MERE HOURS after the President of the United States posted an AI video of the Obama’s as monkeys, the Science Tech Action Committee (led by @aaas.org and @researchamerica.bsky.social) posted a THANK YOU to TRUMP for SIGNING THE BUDGET. Shot. Chaser. sciencetechaction.org/aboutus/

Excellent reporting by STAT on how first year PhD students are struggling to find lab/advisor matches due to funding cuts. Tenuous biomedical funding has put first-year Ph.D. students in a bind www.statnews.com/2026/01/30/f... via @statnews.com

Powerful piece in STAT this morning from some NIH staff members who have resigned www.statnews.com/2026/01/10/n... 1/3

Kidnap or abduct would have been better words. If Modi had been whisked away from his sleep in New Delhi or Putin from Moscow, would we still call it "capture"? Also Trump is doing a terrible job running his own country; the idea of him running Venezuela (to the ground) is chilling.

This has crossed a red line. ICE is now terrorizing Minnesotans of Somalian heritage, most of whom are American citizens, in a blatantly racist operation. What should we brace ourselves for next? Raids on Indian-Americans in New Jersey, Iranian-Americans in LA, Cuban-Americans in Florida?

This this this

🤬

A little louder @nytimes.com, who is it that is ruining the workplace? www.cnn.com/2025/11/18/u...

Alert for scientists: NIH institute director vacancies are posted! Please apply so we get actual scientists in these positions instead of just political appointees!!!!

Sadly, we continue to reward "ambitious, arrogant, misogynistic, and opportunistic" people like Watson, who "managed to get himself into the right place at the right time." We should reward careful, methodical researchers and not just narcissists in a hurry who would rather be wrong than be last.

I have to keep this deliberately vague, but this is a total disaster for academic research. And imposing it so suddenly is just cruel. I’ve got friends scrambling to get back to the US before midnight tonight. Do you know how hard that is to do on 36 hours of notice?

A free and democratic society cannot silence comedians because the President doesn’t like what they say. This is an attack on free speech and cannot be allowed to stand. All elected officials need to speak up and push back on this undemocratic act.

I admit that when i started working on this project with @kvasquez.bsky.social, i didn’t think i knew any chemists with disabilities 🧵1/ cen.acs.org/people/profi... @cenmag.bsky.social

We need laser like clarity right now: political violence is abhorrent and so is the work of Turning Point USA. 11/

The murder of Charlie Kirk was criminal, wrong, and should be condemned. And Charlie Kirk was a horrible, hateful man who spent his life radicalizing young people to embrace their worst demons by targeting women, people of color, immigrants, and the marginalized. I refuse to sanitize him.

I wonder who is next after Latinos- Chinese, Indians, Koreans or Africans? Nobody is safe in a white supremacist nation. www.thenation.com/article/soci...

I saw the video. Dystopian doesn't begin to describe it. Laws are not laws unless Congress makes them. A President cannot make laws. A President cannot overrule scientific consensus. This student is incapable of critical thinking and does not belong in college. "Our president's laws." Ugh.

We all deserve better than RFK Jr. Great piece from @gregggonsalves.bsky.social www.thenation.com/article/soci...

The party of “family values” is attacking our kids.

I finished my PhD in 6 yrs. I can't imagine stopping my research mid-project, traveling back to India, waiting 3 months to renew my visa/status, and delaying my PhD. Who is going to fund students during this absence? Why should students suffer from delays in publishing? Keep D/S provisions intact!

"Financially, the NIH—for now—remains intact. The Senate has also pushed back on the Trump administration’s proposal to restructure the agency entirely. But the NIH is fast losing what turns out to be its most important resource: people." Well said. www.theatlantic.com/health/archi...

Govt Accountability Office (GAO) determines Trump admin broke the law by withholding billions in new NIH awards. Full GAO report: www.gao.gov/assets/890/8... NYT article (no paywall): archive.is/202508051916...

If you're a UCLA researcher (PI, grad student, etc) with an NSF, NIH or other suddenly suspended grant, please email or DM me. I'm trying to confirm what the suspension letters say and how extensive the NIH suspensions are. Email: Mikhail at calmatters dot org

Excellent article by @kzernike.bsky.social I mentor a student on an NIH div. supplement (which we worked extremely hard to win) ; we were heartbroken when this was killed. NIH's well designed DEI initiatives benefit a broad population beyond racial minorities. www.nytimes.com/2025/07/10/u...

