For the second time this month, a team of researchers has reported harnessing a precise gene-editing technique to alter the DNA of human embryos go.nature.com/4vwIXrO

🔴 We have a fun thing for you today in @nature.com - a game! We took the latest research into Mars terraforming and transformed it into an interactive adventure. 🌿 How would you make the red planet green? Try your hand and see if you can win. 🧪 www.nature.com/immersive/d4...

Not just an issue for AI: "Scientists and engineers who build powerful AI systems often understand the tools’ capabilities in extraordinary detail. What they resist — and sometimes cannot see — is that their technical choices are also political choices." www.nature.com/articles/d41...

"The results... do not mean that 6-8 hours is the optimum amount of sleep for every person, nor do they prove that achieving that ‘Goldilocks’ range of sleep each day directly improves health or slows ageing." @heidiledford.bsky.social on sleep study & impt caveats www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Characteristicaly good piece by @lizziegibney.bsky.social about how seriously (or not) to take AI doomsayers. The point is made here that AI researchers are not necessarily the best people to ask about social implications of the technology. To which I'd add that... www.nature.com/articles/d41...

My story on the NSB terminations:

NASA has just shared the first high-resolution images of the Earth taken by the Artemis II crew, meanwhile, massive budget cuts are once again proposed for US science, including for NASA 🧪 www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Ouch. “Despite the incredible wealth of interesting content at conferences, it can be hard to stay engaged. And by engaged, I mean awake." www.nature.com/articles/d41...

CRISPR–Cas9 might offer a way to make safer, more effective cancer-fighting immune cells engineered inside the human body go.nature.com/4lE2kv2

This is important! A locally tailored, big-push intervention to educate unmarried adolescent girls in 18 communities in northern Nigeria reduced rates of marriage from 86% to just 21% 🧪 #policy #education www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Thanks @scifri.bsky.social for having me on to talk about federal research budgets. TLDL: Congress voted to reject the president's big science cuts, but the White House is slow to release those approved funds. 🧪 podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/s...

Congress rejected massive cuts to US science budgets for 2026, but much of the money still isn’t flowing to researchers. The culprit? The White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is quietly slow-walking the release of funds. 🧵👇

More researchers face consequences for their links to #Epstein. Jack Horner, who was a consultant for the Jurassic park films, is no longer employed at Chapman University. See my story for Nature www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Today’s action “is a rejection of the most basic laws of physics”, says #climate scientist Friederike Otto. I report on the EPA revoking its own ruling on the danger of greenhouse gases: www.nature.com/articles/d41... 🧪

I'm on Capitol Hill watching NIH director Jayanta Bhattacharya testify to the Senate HELP committee. Thankfully I haven't been escorted out of this event (yet). Here's what I'm following. You can also watch live here: www.help.senate.gov/hearings/mod...

Aluminium is crucial to vaccines — and safe. Why are US advisers debating it? www.nature.com/articles/d41... by @heidiledford.bsky.social via @nature.com "You cannot just get rid of an adjuvant that works and is safe before you have something else that you know will be a good replacement."

Inspired by Fred Rogers, @nature.com asked readers to help us 'find the helpers' amid the crisis in American science. What emerged were inspiring stories of researchers, legal experts, data hounds and government scientists who are fighting the dismantling of the US research enterprise. 🧪🧵1/6

Often the news happens so quickly that there's little time for it, so we took a step back to talk about the stories of the researchers who have been fighting back against the Trump administration's assault on science. w/ @maxkozlov.bsky.social and @heidiledford.bsky.social

YES!!!! So happy to see @maxkozlov.bsky.social recognized for the total rockstar he is: casw.org/news/max-koz... So many more schmancy journalism awards in this guy's future.

Scientists are closing in on the ability to apply genome editing to a formidable new target: the human brain go.nature.com/45uKWT1

The claim that aluminium in vaccines causes autism has been debunked “again and again” go.nature.com/4mY7OQQ

In which @stephaniemlee.bsky.social reports for @theopennotebook.bsky.social on using public documents for investigative science journalism. With @laurenweberhp.bsky.social @naveenasadasivam.bsky.social @primateyell.bsky.social @dangaristo.bsky.social & more: www.theopennotebook.com/2025/08/12/h...

Ageing accelerates around age 50 ― some organs faster than others, suggesting that ageing does not march to a steady beat @nature.com @heidiledford.bsky.social www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Turbocharged ‘killer’ cells show promise for autoimmune disease @nature.com @heidiledford.bsky.social nature.com/articles/d41... on @cellcellpress.bsky.social doi.org/10.1016/j.ce...

NIH director Jay Bhattacharya posted on X: "No clinical trial has been delayed, nor has any participant been dropped from clinical trial. These are the facts." Malaria, tuberculosis, cancer trials abroad have all been on the chopping block, leaving participants stranded, I reported in this story.

After ruling the NIH grant cuts were illegal yesterday, Judge Young, a Reagan appointee on the bench since 1985, ended the hearing with a blistering 15-minute speech. I've cleaned up my notes — here are his remarks in full. 🧵

An NIH staffer reacts to today's ruling: "I'm looking forward to the day that we are so slammed with work trying to reinstate everything that we had to terminate illegally — I'll work 24/7 to make that happen if I can."

