The NIH is an ENORMOUS bargain for the American people. Do folk think that private industry will do the background slog work for drug discovery for 250K direct costs?

Fruit flies actively restart their circadian clock by proactively shaping their environment #Drosophila

Every few years, my lab acts out the core clock transcription-translation feedback loop. First because I am entertained and the lab thinks it’s fun. Second because after acting it out, they remember the TTFL forever. This year had the most props yet! And a handstand! #academicsky 🧪 🎭

🧪 New from @dataforprogress.org: Federal research grants are awarded on scientific merit judged by panels of scientists and outside experts. Trump has moved to change that. Voters don't approve. www.dataforprogress.org/blog/2026/7/...

Right, so here is the Hoover Institute saying we should abolish the NIH: www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/202...

We tied our Barbies to the ceiling fan blades, dug a deep hole that hit a water line, stole plants from our neighbors to make a secret garden, duct taped my little cousin to a chair and put him in the road to see what would happen, build a shoddy raft and launched it in a canal with alligators...

I still couldn’t turn a review around in 4 days - because I have an actual full time job! My schedule is always booking about 2 weeks out, and that includes finding a block of time to review.

Live now! 🧵

You may have heard about the OMB rule change that will put politics over federal grants. However bad you think it is? It's probably worse. Thanks to @theverge.com for letting me report this one out. There is still time to comment. bit.ly/4v2X4nQ

“The OMB has proposed a rule change to the Federal Register, 2 CFR §200.205. This rule change is an attempt to politicize all federal grants. This is a weapon designed to disappear disfavored people, groups, and ideas—and the blast radius on it will be enormous.” open.substack.com/pub/thebulwa...

Hell yeah MOAR BUGS!

Guess how many pomodoros of writing and revision my supervisor has done this morning? Idk why we even pay him.

This mirrored my experience with a recent paper from my lab that I ran through QED for curiosity’s sake. It basically suggested experiments that would have turned it into a 20-author Cell paper from an HHMI lab, rather than the solid paper in Development that it actually is.

I wanted to like QED's new 1% preprint ranking. I really did. But the more I looked at the data, the more uncomfortable it made me. Here is my full peer review. open.substack.com/pub/blekhman...

Fruit fly embryo development is wild! 1 nucleus clones into 6,000+ copies in just 2 hours. Perfectly synchronized. With built-in bumper system. And absolutely mesmerizing. I visualized the science behind it in a microscopy story 🔬👇 youtu.be/xyV9BhIVRjM #FluorescenceFriday #Microscopy #Drosophila

Still looking for a postdoc. Tons of cool projects here. Join us. Job ID: 58672

Think I might have chosen the experts at one of the worlds most admired zoos *that has been doing this for 50 years*.

Members of Congress calling out the blatantly unlawful proposed OMB rule on federal grantmaking. Let’s keep the pressure on! thehill.com/newsletters/...

more of this real journalism pls #SciArt #comic

These breakthroughs come from public /government investment in science. As that investment collapses, the breakthroughs will also stop...just with a lag of 3-5 years. So enjoy medical miracles while they last, I guess.

Lab assistant managed to rename a file while I was in the fly room. 🧪🐶

Journals: It's a crisis, we can't find enough reviewers! Also journals: Give us your review in a week! No thanks. My own last paper took 9 weeks to get a review. I will not in a million years be turning around a review in a week. Good luck finding a reviewer who will tho! Byeeeee #academicsky

Why fund fundamental academic research when politicians can channel your tax dollars to their buddies in tech companies?

Sunday long run friend! 🐦 🌱 #sundayrunday

"Right now, in some underfunded lab, a scientist is chasing a question that sounds pointless...a century of experience says that funding people to do this work is a good bet. If we stop making that bet, we will pay for it in cures no one will know to miss."

My family used food aid when I was a child. All children deserve to eat!

Genuinely fascinating topic. But all I could see was plankton from SpongeBob. 😂

NSF's grantmaking is miserly when compared to recent years, but when compared it to the historical record, we see it's a radical break from the long-term consensus of investing in scientific innovation. grant-witness.us/posts/2026-0... #NSF 🧪

Last day before a long weekend, so naturally the lab went wild with a glitter tattoo kit that one of the undergrads brought in! ✨ 🧪

OMB nominee touts plan to give Trump appointees power to kill grants

And if you ARE a scientist- have you talked to your non science friends and family? I got my mom submitting comments and talking to boomers on Facebook about submitting their own.

Non-scientist mutuals - did you know that Project 2025 is coming for scientific research? Your tax $ fund foundational, long term scientific research! Proposed changes would have political appointees, instead of scientists, make funding decisions. Bad idea... docs.google.com/document/d/1...

The Battle over the Constitution Has Spread to American Science. I'm out in the @theatlantic.com today about the new OMB proposed rule. It's just the longtime agenda of the the Supreme Court. US science and cancer cures now all depend on us picking up a fight with the Roberts Court.

Well he’s not totally useless. He can serve as a warning to others… 😬

Want to follow your favorite small animal around? Maybe you'd like to also see it's environment at the same time? Or you'd want to see muscle activity but your commercial microscope doesn't have a large enough field-of-view? Meet Glowtracker! scholz-lab.github.io/GlowTracker/ Paper: rdcu.be/foISQ

I didn't realize that by rooting for Senegal in the World Cup it meant that I also got to kick things off by rooting *against* France, so that I could start online beef with @sdissel.bsky.social! Truly a win-win scenario for me. 😜⚽🇸🇳

We belatedly celebrated our 16th wedding anniversary! From blue milk in the deserts of Tatooine to hot chocolate at the snowy reenactment of Washington crossing the Delaware, to toasting Chris' new book with authentic 1876 Centennial glasses, here's to many more years of us! 💜🧡

TIL you can max out the Microsoft Word custom dictionary! The word that put me over the edge was erioglaucine. Fortunately I also learned you can make more custom dictionaries! #academicsky

Now if you're looking for book that says it has bugs and definitely DOES have enough bugs, there's Wolf Worm by @tkingfisher.com! Do not read it while eating grapes.

I only post here about books I like. But this year, I also started keeping a 1-2 sentence summary opinions on all books I've read, and the summaries of the low-rated ones and DNFs are funnier than the ones I loved. 💙📚

I don’t have any soccer allegiances, so I’ll be cheering for Senegal because their team is based on my campus. ⚽️ 🇸🇳 🏆

Imagine that the only labs that remain open and receive (ample) funding are those: - With only American citizens in their labs; - With no international collaborators; - Who have never participated in a protest or donated to a Democratic campaign; - Whose research aligns with Trump’s priorities.

Happy Loving Day! For our anniversary this year I went to a cathedral…with a close friend who was also in Pittsburgh at the Int’l Behavioral and Neural Genetics Society meeting with me. 😝

Here is another thing you should do to oppose OMB’s proposed Federal Financial Assistance Rule (OMB-2026-0034). Pressure congress. They have the power to stop it! 5calls.org/issue/federa...

Still all quiet on the #NSF front. No new awards in the past week. REMINDER: We still are hearing of trickles of terminations, suspensions, and money being held back from grantees, which NSF isn't reporting. We need your help - please report! 🧪 grant-witness.us/posts/2026-0...

Couple folks have asked lately why I haven’t gone up for tenure yet. It’s because I took an extension for a foster teen during my pretenure period. Rutgers generously allows automatic extensions for all kinds of family expansion, including special needs teenagers. #academicsky #fostercare