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

NEW: Don't ask too many questions, but... NIH may not re-terminate the 900ish grants at issue in the main NIH lawsuits after all. To the PIs of reinstated grants, SPEND NOW! 🧵 Here's what NIH is probably thinking. Bear with me:

“All this training and then we weren’t allowed to do anything.” kffhealthnews.org/news/article...

If you, like me, are still trying to put last week's complex SCOTUS decision on NIH funding into context, this great story by my colleagues is a great resource 🧪 www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Yesterday the Supreme Court issued a convoluted, 36-page emergency order about NIH grant terminations. Two main takeaways: -$2 billion (not the government # of $780 million) in NIH grants will likely be re-terminated -future legal challenges will be much harder w/ @maxkozlov.bsky.social:

500–600 CDC employees just laid off. This comes weeks after a gunman fired hundreds of bullets at CDC HQ, killing a police officer. Trump has said nothing. Meanwhile, RFK Jr. is accused by 750+ health workers of spreading lies & dismantling public health. wapo.st/4mrA2DN #BlueSky #MedSky #NewsSky

Why are people having fewer children? According to one source: "A lot of men are undateable. Truly undateable.” 😆 @lynnepeeps.bsky.social offers a great in-depth look at falling fertility rates around the world, and how to adapt. www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Anyone else among us willing to admit that they first learned this from G.I Joe?

Well, this is a huge Executive Order power grab... www.whitehouse.gov/presidential... 1/3

NEW: The Trump administration acted illegally when NIH delayed and canceled billions of dollars in grants to scientists earlier this year, a top government watchdog said www.wsj.com/politics/pol...

"Vaccine skepticism in the U.S. also kills more children outside the U.S. — because it transfers that skepticism — outside the United States.” www.statnews.com/2025/08/04/b...

Sadly prescient reporting from May on mRNA vaccines (a Nobel prize winning technology) being maligned by the administration. www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Dire-wolf drama continues to unfold. A scientist who has been critical of the company behind some audacious de-extinction claims believes that it has been trying to undermine the credibility of its critics ahead of major announcements. The company denies involvement. www.nature.com/articles/d41...

UCLA's NIH grants are also impacted, its chancellor says. The university receives about $500m in NIH funds each year. NIH grants staff I've spoken to haven't heard anything. But for institutions frozen out by the Trump admin, the agency now issues awards but limits their ability to withdraw funds.

I mean, people go to Vegas to gamble, right?

A Nature survey shows how widely researchers disagree on what quantum mechanics says about reality. Read the results - and find out what interpretation suits you - at this @nature.com article by @lizziegibney.bsky.social A run-down of major findings: 🧵 www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Exclusive: Netflix to replace 'Is it cake?' with 'Might be maggots'

Nothing yet.

A controversial paper claiming that an extraordinary microorganism can thrive on the toxic element arsenic has been retracted by the journal Science, nearly 15 years after its original publication -- but the paper's authors say the retraction is unwarranted. go.nature.com/44MQsQI

NEW: In an unprecedented move, the NIH will soon disinvite dozens of scientists about to take positions on advisory councils that make final decisions on grant funding. NIH staff were told to select others aligned with the Trump administration and told to expect placements by political appointees.

The Senate Committee on Appropriations gave the first signs Congress will push back on Trump's proposed budget cuts to science and instead keep funding flat, though an unrelated issue (the location of the FBI headquarters) stalled any vote today. @alexwitze.bsky.social and I report:

High fashion meets the science of the deep. This is the delightful read about a couture dressmaker that you maybe didn’t know you needed. www.nature.com/immersive/d4...

Wrote a spicy defense of Nature's ingenuity w/sex&gender +a hate letter to the sex/gender binary in my book PHALLACY: Life Lessons from the Animal Penis. Useful for discovering Nature's wonders+declawing bigots +enough genitalia facts to make you the life of most parties🍆🥳 libro.fm/audiobooks/9...

Decades of research have shown that, although short bursts of stress can be healthy, unrelenting stress contributes to heart disease, cancer, stroke, respiratory disorders, suicide https://go.nature.com/4lbvmkA

Recently turned in a deeply researched draft of a book on What AI Actually Is and reader, this is 100% correct

Studying the AHA! moments. This story about insight by @humbertobasilio.bsky.social is truly inspiring. Take on the test within to see if you feel it, too. www.nature.com/articles/d41...

