Holly Ober
@sciwri.bsky.social
📤 558
📥 283
📝 214
Media relations for physical and life sciences at UCLA.
https://ucla.in/45FA7Oe
reposted by
Holly Ober
California NanoSystems Institute at UCLA
6 days ago
Congratulations to
@ucla.edu
prof Neil Garg (
@cnsiatucla.bsky.social
@uclacb.bsky.social
@uclaphyssci) on receiving UCLA’s 2026 Faculty Award for Excellence in Graduate Student Mentoring🏅 Learn more about the award in the link below:
cnsi.ucla.edu/may-18-2026-...
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May 18, 2026 | Neil Garg receives UCLA’s 2026 Faculty Award for Excellence in Graduate Student Mentoring - California NanoSystems Institute
Distinguished Kenneth N. Trueblood Professor Neil Garg has been named one of three UCLA faculty members to receive the 2026 Faculty Award for Excellence in Graduate Student Mentoring from the UCLA Div...
https://cnsi.ucla.edu/may-18-2026-neil-garg-receives-uclas-2026-faculty-award-for-excellence-in-graduate-student-mentoring/
0
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2
reposted by
Holly Ober
Noam Ross
6 days ago
The National Science Foundation is terminating and suspending grants again, and at Grant Witness we need you to help to track them! 🧪 We can only identify research being suppressed by under-the-radar suspensions directly from researchers. Please report!
grant-witness.us/posts/2026-0...
#NSF
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New Grant Disruptions at NSF - We Need Your Help to Report! – Grant Witness
https://grant-witness.us/posts/2026-05-27_new-nsf-terminations/#NSF
5
444
431
River riddle solved! The Colorado River disappeared from the geological record for 5 million years. Scientists now know where it went: Into vanished Bidahochi Lake, before eventually spilling over on a course to the Grand Canyon.
ucla.in/4dO9niX
🧪
about 2 months ago
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UCLA physicist Eric Hudson's team is working toward a clock based on a nucleus rather than an atom’s electrons, which could keep a steadier rhythm because it would be less sensitive to environmental disturbances such as temperature changes. They've found an answer in Thorium-229. 🧪
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Using atomic nuclei could allow scientists to read time more precisely than ever – what this research could mean for future clocks
Atomic clocks undergird modern timekeeping. A nuclear clock could be even more precise.
https://theconversation.com/using-atomic-nuclei-could-allow-scientists-to-read-time-more-precisely-than-ever-what-this-research-could-mean-for-future-clocks-272017
about 2 months ago
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UCLA biologist Dan Blumstein writes that animals living in urban environments around the world exhibit common sets of behaviors. These urban animals are losing traits they would need in the wild. This “behavioral homogenization” accompanies the loss of species diversity with urbanization. 🧪
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City animals act in the same brazen ways around the world
Cities breed smart wildlife because it takes savvy to survive there.
https://theconversation.com/city-animals-act-in-the-same-brazen-ways-around-the-world-279977
about 2 months ago
2
9
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After 20 years of legalized marriage for same-sex couples, 96 independent studies confirm there is no evidence for the harms critics predicted, writes UCLA psychology professor Benjamin Karney.
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Contributor: The results are in, and same-sex marriage was a win for children and society
Two decades ago, fears about same-sex unions were baseless. Now the claims against marriage equality are demonstrably incorrect.
https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2026-04-14/same-sex-marriage-social-effects-obergefell
about 2 months ago
0
1
0
reposted by
Holly Ober
UCLA Broad Stem Cell Research Center
2 months ago
How does the FDA-approved LAD-I gene therapy work? Doctors take the patient's OWN stem cells, add a healthy copy of the mutated gene, and return them. No donor needed. No transplant rejection risk. All 9 trial patients: restored immune systems. 🔗
lnkd.in/gDJzjgvx
#GeneTherapy
#StemCells
0
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1
reposted by
Holly Ober
Nandita Garud
2 months ago
I am excited to share our latest paper, Uniform bacterial genetic diversity along the gut, now out in Nature Communications!
