Really cool, conceptually simple approach here: cross-referencing grant proposal scores with literature citations and explicit acknowledgments in drug patents to identify patents linked to projects that wouldn't have been funded given a smaller budget

Truly impressive number of birds migrating tonight. More than 800 MILLION birds up in the air right now❗ #BirdMigration

📣 Our department is hiring an Assistant Professor in Evolutionary Cell and Molecular Biology to join the @weillinstitute.bsky.social PLS spread the word! academicjobsonline.org/ajo/jobs/30607

Medical ethicist Arthur Kaplan, quoted in the NYT: “The announcement on autism was the saddest display of a lack of evidence, rumors, recyling old myths, lousy advice, outright lies & dangerous advice I have ever witnessed by anyone in authority in the world claiming to know anything about science”

Tenure-track Assistant Professor in Computational Ecology and/or Evolution @columbiauniversity.bsky.social. Deadline to apply September 30. Reach out if you have questions. apply.interfolio.com/172496

Excellent explainer on why private industry and venture capital can’t replace government funded basic science research.

Fantastic piece in Nature Reviews Neuro by @nicolecrust.bsky.social on the importance of science communication. My take? Everything matters - just do something. It will make a difference for how science is valued and trusted, how community understands. Let's get out there and communicate! 👏

"More professors in the United States have been fired for controversial views in the past week than any other week in all of American history." www.insidehighered.com/opinion/colu...

If this is implemented and stands in the courts, significantly fewer international graduate students will come to American universities because it will be nearly impossible to get a job in the U.S. after graduation. Another major hit to the U.S. higher education system

UPDATE: The 2025-2026 list of faculty and postdoc positions in ecology and evolutionary biology is out! Be sure to check out this active and helpful community run resources! docs.google.com/spreadsheets...

Reupping support for journalism outlets not beholden to corporate interests. When everything is a commodity, it's worth asking where your news is coming from. What are your favorites? Mine are @apnews.com @propublica.org @theguardian.com @pbsnews.org @motherjones.com @haaretzcom.bsky.social

Open Call for Expressions of Interest: become a Max Planck Director & redefine what’s possible in science! We offer scientific independence, long-term stable funding & exceptional infrastructure. Lead your own department & open new frontiers of research. Apply by 31 Oct 2025 → www.mpg.de/directors

By the head of the Federal Communications Commission, in 2022:

Naiavirus: an enveloped giant virus with a pleomorphic, flexible tail nature.com/articles/s41467-025-63463-6

Despite its 162-year-history of service, congressional Republicans tell federal agencies not to seek the advice of the National Academies. www.science.org/content/arti...

My awesome Drosophila colleague Akhila Rajan at Fred Hutch (Seattle) is recruiting both a staff scientist and a postdoc to study fat–brain communication, innate immunity, mitochondrial signaling, and brain senescence. Great team, great environment. Apply here: careers-fhcrc.icims.com/jobs/30062/j...

www.the-scientist.com/lasker-award... 🧪 #devbio #LaskerAward #Lasker2025 #LaskerLaureate

can someone in new york take me with you when you go to vote for this man i just want to know what it feels like

In Florida alone, a 15% decline in vaccinations against measles over 25 years would lead to 1 million measles cases. www.cnn.com/2025/09/09/h...

Nice interview to Katie Peichel @currentbiology.bsky.social I completely agree with her claims for more funding for curiosity-driven research, basic Science... Science. www.cell.com/current-biol...

The LSRF post-doc fellowship is open (due Oct 31)! The LSRF is a supportive and kind community. We *always* celebrate each other. On a personal level, they've always greeted me with open arms and an abundance of kindness. If you are thinking of applying and have questions, feel free to reach out!

Updating my analysis now that August data should be relatively complete. Not great news... The rate of investment of the appropriation is not increasing and it seems unlikely that the entire appropriation will be committed this year. 1/2

Save the date! #PEQG26 June 9-12 2026 in Asilomar, CA. Happens only every 2yrs, but is my favorite conference. Full website coming soon, and registration and abstract submission opens November 14, but I'm allowed to tease that keynotes will be @jnovembre.bsky.social @jennytung.bsky.social and me!

Fantastic opportunity. Vienna rocks!

