Doctors across the nation are alarmed that skepticism fueled by rising anti-science sentiment and medical mistrust is increasingly reaching beyond vaccines to other safe and routine care for babies.

China could be the world’s biggest public funder of science within two years www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Submitted without comment: An "AI-curated knowledge platform" emailed me to let me it has a profile of me and my work. Here's the picture the AI picked for my story on Neanderthal male/modern-human female mating preferences.

NEW: RFK Jr. is spreading doubts about vaccine safety and considering changes that could prompt manufacturers to flee the U.S. market. History has shown how plagues from the past can roar back when trust in shots — or access to them — falters.

National survey of NIH-funded researchers shows precarious state of U.S. science — ‘This is like the Titanic’ --Survey/report from @statnews.com www.statnews.com/2026/03/19/n...

Dopamine takes a hit: how neuroscience is rethinking the ‘feel-good’ chemical. (Bonus Omar Little quote included.) www.nature.com/articles/d41...

"If society surrenders to the illusion of sentient AI, it risks entering a digital hall of mirrors from which it might never fully emerge." --Commentary from @mustafasuleymanai.bsky.social www.nature.com/articles/d41...

The total number of books published in the U.S. in 2025 with ISBN numbers jumped 32.5% over 2024, to more than four million books. www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/...

U.S. Considers Withholding H.I.V. Aid Unless Zambia Expands Minerals Access. Story by @stephanienolen.bsky.social Gift link: nyti.ms/4bLRbF4

Another airborne killer strikes: Two dead of meningitis in England, with more cases under investigation. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...

I’m speaking today and tomorrow in Tucson. See you there!

The Lost Science series continues: Erin McGuire talks to @emilyanthes.bsky.social about how her team of 200 scientists studying crops across Africa, Asia, and Latin America got shut down because their work "was no longer of interest to the American government." Gift link: nyti.ms/4sMi8hQ

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WASHINGTON (AP) — Pentagon tells Congress the first week of the Iran war cost the US $11.3 billion, an AP source says.

I'm suing Grammarly over its paid AI feature that presented editing suggestions as if they came from me - and many other writers and journalists - without consent. State law requires consent before someone's name can be used for commercial purposes. www.wired.com/story/gramma...

First AI folks take our books without permission or compensation. Then AI folks take us.

Breath to genome: Whole genome sequencing of large whales from blow sampling (Preprint) www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

“The childhood vaccination schedule needs to be eliminated," MAHA Institute's president said at a meeting Monday, @notus.com reports www.notus.org/health-scien...

"Russian flu," the pandemic that hit in 1977, bears an evolutionary signature of having emerged from a lab, perhaps as part of a failed vaccine effort. Covid, mpox, Ebola, and other influenza pandemics don't. Here's my story on a new way to trace the origins of pandemics. Gift link: nyti.ms/46N0W33

Greetings, good people of Tucson! I'll be at the Tucson Book Festival next weekend. Hope to see you there! Details here tucsonfestivalofbooks.org?action=displ...

Vinay Prasad is leaving FDA (again). www.wsj.com/health/healt...

O'Neill, an investor in anti-aging technology who worked on HHS policy, would be the first non-scientist or engineer to lead NSF. His background will be a 'major concern' to the science and technology community, former NSF director Neal Lane told me. @maxkozlov.bsky.social and I report:

Ah, yes, the invaluable wisdom of the markets.

A new lawsuit alleges Google’s chatbot sent a Florida man on missions to find an android body it could inhabit. When that failed, it set a suicide countdown clock for him. www.wsj.com/tech/ai/gemi...

US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth confirmed the US military carried out a strike against an Iranian warship off the coast of Sri Lanka. Follow live updates here: reut.rs/4ramoWW

Excellent book on the history of the science of the air we breathe. Great examination of the causes of some of the early uncertainty of how COVID spread. #booksky #bookreview ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ @carlzimmer.com

"The biomedical research community is facing the prospect of major funding disruptions again this year." www.science.org/content/arti...