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
. (1/n)
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What happens when an alligator lizard walks into a UCLA biology building to escape the
#heatwave
? Professor Brad Schaeffer tells the
@laist.com
how this affects the
#reptiles
. 🧪
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Noticing more lizards running around? Here's the likely reason
Alligator lizards and other Southern California species are showing up about a month early thanks to the heat. And that carries some risks for these reptiles.
https://laist.com/news/climate-environment/more-lizards-out-socal-heatwave
2 months ago
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Planets smaller than giants like Neptune but bigger than Mars and Earth are the most common type of planet. Why doesn't our Solar System have any of these? UCLA astronomer Erik Petigura talks about planets that are mid with Robyn Williams for The Science Show. 🔭🧪
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In praise of mid-sized planets - ABC listen
Erik Petigura is a professor of physics and astronomy at UCLA who specialises in discovering planets smaller than giants like Neptune and bigger than Mars and Earth. Our Solar System has none of thes...
https://www.abc.net.au/listen/programs/scienceshow/in-praise-of-mid-sized-planets/106409482
2 months ago
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Think you can pick a perfect
#MarchMadness
bracket? Let UCLA mathematician Deanna Needell and Spectrum's Ariel Wesler explain to you why you're more likely to get attacked by a shark and hit by lightning at the same time.
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2 months ago
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UCLA researchers have found that rivers in Mars' Jezero Crater delta go back at least 4.2 billion years, suggesting that the window of habitability stretches even further back in time than many scientists had imagined, write Joseph Howlett and
@leebillings.bsky.social
for
@sciam.bsky.social
. 🧪
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NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover discovers even older lost rivers at Jezero Crater
By plying its ground-penetrating radar in the depths of Mars’s Jezero Crater, this rover has found even older deltas buried beneath those seen on the surface from space
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/nasas-perseverance-mars-rover-discovers-even-older-lost-rivers-at-jezero/
2 months ago
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Friday fun: UCLA mathematician Terence Tao answers StarTalk fans' questions about mathematics with
@neildegrassetyson.com
🧪
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Do We Need New Math to Understand the Universe? With Terence Tao
YouTube video by StarTalk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJnkMxx9CEs
2 months ago
0
5
2
reposted by
Holly Ober
UCLA Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry
3 months ago
🥳 Congratulations to Prof. Anne Andrews, who has been selected to receive the 2026 American Chemical Society Analytical Chemistry Division Award in Electrochemistry in recognition of her accomplishments and service!
www.chemistry.ucla.edu/news/anne-an...
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The discovery by UCLA organic chemists that phosphine can act like precious metals in catalytic reactions might not trickle down to catalytic converters anytime soon, but will be useful for phamaceuticals and could bring down the cost of some drugs.
ucla.in/4b88BeL
🧪
3 months ago
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7
0
reposted by
Holly Ober
University of California
3 months ago
Bruin brings home GOLD! 🥇💙💛 ICYMI, Alysa Liu, the charismatic Team USA figure skater who today earned a gold medal in women's free skate at the 2026 Winter Olympics, is a UCLA student and Bay Area native! UC PROUD!!!
https://bit.ly/4cB67Xo
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Bruin at the Olympics: How did Alysa Liu do in Milan?
Part of Team USA's self-dubbed “Blade Angels,” Alysa Liu returned to the ice this week, competing in the women's figure skating competition at the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Olympics.
https://newsroom.ucla.edu/stories/alysa-liu-ucla-bruin-olympics-milan
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UCLA and UCSD astronomers have detected hydrogen sulfide gas in the atmospheres of four distant gas giants. The sulfur came from evaporated solid matter from the star's disk, proving that they are planets, not brown dwarfs. The method could help identify Earthlike exoplanets.
ucla.in/4arfq9A
🔭 🧪
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4 months ago
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0
I literally howled with excitement when I read this!
add a skeleton here at some point
4 months ago
0
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0
Find out how much wood a woodchuck could chuck if it could chuck wood, why you shouldn't take parenting advice from a marmot, and what it's like to touch a hibernating marmot in this delightful episode of
@ologies.bsky.social
with UCLA marmotologist Daniel Blumstein. 🧪
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Marmotology (GROUNDHOGS) with Dr. Daniel Blumstein — alie ward
Tongue twisters. Frosty holidays. Scandals. Big ol’ rodent butts. Let’s talk groundhogs with UCLA conservationist, field biologist, professor and Marmotologist, Dr. Daniel Blumstein. We cover what bro...
