Engineering team have built a milli-spinner to optimize clot reduction and removal. Check out the supplementary video files at Nature. Funding from...the NIH!

🧪 #publichealth Not that I was expecting a pristine, evidence-based roadmap to improving the nation's health but this reveals RFK Jr's flim-flam, put-an-AI-aware-anti-vax-intern-on-it approach to public health policy. www.nytimes.com/2025/05/29/w...

🧪 Trump's 🧠drain is picking up steam. This quote from an 18 year-old Chinese student who wants to study applied mathematics says it all: "in the future, if I can avoid going to the United States to study, I will. They make people too scared.” www.nytimes.com/2025/05/29/w...

#publichealth 🧪 Critical decision that the the CDC director would normally make following recommendations from an expert panel reviewing the data. No CDC director as yet so next best choice to make the decision is a lawyer with a child's understanding of germ theory. www.nytimes.com/2025/05/27/h...

🧪 #neurology #neuroskyence tinyurl.com/bp5d8386 Another beautiful example of NIH-SPONSORED bedside to bench and back to bedside work from an outstanding clinician scientist. This work is producing some of the most compelling responses to treatment in what is arguably the worst pediatric brain tumor.

🧪Behold, the klystron! (And countless other innovations to emerge from the Stanford School of Engineering over its first 100 years). Cool, interactive timeline here: engineering100.stanford.edu/timeline Yet another reminder of the nearly incalculable ROI that comes from funding basic science

🧪 A reminder that great science continues in the US despite the best efforts of this administration. Amazing work out of Penn, delivering on the promise of CRISPR-based gene editing in the treatment of ultra-rare diseases www.nytimes.com/2025/05/15/h...