No other word will do: Gestapo. American Gestapo - words I never imagined I'd associate together. A legal resident. A scientist searching for a Lyme disease vaccine. Criminality? Arrested for weed - ten years ago. Abducted at the airport by anonymous goons and disappeared. wapo.st/4lPELyy

Welcome to the 12th century

🧪 YASSSS Nearly 150 employees of the National Science Foundation signed a letter of dissent and sent to Congress yesterday. Rep Lofgren, Dem leader of the House Science Committee, held a press conference today about it. Full letter (names redacted): democrats-science.house.gov/imo/media/do...

"Speaking from the university’s hilltop astrophysics lab, AMU President Eric Berton likened the situation to that of European academics who fled persecution by Nazi Germany both before and during WW II. 'What is at play here today is not unrelated to another dark period of our history,' he said."

Journalists keep asking me, baffled, “What’s the Trump administration really trying to do to the science agencies?” So I say “They are trying to destroy them. Cut off their funding, ruin their facilities, harass their staff into leaving.” It’s not reform, and it never was. It’s destruction.

Breaking: The Trump administration is shutting down the national suicide hotline's service for LGBTQ kids. In February, the program received an average of 2,100 calls and texts per day. www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

The findings at the recent trial and today's Columbia chaos is pushing me to the edge. I just sent the following email...

Shame on the republicans for going after the so-called violent protesters in LA (who were largely peaceful) while engaging in rhetoric that motivated a white guy to draw a gun and attempt these political assassinations. I hope both these elected officials and their spouses pull through.

Seems a good time to invite Sen Britt to watch an NIH review panel (aka study section) analyze piles of grants over several days to identify the <10% that win funding. Applications that scientists spent months preparing, whose peers spent weeks poring through in advance of review mtg at NIH.

New York Times story about #BethedaDeclaration is up. (Gift Link) www.nytimes.com/2025/06/09/h...

Imagine if, in the 90s, universities had instituted curriculum requirements for raising tamagotchis. Justified by saying it was essential to preparing for eventual parenthood. Think how profoundly stupid this would look, even just a few years later. 🤦‍♀️

The public meltdown happening between the world’s richest man 🙄 and the President of the United States 🙄🙄 once again begs the age-old question: are men simply too emotional to be in positions of power?

I've attempted to explain my rationale for leaving CMU and the United States - and for joining UCD - in this blog post. I believe that it is the right decision for me, but strangely, I hope I'm wrong. I hope that the US is not going down a path as dark as I fear.

The US Administration has indefinitely blocked *all* student visa applicants from getting a visa interview. Worldwide, unconditional, no end date. All. International students are crucial to the US university system, American innovation, and future US prosperity.

More nonsense from Secretary Kennedy Kaitlan Collins asked Kennedy if he stood by his earlier comment that people should not be taking medical advice from him, even though his job involves communicating health guidance and recommendations based on his department’s expertise. 1/n

Cowards.

It’s time to disrupt their plans. If they want to dismantle our science, we are going to make it exceptionally difficult. We will fight every step of the way, and when this regime falls to pieces just like every other thing Trump has touched, we will rebuild.

My God, I hate this so much

Which FDA-approved vaccines had randomized, placebo-controlled trials? ALL OF THEM. Polio? Measles, mumps, rubella? Haemophilus influenzae B? Diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis? Meningococcus? Varicella? Pneumococcus? Rotavirus? RSV? Hepatitis B? Influenza? HPV? COVID-19? Shingles? YEP. A thread🧵 1/

Students are getting their SEVIS records deleted for offences as grave as speeding tickets (going 30 mph on a 25 road), noise complaints, and literally any trivial encounter with law enforcement, whether they were are at fault or not.

We were awarded a TrailBlazer R21 from NIBIB to design chaperone-mimetic polymers for ribonucleoprotein delivery. Excited to work with coIs Gerard Madlambayan and Serveh Kamrava.

We have another #postdoc vacancy @uommib.bsky.social . Join us to explore new applications of glycan-nanodiagnostics, with our partners Iceni Glycoscience and Field Lab. #glycotime We have world-class facilities in great environment. Pls RT. www.jobs.manchester.ac.uk/Job/JobDetai...

It’s official! Stand Up for Science with us on the east steps of the Colorado State Capitol building in Denver, CO! @standupforscience.bsky.social

Excellent perspective by @lisamjarvis.bsky.social @bloomberg.com on the deep freeze at NIH

I built my entire future on the hope of securing NIH funding. Now, countless junior faculty like me are watching our academic dreams slip away. We’re not just losing careers—we’re losing the research breakthroughs we could have delivered. Here’s hoping this NIH crisis ends soon. #medsky #NIH

Awarded NSF CAREER on my 1st attempt! Grateful to DMR Biomaterials for taking a chance on my admittedly crazy ideas. This would not be possible without my fantastic students, mentors, and collaborators. And colleagues who critiqued first drafts. Thankful to my parents and spouse for their support.