NOAA announces planned rollback of North Atlantic right whale protections www.mainepublic.org/environment-...

This is François Furstenberg's laughing/crying essay on the absurdities of the present-day research university-- from atriums to AI... and sometimes AI with atriums. Scroll to the bottom for discussion of AI fostering administrators' fantasies while obliterating the core purposes of higher ed.

fine reading! not only because of the last paragraph. free to read for 1 week - don't miss it! #evolution #MicroSky

Please join this town hall at the Ocean Sciences Meeting in Glasgow that @gmacgilchrist.bsky.social and I are convening, moderated by @helenczerski.bsky.social. We'll discuss what's happening to ocean sciences and what institutions and individuals can do. agu.confex.com/agu/osm26/me... #OSM26

RALLY TO TAKE BACK SCIENCE! 🧪✊🔬 March 7th, 2026 in Washington, DC. We're mobilizing the fight for science and democracy. In the face of assaults on our families, freedoms, and futures, we're taking back science! Learn more at www.standupforscience.net/ma... (linked in bio)

“It’s our blood and bones And these whistles and phones Against Miller and Noem’s dirty lies”

This is a little ancillary but I recently talked with Sam Scheiner (recently retired PO) and he gives good advice for junior scientists etc about maintaining science in the face of uncertainty www.evolutionsociety.org/the-evolutio...

Pope Leo is quietly mounting a long-term, moral confrontation with American authoritarianism — and history suggests he knows exactly what he’s doing. Here’s how he can defeat Trump’s dictatorship of relativism once and for all.

On this day 52 years ago-Dec. 28, 1973-Republican President Richard M. Nixon signed “An Act to Provide for the Conservation of Endangered & Threatened Species of Fish, Wildlife, and Plants, and for Other Purposes.” You may know it simply as “The Endangered Species Act.” Image: Eagle Nation Online.

On this day

The atomic ensemble time scale at the NIST Boulder campus has failed.

Our first direct hit. Oddly our oyster work is the most popular thing we do. Great return on investment for taxpayers funding bay restoration. cambridgespy.substack.com/p/horn-point...

To take action

Canada is recruiting! www.canada.ca/en/innovatio...

So love wobbegongs. Everything is good about the wobbegong. Its name. Its flattened Oscar the Grouch face. Its frondy bits. Its lazy life as a hungry rug. And it’s a shark. Outstanding animal 10/10

Influential paper on glyphosate retracted 25y later. Ghostwritten by Monsanto wapo.st/3MsQtCq

Prospective applicants are encouraged to check out the @ebrc.org whitepaper on this important need. ebrc.org/publications...

Despite Trump chaos, NSF avoided feared dip in research financing | Science | AAAS www.science.org/content/arti...

I really hate it when scientists keep saying that “we need to rebuild trust in science,” because it implies that scientists are to blame for the mistrust rather than the millions of dollars of dark money that have funded political attacks on science in order to advance a far right agenda.

Cool cats

A Compact for Control: No self-respecting institution of higher education should accept the Trump administration’s unconstitutional terms, Robert Post and Tom Ginsburg write. @yalelawschool-yls.bsky.social @uchicagolaw.bsky.social www.insidehighered.com/opinion/view...

🌊 Job Opportunity with BGC-Argo! 🌊 We’re hiring a Data Analyst to work on processing, quality control, and scientific analysis of data from Biogeochemical-Argo floats. 📩 Interested? Reach out to Dr. Giorgio Dall’Olmo: [email protected]

@rebeccasolnit.bsky.social and this rmi.org/how-we-can-e...

@rebeccasolnit.bsky.social The Rocky Mountain Institute has done good work on the circular economy for battery materials. Like: rmi.org/insight/the-...

A United Nations treaty designed to protect the abundant marine life and ecosystems of the high seas - known colloquially as the High Seas Treaty - has received the 60th ratification required for the agreement to be brought into full force. oceanographicmagazine.com/news/histori...

