Since I'm getting a questions about the new data - a few _preliminary_ comments: 1️⃣ Are the outbreaks in the US connected? 👉 Very likely. 2️⃣ Does this mean US will lose elimination status? 👉 Yes, but that's been clear for a while. Data: nextstrain.org/measles/geno... A few details + caveats 🧵👇

A look at the southern end of the Scripps Research campus, designed over 25 years ago as a “monastery for scientists,” remains a lasting example of architecture built to support scientific work.

Congratulations to Scripps Research professors Jeffery Kelly and John Yates III, named laureates of the 2026 Canada Gairdner International Award (@gairdnerawards.bsky.social), recognized for discoveries that have made a major impact on scientific progress and human health.

Congrats to Prof. @chrisgparker.bsky.social, recipient of the 2026 @acs.org Chemical Biology Early Career Award! 🚀 Formally receiving the award at last week’s ACS Spring meeting, his lab uses chemical proteomics to map druggable sites across human proteins, revealing new paths for drug discovery.

A walk with the dogs was interrupted by brunch and the great view of the SoCal coastline from Destiny Coast, a restaurant on the campus of the Scripps Institute of Oceanography.

Matt Ridley gave the inaugural "NIH Scientific Freedom Lecture Series" earlier today and I just wanted to run through some of the main claims he made - you'll be unsurprised to learn that almost all of them are false. Here's his summary slide - let's start there. 🧵👇

I hope this may prompt a tiny bit of self-reflection among the folks on Fox News who minimized COVID ("it's just a cold!") or pushed for mass infection ("we want them infected!") rather than mass vaccination But these folks are now in the MAGA/MAHA administration, so there'll be no self-reflection

In the 19th-early 20th C, the most prestigious diplomas in academic science came from German universities. In the 20th-early 21st, they were in English, esp from American universities. In the 21st, they may well be written in Mandarin.

I'm glad to see this being covered - because, frankly, this is a death-blow to collaborative science - however, the assumption of good faith in any of these decisions by reporters is mind-boggling. This is happening for one reason - to assure top-down control of what gets funded and what does not.

@scripps.edu scientists have received nearly $5M from the National Cancer Institute to study how RNA modifications—a hidden layer of gene regulation—may influence cancer growth. In collaboration with @hopkinsmedicine.bsky.social, the team will test how diet-derived nutrients reshape RNA chemistry.

New paper from the lab showing that silica in the lungs can lead to severe RA-like disease. Led by foreign grad student Lisa and Staff Scientist Jessica, it argues that the association between occupational silica exposure and RA is a complex, multigenic process. 🧪

We lost one of the greatest writers of the 20th and 21st century 11 years ago today. Crack open "Small Gods" in his memory, or any other of his books. They are all masterpieces.

We ( @peterhotezmdphd.bsky.social and I) discuss Ridley in #ScienceUnderSiege. He’s an equal opportunity (climate change and COVID-19) science denier. Oh, and he’s a coal baron)

Stabilizing the hepatitis C virus E1E2 glycoprotein complex—long a barrier to HCV vaccine design—Scripps Research scientists displayed engineered proteins on self-assembling nanoparticles, eliciting immune responses in a new @natcomms.nature.com study.

It's VERY clear what RFK Jr's MAHA movement wants Jay Bhattacharya said he's waited all his life for RFK Jr's MAHA movement to come along & in his talk at Duke he said he was turning NIH into the "research arm of MAHA" It was NEVER about freaking Red Dye 40; it's about "eliminating vaccines"

Glad to see our recent paper getting some coverage @nytimes.com. Fun little study with some key findings for understanding zoonosis and viral emergence.

“We are not afraid to entrust the American people with unpleasant facts, foreign ideas, alien philosophies, and competitive values. For a nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people.” — President John F. Kennedy

Much different than Dire Straits but beautiful. Needed this for our Sunday morning... youtu.be/w-OfUq5HXX8?...

The data is in: the NIH goalposts have shifted. What were once almost certain fundable scores have become coin flips and what used to be likely grants have become aspirational, leading to fewer awards. Another manifestation of how HHS policies have led to fewer awards and less science.

Maybe there is something to this germ theory after all…

So... A friend was supposed to give a PURELY SCIENTIFIC talk at NIH within the next couple of weeks and it was cancelled because of a "new process" where all speakers/talks have to be CLEARED BY A POLITICAL APPOINTEE.

Richard Sidey Filmmaker / Photographer "Eye to Eye with a Killer Whale in Antarctica. While out filming wildlife in the brash ice, a pod of Type B1 Killer Whales investigated our zodiac for just over a minute, allowing us to lock eyes with this magnificent apex predator. An incredible experience."

Finnigan at rest.

