Every day I talk to other cancer researchers, committed to soldiering on as long as poss, but many of us see the writing on the wall & cannot help but be despondent. Pharma co.s otoh are happy to tell us that if we cannot make breakthroughs, they'll take ones from China. So there's that, I suppose.🧪

Everything happened because of someone else (unconnected to POTUS), he is a disinterested scientist only motivated by a love of humanity, butter wouldn't melt in his mouth. The absence of any attempt at taking ownership of the debacle that is American research today was appalling to watch

I read this piece, and I'm not going to lie, it is deeply shocking to think that we have gone so far off the rails that we can think and write and publish that the main purpose of a graduate student is to "be productive" on day 1.

"Sometimes what you need is a front-loaded award ... so it's perfectly scientifically justified" The lies upon lies, the misdirection, the prevarication, it's exhausting, no wonder he doesn't sleep

So, his claim is that the payline going down from 30% to <10% is because scientists are submitting more applications? Bro with some circular thinking here. I wish House reps were better educated in the how research funding works so they could push back against rank deceit 🧪

donmoynihan.substack.com/p/american-b... The really sad thing is that a lot of scientists have also fallen for the Merchants of Doubt strategy and I hear many colleagues complain that science has become political, revealing a deep lack of understanding of how they have been manipulated themselves 🧪

In gearing up to teach a big pre-med requirement class next semester, I love this idea www.science.org/content/arti...

If you'd like to work on this gorgeous campus with my lab, consider applying here: careers-sdsurf.icims.com/jobs/20123/r... We're looking for someone to join us as a tech and grow into a lab manager position. To learn more about the lab: www.haricharanlab.com 🧪

Gorgeous recent sunset from our beautiful Spanish revival campus (pic from SDSU’s LinkedIn page). Too pretty to not share! ❤️

For me, it's wrapping my head around the kind of tech bro who dreams of a world where humans don't have to think .....

Another tough day for team “there’s no point in complaining about AI, just accept it.”

Now they've posted it on their website, so no backsies 😂

"The questions leftists ask about AI are: does this improve my life? Does this improve my livelihood? So far, the answer for everyone who doesn’t stand to get rich off AI is no." Spot on. Spending a bunch of money to build something that helps noone. Why, though? aftermath.site/anthropic-cl...

Asona Lui @ucsdhealthsci.bsky.social and I @sdsuresearch.bsky.social are PIs on one of those three funded applications! Our research is going clinical 😍😅🥳🧪 [I'll do a 🧵on how taxpayer $$ directly contributed to this shortly] #ShareGoodNewsToo

But it does it quickly and congratulates you for asking

Do better, universities

The erosion of the peer review process at the NIH is not just with the push back against in-person study sections, which I think are qualitatively superior to zoom sections. There were also in the last set of meetings: compression to 1 day meetings, and no chair summaries. Both comprise quality imo

Related but separate. I teach critical thinking and we talk about how telling someone they're wrong because facts, seldom works. But showing someone patterns that they can recognize in mis/disinformation empowers them to figure out for themselves which sources they can trust for information.

Hard agree. I created a Critical Thinking curriculum for our grad students because they craved that content. These are bright kids. Watching them kick ass once they grasp how to reason critically is amazing. But I shouldn't be the one seeing that transformation. That should be happening in school

100% this. That means the Cancer Biology class I teach is also partly a how to be a Biology student class. That means I can't teach all the cancer biology I want to because there's no point teaching intense biology concepts if we're struggling with the how to learn successfully question

The NIH has indicated a “leniency” period for implementation of the Common Forms (SciENcv) May 2026: grants.nih.gov/faqs#/common... Note: the “warning” that says your materials are not in compliance is also displayed if you submit using the Common Forms. This warning can be ignored.

It is ok to vote against making the middle third competitive if you haven't read those applications and therefore cannot really assess their competitiveness. They require a simple majority so make sure to ask clarifying questions before the first vote and then request a head count after the vote.

