📣 Check out how verb-specific knowledge updates incrementally as distributional learning takes place: our first paper on prediction and learning (with Amanda Owen Van Horne @telllab.bsky.social and Yi-Lun Weng) is out!

I am co-editing a special issue on the "Neural Bases of Language Processing in the Wild" together with @swathikiran.bsky.social on Brain and Language (zero embargo period). If you are interested, I am happy to chat more (currently at my favorite #snl2025). www.sciencedirect.com/special-issu...

1. Federal funding for research promotes tech, biomedical, and scientific discovery in the US, and provides training for the sci/tech workforce that has brought immeasurable wealth to the US over the past 75 years. Today's executive order includes a provision that will obliterate both functions.

1. After getting some further insight into changes at NSF (thanks to those who reached out), I deleted a previous post where I tried to make sense of Cheatham's memo as reported in the Science story below.

FYI: The Spencer Foundation, Kapor Foundation, The William T. Grant Foundation, and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation have collaborated to offer $25K rapid response grants. "This rapid response bridge funding opportunity is for scholars and teams whose grants have recently been cancelled by NSF."

I am so heartened to this seriously AWESOME #SaveNSF website go up today!!!! Has a take action toolkit with: 1. Press outreach templates 2. Social media toolkit 3. Elected official outreach 4. Talking points Check it out and share widely!!!! Likely more to come. www.savensf.com

🔔BREAKING🔔 The NSF has frozen all research grant awards—cutting off life-saving science midstream and demanding ideological screenings for future funding. This is censorship disguised as oversight. Here’s how you can help us spread the word ➡️🧵(1/3): www.nature.com/articles/d41...

My latest. It’s feelings-forward and was hard to write. “It’s an isolating experience when your industry, the source of your livelihood, is being uniquely targeted by your own government, and many Americans are either completely unaware or cheering on its demise.” www.chronicle.com/article/high...

More than 150 leaders of America's colleges, universities, and scholarly societies issued "A Call for Constructive Engagement" in response to the ongoing government intrusion into #highered. Read the full statement: www.aacu.org/newsroom/a-c...

What RFK Jr. said was reprehensible. He should be ashamed of himself and step down.

On the Old North church tonight

If you work at a university, make sure to demand that staff do a routine check if SEVIS twice a day. It’s the only way to know if your student is being targeted for disappearances. Also make safety plans for anybody with even minor citations like parking tickets.

Adorable. The Boston ducks have protest signs #handsoff

Now THAT’S some #GoodTrouble. #HandsOff

Excellent excellent excellent from Princeton president and constitutional/ political theorist Chris Eisgruber. There's been far too little of this kind of thing; here's hoping others follow his good example. www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...

“Liberty is a practical and priceless way of living”. A powerful piece that reminds us why America was an oasis in the last century and how fragile liberty can be.

🧵Yesterday, I received notice that my #NIH grant, on the social environment, lifecourse, epigenetics & #birthoutcomes in Black families, was terminated. This grant represented a critical effort to address the ⬆️ rates of maternal & infant mortality in the US, particularly among Black mothers & babies

1. For the past thirty years I've had the best job in the world. 
I've had the opportunity to follow my curiosity; explore the workings of nature and society; mentor students and junior colleagues in the same process; and teach generations of students about it all.

90% of people diagnosed with pancreatic cancer die from the disease. That's why the medical community is excited about the results of a small trial in which nearly half of the pancreatic cancer patients who received an mRNA vaccine for the disease remained relapse-free three years later.

Nothing will kill more children than the ongoing decimation of CDC, NIH, and USAID work to lift vaccine uptake in the US and world. Child survival rose 75% in the last 50 years. Vaccines account for 40% of that. Measles vax alone was 60% of the benefit. www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...

Update to @fordschool.bsky.social tool that lets you figure out how much federal funding public schools in your congressional district may lose Now includes that info by state legislative district as well. poverty.umich.edu/federal-educ...

