Very well done story on 60 Minutes about the harms of grant terminations and freezes at Harvard with Joan Brugge, Don Engbar, David Liu, and a very compelling young cancer patient, now cured with Liu's technology. Transcript and video here www.cbsnews.com/news/researc...

"While serving on my university’s tenure and promotions committee, I’ve lost count of the times I have read 'Professor X is so much better than Professors Y and Z' and thought to myself, 'I don’t know what I am supposed to do with this information.'" physicstoday.aip.org/opinion/comm...

Some charts for those who don't know the extent of the US public (and private) investment in research (particularly in biomedical research) compared to other countries and institutions. The destruction of the US' scientific institutions has global implications.

“70% of wage-earning adults who rely on government programs like SNAP and Medicaid work full-time, many at hugely profitable companies like Walmart and McDonald’s whose low wages are effectively subsidized by tax dollars without any of the blame or paternalistic lectures.”

The music cuts off awkwardly before the end, but this is an incredible NYC Halloween costume compilation.

This graph never fails to be shocking: "The US has experienced the earliest and greatest slowdown in life expectancy improvements among higher-income countries, reported Eileen Crimmins. “We have horrible life expectancy—and it’s getting worse and worse”" www.prb.org/resources/se...

This Halloween, EssentialData.US, FAS, and Public Environmental Data Partners are remembering federal datasets terminated or removed this year. Add to their list by Oct. 29, 11:59 pm ET: https://essentialdata.us/in-memoriam.html

What was life really like before vaccines? The story of what happened to 8-year old George Williams in August 1852 gives us a glimpse. open.substack.com/pub/epiellie...

Cool development @nejm.org Evidence will publish a section in association with @cidrap.bsky.social on public health and vaccine issues usually covered by the now-dead MMWR www.statnews.com/2025/10/21/c... #publicHealth #MedSky

Any good articles explaining why? As in, the specifics on how this shifted. I'm inclined to believe most admissions offices don't *feel* like they're doing things differently; I'm curious whether there are detailed analyses for why some are negligible (or are Smith!) while others are huge.

Oh hey, little update. Indiana University Department of Sociology is hiring this fall. Keeping you on your toes deadline is 11/16. We’re looking for an assistant professor specializing in sociology of medicine, health, and/or well-being broadly defined. indiana.peopleadmin.com/postings/30984

My first thought was that Google took a page directly from the @drugmonkey.bsky.social blog post from awhile back on the h-index gamification. www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Most ppl know that Chicago (home of modern urban segregation) is a very segregated place but I don't think most outside Chicago (+many Chicagoans!) understand how the *distances* involved and *depth* of segregation mean most white ppl have ZERO visibility into many Black and Latine neighborhoods +

When the USSR was collapsing, they stopped publishing life tables because life expectancy was rapidly declining between 1974 and 1986. That’s one of the indicators the CIA used to gauge the level of internal rot in the USSR. Makes me wonder whether the US will continue publishing its life tables.

Prepping for an NIH grant? Join ICPSR’s virtual workshop to master the NIH Data Management & Sharing (DMS) Policy! Learn to draft a DMS Plan, de-identify data, and tap into ICPSR support for your research. #NIH #datasharing #research

On this trajectory, science has no future.

Every once in a while during the 2024 campaign, I'd meet parents of disabled kids who were part of Moms for Liberty or people who taught autistic kids. @slooterman.bsky.social writes how they are afraid right now as Trump targets special education staff. 19thnews.org/2025/10/spec...

"Mapped: America's Fastest-Growing States (2025-2050P)" www.visualcapitalist.com/americas-fas...

𝐓𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐰𝐞𝐞𝐤’𝐬 𝐧𝐞𝐰𝐬𝐥𝐞𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐫 (a four-part thread): How the U.S. population has evolved. www.howtoreadthisch.art/r/e0489c52?m...

New federal data has revealed a 19% year-on-year decline in international students entering the US in August 2025, including a 45% drop from India, America’s largest sending country. thepienews.com/internationa...

Have fun today friends! #NoKings www.youtube.com/watch?v=WvOZ...

This is bad. When the Vought/Trump people start making NIH institute directors political it is a VERY BAD SIGN for all of US science, which stands on NIH/public funds. Institute directors have always been serious scientists selected by other scientists— not political appointees.

The programs will continue to receive grant funding, but only for one year. “It is still a disruption to families,’’ Lisa McConachie of the Oregon DeafBlind Project said. “It creates this mistrust, that you are gone and back and gone and back.”

