Gotta say I agree with Lady Catherine de Bourgh here…

In the 8 years that NYC was my home, I don’t think I ever paid attention to a mayor being sworn in. But I’m truly excited that our largest (and best ❤️) city is on track to return to its long history of generous social programs and again be a beacon to the nation. Much luck to Mayor Mamdani!

This kinda sounds funny but it’s not. Larry Summers is one of, if not the biggest bully currently active in academia. Why in God’s name is he still there? Why has he been there for the 20+ years that we’ve all known what he is like? WTF y’all been doing up at Harvard???

I’m so tired of this. This one hits close to home, literally- I’m from RI, and I’ve spend a lot of time near Brown’s campus. I know well all of the places referenced in the media. When can we replace our leaders (in both parties) and end this?

This. When my son was born, I tried so, so hard to exclusively breastfeed him. I had two different lactation consultants. Nothing really worked- I could not produce enough milk and he needed formula. Some people act like this isn't a real problem, but it is. Scare-mongering about formula is harmful

It should have. But Summers’ extremely obvious misogynist views were never disqualifying because Democratic politicians loved his neoliberal economics far more than they cared about the misogyny. That includes Obama and very much the Clintons.

www.nytimes.com/2025/11/07/s... To me, reading “The Double Helix” many years ago as a grad student felt like getting hit in the face. His cruelty towards a talented colleague whose work his major discovery depended on and who had, and I can’t emphasize this enough, *DIED*, was immediately stunning.

@zohrankmamdani.bsky.social's victory this week (YAY!) in the NYC mayor’s race has had me thinking a lot about my own story of “affordability” in that city. NYC was my home for nearly 8 years (2007-2015) while I was a postdoc Sloan Kettering Institute. 🧵🧪 1/

Absolutely! I did lots of tours in the 8 years I lived in NYC. They tended to be cheap and fun (Zohran’s was free!)And yeah, many/mist of the other folks tended to be residents. Zohran’s love for NYC is really palpable, and I think it’s another big reason for his success.

I’m incredibly proud of this work, which is the product of years of effort, mostly by @loukillab.bsky.social when he was a postdoc in my lab. It started out as a “fantasy project” when I was a new PI, and it’s very much a testament to Halim’s hard work that it became a reality!

This is very much how I feel right now. Extending the metaphor- we are also in the middle of the desert, so it’s is unclear where we would go or what will happen when it stalls. It’s bleak.

This is a great piece and very helpful. One other problem I see among my colleagues is that we as scientists struggle to think and act collectively. Many people’s impulse and inclination is to focus even harder on the immediate needs of their own lab/career. But that will lose us precious time.

What will happen is a few high profile people will move or return to Europe with much fanfare. But the rest us are just stuck. We will simply be forced out of our jobs and careers.

This is a great piece! It’s really refreshing to see scholars in the humanities subject the use of LLMs in education to serious scrutiny. Scrutiny and skepticism of “AI” is often in embarrassingly short supply in my own field (the biological sciences).

This stuff gets me every damn time. The level of credulity even otherwise smart ppl show about these chatbots is truly bonkers. Preschool age children are more skeptical than NYT reporters. At least they ask “why?” and “how do you know?” constantly. 🙄

This. But also we are up against the fact that academic scientists in particular are often unprepared to think of ourselves as workers, build solidarity, and take collective action. This moment is going to require a really big pivot!

If your sources are willing to share specific details of cancelled grants publicly, please encourage them to share using the Google Sheet below👇 The current lack of transparency on cancelled grants is really limiting organizing efforts and advocacy. bsky.app/profile/scot...

Not a lawyer, but flagging for the lawyers: HHS just said they're rescinding the Richardson Waiver (the policy under which changes to HHS grants were subject to notice-and-comment rulemaking, by my read). Sure seems like this is about NIH. public-inspection.federalregister.gov/2025-03300.pdf

🧪It seems like we are now in the gaslighting phase of this crisis. For the past few days, there have been "official reports" that FR posts are going to resume, and every day they keep not resuming. And its crickets from our institutions.

🧪Hi Scientists. Someone I know posted this on facebook, but I haven't seen it here yet. thewashingtonpost.formstack.com/forms/scient...

The Onion is barely even satire anymore.

If anyone has been in touch with press covering the NIH situation broadly (firings, funding freeze etc), please encourage them to cover the sinister way in which HHS is preventing grant review and funding from happening, by blocking posting to the Federal Register.

Finally, some coverage of this issue. I did not know what the Federal Register was until last week when I got an email that the study section I was set to serve on is postponed to an unspecified date. Most of my colleagues have no idea that study sections are going to start being cancelled this week

This is exactly right- There has not been this kind of wholesale cancellation of study sections and other meetings during other transitions. And the fact that people in leadership roles say this when it isn't true is the opposite of reassuring.

Academia??? Please!!!

Well, at least getting a non-fundable grant score *feels* less bad than not discussed...

At the end of what’s been a hard week, I made an unexpected discovery rummaging through a box of books at home: 🧪🧵

Politics is a total mess, but I loved this today: theonion.com/heres-why-i-... (They really did buy Infowars)

I started one but only for #cilia! go.bsky.app/ELfYqxw - cilia and centrosomes band together I guess!

Trying this out since it seems like folks are fleeing science twitter. I'm not a huge user of social media, but hoping this will be a better place for engagement about science and other topics! 🧪