https://www.alieward.com/ologies/marmotology
5 months ago
0
13
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Rarity Public Benefit Corporation is trying to turn a UCLA cure for a rare disease into a medicine. The bottleneck now is not showing that it works, but another key part of the drug approval process — developing the commercial manufacturing. Great story by
@carolynyjohnson.bsky.social
🧪
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Scientists are inventing treatments for devastating diseases. There’s just one problem.
Gene therapy treatments for rare diseases are being developed, but getting them out of the lab has proved challenging.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2026/01/11/gene-therapy-rare-diseases/
5 months ago
0
5
3
reposted by
Holly Ober
Ologies with Alie Ward
5 months ago
WHAT IS A GROUNDHOG? What's their deal? Why do they have their own holiday? Beloved UCLA marmot expert Dr. Dan Blumstein chats large rodents, dens, scandals, butts, parenthood, romantic advice you should *not* take, why their blood boggles science, and aliases.
www.alieward.com/ologies/marm...
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Marmotology (GROUNDHOGS) with Dr. Daniel Blumstein — alie ward
Tongue twisters. Frosty holidays. Scandals. Big ol’ rodent butts. Let’s talk groundhogs with UCLA conservationist, field biologist, professor and Marmotologist, Dr. Daniel Blumstein. We cover what bro...
https://www.alieward.com/ologies/marmotology
6
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26
UCLA researchers are developing a tool that can predict when winter salmonella outbreaks are likely to happen in wild songbirds like pine siskins so people can take down their feeders to prevent the epidemic from starting.
#addBirder
ucla.in/4sVM6ki
🧪
5 months ago
2
22
4
UCLA biologist Pamela Yeh joins Raffaela Lesch on Science Friday discuss how living alongside humans is changing wild animals' bodies, from raccoons to urban juncos. 🧪
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Are Raccoons On The Road To Domestication?
Recent studies on raccoons and dark-eyed juncos investigate how urban wildlife is evolving.
https://www.sciencefriday.com/segments/urban-animal-domestication-raccoons-juncos/
5 months ago
0
15
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UCLA astrophysicist Erik Petigura studied four baby planets in the V1298 Tau system that are becoming super-Earths and sub-Neptunes. Despite being 5 to 10 times Earth’s radius, the planets have masses only 5 to 15 times Earth’s, meaning they are about as dense as Styrofoam.
ucla.in/4aPC8Kz
🧪🔭
5 months ago
0
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Weird and wonderful science: How elephant poop leads to guitars and 12 other unusual UCLA research findings from 2025:
ucla.in/4p8tXfY
🧪
5 months ago
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UCLA-led research has found that by electroplating thorium onto stainless steel, they can excite its nucleus with a laser and measure the electric current it produces. The achievement can be used to miniaturize the nuclear clock.
ucla.in/48L8iFL
🧪
6 months ago
0
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You might know that if you're reading this on the internet, you can thank UCLA. But did you know that UCLA also brought you the nicotine patch and cleaner drinking water through reverse osmosis? 10 Bruin discoveries that are changing the world:
ucla.in/4aSQbPl
🧪
6 months ago
0
8
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Gut bacteria have evolved rapidly to digest starches in ultra-processed foods. UCLA study finds gut microbes are evolving differently in industrialized and non-industrialized parts of the world.
ucla.in/4aWigp5
🧪
6 months ago
0
6
1
I had a joke about Ariadne but you probably couldn't follow the thread.
add a skeleton here at some point
6 months ago
0
3
1
A gene therapy co-developed by UCLA's Donald Kohn has restored immune function in 59 children born without the ability to make immune cells, a disease that typically gives them only a few short years of life. With the therapy, they qre now living normal lives. 🧪
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Gene therapy helps Virginia 12-year-old battle rare ‘bubble boy' disease
A rare disease that has cut off children from the outside world now potentially has a cure. News4’s Erika Gonzalez spoke to a Virginia family about how gene therapy changed their daughter’s life.