The platform I run, Children Helping Science, is supported almost entirely by US government science funding, both directly and in collaboration with CHS researchers. Here's the note we sent to users today - we need help gathering your stories and citations! Submit here: forms.gle/zFnzrVURntdZ...

"No one is coming out of the sky to give you your grant money. Your citation portfolio won’t survive this market crash. Your credentials mean nothing. Everything is going to change." New for @undark.org undark.org/2025/03/06/o...

Compelling pushback from @jmgrohneuro.bsky.social and the Board of Scientific Counselors at the National Institute on Mental Health (NIMH) regarding termination of tenure-track investigators driven by DOGE. 1/2

Why Official English is a terrible idea for the United States, from @lingsocam.bsky.social. Like and share! www.lsadc.org/content.asp?...

These Pew survey results on public opinions of American scientists can help us think about how to communicate our messages better this Friday. @standupforscience.bsky.social #standupforscience2025 www.pewresearch.org/science/2024...

One mission I have in retirement is making the reading education field more aware of adult sentence comprehension research, which is largely absent at the kid level. One small data point from this recent talk at Planet Word Museum maybe suggests some first steps of progress?

Myself and 7 other neuroscientists, including @annaintegrated.bsky.social and @stevenssostre.bsky.social got to speak with @thetransmitter.bsky.social about why we think Standing Up for Science is important and imperative. Check out or thoughts here: www.thetransmitter.org/science-and-...

Another thing that struck me about yesterday’s Oval Office disaster is the place of language. 🧵

🧵Delighted to share a new guest post by Dr Anne Toomey on **8 things scientists can do right now to stand up for science in the US** Thread of her *evidence-based* actions follows, whole post here christinapagel.substack.com/p/eight-thin... 1/11

Please read and share. But especially share with folks that might not realize how critical Section 504 is to so many people. I tried to write a simple clear explanation at the break. I hope it reaches some people who aren't already on our side. Gift link: www.startribune.com/why-are-repu...

The City of Boston is leading 40+ mayors, cities, and counties in an amicus brief against the Trump Administration's drastic and illegal cuts to federal research funding—cuts that will lead to immediate job losses nationwide.

Yes, this is timely and important! Thank you!

Upon learning that yesterday would be my last day as a program officer at the National Science Foundation, I shared this parting message with my colleagues. The next few months will be frenetic and stressful for them. Here are some things that you can do to help them with the mission ahead. (1)

Kudos to the school administrator who wrote this letter for making it clear to families what happened and who they should blame. This is the way to build a coalition--with a shared adversary and a reason to fight.

I maxed out my credit card, emptied my savings account, and took out a loan to move from Alabama to Bethesda, MD. I don’t even qualify for unemployment since I’ve only worked at NIH for a month. I will be financially and medically devastated. Seeking suggestions for anywhere that’s hiring!!

You know Kate Winslet in Contagion? Where she runs into a hot zone, risking her life, so Americans could be safer? She was an EIS officer. That’s who was just fired at CDC today. EIS officers. And many, many more public servants fighting every day for your health.

Every small win counts!👍

February 9, 2025

I am not surprised, but deeply saddened!

This article--on the systematic dismantling of the NIH, NSF, and CDC--is a must-read not only for researchers and clinicians but for anyone who has ever gotten a vaccine, taken medication, read the results of a research study, or gotten tested for Covid, flu, or STIs. www.science.org/content/blog...

📣 Big news: Lifecycle Journal is now open for submissions! 📣 Lifecycle Journal is a new, innovative, community-driven approach to scholarly publishing, initiated by COS. Learn more and submit: lifecyclejournal.org/

We’ll be closing interviews for this postdoc position soon. Please share and email me if you’re interested. FWIW our funding comes from a foreign foundation and hence it’s not subject to current freezes and generalized uncertainty wrt to US funding agencies.

Called and left a voice message!✅

I just reached out to my senators about the NIH situation. If you need to find out how much impact NIH has in your state in terms of dollars in and their economic impact here's a link: www.unitedformedicalresearch.org/nih-in-your-...

First post on Blusky: here to reconnect with my communities! 😀