One of the lessons from Vietnam is that when they start bombarding you with numbers like these -- ordinance used, targets struck, so many killed and wounded -- there's more we're not being told.

I think all parents need parental leave but many men get advantages from it. I was on a ‘work-life balance’ panel w a man who shared how much great writing he got done & how it can be positive. I barely concealed my rage when saying if you just pushed out a baby you need time to recover. 🤯

"men continued to publish the same number of papers after becoming fathers, women experienced a significant drop in research output (mothers had 31% fewer publications than did fathers 8 years after the birth of their first child)"

For #NSF and #NIH watchers, Grant Witness now has interactive data on numbers of grants and total funding obligations, broken down by institute and directorate, new awards and non-competitive renewals. The stranglehold on new awards is still a disaster. grant-witness.us/funding_curv...

Biggest #NoKings yet in San Jose today. So big I didn’t realize @schiff.senate.gov was there. We also saw San Jose Batman and Chewbacca

$2.45 billion NIH grant cuts and ~2300 terminated active research grants were DOGE'd in early 2025 Who were most affected? www.pnas.org/doi/full/10.... Early career and women researchers

BREAKING: @delauro.house.gov announces at a House Oversight hearing with NIH director Jay Bhattacharya that OMB approved the agency's apportionment last night. That means the agency should have access to its appropriated funds — 42 days after its spending bill passed.

I've been getting quite a few questions from press, etc. and so wrote up something a little bit longer here: cooperativeoverlapping.substack.com/p/a-fuller-s...

We have lost so many potential scientists. That loss compounds geometrically over time. We have lost leading scientists who would have come to the US from their home country, & we are losing leading scientists born here who will not go into science because this admin has made it a public target.

we are losing so much talent, progress, and hope for no good reason www.vox.com/future-perfe...

I wish this quote wasn’t still so relevant

I think about this Tony Benn speech much more than I used to

I remember when trying to forgive student loans was massive overreach of Presidential power.

When you hear the NIH Director's attempt to discredit recent PhD graduate @michaeldgreen.phd (whose career is in limbo due to NIH grant terminations), remember that Bhattacharya spent years complaining that the former NIH Director called his views fringe in a private email.

#Physiology is in danger right now. Unstable federal research funding is stifling innovation. If we want medical progress, we must protect the science that makes it possible. Watch Episode 1 of our series: #FightforPhysiology https://ow.ly/lEn450YmHvQ#Physiology🧪

I have a male friend who spent some time in Axel's lab. About the 3rd conversation he had with Axel, Axel broke the ice with "So, have you fucked [a female postdoc in the lab] yet?" My friend was horrified...

"In the university’s records, I remained a student of Professor Prominent. The junior faculty member who actually did the work of commenting meaningfully on my dissertation was relegated to 'committee member.' Her only reward was having to write letters of recommendation for me for years to come."

I sat down with Dr. Jenna Norton, an NIH employee & my guest at the People’s State of the Union. She was put on leave by the Trump Admin after speaking truth to power. Dr. Norton told me Trump’s actions risked creating a super-bug that would endanger us all.

I'd probably be more enthusiastic about AI if everyone involved weren't just the dumbest guys?

There were so many of us, exactly when these emails were being written, expressly working to undo the harms of sexual harassment and sexual discrimination in science. And so many people refused to believe us that any of it was real. It was all real. 19thnews.org/2026/02/epst...

Deep, well sourced, moving, and enraging story from the NYT [Gift Link] www.nytimes.com/2026/02/23/o...

what even is the fucking point

That drop is more than the entire NSF budget.

I'm glad schools stood firm and refused to comply in advance, given how obvious this outcome was- *puts finger to ear* Wait, I'm getting word now...

Some good news... www.nytimes.com/2026/02/18/h... [Gift link] 1/2

Oh my GOD King County Public Health is just wilding out for Valentines Day (and a lovely one).

thread. related, my impression is a lot of higher ed administrators are significantly oriented toward making a mark on an institution in the short term so they have a claimable on their CV to get their next admin job elsewhere. that incentivizes vandalizing institutions, whether by AI or otherwise

It’s an RNA world. RNA is posited to be the first genetic material, arising 4 billion years ago. It can store information and act as an enzyme. Eventually, it duplicated its information into a more stable form, DNA.