The full ruling explaining why NIH grant cuts are illegal came out today. It's just as blistering as the judge's oral remarks. And it uncovers fresh details in DOGE's role orchestrating the cuts — and on the cuts at Columbia. Here are my top highlights from the 103-page ruling. 🧵

One of the editorials that sparked this condemnation: "We have seen a great country, until of late rightly proud of its universities and its scientific achievements, abandoning its belief in reason, destroying the careers of a fifth of its scholars." www.nature.com/articles/139...

Nazi Germany did literally ban Nature: "Articles are often published in the London weekly scientific journal Nature containing outrageous and vile attacks on German science and the national socialist state. The journal must therefore be excluded from general use in the scientific libraries."

Trump team axes contracts with publishing giant Springer Nature At first, NIH told me its contracts with SN were active and that they help “advance scientific discovery”. Hours later, HHS said the opposite: "Precious taxpayer dollars should not be used on unused subscriptions to junk science.”

Nature is one of the most prestigious scientific journals. The first time I was ever in Nature, I was talking about the value of karaoke as a professional networking skill for scientists. Pretty cool to go from that to a featured interview about my actual area of expertise! 🧪🦑🦈

Chronic disease is part of why the US has lower life expectancy than most similarly wealthy nations - but so are guns, drugs, and cars https://go.nature.com/3I0hHON

So... I guess this is the Biden-era equity and inclusion provision that Trump liked SO much that they accelerated it's adoption by six months? (shrug) www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Ewen Callaway reports on biology's rush for AI-enabled 'virtual cells'. So far it "has a lot of hype, but not a lot of concrete results or a clear path to success". "I don’t think there is a clear definition of a virtual cell", says CZI's Jonah Cool. @nature.com www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Vaccination schedules on the CDC website have already started changing under RFK Jr. So we published a guide to the evidence-based vaccine recommendations in place *before* all 17 members of the advisory panel were abruptly dismissed by the new admin. www.scientificamerican.com/article/see-... 🧪

NEW: NSF will be kicked out of their building. Announcement will be made tomorrow by HUD Sec. and Governor of VA. HUD will take over the NSF building over the next two years. NSF staffer: "There is no planning for NSF, no identified future location, appropriation for a new building or a move."

RFK Jr wants to Make America Healthy Again. But is America really that unhealthy? I spoke with public health experts & data analysts to find out. My story for @nature.com and brief🧵 www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Research is revealing the cellular mechanisms that link mental well-being and longevity https://go.nature.com/40h70gQ

O ffs

Scientists say they used LLMs to reproduce 12 gold-standard #Cochrane systematic reviews in 2 days - rather than 12 years. But other experts are sceptical; the system doesn't automate some review steps and needs independent testing. My news story for @nature.com www.nature.com/articles/d41...

The brain's master conductor role in our aging process New feature @nature.com by @dianakwon.bsky.social www.nature.com/articles/d41...

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. 🧵

Quick vibe check at the NIH, per a staffer there: "We have lost so many people: we have no comms, no HR, no acquisitions, no one to do travel or purchasing. So many people have left that there are chains of email bounces..."

Corny? Yes. But I yam what I yam.

Some scientists like @jw132.bsky.social recognise the “small possibility” that research-associated activities could have triggered the pandemic. But that “should not prevent us for focusing on the bigger picture”: the wildlife trade poses a much greater zoonotic risk than do lab accidents. 3/

Wildlife trade acts as a vast global network of unregulated natural laboratories,with ample opportunities for viruses to circulate & evolve to become more dangerous We can either turn a blind eye or try to understand & mitigate the risks My latest in @nature.com 1/ www.nature.com/articles/d41...

🚨 NIH director Jayanta Bhattacharya is testifying before the US Senate Appropriations Committee today. The hearing is bound to be spicy, after more than 300 agency staff wrote him a letter decrying his leadership and actions as director. 🔥 I'll be live-posting the hearing, so follow along here.