The stories behind the numbers: highly reviewed grants are being left unfunded, reducing America's medical research portfolio in the near-term and risking the loss of creative and capable researchers at all stages of careers. Fiscal cliffs are coming if not already here. 👇

NEW: They Got the Best NIH Scores of Their Careers. A Year Later, They Still Don’t Have Funding. As the NIH bankrolls new research at a significantly slower-than-usual pace, I talked to scientists left in the lurch about the toll on their research and careers: www.chronicle.com/article/they...

NEW: They Got the Best NIH Scores of Their Careers. A Year Later, They Still Don’t Have Funding. As the NIH bankrolls new research at a significantly slower-than-usual pace, I talked to scientists left in the lurch about the toll on their research and careers: www.chronicle.com/article/they...

@jackstripling.bsky.social interviews Dan Ariely about his years-long correspondence with Jeffrey Epstein www.chronicle.com/podcast/coll...

Interesting write-up by @stephaniemlee.bsky.social in the Chronicle of Higher Ed @chronicle.com on the emerging research infrastructure in academia around the study of antisemitism, and some of the controversies and divisions around it

What is going on in the field of antisemitism studies? I was interviewed by @stephaniemlee.bsky.social for this important piece along with several other colleagues.

NEW: You can now get a Ph.D. in antisemitism studies. Should you be able to? I wrote about the rise of antisemitism studies in the academy post-October 7th: a burgeoning field flush with cash, politically in vogue, and rife with infighting. www.chronicle.com/article/the-...

NEW: You can now get a Ph.D. in antisemitism studies. Should you be able to? I wrote about the rise of antisemitism studies in the academy post-October 7th: a burgeoning field flush with cash, politically in vogue, and rife with infighting. www.chronicle.com/article/the-...

With the news that a French woman and someone from the US, both of whom had been on board the MV Hondius, have tested positive for #hantavirus, the Andes virus outbreak is now up to 10 cases: That's eight confirmed and two probable. Given the long incubation period, there may still be more cases.

Since conservatives gained effective control of the National Endowment for the Humanities under Trump, the NEH has doled out two grants to organizations the council members have ties with — both among the largest in its history. https://chroni.cl/4uB1pi3

I've spent yesterday and today talking to researchers across the globe trying to understand the hantavirus outbreak aboard the cruise ship MV Hondius. My story in @science.org is here (and some threaded thoughts coming): www.science.org/content/arti... 🧪 #IDsky

The Chronicle was honored for revealing how companies drastically underpay wildfire survivors. Gabrielle Lurie and an investigation of for-profit psychiatric hospitals were named finalists.

Shot/Chaser BOOOOOOOOOOMMM!!! Congratulations @susien.bsky.social and crew!!! #pulitzerprizes

Breaking: Leon Botstein, president of Bard College, will retire in June, capping a 51-year run after a law firm’s investigation concluded that he “minimized” his ties to Jeffrey Epstein, report @ngluckman.bsky.social @emmymrtin.bsky.social @andyandy.bsky.social www.chronicle.com/article/bard...

NEW: Which scientists were hit hardest by NIH grant terminations? Those who identify as people of color and LGBTQ, according to a survey of almost 1,000 researchers that sheds light on "who is potentially not going to be at the table 10 or 15 or 20 years from now." www.chronicle.com/blogs/the-tr...

my thoughts on that fireside chat between Jay Bhattacharya and Emily Oster deevybee.blogspot.com/2026/04/that... #NASEM #NIH #CDC #replication #innovation #COVID

“I’ve never seen a case where an article in the M.M.W.R. that got to that stage was not published.” www.nytimes.com/2026/04/22/u...

Ted Carter is someone who has thought a lot about personal ethics. He wrote in one paper: “Ethics is about choice. The decisions to ... act in accordance with ethical standards all revolve around personal choice.” It makes his fall from grace all the more dramatic www.chronicle.com/article/ted-...

From the peer review: "What the paper actually shows is that there exists a system which can produce a mediocre workshop paper with limited human intervention ... This is very impressive in itself." www.nature.com/articles/s41...

San Francisco's Board of Education has restored eighth-grade algebra after a 12-year hiatus missionlocal.org/2026/03/san-...

Did you see the viral video of a woman being handcuffed by ICE agents at SFO Sunday night? They knew where to find her because TSA officials tipped them off under a new Trump administration program. www.nytimes.com/2026/03/24/u...

Our @statnews.com survey of NIH-funded researchers drew nearly 1,000 responses from 45 states (plus DC and Puerto Rico). Here's a short thread on 5 scientists' whose labs and lives have been deeply impacted by federal policies 🧵

BREAKING: A judge just blocked Kennedy's handpicked vaccine advisers, and all votes they've taken in the past year. They will not meet this week. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

Crazy crazy story. Times of Israel reporter ( English language Israeli news site ) gets escalating death threats to change story that’s at center of big polymarket bet. www.timesofisrael.com/gamblers-try...

NEW: After the Justice Department filed a lawsuit claiming that UCLA is hostile to Jewish employees, 130+ Jewish faculty and staff at the campus have signed a letter condemning the complaint. It “will do absolutely nothing to protect Jews at UCLA,” the letter says. www.chronicle.com/blogs/the-tr...