https://www.nbcwashington.com/video/news/health/gene-therapy-helps-virginia-12-year-old-battle-rare-bubble-boy-disease/4017272/
6 months ago
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This video featuring UCLA organic chemist Neil Garg helps explain why a dreaded college class is a wildly popular crowd favorite at UCLA. 🧪
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Organic chemistry is as simple as piano keys | Changing Key and Chemistry
YouTube video by Chemistry Shorts®
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XhxaNUF6lWk
6 months ago
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4
reposted by
Holly Ober
Stephanie M. Lee
7 months ago
"More than 60 professors and others up and down the state say they are suppressing their work and feel anxious about causing political problems for their campus, or that their own teaching will lead to hostility against themselves. Some say it’s already happened."
www.sfchronicle.com/california/a...
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UC professors censor their own classes waiting for Trump’s crackdown, court filings show
New court filings reveal University of California professors are altering lessons, canceling talks and avoiding sensitive topics as the Trump administration’s crackdown intensifies.
https://www.sfchronicle.com/california/article/trump-uc-crackdown-censor-21131308.php
0
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UCLA-led research found what caused Myanmar’s 2025 supershear earthquake: A straight, smooth fault, stress accumulation since the last major quake, and contrasting rock properties all created an ideal setting for the rupture to accelerate over hundreds of kilometers.
ucla.in/4hyws8Z
🧪
7 months ago
0
4
1
UCLA astronomer Jean-Luc Margot told the Atlantic that the International Astronomical Union has been in charge of planetary nomenclature for more than 100 years, but “surprisingly, they have not defined what a moon is." 🧪
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No One Actually Knows What a Moon Is
The universe has quasi-moons, mini-moons, and moonlets, but no official definition of what counts as a moon.
https://www.theatlantic.com/science/2025/10/quasi-moon-definition/684710/
7 months ago
0
4
1
reposted by
Holly Ober
UCLA Updates
7 months ago
Latest Teens & Screens report shows that yes, they still watch TV and movies and want more content centered on mix-gendered friendships not romance
newsroom.ucla.edu/releases/tee...
0
1
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UCLA biologist Joey Curti is UCLA's very own batman. Join him on a recent evening where he shared the secrets of LA's bats with an eager crowd, and cleared up some myths about these important but misunderstood mammals.
www.cbsnews.com/losangeles/v...
🧪
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LA scientist working to debunk myths surrounding bats with educational tours
Joy Benedict speaks with the local scientist working to debunk the myths surrounding bats by giving educational tours in Los Angeles.
https://www.cbsnews.com/losangeles/video/la-scientist-working-to-debunk-myths-surrounding-bats-with-educational-tours/
7 months ago
0
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Math professor Terence Tao and neuroscientist Vidya Saravanapandian told PBS Newshour's Stephanie Sy that US's global leadership in science hangs in the balance. 🧪
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Top researchers consider leaving U.S. amid funding cuts: 'The science world is ending'
A poll from the journal Nature found that 75% of researchers in the U.S. are considering leaving the country. That includes a man who’s been dubbed the "Mozart of Math." Stephanie Sy examines what’s b...
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/top-researchers-consider-leaving-u-s-amid-funding-cuts-the-science-world-is-ending
7 months ago
0
13
8
A photonic lantern used for the first time on a telescope has helped UCLA-led astronomers achieve the sharpest-ever measurement of a star’s surrounding disk, revealing that is is-- surprisingly-- lopsided.
ucla.in/43wGO3k
🧪
7 months ago
1
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A UCLA-led effort has taught enzymes an entirely new reaction mechanism—a radical hydrogenation process that nature itself never discovered. Enzymes can now rival or surpass precious-metal catalysts, paving the way for greener pharmaceuticals, fine chemicals, and biocatalytic materials. 🧪
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Biocatalytic, asymmetric radical hydrogenation of unactivated alkenes
Alkene hydrogenation is a cornerstone of chemical synthesis, yet enzymatic strategies remain limited to electron deficient substrates via hydride transfer. Using heme enzymes, we unlock a hydrogenatio...
