“Those co-authors could include visiting colleagues, students, or postdoctoral researchers temporarily working in the U.S.; overseas researchers who donated research material but didn’t take part in the research; and scientists who moved abroad after conducting the work in the U.S.”

everything I've seen this morning is bad except for this this is v good

academics trying to normalize acceptance of AI hallucinated citations in their field: do you seriously expect me to show my work and check my work me, baffled, a naïf, a fool: yes that’s why it’s called *your* *work*

Most frustrating part of anti-NIH rhetoric is how it frames NIH as only doing one thing at a time. There has always been cancer research, there has always been diabetes research. All of NIAID was 13% of the NIH budget in 2024.

When it rains it pours. The RasgonLab was just awarded 2 NIH grants (R01 and R21). This is also actually the first time in my career that I've successfully renewed an R01

Nothing like a threat to throw out tubes from then -70 freezer to bring the lab together. Found a box labeled 2005.

I was once asked by a non-science friend why I chose to do what I do. And the only explanation I could come up was “Science ‘fails’ about 95% of the time. Most of the time, things just don’t work. But the high I get that 5% of the time when they do is better than any drug you could ever offer me.”

You wouldn’t think that one tiny bottle of TaqMan mix would warrant *thirteen* ice packs. And yet…

Guys, we’ve all been doing it wrong!

Here are new and competitive renewal awards. The pace of award making is picking up but still remains below the dismal performance from fiscal year 2025. 3/n

Ok, hearing from multiple (very believable) NSF sources that this slowness is due largely to transitions and budget shutdown but that they’re moving a bunch of money out (all the money) by end of fiscal year

Steve is trying his best.

Does the NSF even functionally exist anymore?

The National Science Foundation is the main source of funding for basic sciences in the US. For decades, they have supported a scientific R&D ecosystem in the US that has been an engine of economic growth and competitive advantage. Destroying the agency is no less than an act of sabotage.

NHLBI has finally funded their first new R01 of this fiscal year. 208 days into the fiscal year

Wed-nes-day

Breaking news: Multiple scientists who serve on an independent board established to guide the nation’s nearly $9 billion basic science funding agency were terminated from their positions Friday by President Trump.

NEW: NSF has been funding research at a fraction of its historic rate. Last week, the agency finally began distributing money to its directorates and is now likely to pick up the grantmaking pace. But these allocations also amount to substantial cuts across the sciences. My reporting:

NIH is not okay. @nytimes.com highlights how grant-making & ability to obligate funding is at risk from staff shortages and time consuming screening processes designed to censor research to align with the administration's political ideology. www.nytimes.com/2026/04/22/s... Some highlights:

"The N.I.H. has fallen behind in part because it lost thousands of workers last year to layoffs and early retirements. In some branches of the agency, what workers remain can barely keep up with renewing existing grants, much less awarding new ones."

"However alarming the canceled grants and spending delays were last year, Dr. [Joshua] Gordon [former NIMH Director] said, 'I’m more worried this year.'" Me too! At this point, if you're not worried, you're not paying attention.

The number of NIH competitive awards is down 50% from 2025, and down ~70% from prior years. Even if they catch up by the end of the year, only wealthy institutions can bridge these huge funding gaps.They're killing science-and violating the constitution-by weaponizing the bureaucracy

Oh my god this is horrific

I wish I looked this cute while regulating my body temperature

This is why I hate the "scientists have run out of ideas, we need AI" crap. I've asked this before, but do they have a single concept how many unused ideas any active or former researcher has that never materialized into a proposal, let alone got selected for funding??

Last year the GRFP was initially cut in half, to 1,000 awards, amid rumors of a massive cut. This year the agency is facing a similar, 55% cut from the White House and headwinds in awarding grants. Despite that, on Sunday, it offered a record 2,599 GRFP awards. My story on the surprising news:

nice doc you got there...be a shame if something happened to it

Science is cool! Let’s do more of it!

Right now Artemis II astronauts feel like I do when the plane lands but the gate agents are not ready to open the door. Frustrating.

Splashdown confirmed! Let us welcome the crew of Artemis II back to our pale blue dot.

I am glad I went to college without a cell phone and without AI

Oh, look! It’s my worst nightmare personified.

Colleague just asked how we determine species assignment in fossils without DNA. "Welcome to the wonderful world of morphology" I say, to their abject horror.

Also please don’t hesitate to reach out if you are thinking of incorporating anything related to DNA, RNA, or protein into your story. It’s okay to ask for help!

STAT: Trump administration drops court fight to cap NIH payments for research overhead costs by Megan Molteni @statnews.com @mmolteni.bsky.social bit.ly/4tVncB5

Gave this the soundtrack it deserves. Kubrick was onto something when he picked the Blue Danube as the Theme of Objects Floating In Space. Call me, Nutella

Absolute cinema watching that jar of Nutella escape contain behind the backs of the astronauts after packing other things away

Another big surprise contained in today's budget proposal: A government wide ban on using federal funds for "expensive" scientific publishing. This shows the issue is a “broader conversation happening across the government” beyond just the NIH, says @csmarcum.bsky.social.

📉 FY2026 is worse. NIH has made 10,195 awards so far. NSF has made 613. Six hundred thirteen. Congress appropriated the money. The agencies are not spending it. Grant freezes. NOFO collapse. Staff RIFs. Review cancellations. You can win the budget fight and still lose the funding war.

🚨 Congress held NIH and NSF budgets roughly flat. Scientists celebrated. Here is what actually happened. NIH awarded 4,641 fewer grants in FY2025 than the 4-year avg. New awards dropped 14%. Over $1.3B never reached investigators. NSF awards fell 22%. The money was there.

Wow, rude.

Here's a big one from NIH. It remains Trump admin policy to - Cap indirects at 15% (repeatedly rebuffed by courts and Congress) - Multi-year fund *all* grants. As a reminder, this has the effect of dramatically decreasing the total number of labs and projects supported by the government.

If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. That appears to be the thinking behind the 2027 budget request to Congress that President Donald Trump unveiled today. https://scim.ag/4sRnw3x

So much of this life can be summed up by "It's gross. But it works"

No

Can someone tell me if the US Forest Service is being dismantled because I owe them a final project report and maybe I don’t have to write it anymore?

Exciting News! Grant-witness.us now has dynamic funding curves like mine for NIH available. grant-witness.us/funding_curv... 1/2

I don't think people fully appreciate how apocalyptic things are for US science. I haven't had any new funding since 2024, but I'm still ok since typical grants are for three years. This means next year I will be completely out of funding and will have to fire everyone in the lab. It's not great.

My anecdotal “I’m not an expert, I just go here” anecdata is that the lines at customs are also currently horrendous. I don’t even know what you do if you have a connecting domestic flight and anything less than a six-hour layover. Just live there, I guess.