It was only a matter of time before we'd see both stories like this and passages like footnote 9 in Judge Burroughs' ruling yesterday in the Harvard case. It's one thing to be bound by #SCOTUS; it's another thing to respect what the justices are doing. The decline of the latter is a five-alarm fire.

Recent efforts to undermine peer review and put decisions in the hands of political appointees rather than scientists have many of us concerned. kffhealthnews.org/news/article...

I think it was right after the election that I saw someone here (unfortunately can't recall who it was) point out that we might move towards something more like the EU: a common market with some federal oversight, but vastly different policies and even individual rights across units. This is it.

More than 1,000 HHS staff call on RFK Jr. to resign thehill.com/policy/healt...

Couple of things: 1) @drugmonkey.bsky.social is multiplying the MYF grants by 4 here, so the real number of missing new R grants is over 2,000. 2) it's very variable from IC to IC. The NCI is currently at 31%, which is just awful. The NIAAA is a shell of it's former self at just 7%.

RFK Jr critic Paul Offit removed from FDA vaccine advisory committee. Paul remains one of the most thoughtful scientists I know to articulate the importance of vaccine safety and proper clinical trials!

"We’re currently at about 54% of last year’s total [of funded R01s]...Another way to look at this is that we’re missing 1,809 new R01s."

🧪 And House appropriators say: no cuts to NIH budget! House subcommittee version just came out (link below). Holds NIH flat at $48 billion. To be clear: this is far from over. But a good sign that science still matters across both sides of aisle. YOUR VOICE MATTERS!!

Yes, it was carefully hidden in the New England Journal of Medicine. Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine (www.nejm.org/doi/pdf/10.1... ) 1/2

More foundations should do this: "Funding is exclusively available to applicants who have already received federal funding (e.g., from the NIH, CDC, NSF) for their health equity research, but have since had their funding rescinded due to federal administrative actions" www.rwjf.org/en/grants/ac...

This is not an overstatement The drug that has like saved my life in my 40s was only approved for medical use the year I started college. It’s heartbreaking to think about how many people like me won’t get to have a story like this with a new drug because of cuts to funding

Feeling mitochondrially challenged lately? Here are two classic reviews on #mitochondria that should help. www.cell.com/current-biol... www.cell.com/current-biol...

CDC staff held a “clap-out” on Thursday to honor three of the agency’s high-ranking officials, who resigned in protest after President Trump fired the director, Susan Monarez. nyti.ms/4oSxakJ

"Tao is one of the most prominent mathematicians and academics to publicly oppose the administration’s actions, calling them an “existential threat” to his field, and academic science, more broadly. He said public advocacy is a priority over his research, for now." www.nbcnews.com/science/scie...

Wow

FlyBase needs your help! We ask that European labs continue to contribute to Cambridge, UK FlyBase, whereas US and other non-European labs can contribute to US FlyBase. For more information and how to donate: wiki.flybase.org/wiki/FlyBase...

Official data is in today, and America set a new record-high for solar power in June, with generation up 25% compared to last year!

This is of course brought to you by the same folks who had a full-on panic about some universities asking for diversity statements when hiring professors to teach diverse student populations. Because that was “ideological” but of course supporting Trump EOs is just … weather ?

🚨BREAKING: In a landmark victory for voters, a Utah judge struck down the state Legislature’s gerrymandered congressional map and reinstated the citizen-led redistricting reforms voters approved in 2018. www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/...

Hey everyone, you’ve been asking me to run for office for a while, so guess what? I’m running for California State Assembly! Now, I don’t like asking for money, but we gotta pay for this somehow, and if everyone throws in $7 we’ll have the resources to run one hell of a race, so, uh, do the thing.

A Republican mayor of a red state capital calling anti-DEI efforts what they are: bigotry, misogyny, and sexism.

New York Times story with profiles of researchers whose grants were terminated. [Gift Link] www.nytimes.com/2025/08/24/o...

'Tariffs threaten to hit antibiotics particularly hard. The drugs have very thin profit margins, they are vulnerable to shortages and U.S. production is very limited. Other widely used and vulnerable antibiotics include ciprofloxacin and doxycycline.' www.nytimes.com/2025/08/23/h...

We're hiring in my Division of Berkeley MCB. Come be my new colleague!

Luttig is communicating vastly more clearly and honestly about Roberts and Scotus than most Democratic officials are. It’s absolutely flabbergasting.