My new career column in Nature is out. After reviewing hundreds of PhD applications for my lab and admissions at the UIUC, I kept seeing the same mistakes. I share 8 common application and interview mistakes and what applicants can do differently. doi.org/10.1038/d415...

If you, as a scientist, cannot be bothered to engage in the intellectual work of science, please quit your job and leave it to someone with skill and integrity.

Increasing Assimilation Associated With Slower Reductions in Alcohol Use Among Latina Young Adults Soon After Immigration (new in @jsadjournal.bsky.social 87/1) by Frank R. Dillon, Cristalís Capielo Rosario... @ccapielorosariophd.bsky.social @melissaertl.bsky.social www.jsad.com/doi/abs/10.1...

I missed this from a couple of weeks ago, but if you're an NIH-funded investigator, please read. Peer review will exist to make things look legitimate, but can, and will, be over-ruled. Funding decisions, ultimately, will be done by political appointees. grants.nih.gov/news-events/...

"How can you ethically recruit somebody into a clinical trial if you can't be sure the administration won't change its mind on its priorities and terminate your study mid-stream?" @jenna-m-norton.bsky.social slams new NIH policies making it easier to halt grants www.medpagetoday.com/washington-w...

Check out my new study, out now open access(!), with my fantastic colleague @lydiaharimahn.bsky.social. We developed a new scale to measure internalized misogyny in women and its associations with poor mental health. link.growkudos.com/1pn1hwap534

Apropos of nothing, consider reading my new paper published with @lydiaharimahn.bsky.social in Journal of Counseling Psychology on internalized misogyny in women and its associated decrements to well-being! psycnet.apa.org/fulltext/202... bsky.app/profile/jess...

the question nobody with a soul is asking, answered by people nobody wants to hear from

Absolutely chilling story by @aniloza.bsky.social on censorship in grant titles at NIH and how researchers are complying and sometimes fighting back. "They are trying to make people afraid to use the word equity," said one program officer. "It's highly effective." www.statnews.com/2025/10/29/n...

New story up on the non-existent banned words from NIH grants (based on my grant title, word cloud analysis) www.statnews.com/2025/10/29/n... 1/3

Announcing such a major change to NSF GRFP this late in the cycle is incredibly cruel. 2nd yr students (mine included) have been working so hard on their proposals despite ongoing uncertainty. They are driven and passionate about being outstanding scientists and helping those coming up behind them.

A Senate investigation has so far found 510 human rights abuses in ICE detention centers since Jan 20, including deaths, physical & sexual abuse, inadequate medical care, overcrowding & unsanitary conditions, inadequate food & water, extreme temperatures, denial of legal access, & child separation

“Perhaps no one was more proud than the graduates themselves. Michael Broadway, who is also the author of the book “One Foot In,” tearfully addressed his mother, flinging his arms wide and asking, “So I ask you, Mama, how did I do?” He had not seen her in person in nearly two decades.”

BREAKING: A federal judge reversed National Institutes of Health's terminations of hundreds of critical research grants that were canceled because of their alleged connection to disfavored topics, including diversity, equity, inclusion, and gender identity. This is a major win for public health.

🚨 BREAKING: Nearly 4 months the NIH cut its first grants, a judge has ruled that the directives and process that led to cuts are arbitrary and capricious. "The explanations are bereft of reasoning — virtually in their entirety... unsupported by [facts]." Each of them are VOID and ILLEGAL, he says.

Two Harvard economists forecast the impact of the administration’s proposed NIH budget cuts- stunning losses in new therapies, life expectancy, and economic output with a “social cost 16 times greater than the savings the administration is attempting to achieve." jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...

Congrats to all of our amazing University of Minnesota graduates today! So proud of all you accomplished. And go Goldy! #gogophers

Curious about why "Women's Health" needs explicit focus in clinical research? Because most historical clinical trials are composed of ONLY men because the (male) scientists thought women's hormones would "mess up" the data. We encourage reading the book, but this is a nice intro.

NEW: The rate of sepsis in Houston surged 63% after Texas banned abortion. In the Dallas-Fort Worth area, where hospital leaders empowered doctors to intervene before patients’ conditions worsened, it rose just 29%.

Most Americans frequently use federal science information. But few are concerned that cuts to federal science spending could affect their access to such information, a new poll finds.

In terminating hundreds of NIH grants, the Trump administration dumped years of investment down the drain. In my latest @opinion.bloomberg.com column, we analyzed the cancelled projects & talked to scientists to understand just how much the public loses out. It's a lot: tinyurl.com/bdey86su

The U.S. maternal mortality rate increased 27% between 2018 and 2022, a new NIH study finds.

