In January of 2021, photos started bouncing round the internet of this deeply weird thing happening in the sky above Glasgow, Scotland. Photoshop trickery? The bizarre truth: - yes, everyone really saw these - no, they're not faked or manmade - they absolutely don't exist. 1/

So... I did some analysis of grants that did receive noncompetitive renewals. In particular, I looked a those award where the title of the grant changed. Warning: The results are just what I expected, but oooph... 1/4

Applying to the NSF-GRFP (or another fellowship) on a tight deadline? We built a 7-week guide + timeline to get you from draft to submission. It’s not too late — you’ve got this! ✨ 🔗 cientificolatino.com/apply-in-7-weeks #NSFGRFP #GradSchool #Fellowship

This is the dumbest fucking shit I've ever read and people who talk like this need to go touch grass. LLM tools only have real case uses in very limited areas when the people using them are actual experts in their fields and can check it carefully for its bullshit. So, not students.

"Pat, why do you carry that ridiculous 600mm lens on long hikes?" Buddy, I can see mountains reflected in the eyes of a trailside pika.

Huge variability documented in how publishers respond when informed about a problematic body of work by a research group. www.jclinepi.com/article/S089... #publishers #retractions

I'm here for good science... and #thediscourse. Nice summary by @richarddmorey.bsky.social. Looking forward to reading the paper and potentially including it on my reading list for my grad stats/methods course.

🥁DRUMROLL PLEASE!🥁 Our special guest of the week for @standupforscience.bsky.social's Tuesday's (8/12 8p et/5p pt) Welcome & Action hour... YOU KNOW HIM, YOU LOVE HIM, AND SO DO WE (so much so I very nearly begged him to be on our advisory board)... ⭐⭐⭐ Dr @jeremymberg.bsky.social ⭐⭐⭐

Just another relatable National Trust sign

"Just because I’m not on the keyboard—and you have to add two extra steps for me to appear correctly—I’m suddenly the product of some soulless technology?"

The 500 additional GRFPs NSF awarded were not very evenly distributed across fields, it seems. www.science.org/content/arti...

AP Story on Judge Young's ruling apnews.com/article/nih-...

I listened to the hearing this morning in the two cases (now linked) about NIH grant terminations. These cases are before Judge William Young, a very accomplished judge appointed by Ronald Reagan. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William... 1/n

Extremely excited to share the first effort of the Revived Genomics of Personality Consortium: A highly-powered, comprehensive GWAS of the Big Five personality traits in 1.14 million participants from 46 cohorts. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

This is pretty freaking rad.

Surprise surprise! Allowing scientists to have continuity and security in their funding lets them focus on research and ask big questions that require long term support to answer, and that are most likely to have big impacts for humanity. TIL. 🧪

#SleepPeeps, You may not know this, but apparently preventing SIDS is a woke neo-Marxist fraud.

This is pretty rad.

Misinformation ranks high among the many research areas President Donald Trump’s administration has targeted for deep cuts. scim.ag/4jBn6K7

really fascinating science!

Signal boosting to #devskysci folks working in social cognition/development and methods, or more generally on science in the public interest - can you support a postdoc whose planned post-phd employment was just terminated? #psychscisky #psychsky

"A team of health experts is launching an independent project that could start its own vaccine evaluations and guidelines — apart from federal health agencies." www.mprnews.org/story/2025/0...

@nature.com breaks down Trump/Musk/Kennedy NIH grants cancellations. HIV, LGBTQ+, minority health related research hit the hardest. Both red and blue states hit hard, with WA, NC getting the biggest slaps.

