Always always always always read @rtraister.bsky.social -- and especially on Graham Platner, women, and what comes next. nymag.com/intelligence...

yall are FAST 😭

Every outlet in our news tracker covered the recent trans sports ban decision at SCOTUS, but when I looked at the coverage I found one clear outlier - the New York Times had the most stories (5 in all) but not one included a quote from a trans person or representative of a trans rights organization.

Tuesday was the hottest day in France's recorded history — it was 112°F/44.3°C in Pissos in southwestern France. That surpasses the peak of the August 2003 heat wave in which more than 14,000 people died. Only about 25% of homes in Paris have an air conditioner. We are in a climate emergency.

I’m so sad to share that yesterday was my last day at Scientific American. It was an honor to work alongside my incredible colleagues and to speak with researchers across the sciences. If you’re looking to hire staff or freelance, please consider me and my other laid off coworkers (🧵)

Today is my last day at Scientific American, which has been sold to LabX media group. For three decades I've led the magazine's coverage of human origins, archaeology, paleontology, animal behavior, ecology, BIRDS. End of an era. Anyway this feels weird to say, but I'm now available for assignments!

Scientific American is being sold to LabX Media, publisher of Discover: group.springernature.com/gp/group/med... They've fired me and other union staff, ahead of June 26 vote ratification. My rates are suddenly more reasonable, if you need editing or reporting - [email protected]

EXCLUSIVE: Eli Lilly gave compassionate use access to retatrutide, their unapproved powerful obesity drug, to a 79-year-old man in April. The application was arranged by a top doctor at NIH, and cleared by the FDA. www.statnews.com/2026/06/23/e...

And after you read this rundown make sure you go check out the full book! One of my favorite reads of the past few years

GLP-1s might help boost your mood not through your brain, but through a little microbe in your gut! 🧪🦠 my latest on a super cool new study www.fiercebiotech.com/research/glp...

tl,dr; Scientists no longer allowed to use federal funding to publish, attend meetings, or talk to the public. They cannot collaborate internationally. Grants can be cancelled for any reason, at any time, political appointees have a final say over what gets funded, and who gets funded.

Impressive data and a significant step toward a cure for chronic hep B, which affects around 250 million people around the world 💊🧪 my story:

Elsevier has retracted a 2021 study claiming sudden infant death syndrome is linked to vaccines over concerns the paper might influence patient care.

The Pope has weighed in: AI isn't magic. It's currently produced by a deeply exploitative, extractive supply chain. It challenges human dignity; could fuel a new colonialism. And among the greatest challenges of our time will be to redirect its path of development. www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news...

NEW: The U.S. has asked a little-known biotech to provide doses of an experimental Ebola treatment as the epidemic worsens. The antibody therapy was originally developed for a different ebolavirus, but has shown signs that it works against the Bundibugyo virus driving the current outbreak too

🧪 knowing the best way to help a whale in distress is so much harder than social media gives it credit for! I wrote a bit about this too in my story for Undark: undark.org/2026/04/27/w...

Breaking news: Indiana University plant microbiologist Roger Innes has been locked out of his laboratory by the school in response to a request by one of his federal funders. The move comes after Innes complained about the government’s prosecution of Chinese postdocs. https://scim.ag/4tsDqRr

Could a gene therapy for Alzheimer's disease be on the horizon? Scientists in China used a viral vector to deliver a protective gene to the liver, which reduced the buildup of misfolded protein that is the calling card of the devastating disease 🧪 my story:

SCOOP- Trump upbraided FDA Commissioner Marty Makary over the weekend for not moving quickly enough to approve flavored vapes. Makary has been on thin ice with his superiors in the administration in recent days, according to people familiar with the situation. www.wsj.com/politics/pol...

I've spent yesterday and today talking to researchers across the globe trying to understand the hantavirus outbreak aboard the cruise ship MV Hondius. My story in @science.org is here (and some threaded thoughts coming): www.science.org/content/arti... 🧪 #IDsky

“That is not how this gold-standard regulatory agency is supposed to work.” My story on Trump's recent support for psychedelic medicines and whether it will be a boon or a bane for a field that has long yearned for legitimacy 🧪💊

(I make a "mouth" with the side of my hand and draw little eyes above it) Richard Dawkins: hmmmm (I put lipstick around the "mouth") Richard Dawkins, suavely: well hello

In totally unsurprising news, Richard Dawkins is developing AI psychosis. Paywall bypass: archive.is/6RdK9

The Trump administration is downsizing US science by historic margins — but it's not just via funding or workforce cuts. Our new @nature.com analysis reveals the government has cut more than 100 scientific advisory panels across major agencies. w/ @alexwitze.bsky.social @dangaristo.bsky.social

Born with an extremely rare form of hearing loss, Travis Smith was a very serious baby. But after an experimental gene therapy from Regeneron, he now can hear his name and rock out to his favorite Bruno Mars song 🎶💊my story on Travis' treatment and the new chapter it opens in Regeneron's history:

With the help of the Sandy Hook families, The Onion has reached a long-awaited deal to take over InfoWars. We've enlisted the help of @timheidecker.bsky.social, who will be InfoWars' Creative Director. Please stand by for more.

