If you’ve ever done the deep dive on the discovery of the structure of DNA (🙋🏻‍♀️), you’re probably as sick as I am of the popular narratives around Franklin as I am. Let Cobb and Comfort set you straight, please!!

396269-busy-city-streets

I've been doing all my hustling over on LinkedIn, but I figure I should do some here, too. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

✨Open to Work✨ Need an exceptional writer or editor? Need genetics expertise? What about experience with peer review, scholarly publishing, or associations/nonprofits? I'm your gal! I'm open to freelance, contract, and full-time work, and I appreciate any leads you have. www.sarahbay.me

🚨 Practical URGENT tip for NSF grantees: Out of an abundance of caution, I would right now go into Research.gov and… 1. Download your NSF award letters. 2. Print PDF your annual reports. 3. Screenshot the status table for annual reports. NSF is planning maintenance tomorrow to Research.gov

ATTENTION: NSF GRANT RECIPIENTS We received a heads up from a trusted source that you should proactively download/print/screen shot any documentation on research.gov pertaining to your NSF awards, both those that are current and any that have closed in the last 5-6 years. 1/n

Scientists must push back against the threat of rising white nationalism and the dangerous and pseudoscientific ideas of eugenics https://go.nature.com/4jGqiUc

if you are a cis person it costs you nothing to just say today that you see & hear your trans sisters & brothers & others over in the UK today -- and around the world, too, knowing that rulings like today's ripple out in ugly ways.

It Happened To Me: I Finally Decided to Learn R

Dear federal scientists: If you have been affected by the probationary firings and would be willing to speak with Science, please reach out to me by email ([email protected]) or on Signal. We can guarantee annonymity.

It’s been buried in all the news today, but every scientist in the US should pay attention to this: Mike Lauer went out on a limb for us all, sending out a memo saying institutes should start awarding grants. And it looks like Trump/Musk fired him for that. 🧪

@kmsandlin.bsky.social Just followed you—send me a DM to talk about a potential lead.

There will undoubtedly be so much more to say in the coming weeks, but today was my last day of work at GSA—close to 10 years after starting my internship—and now I’m done, and it’s a wild feeling.

Are you a scientist whose work is being affected by changes in the Trump administration? Get in touch with @nature.com reporters @maxkozlov.bsky.social @dangaristo.bsky.social @heidiledford.bsky.social Jeff Tollefson & yours truly. Let us know what's on your mind & what we should be writing about.

In response to headline “Cruz-Led Investigation Uncovers $2 Billion in Woke DEI Grants at NSF, Releases Full Database” I want to re-emphasize that all these grants were public record and written in response to public solicitations supporting DEI content. No “uncovering” or “releasing” was done here

DEIA and Doing the Right Thing scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org/2025/02/11/d...

I have not seen a crisis of this magnitude since yesterday

A Primer on Indirect Cost Rates

“Since 1980, Congress has mandated that the agency seek to broaden participation of underrepresented groups […] The NSF spokesperson did not respond to a query about concerns that Trump’s executive orders are at odds with the agency’s responsibilities, as codified in law.”

🚨BREAKING. From a program officer at the National Science Foundation, a list of keywords that can cause a grant to be pulled. I will be sharing screenshots of these keywords along with a decision tree. Please share widely. This is a crisis for academic freedom & science.

NEW: We obtained the directions NSF program officers are following to review all grants for compliance with the Trump EOs and the turmoil it has created in an agency mandated to broaden STEM participation. Our story: www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Different sort of news to share over here. I'm moving on from my role at GSA and will be seeking new opportunities. Not sure what's next for me, other than a bit of a break to start—need to take care of myself and my family to make sure I'm ready to fight for the next 4 years and beyond.

Rough end to a rough week of a rough month. 💔

It is simply not enough for universities to say, “Our grants & research offices are looking into how research will be affected by the latest directive.” University leaders must actively and very publicly make the case for the kind of work many of us do. The silence on this front is deafening.

Just fucking depressing to watch the NSF fall in line without hesitation. Have been so proud to be co-PI on a BIO-LEAPS grant. 🫠

thou cruel, Ingrateful, savage, and inhuman creature

To update people on the NSF PRFB situation: despite the court challenge and rescinding the original memo, the NSF has continued to comply with the executive order. They have not communicated with us at all and our paychecks are still canceled indefinitely. I know people who cannot pay their rent.

"It's Dr, Actually" - Now available as trans and non-binary pins! I think a lot of people need a reminder right now that experts know gender isn't binary, and a lot of us need a reminder we're not alone. So please share widely! canopyrobin.etsy.com/listing/1841...

Fellow scientists, please consider speaking w/ media about what this means for "regular Americans." The link below is to contact a reporter who's collecting stories about the unfolding NIH situation - pls share anonymously or on record. @anniewaldman.bsky.social www.propublica.org/people/annie...

If you are directly affected by a cancellation of a meeting you were scheduled to participate in or at which your grant may have been discussed, consider reaching out.

We made it over here!!

Merry Christmas!

It was part of my English major (I didn’t have room to take classes outside my 2 majors/minor/core courses) but this class for me was Two Weeks in the 60s: the art, music, film, and literature of the decade.

Went an another following spree! Back on the Other Site, my network was mostly scientists. On LinkedIn, my network is more scholarly publishing than science. Looks like I get to have both here!

ICYMI: My write-up of the webinar I moderated on psychological safety for @scholarlypub.bsky.social and @c4disc.bsky.social is up on @scholarlykitchen.bsky.social: scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org/2024/12/16/m...

Today's coffee shop playlist has featured Matchbox Twenty and the Goo Goo Dolls, and I am Feeling It.

To complement James' 'why we need peer review' post (link below), I've written some brief thoughts on 'what we need from peer review' over on @the-node.bsky.social thenode.biologists.com/peer-review-...

Mental Health Awareness Mondays — An Introduction to Psychological Safety scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org/2024/12/16/m...

Psychological safety isn’t just a buzzword! Shoutout to @sarahbay.bsky.social for sharing insights on @scholarlykitchen.bsky.social about creating workspaces where everyone should feel safe to speak up and thrive. 🌱 scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org/2024/12/16/m...

The specter of preemptive capitulation/compliance has been hanging over us since the SCOTUS AA decision and related anti-DEI backlash, and it's one of the things I'm most worried about in my professional capacity as we head into the next administration.

Before this month is over, Prof. @timothysnyder.bsky.social may need to rewrite this chapter to something more like, "Do Not Ignominiously Grovel in Advance"

In case you missed it or joined recently, a Starter Pack of the Scholarly Kitchen Chefs is available for your schol comm follow needs go.bsky.app/6Q7pwT6

Being on Bluesky and following scientists who work in areas that I worked on in grad school (and who were absolutely some of my scientific heroes) is making me miss being in research more than I have in a long time.

"we’ve come to believe that world-class performance comes after 10,000 hours of practice. But that’s wrong. It comes after 10,000 hours of deliberate practice, 12,500 hours of deliberate rest, and 30,000 hours of sleep" nautil.us/darwin-was-a...

Editing a blog post on a paper centered around the use of variational autoencoders, and I think my brain is going to leak out of my ears trying to keep up.

Dreaming of a brain that hasn’t experienced this much burnout. Must be nice!!

Every day, I discover new types and levels of “tired.”