@sandiegostate.bsky.social recently hosted the SDSU Cancer Research Symposium, where cancer researchers, private-sector executives, advocates, and community organizations gathered to envision the future of cancer research at the university. Read the full story: tiny.cc/6eyx001

This should be said more often. The problem is not that the research that is funded isn't good, it's that we don't have the funding to fund all of the outstanding research ideas presented to us. ROI for NIH science funding is almost 2$ per $ spent. I'd like to see AI tech compete with that

Also, to get to the truly difficult-to-answer questions in a discipline, you have to steep yourself in the field for quite a while before you appreciate what we know, what we don't know, and what we know we don't know. True discovery takes time, and is a group project

“We cannot pursue our mission to improve the health and well-being of all Americans while DHS agents are murdering, assaulting, and terrorizing people who call this country home…We believe ICE and CBP are a greater threat to the health of our nation than the lapse of HHS services.”

Americans trust scientists more than any other groups in society. Understandably so. We are not driven by loyalty, money or politics. But many, if not most, of us are guided by truth, justice and humanity. This administration keeps trying to fool the American public, but they are a canny lot

What are we doing here? These are entirely preventable diseases. They can cause death. They can cause lasting damage. The misinformation, and disinformation, about vaccines has to be combatted with clear, compelling measages. We forget the past at our own peril.

But now we're taught by our mentors not to use the word "interestingly" when writing scientific papers. Nothing can be interesting anymore because we write like we knew all along. Most papers would be more fun if they were written as a journey, not a destination 🧪

Think about this when a boss insists Al is the future/the company will fall behind if it doesn't adopt XYZ tool. No. Gotta start with a vision for the end we want - what kind of company, country, values - and then ask what tools might get us there. Move too fast and this is where you end up. 3/3

For once paywalls performing a righteous function

Get vaccinated. I see so many of my students wiped out because they didn't get the shot

RT if you've never had a tab of ChatGPT open 'just to do quick research'

"The work now is the same as it was in 1911: document the failures, design the remedies, prepare for the moment."

While a 100 million$ is being spent to recruit an army against Americans, this administration is closing the door on so many outstanding scientists, who gave up much of their lives to earn the privilege of using science to uplift humanity.

Artificial intelligence is a very misleading term for a machine learning model, and certainly adds to the illusion currently being sold by tech billionaires. Great piece

"Whatever the defects of American universities may be, they disseminate no prejudices, rear no bigots, exclude no man because of his religious opinions" - Charles Dickens in the 1840s. Would that this administration could appreciate the treasure we possess as a nation renowned for higher education 🧪

One of the worst parts of these changes is they are asking scientists to legitimize them. In study section, they ask the panel to vote to confirm that a subset of the not discussed grant applications (that most of us haven't read) fall into a pile to be considered for funding. Don't stand for this.🧪

'Doctorow argues "AI isn’t the bow-wave of ‘impending superintelligence’. Nor is it going to deliver ‘humanlike intelligence’. It’s a grab-bag of useful (sometimes very useful) tools that can sometimes make workers’ lives better, when workers get to decide how and when they’re used.”'

No one says to legit business owners, "hey I see there's an underground market selling toxic knock-offs of your product: how will you incorporate the toxic product AND protect your customers against its harms?" But apparently it's fine to make this suggestion to educators with respect to AI.

Yes, the absolute absurdity of it is this is hoarding to the point where money loses any value. These people have some sort of mental illness.

www.statnews.com/2025/12/18/n... A 11 percentage point in grant funding for early career researchers in 2025. So it begins. 🧪

Watched Princess Bride today. RIP Mr Reiner

Good science news to greet the holidays. Our paper is now out @natcomms.nature.com: www.nature.com/articles/s41.... Outstanding work by two of my postdocs, Aloran and Tyler, and collabs with Nic Fusco, Carol Manhart @templechemistry.bsky.social & Matthew Bainbridge @radychildrensoc.bsky.social 🧵🧪/1

Nice work by @amulyasreekumar.bsky.social 🧪🎇

If nature publishing group of making half a billion $ in profit, feels like maybe they can afford to pay reviewers for their time and expertise 🧪 group.springernature.com/gp/group/med...

When you develop a tool that is truly useful to scientists, you do not have to force it down their throats. I don't see Molecular Devices sending me an email about ten great things I can do with their spectrophotometer to extend my research. The day I need AI to tell me what to think, I'll quit🧪

"Pronatalists like Dean Spears and Michael Geruso worry that low birth rates mean “fewer and fewer people to discover new ideas”—but having more babies risks derailing the careers of already-born women today." Love it! What about the already-born and their new ideas? 1/2

Preprints are gold for getting your results out there, setting up collaborations, visibility for your lab, and convincing grant reviewers that you aren't blowing smoke when you say "manuscript in submission" #AcademicSky 🧪