GET IN, DORKS! It's a watershed moment and we need YOUR HELP. 1/x @standupforscience.net was asked by independent members of the National Academies to support their letter to Congress calling for the reinstatement of the National Science Board. #saveNSB 🔗 www.standupforscience.net/nasem-letter...

Open letter calling for the reinstatement of the National Science Board. This letter is from leaders of the National Academies Note: This does not refer to the leaders on paper such as presidents of the NAS, NAM, and NAE. www.standupforscience.net/nasem-letter... @standupforscience.net

RFK may have gone underground with it, but he's continuing to work aggressively to turn HHS against vaccines. Don't let the relative public silence fool you. www.nytimes.com/2026/05/11/h...

The approach described by McNutt in these slides IS partisan and political. It‘s changing behavior based not on science—but on how the political parties act. Scientists and scientific institutions should stand up for facts and good science. But this is rejecting those for political reasons.

REP. @justinjpearson.bsky.social : “This isn't coincidental or accidental. We're seeing the greatest purge of Black power since the era of Reconstruction.” (H/T @motherjones.com ) #Memphis #JimCrow @GovBillLee @MarshaBlackburn

If you are a member of the scientific community wondering how to meet this moment, check out this excellent discussion between @holdenthorp.bsky.social and @timothysnyder.bsky.social. youtu.be/IWNDMwimUP0?...

Some people in my circle have expressed reticence in speaking out. One important point from @timothysnyder.bsky.social is that complying in advance & incidental resistance both invite risk. The difference: Recapitulation puts your reputation & more at risk. 🧪 www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Always read Micah Sifry. open.substack.com/pub/theconne...

"Too many scientists are willing to collaborate with Trumpism in the mistaken assumption that obedience will save their own necks." www.thenation.com/article/soci...

When people talk about self-censorship, they often focus on campus events or classroom discussions. But self-censorship of research is different and more impt. Big difference btw "I don't want to offend others" to "I don't want to speak truth to power" www.chronicle.com/article/near...

Congress passed a budget that rejected cuts to the #NIH, NSF, NASA, DOE. However, OMB (i.e. Russel Vought) stalled in releasing funds. As of Mar 24, the NIH has only rewarded 15% of its $47B budget. PhD programs are shrinking. China & India will dominate. 🧪 universitybusiness.com/research-cut...

Because @nationalacademies.org decided to bend the knee and host a session with Jay Bhattacharya and some of his fellow travelers, they tarnished a meeting on the important topic of scientific integrity even before it began. 1/

Really good piece from @joho.bsky.social highlighting Jay Bhattacharya's hypocrisy on free speech, scientific censorship, and academic freedom.

For those in Chicago, attend if you can to hear what’s really happening inside NIH. The presenters have recent experience inside NIH and are closely connected to many still inside.

So @nationalacademies.org is giving Jay Bhattacharya a platform to talk about scientific integrity when the man has done whatsoever. They are now complicit in all this. What a disgrace.

Jay Bhattacharya pulls a study because he doesn’t like the conclusions. I cannot explain how bad this is and how it reeks of the stench of ideological zealotry and has no basis in science. www.nytimes.com/2026/04/22/u...

New episode of #ScienceCounterpunch out now. We discussed with veteran public health hero @gregggonsalves.bsky.social the capture of public-health institutions by political actors and charlatans dead-set on burning down US and global public health infrastructure 1/5 www.youtube.com/watch?v=iiej...

Prior to obtaining power, Jay Bhattacharya faked a concern about free speech, at least when it came to his social media content. Now that he is the medical establishment, his name should be forever linked with scientific censorship and a rejection of civil debate. My latest.

Mark Rufalo warns Congress against the Paramount-WBD merger: "You don't have to watch 'Citizen Kane' or read '1984' to understand that the concentrated oligarchic control this merger represents is a threat to a free press, an informed populace & democracy itself." www.youtube.com/live/xETe83T...

Reason number 632 why #JayBhattacharya is not a serious scientist and is an ideological hack (and has been this way since at least 2020). His politics drives his thinking and his politics is now all in with MAGA.

Jay Bhattacharya, Matt Memoli and others in this admin have weaponized the term “DEI” in incoherent ways that deeply and fundamentally harm science. Was honored to work on this with Jennifer Troyer & Alice Popejoy. open.substack.com/pub/sciencea...

Inbox: Trump is announcing the new PCAST membership. It is dominated by CEOs and includes only one academic scientist, John Martinis.

“I was expecting an attack on climate science,” Dr. Marvel said. “What I was completely unprepared for was an attack on [all] science, because it is a means of finding out and telling the truth.”

I don't think people fully appreciate how apocalyptic things are for US science. I haven't had any new funding since 2024, but I'm still ok since typical grants are for three years. This means next year I will be completely out of funding and will have to fire everyone in the lab. It's not great.

So this piece that @rosehorowitch.bsky.social (and I knew her when she wrote for @yaledailynews.bsky.social) is problematic. She suggests that student protests on Gaza got out of control bringing the clamp-down on university protests. 1/ www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...