Just heard @erc.europa.eu will increase funding for grantees relocating to #Europe. Researchers based in the US or elsewhere in the world, can apply for €1 million beyond the usual max amount to set up a lab or #research team, if scientifically justified. Now to be €2 million. 🧪 #grants #academic

This is… concerning. www.science.org/content/arti...

brb charging $19,999/month for doctorate level non-ai

Small utterances like "mm-hmm" or "um," called interjections, appear to be universal across languages. But what purpose do they serve? Reporter Bob Holmes joins us to discuss his coverage of how interjections regulate conversation for @knowablemag.bsky.social.

so industrious

Has “many analyst” #research been done on quaLitative #data? How much do *independent* teams of qualitative coders/analyzers converge/diverge when trying to answer one question with one dataset? Suggestions (and self-promotion) welcome. #metascience #researchMethods #philSci #qualitative #coding

OK I had announced this before but forgot to say that Andrew Gelman would be joining Nancy Cartwright and myself as well. Short idea talks, lots of panel discussion and Q&A. Join us on April 25th to discuss RCTs, replications, and scientific inference. sites.google.com/view/cepbi/t...

Such a bummer that the GRFP has been cut to numbers not seen since 2008. It is a relief, though, to still see *some* awards. 1000 trainees just got life-changing support for their work, which betters US STEM+infrastructure. Even more than that certainly deserve it. Let’s keep supporting them all.

We're hiring a Postdoctoral Scholar! Come join our @conflictcollab.bsky.social at Purdue PSY in the fall 🎉 The role involves opportunities to research and lead writing projects on humanizing organization, conflict mgnt, workplace discrimination, goals, and more! drive.google.com/file/d/1tke0...

Learned something new today!

I think the infection-mediated models of neurocognitive diseases, including MS and dementia, are really fascinating. Also, what a time to be reading them, when: -the public no longer values vaccines -scientists aren't trusted (and don't communicate well anyway) -and when vaccines are politicized

So confusing. How is *not* tracking lead exposure a good thing? How has this been successfully spun as an initiative that helps Americans? It's just bonkers to me. www.wired.com/story/cdc-gu...

🚨 Attention NIH & NSF grantees! AAAS is hosting a rapid response webinar this Friday, 12-1 pm ET, on responding to federal research grant terminations. NIH and NSF will be case examples. Register here: aaas.zoom.us/webinar/regi...

NIH is likely cutting up to 25% of its workforce this week. NIH staff have substantial expertise, typically PhDs. And they really *believe* in the work. NIH's will not be able to meet its mission w/these cuts. The scientific threat is not just direct funding cuts www.statnews.com/2025/03/14/n...

Happy #WorldSleepDay! A perfect day to buy my book, Mapping the Darkness: The Visionary Scientists Who Unlocked the Mysteries of Sleep—and to remember that without the NIH, many of the amazing advances in sleep science of the past 70 years would never have happened. bit.ly/47v5UQx

#Medsky has a powerful new tool for community moderation. Subscribe to @medsky.info to help filter out harmful medical misinformation and report potential misinformation you see on your skyline. See below for instructions on how the labeler works. 🧵

What’s the state of women’s healthcare, you ask? I just had a male doctor leave the door to the exam room wide open… while I was in stirrups facing the door… without fully pulling the curtain closed. I could see halfway into the hall. They could (hypothetically) see me. I feel so violated.

And while we’re at it, a tip for academics and trainees too…

"Song Of Myself," the lost verse

As a result of Trump’s slashes to research funding, dozens of graduate programs have announced reductions and cancellations of graduate admissions slots. If you are an impacted applicant, please fill out this survey: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F... 🧪🧠🧬🔬🥼👩🏼‍🔬🧑‍🔬

NIH rare diseases day has been postponed/cancelled. This is such a bummer, esp for patients. And perhaps this is one of the first signals for the public that things have gone awry, beyond clinical trials pausing? Hopefully we see media reports… we need allies, and the public needs to see our worth.

I included these slides in a talk recently. I think it went well? #SPSP2025 #spspcloserels

It seems consistent with the deceptive messaging that they are not cutting science while leaving out that they are eliminating the infrastructure to conduct science

They are absolutely cutting science! Folks in the NIH intramural program are gone. Folks in extramural programs. These include PhD and MD scientists who help make NIH function as a granting agency. They are depict this as cutting easily replaceable bureaucrat. There aren't many of those at NIH.

The rumored intent to fire some or all of the NIH institute and center directors will be tremendously damaging to research that benefits the health of the American people (and people around the world) and to the leadership position that America has held in biomedical research. con'ted 4/n