Amazon has reached out to The Western Edge with an additional statement. The company acknowledged work continued after a 46-year-old man died at an Oregon distribution center on April 6. Amazon says staff were too focused on life-saving efforts to stop work across the building.

Today's free newsletter is about the dangers of treating AI as being more than it is - a website or app built on expensive technology, with dubious reliability and inherently unsustainable economics. The rhetoric from AI labs has to change. www.wheresyoured.at/i-will-never-respect-a-website/

This is a huge win for Pittsburgh. The Post-Gazette was set to shut down on May 3. www.post-gazette.com/local/city/2...

Lp(a) is a dastardly, many-headed monster of a molecule that remains shrouded in mystery and seems to do nothing of value in the human body. But this much we do know: if lowering it reduces cardiovascular risk the way data suggest, it could be medicine's next big thing 🧪💊 I loved writing this story!

Exclusive: The acting director of the CDC has delayed publication of a report showing the covid-19 vaccine cut the likelihood of ER visits and hospitalizations for healthy adults last winter by about half, according to two scientists.

In Korea, when the president declared martial law after midnight and erected barricades in Seoul, congressional reps from all parties ran into the streets, yanked ak47s from the army at the barricades, broke down the locked door to Congress, repealed the martial law order, and arrested the president

The number of emails I get about AI drug design is truly alarming, but this really stood out to me: scientists used a model to craft a potential new treatment for opioid use disorder, which successfully curbed cravings in addicted rats 💊🧪 my story:

Today, MSF is going public with something we've been fighting behind closed doors for months: Gilead will not sell us their new HIV drug, lenacapavir. The sticking point isn't even price, they just refuse to sell. Open letter linked + explainer 🧵1/ www.doctorswithoutborders.org/latest/gilea...

After Claudia Goldin became the first woman to win a solo Nobel in economics, she got hundreds of invitations. She accepted three. One was advising WNBA players on a labor deal. She helped players land the biggest % raise in US sports history. www.wsj.com/economy/wnba...

A Dept. of Veterans Affairs memo obtained by ProPublica set new roadblocks to care for male veterans with breast cancer. The agency cited no new science, instead relying on an executive order about “restoring biological truth” in government. Listen to former Navy fighter pilot Jack Gelman's story:

Scientists have used pig semen--yes, that pig semen--to create eye drops that effectively reached the retina and killed cancer cells in mice with retinoblastoma. Stories like this truly remind us why life is worth living 🧪🐽 my latest:

Look at that, the FDA does know how to approve rare disease medicines! A huge win for the Hunter syndrome community here, who for too long have had no options for combatting the pernicious cognitive decline this disease causes in young children 🧪💊 my story:

Harmeet Dhillon, head of DOJ’s Civil Rights Division, posted a photo of herself signing a document. The document indicates that she is launching a Title VI investigation into The Ohio State University College of Medicine.

FWIW absolutely no one I know who has expertise in spaceflight or planetary exploration thinks this is either remotely plausible or a good idea to attempt on such a timeline. The dominant reaction is somewhere on the spectrum between mockery and dismay. Real, important science was cancelled for this

A new analysis confirms what has long been suspected: grant cuts at NIH hit women and early-career researchers the hardest. As @jenna-m-norton.bsky.social told me, the findings here are unsurprising, but “documenting the damage from current policy is critical” 🧪

Terrific piece by @fenitn.bsky.social about the rewriting of #Covid history. I would add this: A brand new virus meant health officials were making policy based on the info they had, not what we know now. Policy changes were evidence of learnings, not failures. www.washingtonpost.com/health/2026/...

This is why it’s important to have a very high measles vaccination rate within a community. This immunocompromised teenager, who was fully vaccinated, ended up on life support after getting measles. abcnews.com/Health/teen-...

McMenamins to me reads like if Narnia became an entertainment brand in an alt universe or the Masons merged with the original Willy Wonka movie. In a good way. Marvelously old school, eccentric.

Twin Peaks Lucy commission <3

Ticketing employees at Live Nation called fans “so stupid” for paying inflated charges and boasted that they were “robbing them blind baby,” according to internal messages released in the Justice Department's antitrust lawsuit against the concert giant that includes Ticketmaster.

83 POINTS! Heat star Bam Adebayo has passed Kobe Bryant for the second-most points in a game in NBA history.

After rejecting multiple rare disease therapies that had clinical data, the FDA has approved leucovorin for a super rare kinda-related-to-autism disorder with...no clinical trial whatsoever. In related news, up is now down and down is up

Yup he’s gone apparently for good this time www.fiercebiotech.com/biotech/fdas...