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aea4737
8 months ago
0
16
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A blood stem cell gene therapy co-developed by UCLA’s Dr. Donald Kohn restored immune function in 59 of 62 children with ADA-SCID, a rare and fatal immune disorder, with no serious complications reported. Long-term follow-up shows 95% success rate in largest study to date.
ucla.in/4ojUZke
🧪
8 months ago
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2025's 5 Nobel Laureates who work and/or were educated in the University of California system reflect the power of a healthy, well-funded research ecosystem and of academic freedom.
www.latimes.com/california/n...
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Nobel Tote Board: University of California 5, Trump 0
UC Berkeley and other campuses win Nobel honors, despite a president who seems to loathe them.
https://www.latimes.com/california/newsletter/2025-10-11/essential-california-university-nobel-prizes-not-trump
8 months ago
0
3
0
reposted by
Holly Ober
Paul S. Weiss
8 months ago
Congratulations to our friend & former
@uclacb.bsky.social
colleague Prof. Omar Yaghi on winning the
@nobelprize.bsky.social
in chemistry for his groundbreaking
#nano
work on MOFs
0
4
1
reposted by
Holly Ober
UCLA Updates
8 months ago
Congratulations to former UCLA professor Omar Yaghi on winning the Nobel Prize in chemistry for his pioneering work in the development of metal-organic frameworks. Read more:
ucla.in/48Vy1vt
#NobelPrize
#AcademicSky
🧪
0
5
1
reposted by
Holly Ober
University of California
8 months ago
Discoveries that changed the world: Meet UC’s women @NobelPrize laureates
https://bit.ly/42wZj6x
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Discoveries that changed the world: Meet UC’s women Nobel laureates
Nearly a quarter of the women who have received Nobel Prizes in science have ties to UC.
https://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/news/discoveries-changed-world-meet-ucs-women-nobel-laureates
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#UCLA
neuroscientists discovered brain cells in rats that are wired for
#uncertainty
. The neurons, most active when a
#decision
outcome is unknown, appear to help with decision making and flexibility.
ucla.in/3Wumo7g
🧪
8 months ago
0
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1
In the 1980s, Louis Ignarro, a UCLA pharmacology professor , studied how air pollutant nitric oxide dilated blood vessels. Then, he was on the fringes of his field. “I pursued that much to the dismay of my colleagues, who thought I was crazy,” Ignarro recalled. Viagra emerged from this work. 🧪
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Trump slashed funding for universities that helped create these vital drugs
Medications that prevent HIV, shrink tumors and treat seizures were invented with government funding. At research universities, that money is now canceled or in jeopardy.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/interactive/2025/trump-university-research-medicine/
8 months ago
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Funded entirely by taxpayer dollars and developed exclusively at UCLA, a first-of-its-kind drug targets cellular metabolism to promote tissue repair of multiple organs and is ready for clinical trials.
ucla.in/46DzOUx
🧪
8 months ago
0
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6
"I think the consensus that
#science
was a route to national
#well-being
and
#prosperity
was widely shared by people across the political spectrum until very recently. It’s only been the past few years that we’ve seen a rising lack of trust in
#scientists
." 🧪
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How the US became a science superpower
America's leadership "isn't some fixed, unchanging feature of the scientific landscape," says one UC historian.
https://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/news/how-us-became-science-superpower
9 months ago
6
44
15
reposted by
Holly Ober
William H. Grover
9 months ago
❤️❤️❤️ these posters in the Geology building at UC Riverside ❤️❤️❤️ Seriously, why aren't we putting messages like these everywhere? I'd happily chip in some pro-NSF and pro-NIH billboards? 🧪
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“It’s not like you can just hit pause and pick it up and continue,” Vidya Saravanapandian of UCLA’s Brain Research Institute told
@latimes.com
reporter
@jaweedkaleem.bsky.social
. 🧪
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Yes, that’s a human brain on a cafeteria tray. UCLA fair shows off science cuts under Trump
UCLA's researchers go low-tech to plead their case to the public with poster boards and props. The Trump administration has suspended more than $500 million in research grants to the university.
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-09-12/ucla-science-fair-trump-grant-cancellations
9 months ago
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