This kind of inconsistency is often used to lift up a few women without helping all, maintaining misogyny. How many other women, and non-white people, could have had a similar effect given the chance or opportunity? We will never know.

The Acknowledgements sections from papers of that era, through even the 80s, are truly maddening. Having had this pointed out to me many years ago has made me much more aware of how to be fair about authorship in my own lab. So thanks @merz.bsky.social for highlighting this.

Is it okay to be skeptical of peer-review AI trained on real human reviewers? Considering the variable quality of reviews and the ever-increasing demands for additional experiments that largely do not change main interpretations. I respect the idea, but worry that it will exacerbate revision costs.

obviously, it's unclear what will happen with the final budget but the Senate appropriations committee explicitly blocked the MYF plan in their proposed budget while the House committee doesn't mention it in theirs fabbs.org/news/2025/08... www.science.org/content/arti...

It’s nuts not to acknowledge that readability and clarity matter. Or that attempts to evade page / font limits by throwing in massive descriptive “figure legends” at 6pt won’t irritate the fairness nerve

I encourage you to read the replies to this post, even — especially — if you did not know Zara.

We get amazing combination a lot. I actually think much of it goes back to a deep misunderstanding: people believe you must have mechanism to show causality. And you don't. And there is no forum in which you can just-in-time train them on this foundational concept.

As an author, I frequently encounter reviewers who should be overruled -- gatekeepers. My main complaint is has been that many editors do not have the confidence/expertise to do so (but some do). a) Thank goodness for preprints, b) I review with the expectation that the paper will be published.

The application deadline closes at the end of the week. Apply to join our awesome department.

Seems like a good time to re-up this for a department that does not act like this. bsky.app/profile/lewi...

Breaking the publication bias against null results requires authors to submit the manuscript, sure, but also requires reviewers to tell the Editor why it is important to publish.

Why do complex traits differ in their genetic architecture? In our new PLOS Biology paper, we will try to convince you that two simple scaling laws drive differences in the number, effect sizes and frequencies of causal variants affecting complex traits. Thread: journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...

We (*gestures at society at large*) do not discuss the many externalities from 2020-c.2022 enough (read at all)

"I couldn’t beat em. So I joined em. And I tell more junior folks to do the same. Cite your funding generously." totally agree but would like to point out ways that other NIH policies are pushing people to consider whether they should cite their funding, pushing work back into the shadows

Some in this audience are, or will become, peer reviewers. It is important in these discussions to point out how things are supposed to go, or how we think things should go, while we are talking about survival strategies.

If the NIH is working up to mandating open access publishing, we should just be able to supply the grant number and let the publisher bill the NIH directly. right?

Oh and one last thing: it provides a SKILL based argument for things like the PDEP and contributions to DEI statements, critically illustrating that these were NOT ideological statements but competencies that more diverse training environments required for the benefit of all trainees

@joann-trejo.bsky.social, @marymunson4.bsky.social and I have a commentary in @natcellbio.nature.com on recent attacks on DEI in biomedical research: "If scientific research, especially biomedical research, is meant to serve everyone, then it requires that everyone has an opportunity to participate"

One of the most exciting works of my career, years in the making. We used high-throughput precision genome editing to test the fitness effects of thousands of natural variants. Our findings challenge the long-held assumption that common variants are inconsequential. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

This is an incredibly clear line- the SRO serves many purposes but handling conflicts of interest and monitoring discussion is the number one job in my mind. Panel members are not to communicate about any application outside of panel discussion- otherwise no way to certify discussion appropriate

Unlike extramural PIs, no one working at the NIH/NSF or in the federal government is currently getting a paycheck. So if I am worried about people keeping a roof over their head, I am more worried about federal employees than extramural PIs at the moment.

IMHO, there needs to be mechanisms in place that allow for upward mobility. There should be a place for funding great ideas. I prefer having a number of mechanisms that weigh differently support for (non-traditional) entry into the system vs rewarding productivity and established labs. 1/

Happy "No Kings" Day! I just sent this email to Director Bhattacharya regarding the recently appointment of a new NIEHS Director.

A university that signs the “compact” is one that acknowledges its own inability to compete and succeed based talent and merit. It would signal insecurity and mediocrity to current and future students and faculty. Say no. Recruit the best people, protect their freedom and support their hard work.

