Some people think science is just for nerds, but science is the foundation of the modern world and science is what made America great. Even though many of us don’t work directly in space science, we were inspired to become scientists by NASA. Destroying it makes zero sense.

If Martin Kettle would have read the great book Humankind by @rutgerbregman.com, this story would not have come as a surprise. Anyway, it is good he realises that journalists, including himself, are partially to blame for our skewed understanding of society. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

A new #ScienceAdvances study shows that commercial whaling in the Southern Ocean over the past century reduced the genetic diversity—and possibly the evolutionary fitness—of the region’s humpback whales. https://scim.ag/4anxPpM

YUM!!!

Australians: we don't like guns. This is excellent.

Oh to be a little Tardigrade walking across a microscopic slide. 🫧🐻🧪

Here's our reporting on the proposed dismantling of the jewel of US atmospheric science, @ncar-ucar.bsky.social. The plan is to break NCAR apart and disburse some parts to other locations (like the research aircraft fleet) and eliminate others. www.nature.com/articles/d41... 🧪 #AGU25 #climate

Trump Announces 5,000% Increase In All Numbers

We are grateful to the National Health and Medical Research Council for granting four of our scientists highly sought after Ideas Grants. https://www.cmrijeansforgenes.org.au/news/cmri-researchers-awarded-four-nhmrc-grants Tony Cesare

3/ I’m relieved to have secured funding to sustain my lab, but am deeply concerned about the long-term health of Australia’s research sector. Our grant structures and peer review systems are in urgent need of reform.

If I may be allowed a moment of fatherly pride. Huge congratulations to Maddy Cesare on being selected for the New South Wales team competing at the Australian Youth Women’s Baseball Championship ⚾️🇦🇺 A big achievement, especially in her first year of eligibility. Baseball is awesome.

Letter from Congress to FDA re: undermining vaccines, page 1 of 6

The most dangerous

New @natcomms.nature.com paper today from Tracy Bryan's lab @cmri.bsky.social: "Nuclear actin and DNA replication stress regulate telomere maintenance by telomerase". Happy our lab could play a small part. Congrats Tracy, Ash Harman, Noa Lamm and the whole team. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Today. "Or they simply don't know what they are doing" wapo.st/4rE11ib

Science’s 2024 Breakthrough of the Year was lenacapavir, an injectable drug that demonstrated remarkable success at preventing HIV infection with one shot every 6 months. Learn more about last year's #BOTY on #WorldAIDSDay: https://scim.ag/48pk7zZ

The success rate for NHMRC Ideas Grants announced yesterday was just over 8%. That means 11 of every 12 people who applied got rejected. This is a culture changing level of rejection and frankly a point of national shame. This is a crisis for research. I will not rest until we see this resolved.

Thankful for breakthroughs! t.co/Khbj4npOP1

Thank you @cmri.bsky.social for the nomination; @sydney.edu.au for this recognition; and our team for making this research possible.

A Moon Halo So Perfect Last night over New York, a flawless 22° ice-crystal halo formed around the full Moon — a radiant circle shining above the Statue of Liberty.

Neoliberalism's toll: "a weakened public school system, financially stressed universities, and a #CSIRO repeatedly stripped of long-term capability." We have lost "depth, continuity, and trust, conditions that science requires but markets cannot provide." #auspol johnmenadue.com/post/2025/11...

Australia’s algal bloom catastrophe has left more than 87,000 animals dead. What will happen this summer? Six researchers in this space, including myself, have lost their positions at Flinders University in a restructure. theconversation.com/australias-a...

This is why for a long time I've found the Prime Minister's Prizes for Science a rather insulting propaganda exercise www.abc.net.au/news/science... CSIRO funding as a percentage of GDP: 1982-83 = 0.17 2024-25 = 0.03 ... Scientific extinction event imminent?

