For those of us in the Bay just shaken awake!

I want to thank some of you for taking up our call to meet with your City Council member about funding NYC public libraries. We have over half of the districts covered by at least one person. We still have 25 districts that need a constituent to sign up. docs.google.com/document/d/1...

Reminder to come out to Obec and meet Dr. Starbird on Sept 23rd!

The High Seas Treaty has been ratified by 60 countries! This is about protecting oceans beyond the coastal zones controlled by single countries. There are still lots of steps between where we are and the future we dream of, but wow, this is a big one! apnews.com/article/high...

NEW: Ayman Soliman, whose detention sparked a community uproar and became a test of counterterrorism powers in immigration court, was released from an Ohio jail Friday as DHS abruptly withdrew its deportation case against the children's hospital chaplain. By @hannahallam.bsky.social

In July, EPA announced it would dismantle the Office of Research & Development. Now, staff have been ordered to immediately halt *all* work on research papers. (Surely entirely coincidental to easing way for slaughterhouses to pollute our water? subscriber.politicopro.com/article/eene...)

Dr. Leonard Bright, VP of @texasaaup.bsky.social on the resignation of Texas A&M president Mark Welsh. (Watch to the end for a report on how politicians are being appointed to lead university systems in Texas.) #DefendHigherEd #AcademicFreedom #AcademicSky

Each Friday, I summarize what is happening to American science & higher ed. 🧪 This was Week 35: - executive order on H-1B visas - travesty of vaccine advisory council updates MMRV & COVID recs - Texas A&M fires president - California faculty file suit & so much more buttondown.com/liminalcreat...

One of the things that makes @unbreaking.org such a wildly different project is that we update our pages continuously. Our goal is to help you maintain a current handle on where things stand. Here's this week's 🧵 on the food safety front:

BREAKING: After a week of uproar from employees, STAT has learned that the CDC has rescinded this telework pause. Story and details forthcoming.

9 more states have now formed an alliance to support their own vaccination & public health efforts. The Northeast Public Health Cooperative = Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania & Rhode Island www.nytimes.com/2025/09/18/n...

Which climate scientists are doing good work similar to what you've seen me doing with Meeting the Moment (buttondown.email/liminalcreat...) and Unbreaking (unbreaking.org)? (I have a few already in mind, but want to enlist your help and expand my circles.)

In a meeting that devolved into confusion and near chaos, federal advisers on Thursday voted 8 to 3 against vaccinating children under four years old with a combination shot that protects against measles, mumps, rubella and chickenpox. www.nytimes.com/2025/09/18/h...

Mark A. Welsh III resigned as president of the Texas A&M University flagship on Thursday in a stunning fallout that comes a week after a viral “whistleblower” video circulated that raised questions about a professor’s teaching on gender identity issues. bit.ly/4mrwjVD

Oof. 🧵 for those following vaccine recommendation news

I smashed repost too fast. I believe in this ethos down to my bones. We cannot make the things we need alone, but we can make fantastic, indie projects together. Everything I’ve done for a decade is in this vein. And I think @unbreaking.org might just be the project of a lifetime.

This. This this this this this. Build your shit. Own your shit. It's the only way forward. Nobody there but you.

Adding again to this. If we apply even the most glancing of intergenerational justice lenses… 😬🫣💔 We need to step up, in intergenerational solidarity, with those for whom career paths that we took somewhat for granted are seriously precarious. Academia, yes; but creative, & critical careers… ✊✊✊

Please remember this part.

On Feb 24, I gave a lecture at UW explaining what my team's decade-plus research on online rumors during crises reveals about the right wing "bullshit machine." Fittingly, a lightning strike impacted the original audio. Here's a fixed version w/ the full transcript: www.youtube.com/watch?v=rjiG...

Group that includes most major insurers — apart form UnitedHealthcare — says its plans will continue to cover vaccines including Covid and flu despite potential changes to recommendations. More @statnews.com: www.statnews.com/2025/09/17/a...

🚨 NEW: Climate change is already causing 30,000 deaths per year - a global annual economic loss of $100-350B USD - but the true damage is probably 10x higher. Out TODAY in Nature Climate Change: the first systematic look at the science of "health impact attribution" 🔓 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

I want our young people to know that there is a path forward, that a better world is possible. I don't want them to give up, to become cynical. They deserve to be young and full of optimism. They are owed a world that supports and sustains optimism.

On behalf of the AAUP, I am so honored to share that today we joined our sister UC unions in a wall-to-wall lawsuit against the Trump administration challenging the use of Title VI as a cudgel to bend the University of California in its ideological vision. www.latimes.com/california/s...

