Zara Weinberg passed away earlier this week. She joined my lab earlier this year when her postdoc lab formally closed. She was a brilliant scientist, supportive mentor, dear friend, avid music fan, rabid believer in public transit, open science champion, and above all just an amazing human.

📣📣📣 CALL TO ACTION - 🚨 🚨🚨 A thread on how you can join a growing chorus of federal workers and members of the public pressuring Congress to embrace its power and end the authoritarian takeover #FightingCR

Took leave this afternoon to deliver a letter from nearly 900 (and growing) current and former Feds asking Congress to pass a continuing resolution that ends executive overreach and protects the American people. Join us! Feds and fed allies welcomed to sign. actionnetwork.org/forms/civil-...

/fin

Washington Post story about the Katrina Declaration [Gift link] wapo.st/4mu7HfL 1/4

NIH Director (my boss’s, boss’s, boss), Dr. Jayanta Bhattacharya has a choice. Support exemplary early-career researchers studying the topics listed in this word cloud. Or not.

The Supreme Court is reviewing a vitally important NIH case on its shadow docket. It is likely that the Court will back Trump, and say his (illegal) grant terminations are ok. We must speak up now. 1/

Here's a great piece on how hard NIH extramural staff are working to get grants out to PIs. A huge thank you to all the heroic extramural staff who are working day and night to support great science under awful conditions!

Love the photos from @nihvigils.bsky.social on here. Congrats on the launch!

From last dreadless Sunday; my cat snuggling with his favorite handheld vacuum

Been thinkin about Bugaboo Creek Steakhouse a lot today

Even with flat funding for the NIH, under the current FY26 plan, there will be 60% less cancer research and much less research funded overall. We need to make sure Congress understands these tricks and protects against them in their budget plan.

A good explainer for #NIH funded researchers on why the multiyear funding scheme is going to squeeze NIH scientists and NIH science. open.substack.com/pub/sciencea...

Current NIH worker seeking formers NIH workers and community allies. 👀👋🏻

On Thursday, the Trump administration asked the Supreme Court to grant them a stay on the Massachusetts vs Kennedy/ APHA vs NIH ruling. This decision will occur on the shadow docket, with no formal hearing.

We stand with the EPA 139. www.instagram.com/p/DMGohBNykfu/

@jenna-m-norton.bsky.social, @ngfriedman.bsky.social, and I got to meet many of the amazing researchers at the science fair yesterday that are standing up for science.

The full ruling explaining why NIH grant cuts are illegal came out today. It's just as blistering as the judge's oral remarks. And it uncovers fresh details in DOGE's role orchestrating the cuts — and on the cuts at Columbia. Here are my top highlights from the 103-page ruling. 🧵

I know this muscular dystrophy researcher personally. He brings >10 years domain specific knowledge to our national research program to it the best in the world. He wishes to dedicate his entire career to serve the public with this work, and his institute will do anything they can to keep him.

I have a friend at the NIH who works on studying and treating the rare disease, muscular dystrophy. His contract expires today on Easter. Tomorrow, he may not have a job. His work will be lost, and patients with muscular dystrophy will have to wait that much longer for relief. 1/11🧪

Digging into the reinstated NIH grants. This story is an evolving doozy. The reinstated grant is an R21 from Seattle Children's Hospital I was very confused when I read the title: "An intervention to promote healthy relationships among transgender and gender expansive youth" 1/n

Thanks @doee-dc.bsky.social for the free radon test. I know what I’m doing this evening!

"It’s kind of a textbook case of arbitrary and capricious.” A lawsuit alleges that NIH didn't follow proper procedure and was unconstitutionally vague when abruptly terminating >600 grants. My story @science.org www.science.org/content/arti...

Ten principal investigators who were fired from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke as part of the massive reduction in force at federal agencies on Tuesday are back at work, at least for now, Science has learned.

The NINDS scientists fired in the RIF are back at work - for now - after a "coding error" led to their accidental termination. HHS blames "broken systems left to us by the Biden administration." My story @science.org www.science.org/content/arti...

Suddenly take out just 1 person w/ thr specialized expertise—that they were uniquely recruited for and have spent many years training on—and many other scientists stop being able to do *their* work. That's true for all labs, really. At NIH and at universities. Hiring timelines in science are long.

"NIH is given till April 8 ... for a 35% cut in services." This isn't entirely correct, and it matters enormously for getting NIH science done. A quick 🧵: 1/ - NIH has many scientists, many senior, who work as contract employees. www.statnews.com/202... 🧪

Respectfully, this reporting is misleading. The PIs have not been reinstated. Yes, they’ve been asked to return to work. As have others. The RIF gave a 60 days notice before termination (June 2). And the email you quote says the RIFs have not been rescinded, only that NIH leadership…

…is working on a long term solution. But it’s not up to NIH leadership. It’s up to HHS/DOGE. I am optimistic these PIs will be reinstated. But they have not been yet. There’s been a ton of confusion and chaos. And that is on purpose. All of this has been massively disruptive to science at NIH.

Whether these highly accomplished PIs are reinstated or not, science cannot be done when scientists can’t purchase reagents. Science cannot be done when equipment can’t be serviced. Science cannot be done when the basic services scientists rely on are wholly gutted overnight.

Working with an interdisciplinary team, we have developed a website to communicate how the White House's proposed cuts to health research would cause losses of $16B and 68,500 jobs. Find out how your community may be impacted. Explore more at SCIMaP: scienceimpacts.org a 🧵

How does your brain see things? Nina studies how your brain both perceives and interprets at the same time. @ngfriedman.bsky.social #vision #perception #neuroskyence #academicsky #investinscience

Sexuality and race data from the @altcdc.altgov.info’s Youth Risk Behavior Survey, backed up and parsed by @dingobuck.bsky.social 🙌🏻🤘

Ever been told to ""sleep on it""? 😴 @alanajaskir.bsky.social’s research shows how snoozing helps your brain learn! #sleepbenefits #replay #hippocampus #academicsky #standupforscience

From here on out I will only respond to “Nina, a crown jewel of American psychiatric neuroscience” and “Nina, this national treasure”

@meghangallo.bsky.social talks about the challenges of learning as we age and in Alzheimer’s disease. #learning #brain #aging #alzheimers #academicsky

Good news, despite the ongoing things: @ngfriedman.bsky.social from our lab won a NIH Graduate Student research award for having one of the top posters presented at the all-NIH intramural graduate student research day. The work is on how brain neural networks re-organize during learning. 🏆📄

www.nature.com/articles/s41... awesome new work out today! From the Lee lab in the intramural research program at NIMH!

📢FUND DON’T FREEZE!📢 Join researchers and academics in DC on February 19th at 12 PM to stand up for research, education, and jobs! Federal attacks on science and academia put all of our futures at risk - let’s show them we won’t back down! RSVP Here: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

Good news: I got Beyoncé tickets today.