One Battle After Another wins Best Picture #Oscars

can you teach something at Texas A&M? just follow this flowchart. www.chronicle.com/article/insi... via @jasperjsmith.bsky.social and @mzahneis.bsky.social

For journalists who want to dig into stories about scientific integrity: Here's an exciting new opportunity from two of my favorite science-journalism organizations, @retractionwatch.com and @theopennotebook.bsky.social. I'll be joining a webinar to help kick things off on March 26!

"Within a trove of millions of pages of documents related to Jeffrey Epstein, a notorious sex offender whose wealth and connections proved alluring to academics in search of money, women in higher ed are seeing evidence that supports a story they know all too well." www.chronicle.com/article/unma...

Several scientists who are linked to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein in files released last month are now facing consequences. go.nature.com/4qXFkYS

EXCLUSIVE: Former Harvard President Larry Summers will resign from his academic and faculty appointments at Harvard at the end of the academic year, following revelations of close ties to Jeffrey Epstein. Hugo C. Chiasson and Elise A. Spenner report. www.thecrimson.com/article/2026...

Exclusive: Interviews with Harvard lab members reveal internal pushback against prioritizing Jeffrey Epstein's tissue sample for genome sequencing — which did not stop the Epstein from receiving special treatment. But where is his sample now?

Exclusive: After pulling out of WHO, the Trump administration is proposing spending $2 billion a year to replicate the global disease surveillance and outbreak functions the United States once helped build, which will cost about three times as much.

Wrote about the Vanderbilt chancellor for @chronicle.com. Depending on where you stand, he's a calculated opportunist or a savior of higher ed. www.chronicle.com/article/high...

SCOOP: Jay Bhattacharya, NIH director, will also serve as acting CDC director, per two admin officials, until Trump names a permanent director. POTUS will nominate Jim O'Neill, who left HHS on Friday, to run National Science Foundation. www.nytimes.com/2026/02/18/u...

"What are the consequences when eye-watering sums of money are put behind the idea that the purpose of American arts and letters is not wisdom but advocacy?" www.theatlantic.com/magazine/202...

NEW: Another NIH institute director hasn't been renewed — the director of NIAMS (arthritis, musculoskeletal and skin diseases institute). That leaves a whopping 15 of 27 institutes and centers without a permanent director.

Thanks to @cathleenogrady.bsky.social for including me in this important story! I'm quoted talking about how it's crucial to run your findings by experts, and how journalists have to accept that we ultimately don't control how our work gets used or interpreted.

I've had so much respect and admiration for the Post's health/science team over the years. The losses there (and throughout the whole newsroom) are heartbreaking

NEW: A year ago, the NIH said it would cap research-overhead costs, a change that would cost colleges billions. A ragtag group rallied behind a compromise plan—and it seems to have traction. Here's how higher ed staved off a research-funding bloodbath (for now): www.chronicle.com/article/how-...

NEW: A year ago, the NIH said it would cap research-overhead costs, a change that would cost colleges billions. A ragtag group rallied behind a compromise plan—and it seems to have traction. Here's how higher ed staved off a research-funding bloodbath (for now): www.chronicle.com/article/how-...

Epstein files show a complicated relationship with science and journalism Jeffrey Epstein aggressively sought access to publishers, mentions of Scientific American and other media in Department of Justice files show www.scientificamerican.com/article/epst...

Breaking, from me: An executive order from Oklahoma's governor directs most of the state's public colleges to "phase out tenure." #AcademicSky #HigherEd @chronicle.com www.chronicle.com/article/tenu...

At Ohio State U, faculty hiring committees sometimes explicitly considered candidates’ race and sex, in pursuit of diversity. I spent some time exploring how OSU, and all of higher ed, seemingly ignored both the legal and reputational risk staring it in the face. www.chronicle.com/article/dive...

Final schedule F rule "will allow agencies to quickly remove employees from critical positions who engage in misconduct, perform poorly, or *obstruct the democratic process by intentionally subverting Presidential directives.*" (emphasis mine) public-inspection.federalregister.gov/2026-02375.pdf

He Was Laid Off at The Washington Post After Working There 60 Years www.nytimes.com/2026/02/05/b...

My story on Elon Musk cutting safeguards at xAI is on the front page of today's @washingtonpost.com. I’m also among 100’s of reporters laid off. I absolutely loved my job my brilliant coworkers & the thrill of reporting @ the center of forces upending the world: AI & Silicon Valley’s political power

A staggering statement from former Washington Post editor Marty Baron: "This ranks among the darkest days in the history of one of the world's greatest news organizations."

Virologist Nathan Wolfe sought funding from Jeffrey Epstein to study whether sexually transmitted infections increased women’s sex drive. He planned to conduct this study among female undergraduate students.

Here’s What the Latest Epstein Files Say About His Ties to Higher Ed: Collectively, the files underscore how deeply Epstein remained embedded in academic and intellectual circles even after his criminal history became public. www.chronicle.com/article/here...