The rampant violations of academic freedom and intrusions on extramural speech are escalating rapidly. Faculty members have the right to speak or write as citizens, free from institutional censorship or discipline. Expression of opinion as a citizen does not constitute grounds for dismissal.

We so desperately need bold, clever, PRINCIPLED journalism right now. I’m so excited to see what this team does (and full disclosure, I am a super fan of more than one of these humans).

Creating new habits. Like Octavia E. Butler wrote in her journal, “All good things must begin.”

I know everything feels like so fucking much all the goddam time, but this is such a crucial point: Collective action to apply pressure still gets shit done. You might feel like "just" 1 person, & that's because you are— but physical crowds & values-based movements are made of individuals, together

The Dept. of Education has pulled funding for programs in 8 states that support students with both hearing and vision loss. A staffer at one program says he was told the Trump admin. took issue with 2 words on the grant application: “transition" and “privilege": www.propublica.org/article/trum...

Shutting down the war on cancer. “New presidential administrations have usually gone out of their way to make transitions at the NIH as seamless as possible so as not to disrupt ongoing research…” Right. That’s not what is happening now. Must-read article. 🧪

This is what I get for working on the weekend... (getting an error from congress.gov)

They're estimating that University of California will need $4-5 billion per year in support from the state if federal funding is truly erased. Here is a plan for how to do that www.nytimes.com/2025/09/13/u...

Each Friday, I summarize what is happening to American science & higher ed. 🧪 This was Week 34: - UC Berkeley feeds the administration a list of targets - Dept of Ed rescinds $350M from minority serving institutions - faculty firings at Texas A&M & so (SO) much more buttondown.com/liminalcreat...

This is not new. The struggle over what we are allowed to want is the historical struggle for justice and freedom and equality itself. And the reason for that struggle has been efforts by some to limit what others can want.

Very thoughtful thread about the networked harassment that has been unleashed since Kirk’s assassination. Nathan points to resources for institutional leaders seeking to prepare for and respond to such harassment, including our info and toolkit at researchersupport.org.

It's been a busy time for NIH grants staff — the agency seems on track to spend its budget this fiscal year But, because of multi-year funding, fewer projects are being funded than in previous years. The number of R grants has fallen from 5,633 to 3,758 analysis by @jaspar.bsky.social

We need a "fighting CR." As scientists we must push our Senators (and Reps) to use budget negotiations to protect science — and democracy. @safa-science.bsky.social @schumer.senate.gov @hakeem-jeffries.bsky.social @kenmartin.bsky.social scienceandfreedomalliance.substack.com/p/democrats-...

Spread calm. Tell the truth. Defend vulnerable people who are under attack. Getting stuck in a reactive mode is exhausting, and exhaustion can make us weak.

The oaths taken by U.S. lawyers in order to practice law should be expanded in every state to include a "commitment to upholding democracy and the rule of law" an American Bar Association task force said on Wednesday.

settings > content & media > autoplay video & gifs = off

As you see and engage with breaking news, please hold this advice close.

Often the news happens so quickly that there's little time for it, so we took a step back to talk about the stories of the researchers who have been fighting back against the Trump administration's assault on science. w/ @maxkozlov.bsky.social and @heidiledford.bsky.social

Multi-year grants are $$$! It makes good sense to have check-ins that unlock the next year of funding. In normal science, that means “is the promised work happening.” Instead, we are seeing censorship. @jeremymberg.bsky.social analyzed 700+renewals & found a VERY clear pattern of deleted words.

Update on the Texas A&M professor / cell phone video situation: the professor has been fired by the A&M president president.tamu.edu/messages/an-...

From yesterday: I talked with a bunch of NIH employees about what it's like inside the assault on government science, and how they feel about the potential for a shutdown. Spoiler, they're basically for it. Please subscribe, it's free!

I don't generally do the eyes emoji, so let's just stipulate I did that here. (Yes, that's 15 words to say what I could have said in a pictogram. Plus 28 words for this parenthetical. I'd better go reread my Strunk and White.)

This isn’t at all surprising, given that it’s essentially been publicly reported that Stephen Miller ordered ICE to arrest first and ask questions later, but it’s still worth noting. www.nbcnews.com/politics/nat... They are not even pretending that they know anything about someone before arrest.

I'll say again, you want to know where your red lines are. When do you use your voice? When do you remove your labor?

It’s painful, I think, for principled people who value expertise to face the necessity of making decisions & taking actions outside our wheelhouses. I hate that we must learn about things like continuing resolutions, pocket rescissions & other mechanics. Here we are. We didn’t choose it. BUT

Bracing remarks from @scottwiener.bsky.social this morning at ASTC @sciencecenters.bsky.social. Absolute rejection of this administration’s spurious accusations of (the real & vile problem of) antisemitism to destroy science & higher ed