My resignation letter

Good discussion of the disappearing NIH Notices of Funding Opportunity (NOFOs). elizabethginexi.substack.com/p/the-nofo-g...

And it’s well-known now too that research on-campus at NIH is being slowly choked to death. Scientists are leaving and not being replaced, lecture visits blocked, people are spending more and more time not on science but on fruitless paperwork seemingly created to stop progress.

Compare this to the sunny propaganda Jay Bhattacharya shared at Tuesday's appropriations hearing. www.statnews.com/2026/03/19/n...

This Russell Vought, trying to usurp the power of the purse. Congress and the people have made it abundantly clear that they want to fund science. But Vought keeps trying to steal those funds. www.science.org/content/arti...

Working on a NIH multiyear funding tracker... This looks at the amount of multiyear funding (grants having a budget period 366 days or longer) for new and competitive renewal awards divided by the total amount of new and competitive renewal award funding over the same period. 1/5

A heads down approach will not save science. We need to speak up, live our values, and demand integrity. www.statnews.com/2026/03/12/n...

We get to choose: The Roberts Court and its approach to executive power, or the American science superpower. We can't have both.

Good scientists are leaving NIH. Counter to the quote from HHS, NIH is struggling to recruit qualified scientists to replace them. My own role sits empty. NIH cannot replace me since I am still employed but prevented from working. This admin is gutting science. www.cnn.com/2026/03/05/h...

The point is to destroy the administrative state, centers of knowledge and all civic institutions that stand in the way of Russell Vought’s vision of an authoritarian theocracy. It sounds insane and something out of Atwood. But this is where we are. Under his eye.

Please click here to send a letter to your Senator to oppose this nomination. actionnetwork.org/letters/oppo... www.statnews.com/2026/02/27/c... via @statnews.com

This piece by Elizabeth Ginexi is a must read. Trump, Vought, RFK and Bhattacharya are destroying the NIH simply ignoring the law and the US Congress. It’s illegal and immoral. The NIH Restructuring Congress Rejected Is Happening Anyway open.substack.com/pub/elizabet...

The US is broadly a country that likes to invest in science. Even among Republicans this is true. But we are governed by an administration that is opposed to science, and is using procedural tools to limit spending and increase political control over the process.

Congress rejected massive cuts to US science budgets for 2026, but much of the money still isn’t flowing to researchers. The culprit? The White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is quietly slow-walking the release of funds. 🧵👇

@altfda.altgov.info challenged us to list #5Things that each of us Alts think have caused the most damage in our agencies over the past year. Each of the five items is chock full of sub-items…adding up to far more “things.” Here goes.

NIH, CDC, HHS, and all of US cancer research and public health needed and still needs protection from Russell Vought and the P2025 White House. The defining feature of 2025 at NIH was not merely grant changes. It was unprecedented levels of presidential interference with NIH decision-making. 1/

"NIH has terminated or frozen 116 cancer research grants ($273 million), 65 Alzheimer's research grants ($94 million), 68 diabetes grants ($83 million), and 71 heart disease grants ($111 million)..." www.sanders.senate.gov/wp-content/u...

I think we have to be very careful here. The appropriations bills are one thing, but as you all know, this administration has a bag of dirty tricks they have and will continue to use to undermine research and frankly, methodically chip away at it until it is a shell of its former self. 1/

Why letting the Trump Admin reset our expectations will harm US science. 🧪 (If you’re celebrating a “win” on MYF you’ve been misled—MYF is still permitted in FY26, just capped at FY25 levels: 39%. that’s no win. It kills paylines and paves a path for block grants) Stay sober. Stay alert. Stand up

The arrests of Don Lemon and Georgia Fort underscore the gravity of this moment. This has never happened before in our history. We shouldn't pretend it's normal. More reason for us to hold the line and demand a DHS budget that stops funding lawlessness.

"We cannot return to the old way of trying to ignore power and politics — if we do that, scientists will just be run over and US science will continue to collapse." I could quote this all day, but please read the whole thing from @markhisted.org via @donmoyn.bsky.social (3/3)

"What works to stop fascism, the Twin Cities is showing us, is when everyone steps up. When everyone feels empowered, even if it’s just to blow a whistle or honk a horn or yell in the snow in slippers... margaretkilljoy.substack.com/p/our-neighb...

The NIH budget bill passed the House. Now, it's bundled w/ DHS funding in the Senate. We are likely to see a fight this week. New from me: things to know about the budget bill, NIH presidentialization, free speech, why science has been quiet, & more. At "Can We Still Govern" @donmoyn.bsky.social 🧪

You have to read this. Firsthand affidavit from one of the women who was there and recording the video. She talks about how Alex Pretti was directing traffic when she arrived. She watched him be killed in front of her. She's afraid to go home, worried she'll be arrested.

This video is basically my entire ethic. The reason why people like @jenna-m-norton.bsky.social and myself are speaking up about science and democracy is this. People who say taking action will only make things worse are arguing to let Trump do whatever he wants. But no. We can fight.