Over the last century, research has helped improve the early detection and treatment of serious diseases. But future progress is at risk unless we continue federal funding for medical research. #AmericansForMedicalResearch

“CSIRO has announced it will slash up to 350 jobs as the national science agency grapples with long-term financial challenges … with current funding failing to keep pace with the rising costs of running a modern science agency.” Not “challenges”. They’re choices. 😡

My latest for @science.org: A remarkable set of high-resolution climate model runs, computed over 900 (!) days of supercomputing time, are revealing how warming-induced changes to Earth's wind patterns due can prime huge spikes in extreme rainfall. But the MESACLIP runs also do much more than that.

My quote of the day In a world where everyone is behaving honestly, any dishonesty constitutes a big infraction. But, in a world where many people are behaving dishonestly, and the news is filled with stories of their infractions, even big infractions can feel small to the perpetrator. Dan Ariely

Finally! We have a FANCM:RMI inhibitor that is cell active and specifically kills ALT+ cancer cells 🎯 @yuhenglau.bsky.social + my labs just published the first cell-active peptide inhibitors of this critical target in 10-15% of cancers. doi.org/10.1021/acs....

🧵 Our latest preprint is available. It describes an extraordinary case of a boy with two very rare genetic conditions: Fanconi anaemia (FANCB, with a deep intronic pathogenic variant) and embryonic triploid–diploid mosaicism. Read more here 👉 www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1...

Thanks Barb, I guess many folks haven't heard. We lost Bill on October 7, 2025 to cancer. news.ucsc.edu/2025/10/in-m...

The study reveals how actin filaments form at PML nuclear bodies during replication stress and how this nuclear actin assembly protect the genome. A summary of all manuscript details and the study participants can be found here: www.linkedin.com/posts/noa-la...

The first preprint from Noa Lamm’s team @cmri.bsky.social is now available: Anillin-dependent actin assembly at PML nuclear bodies protects genome stability www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... Delighted our lab could play a role supporting Noa’s vision on this project.

Our paper in Science is out! @souravagrawal.bsky.social, @rlynn.bsky.social, @susvirkar.bsky.social, and the rest of the team show human RPA is a telomerase processivity factor essential for telomere maintenance. This reshapes our thinking about telomerase regulation. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

The Cesare Lab had an excellent time at the Australian Cell Cycle, DNA Repair & Telomere Meeting in Melbourne. australiancellcycle.org A huge thank you to @genomestability.bsky.social and all the organisers for putting together such a fantastic and inspiring meeting. We're looking forward to 2027!

Poster session 1 was such a hive of activity and discussion at Melbourne museum today! #ACDTM25

2025 Nobel winner Philippe Aghion: 'The key factor of economic power is technological leadership'

The final programme for the Australian Cell Cycle, DNA repair and Telomere meeting is now available online: australiancellcycle.org/final-2025-p... Its not too late to register for the October 20-22 meeting.

Slo-mo

I can’t think of a better reason to finally join Bluesky - my first first-authored paper is out! It being published in @science.org is surreal. This was a community effort in every sense, led by an incredible team with @rosvall-lab.bsky.social @mathcancer.bsky.social @juncowren.bsky.social

I have to fan-girl for a minute here. My friend @rosvall-lab.bsky.social built an app to gather data on bird behavior during the 2024 solar eclipse. 10,000+ citizen scientists contributed (including my kids), and the resulting paper was published in Science today! www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

PREACH! www.nature.com/articles/s41...

For those who celebrate October as #NobelPrize announcements month @nobelprize.bsky.social 🎃🇸🇪🇳🇴 #NobelPrize2025 dates & time ⬇️ www.nobelprize.org/prizes/about...

What an amazing woman, what an amazing life. She inspired thousands of scientists. RIP Jane

The National Association of Research Fellows join the call for full disbursement of the #MRFF #DiscoveriesNeedDollars www.theage.com.au/politics/fed...

Shutdown???

Would you like some good news? A new vaccine has just been approved for protecting koalas from chlamydia, which is one of their leading causes of death.

Every journal club