✨ Latest exciting story of the group in @nature.com. Here, we go beyond SNPs and built a species-wide atlas of genetic variants in yeast. With >1,000 near T2T genomes, we show how large genomic variations affect trait diversity. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Incredible new paper from @schacherer.bsky.social et al rdcu.be/eLcTH

The #Yeast26 website is live—start planning your conference attendance now! 🧬 Browse abstract submission topics, key dates, speaker & venue info, details on travel funding, and more: buff.ly/HFIt31b Bookmark the page to stay updated as new information becomes available!

Be careful in how you beat those drums when those listening are not looking to reform but to dismantle.

But. I really hope we all think super hard about our chosen anecdotes and how they may strike the ear of non-academics. And how the way we frame the operations of NIH-funded extramural science may set perceptions that are adverse to NIH’s interests and make it really hard to answer “why”.

I just emailed my "Silence" essay to the Presidents/Chancellors and Provosts of the 9 Compact universities as well as those from the 4 orgs with which I have been formally affiliated. The essay can be found here: jeremymberg.github.io/jeremyberg.g... and here: www.linkedin.com/posts/jeremy...

"rather than articulating and defending these goals and processes, many parts of the scientific establishment seemed to be rushing to violate one of the first tenets of historian Timothy Snyder’s important book On Tyranny: Do not obey in advance." 🧪

In which my supposed naivete and the sophistication of Very Savvy Insiders is discussed. Feigned helplessness at the NIH drugmonkey.wordpress.com/2025/10/03/f...

"Why did I drink all that crab juice?" Every single time that I have to pee at an inopportune moment.

Here is NIGMS. This reflects Jon Lorsch's push away from R01s and toward MIRA awards (R35s). While there are some advantages to the R35 mechanism, there are downsides to "putting all of your eggs in one basket" as some discovered this year. 8/n

"For scientists, shutdowns can cause significant delays in research outcomes, can cause financial uncertainty for more than just those directly involved, and increase the loss of institutional knowledge from employees that leave...a huge impact on how competitive the U.S. R&D enterprise can be."

A true hero... She changed how we think about so many things...

Due to the relative proportion of applications with Black and white PIs, fixing the Ginther gap would have a trivial effect on success rates for majoritarians. An early 'splainer on that is here More thoughts on the dismal NIH response to Ginther drugmonkey.wordpress.com/2014/01/15/m...

I never imagined there would be such a purge of NIH-dom's web pages and blogs. I really should have been less slipshod about documenting. Still, for those wondering what I am ranting about... Additional Analysis of Demographic-Specific NIH Funding Rates drugmonkey.wordpress.com/2023/07/26/a...

I think the R01 is basically a non-starter at NIGMS now. Data from NIH Reporter for new and competing awards, comparing number of R01s issued relative to R35s (MIRA). This has major ramifications for basic science and basic science investigators that are not yet in the MIRA pool

Utterly demoralizing. Question for NIH peeps more in the know: if MYF returns to normal FY24 levels for FY26, can NIH fund grants from FY25? Or would only success rates for FY26 grants be affected?

We've got hundreds of signatures in five hours... but if we can cross 1000 by morning when I send this to NSF that'd be great. The stories from past, current, and future applicants in the comments section are hearbreaking. Keep up the pressure, and please please sign!!!

"I would argue that this [research service] is no less so, and no less important, than when our country requests some of our young people to join the military." I really like this framing of how to think about research fellowships and their purpose.

On the nature of a NSF (or NIH) graduate training fellowship drugmonkey.wordpress.com/2025/09/29/o...

Very excited to announce that our department is now accepting applications for a tenure track faculty position in Cell Biology: uasys.wd5.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/UASYS/... Come join our wonderful department!

Tenure-track Assistant Professor position in Bioinformatics in the Department of Biology at the University of San Francisco usfca.wd5.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/USF_Fu...

With the new GRFP solicitation generating a lot of rightful frustration for 2nd-year grad students (this change being announced so late in the cycle is certainly unfair), I do think it's important to understand that NSF historically has wanted more undergraduates to apply. 1/

Whether you think limiting student visas to 4 years is a good or bad thing, please comment. Be heard.

Assistant Professor Plant or Fungal Genomics. Univ of Wyoming. eeik.fa.us2.oraclecloud.com/hcmUI/Candid...