Some feel-good news on the science front. The excitement in the kids face on finding the anemone was inspiring www.nytimes.com/2025/08/08/w...

One can only hope this is just a temporary setback but the parallels to other countries that have gone this route are just too close for comfort.

“This is the kind of thing you would only expect to see in a banana republic,” Ms. Yellen said. www.nytimes.com/2025/08/03/b...

Where there’s smoke there’s usually fire. @warren.senate.gov

@tomtomorrow.bsky.social @rubenbolling.bsky.social First they come for the comedians, then the cartoonist. Kings fear being laughed at. We have a funny bone to pick with/without a smile on our faces #Colbert #Kimmel #SethMeyers #DailyShow

Breaking news: “The Late Show” with Stephen Colbert will end in May 2026, CBS said in a statement. The announcement came days after Colbert spoke out against the $16 million paid earlier this month by Paramount, the parent company of CBS News.

this is an absolute must-read story; after you read it, i recommend reading my story last week on how even the emergency food that the state dept has pledged to help distribute is also.... not getting distributed www.wired.com/story/usaid-...

NPR and PBS are national treasures. Let's keep them funded. https://www.press.org/freedom-center

When a Supreme Court Justice says, “the threat to our Constitution’s separation of powers is grave.” it should be a great cause for concern

Fingers crossed. Then again I’m just an eternal optimist 😁

REMINDER - Pittsburgh, this is TOMORROW! We hope to see you there!

Disinformation around a “weather weapon” and cloud seeding is being widely promoted by everyone from anti-government extremists to GOP influencers in the wake of the Texas floods—leading to real-world consequences.

It’s good to see that one branch of the government is doing its job. Or at least trying to. Maybe there’s some hope. www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

Recently, my book THEY CALLED US ENEMY was banned – again – in Tennessee. Book bans are out of control. Huge parts of American history are being restricted. To join me in standing up for the freedom to read, go to pen.org/action. @penamerica.bsky.social @topshelfcomix.bsky.social @idwpublishing.com

Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson said Thursday that the “state of our democracy” keeps her up at night, echoing a theme that has animated some of her recent public appearances and fiery dissents from recent decisions.

“the Weather Service employee whose job it was to make sure those warnings got traction — Paul Yura, the long-serving meteorologist in charge of “warning coordination” — had recently taken an unplanned early retirement amid cuts pushed by DOGE. He was not replaced.”

Nice piece on the dangers of LLMs. I liked the description as “plausibility engines” and not “truth seekers” or “reasoning machines”

Another nice piece by Prof Strogatz, this time on the connection between triangular numbers and CAT scans. How a Puzzle About Fractions Got Brain Scans Rolling www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

Let’s not pretend any more that the GOP is the fiscally conservative Party. www.nytimes.com/2025/07/01/u...

Really nice article on the history of the recent events in LA and the use of the National Guard to quell demonstrations, to quote "the militarization of policing in Los Angeles opens important questions about democracy and state violence." theconversation.com/the-use-of-f...

One small step for man. One large step for science.

In Washington protesters fighting to save their #Medicaid were arrested today. Story in next post/

Well so much for transparency: “The scale of canceled or withheld funds remains opaque.”

Heard a rumor about this last night, but now I guess it's official. Makes me so sad to hear that my former colleagues at NSF are being so badly treated www.scientificamerican.com/article/trum...

Just attended the @aaas.org LSEN Community Learning Forum Webinar on Building Relationships with Policymakers. Highly recommended to anyone interested in helping advocate for science.

“The rapid rise in autism cases is not because of vaccines or environmental toxins, but rather is the result of changes in the way that autism is defined and assessed — changes that I helped put into place,” writes the psychiatrist Allen Frances.

Another nice story by @stevenstrogatz.com www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

As I’ve been saying, California is just the test case. Trump is now saying the quiet part out loud: blue cities and states are being specifically targeted to stoke fear, violence, and chaos — all to punish the people that didn’t vote for him.

Honestly I still can’t stop laughing 😂😅🤣

Great day for democracy #NoKings #NoKingsDay

If this is how this administration responds to a Senator with a question, you can only imagine what they're doing to farmworkers, to cooks, and to day laborers throughout California and across the country. We will hold this administration accountable.

Happy to have helped out in a small but hopefully meaningful way here in CA www.politico.com/news/2025/06...

Why are people so triggered by the Mexican flag at the LA protests? | Daniel Peña

Breaking news: A prominent Minnesota Democrat and her spouse were killed early Saturday morning by a gunman impersonating a police officer. Another state lawmaker and his wife were shot overnight, believed to be connected to the same suspect, police said. A manhunt for the suspect is underway.

Department of Homeland Security officers invading a congressman's offices and arresting a staffer who tried to stop them is very, very bad. gothamist.com/news/homelan...

This is a portrait of FBI leadership that is sexist, insecure, and paranoid, and imposing those values on the rest of the organization and at the expense of good public servants. www.nytimes.com/2025/06/01/u...

Not surprised that it's community colleges that are fighting back. Community colleges serve the greatest number of people facing systemic barriers. A large percentage of community college students are the first in their family to attend college.

HAPPY PRIDE 🏳️‍🌈 Under Trump, research using terms like “Trans,” “LGBTQ,” & “Gender identity” is being defunded. These terms reflect real people who deserve science that includes them. Stand with us to protect LGBTQ+ science from political erasure. grant-watch.us/nih-data.html @rcmedphys.bsky.social

Absolutely second this. @donmoyn.bsky.social and @pamherd.bsky.social have been doing vital work documenting the systematic dismantling of federal expertise. If you're looking for a way to act on this, see this guide on submitting public comments against politicization of public services.

I hope the tide is turning. But I feel a bit like when I lived in Houston after a hurricane - you never know how much damage was done until after the fact.

Kathleen Kingsbury, the editor of Times Opinion, tells the cautionary story of a Chinese scientist who was deported from the U.S. during the Cold War. “It proved an American misstep, fueled by xenophobia, that would forever alter the global balance of power,” she writes.

JUST IN: Trump's ban on foreign Harvard students halted by judge while lawsuit proceeds

New, from me: The DOGE project was sold as tech disruptors who would revolutionize government. To try to understand why DOGE has failed, I point to lessons that other technologists who worked in government learned, but DOGE ignored. 🧵 donmoynihan.substack.com/p/what-doge-...

More than half of the 1500 research grants that NSF has terminated in the past month under orders from President Donald Trump’s administration aimed to bring groups historically underrepresented in science into the mainstream. scim.ag/4jYhB8e

As always, a thoughtful dive into an important (if slightly scary) problem. www.nytimes.com/2025/05/17/o...

With the help of play, the physicist Sidney Nagel has a whole lot of fun solving the mysteries hiding in everyday phenomena: Sand flow, traffic jams, water splashes, even coffee stains. www.quantamagazine.org/finding-beau...

True but many others aren’t speaking up out of fear.

GPS, quantum dots, and more - a nice reminder or the benefits of federal research funding. www.nytimes.com/2025/05/16/s...