Stanley Plotkin had a major hand in the development of a number of vaccines in use today; he designed the rubella vaccine. He remembers the world before widespread use of vaccines & knows what's coming as vaccine policy is rewritten & vaccine confidence is eroded. www.statnews.com/2026/03/02/s...

NSF Update (Awards through 2/27/26) Directorates to follow 1/10

Study finds ChatGPT Health did not recommend a hospital visit when medically necessary in more than half of cases. www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

Congress rejected massive cuts to US science budgets for 2026, but much of the money still isn’t flowing to researchers. The culprit? The White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is quietly slow-walking the release of funds. 🧵👇

Cases of #measles have surged in 2026 with 1,270 cases reported, new detections in wastewater across states in areas without confirmed cases showing signs of spread. Check out this week's #TrackingReport to learn more about measles and other outbreaks from this week. mailchi.mp/messages/pan...

"Contrary to assumptions of post-acute recovery, Long COVID is associated with progressively widening healthcare costs over five years." Preprint from Massachusetts General Hospital researchers: www.medrxiv.org/content/10.6...

Here's a nice clear explainer of the new Neanderthal study, by @carlzimmer.com, including commentary from a range of experts in population genomics & paleoanthropology. 👇

Neanderthals, modern humans, and the rules of attraction. Here's my story on a tantalizing study on mating preferences as far back as 250,000 years ago. Gift link: nyti.ms/4bcNzvy

Del Bigtree, a longtime ally of RFK Jr., says he wants not only his own children to contract measles, but others as well. www.theatlantic.com/health/2026/...

The origin of our eyes over half a billion years ago is looking more and more weird--from a cyclops to four eyes to two. Here's my story (gift link): nyti.ms/4rzisQP

Wake up and smell the roses. This tiny, mighty, microscopic captain is a distant part of our human origin story.

Hell yeah look at that little guy go

One of the biggest questions in biology is how complex cells evolved about 2 billion years ago. Here's my new story on how scientists are solving the mystery of eukaryotes like us. Gift link: nyti.ms/4qMbo22

One of the biggest questions in biology is how complex cells evolved about 2 billion years ago. Here's my new story on how scientists are solving the mystery of eukaryotes like us. Gift link: nyti.ms/4qMbo22

For my latest for @opinion.bloomberg.com, wrote about RFK Jr.'s disastrous first year as health secretary:

“It’s like going to battle with half your generals in place.” Of the 27 institutes and centers that make up NIH, 16 were missing permanent directors as of Friday, when staff received news of the latest departure. www.nbcnews.com/health/healt...

As expected, in the final rule, EPA's Endangerment Finding repeal backs down entirely from challenging the science, choosing to focus on statutory arguments regarding EPA's authority. Good work, everyone who contributed to the @andrewdessler.com review!

Breaking News: The Trump administration repealed the bedrock scientific finding that greenhouse gases threaten human life and well being, meaning that the EPA can no longer regulate them. nyti.ms/4rSszQu

Just finished this fantastic book, "Air-Borne". One piece Carl Zimmer understands about science is that it is fundamentally a human endeavor. At its best, it builds on the previous works of others, in other cases the interplay of society and personalities shapes how it does or does not advance.

We're using it. Nobody should expect a step forward to complete a long journey, but this is a significant step forward and should be celebrated. We only understand the 1.2% of the human genome that encodes genes. AlphaGenome is a tool towards understanding the remaining 98.8%.

I wrote today about AlphaGenome, Google DeepMind's AI for DNA. It's powerful, experts told me, but it won't solve the mysteries of the genome overnight. Gift link: nyti.ms/4k5NFIl

The US government lost more than 10,000 STEM PhDs last year, according to an analysis by Science of newly released OPM data, with 11 departures for every hire. And many OPM calls "voluntary" separations were probably pushed. www.science.org/content/arti...

If you need some listening while you shovel snow, or just a break from the weekend's harsh news, I'm on "The Sunday Daily," a new @nytimes.com podcast, talking about Neanderthals and other humans with Michael Barbaro & Franz Lidz www.nytimes.com/2026/01/25/p...