@aaronecarroll.bsky.social of @academyhealth.bsky.social says, "The capacity to collect, analyze, and share high-quality, nonpartisan data is essential to good governance, accountability, and the health of every community...” Thanks, @josh-caplan.bsky.social. #defenddata #HHSstrong #NCES

The entire HR department at the CDC is gone. Everyone at the IRB, which makes sure studies are conducted ethically and rigorously, and the ethics office, which oversee conflicts of interest for CDC leaders and advisory committee members, were also let go. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

4th was the incredibly woke office of housing counselors. You know the people who help people figure how to do such woke things such as improving their credit scores, lowering debt, or even how to keep their homes in times of crisis. Not even offices serving the so called American dream are safe.

3rd was part of an office called the Real Estate Assessment Center (REAC), a relatively benign place that oversees among other things, inspections for all of HUD’s rental assistance programs. They oversee the inspections that make sure Section 8 and Public Housing properties are not slum housing.

If CPD grants was 1st, 2nd at HUD to receive the boot was the Office of Environment and Energy. I know you’re all super surprised based on the name right? But this office was doing some pretty incredible work guiding HUD policy around floodplain management, energy codes & building technology.

Terminations of this type were found to be illegal and this was confirmed by this Supreme Court. The NIH "leadership" that did this or allowed it to happen should be ashamed (but I know they are not).

This is a powerful account from a PhD student whose fellowship was terminated by NIH because it was part of a "diversity" program without any other considerations or understanding of what the program or the students were actually doing. undark.org/2025/10/09/o... 1/2

Economists! We’re hiring an assistant professor who focuses on domestic labor or public economics. The Humphrey School is wonderful and Minneapolis is the best city ever in my humble opinion. More details here: hr.myu.umn.edu/psc/hrprd/EM...

⚠️ STATES, LOCALS, TRIBAL NATIONS, TERRITORIES ⚠️ HHS has eliminated EVERY SINGLE SAFEGUARD FOR DATA PROTECTION AT CDC. Giving data to CDC is no longer safe and puts your residents at risk. Unless and until all CDC’s data protections are restored you should consider CDC a bad actor.

More CDC Cuts :: NCHS Edition 📊🔫 At least 1/3 of the staff at the National Center for Health Statistics has been cut (and remain cut). This is catastrophic for our nation’s health data. Say goodbye to national health statistics that you can trust, healthcare surveys, NHANES and data systems.

There are so few academic jobs, and thousands of excellent scholars are all trying to move at the same time due to location. 

Special education. Targeting the most vulnerable children and families in our society for the lulz. Tell me again how very Christian this is. The cruelty here is unfathomable.

Reporting from @zachschermele.bsky.social at USA Today with more details ⬇️ www.usatoday.com/story/news/e...

⚠️ USAToday reporter confirms the office in charge of special education funding has been “decimated”:

Thoughtful and well-informed op-ed from @ianlmorgan.bsky.social Definitely worth a read! www.the-scientist.com/nih-leadersh... 1/2

The editors of the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) were apparently fired today. The precursor to MMWR began in 1878 to address emerging public health threats rapidly. We are not “great” without it. We are vulnerable to threats from sporadic foodborne illness to bioterrorism.

This is really one of the best charts by @ourworldindata.org 📊 Amazing how much research and work goes into creating a chart like this. And it's such a good insight into society.

You can listen to my recent interview with WBUR's Here & Now: www.npr.org/2025/10/01/n...

Crystal Carter went to tour an apartment. Rent was $1,500 a month. “I’ll be paying with a Section 8 voucher,” she said. “Yeah,” the landlord said. “I don’t do Section 8.” This is what housing voucher discrimination looks like 👇 (Published 2020 w/ @ctmirror.org)

The fiscal year is over. So how was the NIH appropriation committed? A long thread with institute by institute results about where the money went.

Staff members at the NIH seem to have done the impossible: spend the agency's $48 billion budget. “Everyone has been rallying together to clean up the mess, but it’s a mess that did not need to be made,” an NIH program officer told me. www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Followup “This is only one institute at NIH, but it’s good news. Other institutes may not have done as well.” Also we’d add: Russ Vought tried to stop NIH spending to create illegal impoundment, and THIS YEAR, he failed. He’ll be stronger next year as more NIH staff have left.

Hearing from someone in NIH program: “Our final Task Order for $6.2M went out today. Every obstacle DOGE put up to keep us from funding new TOs and extending others was overcome. My fired contract officers were rehired. It was a lot of work, but we did it. For now.”

Thank you all the program officers at NIH that persisted through the 2025 fiscal year and were able to fund 99% of the total FY2024 budget. I know this has take a toll on everyone at NIH. Thank you for supporting important health and behavior science and helping to keep the U.S. a leader in science.

Clarence Thomas on precedent: He doesn't feel bound. www.rawstory.com/clarence-tho...

This is such a nuanced and big-hearted piece on the evolution of autism as a diagnosis, by an anthropologist of mental health who is also the dad of a now-grown daughter on the spectrum. Great reading (gift link) www.nytimes.com/2025/09/24/o...