I'm not sure if this is the message people are looking for from the secretary of health and human services

NSF GRFP applicants (and mentors): Was your application Returned Without Review and deemed ineligible despite fitting in the allowed topics? 1) Write NSF 2) Write your Congressperson 3) CC us at [email protected] so we can compile + follow up Details and template at grant-witness.us/grfp-letter

To echo others, I have written a few dozen recommendation letters/email recommendations in my 12 years of university teaching and of fucking course I have NEVER felt the need to describe a student's physical appearance in any of them, what the actual fuck...

Sir Ian McKellen performing a monologue from Shakespeare’s Sir Thomas More on the Stephen Colbert show. Never have I heard this monologue performed with such a keen sense of prescience. Nor have I ever been in this exact historical moment.TY Sir Ian, for reaching us once again. #Pinks #ProudBlue

In honor of the athletics budget town hall tomorrow about a new student fee to primarily fund athletics: 10 SJSU assistant football coaches appear to make more money than full Profs like me (some over double as much) and the head coach makes over twice as much as our president. #priorities

Going to try and watch this until I’m blinded by rage

i know portland doesn’t count as real america on the east coast but i saw very little national news coverage of this over the weekend—and the coverage i did see wasn’t prominent. i think a bunch of little kids and nurses and families getting gassed is newsworthy

Tear gas is banned in international warfare, yet classified as a “riot control agent” that law enforcement can use for crowd control. “It just doesn’t work well, and it hits the weakest people the most, and causes the most complications in them,” an anesthesiology professor at Duke University said.

Lead (Pb) in archived hair in Salt Lake City. "Lead (Pb) in archived hair documents a decline in lead exposure to humans since the establishment of the US Environmental Protection Agency " www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

The California State University system spent $16.9 million last year giving ChatGPT to all students, faculty, and staff. We are asking the CSU chancellor not to renew the contract with OpenAI when it expires. Anyone can sign the petition — link below!

Meanwhile, at a school and university near you, AI tools that have yet to be tested on the types of students and subjects you teach are being rolled out to/in them without robust discussion and analysis. It's a major, shameful failing of the management of education systems.

Well, that’ll wreck you. Gift link. www.nytimes.com/2026/01/31/o...

Another view of "Love Thy Neighbor" from first hand account of detention in Minnesota: www.usatoday.com/story/opinio...

Time to call California state legislators. ICE really likes using private prisons because they can avoid accountability by pushing it off to a third party. Taxing them makes them a lot less attractive. www.mercurynews.com/2026/01/27/b...

The US government lost more than 10,000 STEM PhDs last year, according to an analysis by Science of newly released OPM data, with 11 departures for every hire. And many OPM calls "voluntary" separations were probably pushed. www.science.org/content/arti...

Thank you @liccardo.house.gov for signing on to the effort to impeach Kristi Noem and hold ICE accountable for their unconstitutional and criminal actions.

My sister-in-law's dad died last week, in hospice in the VA hospital in Minneapolis. I just learned Alex Pretti was part of his care team. They shot Alex less than 1/2 mile from my niece's house while doing the same observation work that my niece is doing. These are real people. Step up folks!

Instead of buying cheap Valentines at a place you don’t want to support, strongly suggest the super awesome science valentines from @skypeascientist.bsky.social. Daughter gave the Love Bugs ones last year and we just ordered the marine theme ones. squidfacts.bigcartel.com/product/deep...

We the people have the power. Join us tomorrow, January 26, for a virtual training on how to exercise your right to document ICE abuses in your community. RSVP using the link below. When using that link, Indivisible will know you came from us; their privacy policy applies.

Really hard to look at this and all the other examples of bravery and kindness from ordinary people in this moment not think also of the tremendous cowardice exhibited over the past year by some of the richest, most well-protected people in business, media and politics

Tip for Californians- @padilla.senate.gov doesn’t allow VM at his DC office during non business hours (which seriously??) but you can leave a message at a local office. Neither CA Senators ever have people answering the phones in my experience at any office even during business hours.