The media needs to stop writing headlines like “The CDC changes course on vaccines and autism” and “The CDC defends measles response”. NONE of this is coming from legitimate scientists at the CDC. ALL of it is coming from RFK Jr. Every such headline is causing further harm to public health.

Really excited to share this work from the @laura-a-vella.bsky.social and @derek-oldridge.bsky.social labs, led by an amazing MD/PhD student! Sam asked if Tfh spatially localised within germinal centers have distinct gene expression programs & identified GNG4 as a key feature of GC-positioned Tfh.

If women are underrepresented in STEM, it's at least partly because men like this offer mentoring, then embarrass themselves by assuming their mentees must be into them, then decide the best solution is to cut ties, which sends the signal to other faculty that the mentee must not be good enough.

Paul Nurse describing the main job of a PI (From ‘The Thinking Game’, 2024)

"...researchers who invest time in their students tend to lead more-productive, more-collaborative groups and attract stronger future students than those who do not." "Time spent with the next generation of scientists is an investment." www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin ✨ figured out what stars are made of ✨ when she was just 25. 🔭🧪 Her PhD thesis basically established the Harvard astro department — at a time when Harvard didn't officially allow woman students. I wrote this little profile to mark the 100th anniversary of her thesis:

27 years ago, two years after the introduction of effective HIV treatment, the Bay Area Reporter, San Francisco’s lesbian and gay community newspaper, ran ‘No Obits’ as its headline. It was the first edition not to report an AIDS death in almost 15 years.

As always, Ted Chiang is great in this interview. cdh.princeton.edu/blog/2025/08...

I cannot emphasize enough that the playbook being used against mRNA vaccines (and vaccines in general) is IDENTICAL to the playbook used to restrict voting rights after the 2020 election: actively sow public distrust, then cite the distrust you sowed as an independent reason for your desired policy

kennedy is going to kill a lot of people

This is moving. Kamala Harris feels the pain we feel. Not just from her loss, but from the trauma and abuse our country is living through. What could have been…

In an exclusive chat with Science, Loreen Willenberg describes remaining HIV-free even after immune-suppressing therapies for brain and lung tumors. scim.ag/4lYu3pl

NASA is more than rockets and moonwalks. NASA is behind much of our everyday technology. From space discovery, to Air Jordans, to CAT scans, NASA has played a role. We get it all on less than a penny of every federal dollar. Now their science may be gutted by 50%. #NASADidThat

1/2 You could write a book about one atrocious headline in print NYT today (I sort of wrote this book 30 years ago, Breaking the News, but others can take a turn.) What's wrong this headline? Mamdani "faces scrutiny" **ONLY AND EXCLUSIVELY** because NYT decided to make this a "thing." Really bad.

Behind every cure, every breakthrough, every treatment — is someone who needed it. If NIH funding helped you, your research, or someone you love, your story can help protect it. Share your “why” and help defend the future of NIH & science. Fill out the form here: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

say it again: 4 million people work in higher ed, the largest employer in 10 states, second largest employer in 10 more, and in 60 of the 100 biggest cities ROI for NIH and NSF for local economies is conservatively 4x, often close to 10x demolishing higher education is economic sabotage

this is a letter to the editor from a high school track runner who came in second to a trans girl in a race. her state house rep in maine started talking about it. so she wrote this: www.pressherald.com/2025/05/14/r...

PI: "this draft is so great, why didn't we write it this way in the first place??" PhD student: "I did, and then you told me to change it"

The worst happened. We were DOGE’d. Our NSF funding is gone. So now there’s nothing stopping me from sharing Expert Voices Together, a crisis response system for US-based researchers and journalists facing harassment. It's a true passion project. 🧵 1/ expertvoicestogether.org

🧪 Here is a resource that tracks federal grants that have been terminated. grant-watch.us

"Women are PIs on 58% of the canceled grants, although they are PIs on only 34% of all active NSF grants. Similarly, Blacks are PIs on 17% of the terminated grants, although they make only 4% of the total pool. Hispanic PIs and those with disabilities were twice as likely to lose a grant."

“The political environment in Russia made it hard to do science because everything was unpredictable. […] That type of uncertainty is incompatible with science, which requires the ability to plan what type of experiments and research you will do a year into the future.”

It was a privilege to help tell the stories of U.S. scientists whose lives have been upended during the first 100 days of President Donald Trump’s administration in this recent piece for @science.org

🆕 'Supporting medical science in the USA' Read the latest Lancet Editorial: tinyurl.com/2ra3r7e8 📖 Full issue: tinyurl.com/5n74jjn7

PhD Timeline xkcd.com/3081

A colleague at Stanford’s business school used The Stanford Daily to argue—poorly—against DEI. The piece was riddled with historical errors and left one searching for fact, so I broke my public writing hiatus to respond. I hope you’ll read and share the piece. stanforddaily.com/2025/04/22/w...

‘Never mind’ is used as a conjunction to mean "let alone" and, imperatively, to suggest disregard. -“Never mind him.” ‘Nevermind’ is a noun meaning "concern.” -"Pay him no nevermind." ‘Never mind’ is currently more common as two words. Here we are now, entertain us.

Almost every line of this story would have been simply unbelievable a few months ago: —Pioneering cancer researcher; —*Arrested* at airport in Boston; —Now indefinite ICE detention in Louisiana; —"Crime": not declaring some frog-embryo samples for research. Read it. www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news...

Staple this to RFK Jr’s forehead.

🚀🚀

When my students ask me "what was the most significant change in the last 100 years?" they always expect me to say "the Internet" or "space travel." But most Americans fundamentally don't understand either "some of your siblings will die young" or "women are pregnant or nursing for 1/2 their lives."

Tariffs xkcd.com/3073

Here is a look at how measles — one of the world’s most infectious viruses — takes over the body.

Another terrible day for young scientists. The NIH just sent termination notices for the MARC, PREP, IMSD, IRACDA and Bridges programs.

“We must dissent because America can do better.” Good to hear Wisconsin Judge Susan Crawford quote Justice Thurgood Marshall in her victory speech tonight.

So excited to share our new study led by the amazingly talented @janehuang.bsky.social. Jane & a @ejohnwherry.bsky.social lab team identified a role for TOX in limiting cell fate reprogramming of exhausted CD8 T cells by "locking in" the exhaustion epigenetic program. See Jane's thread for details!

From 2010 to 2016 (latest data I have ), NIH research contributed to EVERY drug approved by the FDA

Congrats to Atishay and Carlos for their review article on the epigenetics regulation of T cells: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

This is disgraceful and un-American. The Trump administration defended its removal of articles highlighting the achievements of minority service members, including Navajo code talkers, Marines at Iwo Jima, and famed Black baseball player Jackie Robinson.

Lungfish xkcd.com/3064

The thing about scientific research is that it’s one of the few national investments that’s a clear public good even if you entirely discount the actual ostensible point of it.

Welcome to the Bluesky account for Stand Up for Science 2025! Keep an eye on this space for updates, event information, and ways to get involved. We can't wait to see everyone #standupforscience2025 on March 7th, both in DC and locations nationwide! #scienceforall #sciencenotsilence

Happy International Day of Women in Science. The National Science Foundation’s list of flagged words includes both “Women” and “Female.”

8/8. So, if you’re feeling down about these attacks, I understand—I feel that way too. But just remember that they’re not attacking because your work doesn’t matter; they’re attacking *precisely* because it does. So, get some rest, connect with your people, and keep doing it.

1. Today the NIH director issued a new directive slashing overhead rates to 15%. I want to provide some context on what that means and why it matters. grants.nih.gov/grants/guide...