💉 THREAD OF THE DAY Plotkin, one of the true “titans” of vaccine development, knew the horrors that would happen if RFK Jr became health secretary “I did everything I could when Kennedy was up for confirmation, to convince people like Senator [Bill] Cassidy to vote against him — and failed”

Today, 1 in 10 Americans lives with a rare disease. Most of the 7,000+ identified worldwide still have no approved treatment. Last year, @scripps.edu added its 18th FDA-approved medicine for one of these conditions—advancing options for patients with few alternatives. #RareDiseaseDay

Installed in 1410, the Prague Astronomical Clock has stood over the Old Town Square for more than 600 years.

This episode is about harvesting anger productively, taking up more responsibility, and drawing lines. If science is a public good, defending it means showing up—and saying no. #ScienceCounterpunch www.youtube.com/watch?v=KDTt...

This week's cover @thelancet.com

There are few intimate biographies of those early pioneers of DNA structure and molecular biology and none with the depth that @matthewcobb.bsky.social has explored in Crick. It reveals the complexity that was Francis Crick. Fittingly the last pages stir emotion at our loss of a unique individual.

"Most of the published government-agency and intelligence reports [...] deliver different conclusions, seemingly on the basis of political rather than scientific arguments." Indeed. The answers are to be found in the peer-reviewed scientific literature with credible experts doing the work.

Scripps Research Prof. Dale Boger has developed a new molecule with the potential to protect against resistance for decades to come. To get the next-generation antibiotic into the hands of patients, however, will require external support for preclinical trials. More: ow.ly/5ths50YklTW

If you are in need of a comprehensive answer about the origins of SARS-CoV-2, I might have a book recommendation to you & SAGO 😅 www.amazon.com/dp/B0FKNDRJ8Z

"In his new book, I Told You So!, Matt Kaplan—a longtime science correspondent for The Economist—traces a lineage of internal resistance to paradigm-changing scientific ideas from the Victorian era to today." Read the #ScienceBooks Review: https://scim.ag/4c70qjX

RFK Jr is fine with his MAGA/MAHA crew spewing toxic mercury (Hg) into the air But he won't give US funds to Gavi to buy vaccines for low income nations unless they remove thimerosal, an ethyl mercury proven as safe It's methyl mercury that is toxic—a different form of Hg never used in vaccines

Henrietta Lacks was a Black woman whose (ovarian) cancer cells were used wo her/her family’s consent. Her cells are what would become the HeLa cell, the first immortalized human cell line & one of the most important in medical research. #BackHistoryMonth

"Australia's fight against vaccine hesitancy - ABC News"

A lot of people, including me, were wondering how an IRB could ever approve this study. The answer is that no IRB did. The person who “signed off” on approval from the only ethics board that reviewed it had resigned three years earlier. His signature was used without his knowledge.

This local Wolfdog joined an Olympic ski event and triggered the finish-line camera. This is Nazgul. He snuck into a cross-country skiing sprint this morning and raced the homestretch with some competitors before being escorted home. 14/10 someone get him a medal

Also, if you borrow an author's book from a library in the UK, that author gets more than 12 pence per loan in Public Lending Rights. Any author can earn up to £6,600 per year this way.

Inconceivable indeed …🔻

I've discovered the secret of...Nobel Park, San Diego. The artwork Twist consists of metal disks in cement. Each disk has A, T, C or G laid out as base pairs of a section of DNA. Keep looking down because you never know what you might discover. 🧪

Prof @michaelemann.bsky.social explains how bad actors attack scientists as "political" regardless of the objectivity of their output. 🗣️ "I didn't come to politics. Politics came to me!" 🗣️ "They would much rather have you just be quiet and take it!" Full chat: youtube.com/watch?v=O4PF... 🧪⚛️

It’s so funny to think about the fact that there’s people out there deferring every life decision to this

My #ScienceUnderSiege co-author @peterhotezmdphd.bsky.social & I join @philippmarkolin.bsky.social for the inaugural episode of the #ScienceCounterpunch podcast: www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4PF...

The first epsiode of the Science Counterpunch is now live! Prof @peterhotezmdphd.bsky.social and Prof @michaelemann.bsky.social join us to discuss who is attacking science and why, what tactics you should watch out for, and how you can fight back! YT Link: youtube.com/watch?v=O4PF... 🧪⚛️

Here is an announcement for everybody who is sick and tired on the attacks on science and scientists. It has been months in the making, but now we are ready to fight back. First episode airs tomorrow 5pm UK. New episode every friday. Incredible guests lined up. open.substack.com/pub/protagon...

Mathematician Sofya Kovalevskaya was the first woman to: + Earn a doctorate in #mathematics (in the modern sense) + Be appointed to a full professorship in mathematics She was also one of the first women to work for a scientific journal as an editor. She died #OTD in 1891. #WomenInSTEM

This made me ugly cry 😭 I will never claim that he was perfect…every president in my lifetime has pissed me off for one reason or another. But…dammit, I’m so tired of the constant feeling of uneasiness and uncertainty 😔

Scoop: Top FDA official Vinay Prasad overruled the agency’s reviewers when he refused to accept Moderna’s application for a new influenza vaccine, STAT has learned. www.statnews.com/2026/02/11/m...