This pushes back on the posts rocketing around last week. NSF is in a different position than NIH. NSF’s spending plan has been approved by OMB. What’s in the plan? We do not know yet but certainly Congress will want to make certain the NSF plan complies with the appropriations language.

In Jan. Congress appropriated NSF money in a minibus bill In Feb. OMB apportioned that funding to NSF (openomb.org/file/11505250) NSF then had to develop a spending plan for the funds before using most of them NSF's spending plan was sent to OMB earlier this month and is now with Congress

When I grew up in the 1970s, there were just a handful of vaccines Today, we are lucky to have vaccines against more than 20 diseases! Science has worked, what we need is greater access & less disinformation!

This is an important point from Dan and is noted in Jeff's article: OMB has approved the NSF current plan. Now Congress is reviewing it and in today's fraught environment, it's not surprising that the appropriators are taking a bit longer to parse it.

The situation is basically that NSF's spending plan needs to be reviewed and confirmed by both OMB and Congress before money flows down to program level. (Distinct from OMB impoundment of NIH funds last year.) NSF's spending plan has passed OMB and is currently with Congress, as I understand.

The Iago Effect

Short 🧵Basic research has stagnated in comparison with a sharp uptick in short-term development thanks in part to generous tax breaks. 1/

I don't think people fully appreciate how apocalyptic things are for US science. I haven't had any new funding since 2024, but I'm still ok since typical grants are for three years. This means next year I will be completely out of funding and will have to fire everyone in the lab. It's not great.

Energy Department Seeks to Strengthen Grid Resilience via Quantum Algorithm Competition https://viewfromarchstreet.com/2026/03/26/energy-department-seeks-to-strengthen-grid-resilience-via-quantum-algorithm-competition/

One-quarter of the Massachusetts economy is tied to research and development www.bostonglobe.com/2026/03/26/n...

Utica tomato pie is a delicacy

Listening to Erwin Gianchandani of NSF and Dr Patrick O’Shea, University of Maryland Research VP discussing ways to translate federal research into impact.

"Remote work can blunt the fertility decline" cepr.org/voxeu/column... "We find clear evidence that one-year fertility rates rise with occupation-level work-from-home opportunities."

reinforced cockpit doors has to be high up on the top 10 highest payoff simple rule/low tech changes list

Yes the sports used to be illustrated

This covers a lot of waterfront in a short essay but it brushes up on an important issue— Creating and enforcing rules come with costs. This is where human trust comes in. Humans use trust as a way to reduce rule costs and allow actions to take place.

The cybersecurity world relies on the CVE Program to vet and label vulnerabilities. But amid U.S. funding concerns, AI-fueled bug reporting and global fragmentation, the program is teetering on the brink, according to a warning from #RSAC today. My story: www.cybersecuritydive.com/news/cve-pro...

We haven’t had a 9/11 repeat because (a) we reinforced cockpit doors, and (b) the fact that 9/11 happened once permanently altered how crew & passengers would react to a hijack, literally on the same day. Everything else, the shoes and the liquids and all that, is useless theater.

The bill seeks to spur regional innovation in quantum technology through the NSF Engines program and the Department of Energy. viewfromarchstreet.com/2026/03/23/q...

If you have an iPhone, today is a good day to make sure you are running the latest software. techcrunch.com/2026/03/23/s...

The bill seeks to spur regional innovation in quantum technology through the NSF Engines program and the Department of Energy. viewfromarchstreet.com/2026/03/23/q...

CRISPR–Cas9 might offer a way to make safer, more effective cancer-fighting immune cells engineered inside the human body go.nature.com/41h4lDV

An @AAUniversities analysis of publicly available NIH data shows a sharp slowdown in NIH grantmaking. Delays in spending of Congressional appropriated FY26 funds are already disrupting labs, trainees, and biomedical research putting future discoveries at risk. #SciPol 🔗 www.aau.edu/newsroom/lea...

-- Immigration has been a key driver of economic growth in U.S. metro areas over the past 10 years. -- Metro areas with the greatest increases in foreign-born population share saw higher employment rates among both foreign-born and native-born workers. www.brookings.edu/articles/met...

Stony Brook University Launches Quantum Institute news.stonybrook.edu/university/s...

A second iOS exploit has been found in the wild, again used by Russian spies to infect websites and hack visitors' iPhones. This one works on iOS 18, and appeared in a very reusable form, so will likely proliferate. If you haven't updated your iPhone, now's the time. www.wired.com/story/hundre...

This ProPublica story about the government approving Microsoft cloud products despite reviewers deeming them alarmingly opaque and insecure sure doesn't reflect well on Microsoft, its third-party auditors, its government allies, or D.C.'s revolving door. www.propublica.org/article/micr...

seeing the light

An old Irish proverb about groupthink is nuair a chacann gé, cacann siad go léir. It means “when one goose shits, they all do.”

Implementing a U.S. Cyber Force: A Conversation with Representative Pat Fallon www.youtube.com/live/aPUNWVy...

Cancer vaccines are showing marked efficacy vs refractory cancers and are going to be part of the future Rx armamentarium. Beyond that, ultimately, for prevention in high-risk individuals. A new stellar review @naturemedicine.bsky.social nature.com/articles/s41...

Senators questioned equity-stakes in semiconductor and critical mineral companies as well as the withholding of CHIPS and Science Act funds. www.aip.org/fyi/senators...

How AI is Changing Drones, 5G, and the Future of Communication youtu.be/tONDCftp-50

What we call AI (LLM technology) doesn’t contribute to either the creation of new knowledge or to human learning. It’s not called derivative for nothing.

Inelasticity is a helluva thing

How the U.S. can maintain its edge in AI without leaving workers behind www.brookings.edu/articles/how...

"For the first time since we began tracking zero-day exploitation, we attributed more zero-days to commercial surveillance vendors than to traditional state-sponsored cyber espionage groups." Love to see the stats backing up my hunch. cloud.google.com/blog/topics/...

First Gen X'ers are now...(checks notes.)..60

Federal science workforce in 2025: NSF down over 30% USGS, NOAA, and NIH down 20% DOE down 17% NIST down 15% NASA down 12% By comparison, the total federal civilian workforce was down approximately 10% last year. www.aip.org/fyi/federal-...

A lot of expertise was lost in last year’s mass layoffs eos.org/research-and...

Celtics win in L.A. on Pat Riley Day just seems right.

“The total amount of energy from outside the solar system ever received by all the radio telescopes on the planet Earth is less than the energy of a single snowflake hitting the ground.” — Carl Sagan

It's called health risk management. It's what doctors are trained to do. Lots of drugs work 'too well' see: hypertension medication. www.nytimes.com/2026/02/18/w...

The article also notes that Jim O'Neill-- former acting head of CDC-- will be nominated as NSF Director. If confirmed O'Neill would be the first non-scientist or engineer to hold the post. www.politico.com/news/2026/02...

What's happening during attention lapses after poor sleep? A fluid wave. Your brain is trying to clean itself, to wash away waste products. nature.com/articles/s41... gift link wsj.com/health/welln...

White House Drafting Executive Order To Reshape U.S. Quantum Policy thequantuminsider.com/2026/02/04/w...

Impoundment looms www.chronicle.com/article/how-...

Why Great Innovations Fail to Scale hbr.org/2026/03/why-...