'm taking on Conquer Cancer to raise funds for Camp Quality’s programs for kids facing cancer and fund vital research at The Florey Institute. Please donate if you can! fundraise.campquality.org.au/s/79937/8819...

5-min distraction incoming: my sci-fi comedy flash-fiction "A Troubleshooting Guide to Your Flat-Pack Planet" is now out in Nature Futures. media.nature.com/original/mag...

A major part of our future health & prosperity lies in medical research. There are billions of available dollars that can be used for vital medical science. Please join the campaign for our government to act urgently to fully disperse these funds: aamri.org.au/mrff/ www.theage.com.au/politics/fed...

The fireworks in your mind. 🧠✨ This sparkling video shows the neurotransmitter glutamate being released into synapses, made possible by an indicator developed by @abhi_aggarwal1, @PodgorskiLab, and team. #HappyNewYear #NYE

Good morning people. Welcome to 2026 Hope it’s better than 2025.

A wonderful year of astrophotography fun for me. Here are some of my favorites. Looking forward to the 2026 sky.

Something is wrong when the government doesn’t sufficiently fund the CSIRO, yet continues to increase subsidies for fossil fuel producers. Annie Wilson, Inverloch The Age, letters

Australia’s world-first teen social media ban begins.

American customs. Today’s Age cartoon.

Heartbroken and outraged. At least 11 people in Australia celebrating Hanukkah were murdered in an antisemitic attack. Families came together in joy and celebration and were met with hatred and violence—carried out in broad daylight, with horrifying boldness. Antisemitism is a threat to us all.

PGS have many potential uses but we need clearer clinical guidelines & stronger legal guardrails on embryo screening www.theguardian.com/society/2025... NB: Their scenario is a red herring. If parents want embryo X, the clinic cannot plead ignorance as if it was based on sex it's clearly illegal.

Share your stories here docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F... #SaveOzScience

I actually find this the most shocking stat of all, that seemingly less grants than ever are being funded just because research is more expensive.

Hard to know for sure until NHMRC releases funding details. From the grants I reviewed I think requested funds have increased as cost of research has gone up. Clearly funding available hasn't kept pace to even maintain the poor success rate we previously had.

It's an all time low in both the percentage and number of #NHMRC #IdeasGrant funded. Previous lowest percentage was 9.8% in the 2020. However 283 grants were funded that year, this year it's under 200.

An abismal 8% success rate for this year’s #NHMRC #IdeasGrant scheme. Must be an all time low. Congratulations to those successful, you really earned it! Commiserations to the NINETY TWO percent of applicants who didn’t get it… #australianresearch #discoveriesneeddollars 🥼🧪🔬🧫 🇦🇺

this is unsustainable, the $600M underspend of the #MRFF could be funnelled, or at least partially funnelled, to supporting excellent #NHMRC applications that fall below the funding cut off because there is too little money in the pot #DiscoveriesNeedDollars #SaveOzScience

If your #NHMRC ideas grant was unsuccessful and you have a story to share about the impact of this on your #biomedicalresearch, career, team - get in touch. Federal DOH have asked #NARF to collect stories of impact of low funding. #SaveOzScience #DiscoveriesNeedDollars #EMCRs

Indeed. 👍

The success rate for NHMRC Ideas Grants announced yesterday was just over 8%. That means 11 of every 12 people who applied got rejected. This is a culture changing level of rejection and frankly a point of national shame. This is a crisis for research. I will not rest until we see this resolved.

Thank you @drshanerrr.bsky.social for speaking on behalf of all of us. It’s such wasted effort for 92% of applicants. Wouldn’t it be great if they took the spare 600 mil gathering dust at MRFF and funded an extra 10% of ideas grants?

As the Government prepares to publish its Child Poverty Strategy, a new report from the Academy of Medical Sciences and British Academy warns that without addressing the profound impacts of poverty on health outcomes, efforts to support children risk falling short. acmedsci.ac.uk/more/news/de...

If you're at @sfn.org check out @ykneurores.bsky.social's poster on Tuesday Nov 18th morning! EE4 - A functional input-output organization in the amygdala for emotional learning and memory

The association between academic pressure and adolescent mental health problems: A systematic review By Thomas Steare, Carolina Gutiérrez Muñoz, Alice Sullivan, Gemma Lewis www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Do you have what it takes to win Science’s #DanceYourPhD competition? We want you to top last year’s food-themed frolic from the Helsinki chemist who dressed up as a chili pepper. Or maybe you can get #AI to dance on your behalf? Learn more: https://scim.ag/3LuVObX

🌟Prof @lizcoulthard.bsky.social 🌟discussing blood tests for dementia www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

For children and teens, heart and blood vessel complications of Covid overshadow the very rare and short-term risk of vaccinations, a new report from nearly 14 million kids www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...

Damn, even the cat voting?

Kevin being Frank

🦀 🦈 A semi-transparent #crab about the size of an almond and a tiny, glowing lantern #shark are among two new species discovered by Australian scientists exploring the deep sea. 🌊 🧬 www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

what Piali said! Looking to recruit a new assistant professor to our fabulous neuroscience group and department at Brandeis. Please circulate far and wide and alert anyone you know who is on the job market! #neuroscience

🧠🌟🐭 Excited to share some of my postdoc work on the evolution of dexterity! We compared deer mice evolved in forest vs prairie habitats. We found that forest mice have: (1) more corticospinal neurons (CSNs) (2) better hand dexterity (3) more dexterous climbing, which is linked to CSN number🧵

New paper from the lab 🚨 Led by Ali Golbabaei, this study explores the how the composition of prefrontal cortical engrams changes with memory age: authors.elsevier.com/a/1lzT-3BtfH...

Exposure to sugar early in life: a natural experiment among >63,000 @uk_biobank participants: rationing of sugar was associated with less cardiovascular risk in adulthood www.bmj.com/content/391/...

Donald Trump’s autograph

Australia's first National Climate Risk Assessment @theage www.theage.com.au/politics/fed...

“If our job as journalists is to hold truth to power, then surely asking legitimate questions – politely – to the President of the United States should be acceptable. But in this day and age in America now, it’s not,” ABC’s Americas editor John Lyons

Prince Andrew must be feeling a bit miffed as while he has been largely excommunicated from his peers, another, once also in Jeffrey Epstein’s circle of friends, is being flattered by the British government and King Charles like he is some sort of hero. Russell Brims, Betleigh East The Age, letters

"Not taking the mickey” Today’s @theageaustralia.bsky.social cartoon

Donald Trump still believes in rights enshrined in the First Amendment, but he insists on deciding who will enjoy them. Mick Hussey, Beaconsfield @theageaustralia.bsky.social letters

Ward One, West Wing

Signs of autocracy. Today’s The Age cartoon

Sadly, Donald Trump knows as much about climate change as he does about autism. Randall Bradshaw, Street Fitzroy The Age, letters

Donald Trump signs executive order that prohibits escalators stopping when he’s halfway up or halfway down. Paul Custance, Highett The Age, letters

Trump angered by ‘bad door’ at UN as White House vows to investigate malfunction.

Peace for Gaza is not a real estate opportunity. Rod Ryan, Grovedale The Age, letters

“I'd like to be remembered as someone who really helped people to have a little humility and realize that we are part of the animal kingdom, not separated from it.” Jane Goodall

The nervous wait.