Barbara McClintock was born OTD in 1902. “I start with the seedling, and I don't want to leave it. I don't feel I really know the story if I don't watch the plant all the way along. So I know every plant in the field. I know them intimately, and I find it a real pleasure.” 🌱🐋🧪 #HistSTM #PhilSci

A lightning-fast, in-depth look into who RFK Jr selected for the vaccine advisory committee. One of whom was an expert witness against Merck's vaccine, despite RFK's stated reason of reducing conflicts of interest, per @reuters.com. Well done @heidiledford.bsky.social and @rfieldmouse.bsky.social

"US scientists who find themselves abruptly unemployed are turning desperation and defiance into fresh coping strategies and advice. But one thing is clear: whether they move abroad, pivot to other research areas or leave science altogether, their deep expertise is likely to be lost." 🧪

Check out this news story that @nature.com wrote describing our recent preprint where we tested our H5 mRNA vaccine in calves. The data look good and we are currently testing the vaccine in lactating cattle...more to come!

The CRISPR family’s most versatile member has made its medical debut: a cutting-edge gene-editing technique known as prime editing has been used to treat a person for the first time https://go.nature.com/3YNta9V

Today the 1st case of CRISPR 3.0 (Prime genome editing) announced for a teenager with chronic granulomatous disease www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Plenty of cool science behind this CRISPR news, but it’s that cute baby and the personal story his parents shared that keeps me up at night 🧵🧪https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-01496-z

A US judge to govt lawyers defending the NIH's grant terminations: "I understand the administration is against DEI. Respectfully, I just don't know what you mean. This isn't a teasing question. There has to be some working definition. This is research to advance healthcare for all our citizens."

A study in Nature Immunology explores soluble biomarkers, immune cell subsets, viral antibody responses and plasma proteomics to better define and understand long COVID in two independent cohorts. go.nature.com/3GVktnC #medsky 🧪

There are a lot of questions being asked about the awarding of a $500M grant to an #NIH team to develop a new (old) vaccine platform that could be used for a "universal" #flu vaccine. www.statnews.com/2025/05/03/n...

𝐴𝑟𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑜𝑙𝑜𝑐ℎ𝑖𝑎 𝑒𝑠𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑎𝑛𝑧𝑎𝑒 shows us that some flowers shy away from those cute stories about plants and pollinators, and that they have evolved extreme techniques to ensure pollination. This plant's technique? A hairy prison. @botany.one #Scicomm #PlantScience #Botany 🧪 botany.one/2025/04/that...

🧪I used to be the assigning editor of a profiles column, and I've missed those deep dives into people's experiences. It was a treat to speak with Michael Running Wolf, his wife Caroline, and their professional colleagues about their work using AI to revitalize Indigenous languages for @nature.com.

How scientists are fighting back after Trump gutted two landmark environmental reports. 🧪 Words by me, photo selection by Nature's ace photo team: www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Affected by the foreign subawards policy? Help run clinical trials abroad on a project with a subaward? I want to hear how this policy impacts you. Send me a message on Signal at mkozlov .01 or email me at maxkozlov [at] protonmail [dot] com. You can stay anonymous.

BREAKING: NSF has frozen all grant funding, as of yesterday. It's unclear when they will resume funding awards, or why the pause has been put in place. www.nature.com/articles/d41...

NEW: An NIH policy coming in the next week will target — and at least temporarily stop — funding outside the US, threatening thousands of projects and collaborations on topics like infectious diseases and cancer. Some NIH staff have already been told to hold all subaward funds for foreign labs.

"Absent any official word, the contracts officer said, federal funders planned to act on the first decision to cut off support for the research."

Under this administration, it's difficult to know what will happen tomorrow. But these cuts to science will have long-term effects, so we tried to take a step back and consider the impacts in 5, 10 years. Reported with @heidiledford.bsky.social & Jeff Tollefson: www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Deep dive into 800 cancelled NIH grants. www.nature.com/articles/d41...

After our story about the impact of funding cuts on early-career researchers, a reader contacted me: ‘Ahem. What about us soft-money PIs?’ Fair point. So here -- with special thanks to that reader and to all the researchers who've shared their personal stories with us -- is that story:

NIH, which began this week terminating projects studying long COVID, has reinstated the grants, after pressure from Sen. Todd Young's (R-IN) office, an HHS source tells me. Young had secured a commitment from RFK Jr that he'd continue funding long COVID research. Story by @thesicktimes.bsky.social

🚨 NIH sent out another data call, this time for projects "related to any form of censorship at all or directing people to believe one idea over another related to health outcomes… e,g., any contracts to promote COVID vaccine uptake," I'm told. These data calls have recently preceded terminations.

Even in 2025, some things still shock. Like the apparent selection of a long-time vaccine opponent who was disciplined & fined for practicing medicine without a license to conduct a new HHS study into whether there's a link between vaccines and autism. www.statnews.com/2025/03/26/r...