"If I could have one winter item from the outside, it would be a heavy-duty blanket. It would make a difference because you wouldn’t get sick and you would be warm. This changes one’s attitude," says Jachin.

Calling on All Silent Minorities by June Jordan HEY C’MON COME OUT WHEREVER YOU ARE WE NEED TO HAVE THIS MEETING AT THIS TREE AIN’ EVEN BEEN PLANTED YET

A phenomenal #CPA2025 @apadivision50.bsky.social! Devastating to hear the tremendous damage inflicted by senseless HHS/NIH/FDA cuts to so many in our community, and also so nourishing to be together and support each other during these times. As promised, a new starter pack: go.bsky.app/SnnMai2

99.4% of new drugs approved by the FDA are the product of NIH funded research. Remember this every time you see another headline on the NIH funding cuts. It will directly impact YOU. #ScienceNOTSilence

Thousands of protesters gathered in Washington on Friday for Stand Up for Science, a rally to protest the Trump administration’s drastic cuts to the federal work force and to federally funded science. nyti.ms/3DruZlu

From the American Psychological Association:

Hi all! I will be raising money for the #FloridaAIDSWalk this year! The money that you donate will go towards the #AQUAFoundationforWomen #AFW and benefit the scholarship for LGBTQIA+ women, transmasculine, and gender expansive people in Florida! www.floridaaidswalk.org/site/TR/Walk...

NIH cuts are getting the press, but VA research is getting slashed too. What do we lose when VA research goes away? Here's some greatest hits: The nicotine patch, invention of the cardiac pacemaker, first successful liver transplant, development of the CAT/CT scan prospect.org/health/2025-...

This is such a huge loss. A number of great scientists have gone through this program 🧪

NEW: Pregnancy became far more dangerous in Texas after the state banned abortion, according to ProPublica’s first-of-its-kind analysis, which found the sepsis rate for women hospitalized as they miscarried in the 2nd trimester shot up by more than 50%. https://propub.li/43487Tj

Researchers are sounding the alarm on the most recent attacks against contraception, HIV, and adolescent health research. We believe in the power of research to improve reproductive wellbeing for all, and will remain committed to holding the line on science.

This was one of RFK Jr.’s first orders after being sworn in. Just an astonishing denial of science and will cause so much pain to the 45 million Americans facing mental health challenges.

A visualization I created to share with family and friends about how the NIH indirect rate costs will hurt science AND our economy.

Thrilled to be attending the UMN Women’s Health Research Conference today in Minneapolis. Attendees are sharing critical research to advance health and ameliorate health disparities. And students in my lab are finalists for Best Scientific Poster in the student/trainee category. Wish us luck! 🍀

Hey - please help save jobs and lives! Anyone who works at a university, who works on medical research, or could benefit from medical research is at risk! Please tell them to click the link below. Takes 2 seconds, literally. click.info.apa.org?qs=09c745fe0...

"I'm really not sure what is so radically leftist about treating gonorrhea," Natalie DiCenzo, an obstetrician-gynecologist and member of Physicians for Reproductive Health, told AFP, on the removal of STI guidelines.

teaching community health workers about HIV/AIDS who lived in villages that shared one cell phone, and tirelessly working to distribute condoms while advocating for women's rights were just a few things that I learned how to do. Dismantling USAID is a death sentence for many.

Interning at USAID in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, showed me the importance of the work that USAID does. Delivering insecticide-treated bed nets to prevent malaria to remote areas of Tanzania, working with clinics to bolster breast cancer awareness and treatment in a country that had only 1 MRI machine,

I hope you will all join me in expressing your thanks to the NIH and NSF staff who are working in an impossibly difficult and chaotic environment to keep science going in our country.

ah cool, an archive of all CDC data before they tampered with it

CDC Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System data can be found through link below. Share widely so folks can find it. 🙏🏼 web.archive.org/web/20241221...

The entire archive of CDC datasets can be found here. HUGE shoutout to data archivists- this work is important 👏🙌🏻 archive.org/details/2025...

“A group of researchers and students at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health is gathered today for a data preservation marathon, scraping and downloading data related to health equity from U.S. government agency websites before they disappear.”

The CDC’s Youth Risk Behavior Survey has monitored the wellbeing of America’s high school students since 1991. Since 2015, it’s been a vital source of data on LGBQ youth. In 2023, it provided the first ever nationally representative sample of transgender teens. As of this morning, it’s gone.

Good morning Blue Sky! Will today be a day of "radical optimism" or "pessimistic despair!?" Stay tuned and find out! @melissaertl.bsky.social

Grateful to be together with other preventionists and community members focused on sexual health and wellbeing at the NYC HIV Planning group meeting today! The work is ever important these days…