💯

Not sure that free speech and gun rights are compatible. Will we need to choose?

Latest test to our good luck this year on its way

Come join the BioGOSHIP team. In search of a postdoc at NOAA/Miami.

How Short-Term Thinking Is Destroying America www.nytimes.com/2025/08/11/o... “…in the short-term, Democrats must mobilize to ensure that we still have a democratic foundation to build upon on the other side. Yet their animating purpose should be to imagine, and then build, what will come after.”

Yay NSF! democrats-science.house.gov/news/press-r...

Now NSF employees have also stood up. www.nytimes.com/2025/07/22/s...

Characterizing organisms from three domains of life with universal primers from throughout the global ocean www.nature.com/articles/s41...

U.S. GO-SHIP seeks physical/biogeochemical oceanographer with hydrographic & cruise-planning experience to be Chief Scientist on Feb-May 2026 P04E (tentatively Costa Rica, to the Marshall Islands) Deadline August. 15 tinyurl.com/334y4daw 🌊

With news of court-ordered #NIH grant reinstatements, and rumors of changes to termination policy, we're trying to get a handle on what is actually happening to PIs. Your reports are the best info we have! Please submit reports of *reinstatements* to grant-watch.us as well as terminations.

Federal judge rules against NSF rate cap, a victory for research universities. #AcademicSky #HigherEd www.forbes.com/sites/michae...

BREAKING: Judge denies NSF's 15% indirect rate plan. Like the DOE and NIH attempts, it too has now been rejected by courts. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

THIS IS IT! THIS IS HUGE!! PLAINTIFF'S WIN!! Judge Young rules that the NIH grant terminations at issue in these cases are illegal and therefore vacated. BOOM!

"the best hope for saving science and, perhaps, saving our form of democracy, is convincing at least a couple dozen Republican members of Congress that it’s up to them"

The new leadership cancelled planned events for NSF’s 75th anniversary and tried to prevent staff from even taking a group photo to celebrate the landmark. These are the faces of the hardworking employees they’ve been treating as disposable. NSF, we appreciate you even if your own leaders don’t ❤️

Hi. I'm Amy. Today's NSF's 75th anniversary, so I made a video: youtu.be/xnt2V4ygBG0 #ScienceMatters #NSFExcellence #AmericanInnovation #NSF #FederalScience #SciencePolicy #NSFRotator #PublicService #WeAreNSF #SaveNSF #NSF75 #Scienceat75 #ISupportNSF #FundNSF

Wow, this is insane. @billgates.com: you want to spend your foundation money by 2045? Why not open up your own version of NSF to fund all science EXCEPT artificial intelligence, quantum information science, biotechnology, nuclear energy, and translational science?

NSF Director resigns

Now it's nearly 270 university presidents who have signed onto this "unprecedented government overreach" public letter. It was less than 180 this morning. www.aacu.org/newsroom/a-c... Universities, and judges, taking the lead in standing up.

🧪 Our Terminated NSF Grant Tracker is live 🧪 🔴 114 NSF grants listed so far 🔴 Cancelled grants focused on → Training scientists → Misinformation → AI → Climate change Credit to @noamross.net for all the work to build this & to all PIs who submitted their info. Link: airtable.com/appGKlSVeXni...

@katrinamillerphd.bsky.social & I took a look at over 400 active National Science Foundation grants that got killed in the past few days. Here's our story (gift link) nyti.ms/4jp4aOx

Thread.

🧪 Tip: You have the right to contest a grant termination, even though NSF says you don't. 🧵 On Friday, NSF terminated 402 grants (per Musk's DOGE). The notification letters had one of the most egregious violations of fed regulations I've seen so far in these cases: "not subject to appeal"

HAPPENING NOW: Protesters have gathered in front of The White House for a 50501 rally against Donald Trump 👇🏻

“In the meantime, according to sources, NSF will not make any new awards.” This violates the impoundments act.