For folks asking why bother commenting because the OMB won't care: comments help build cases for the courts by explicitly laying out harms. That's why it's really important to have your comments be as specific as possible. Also, contact your senators and reps! They actually do care about this.

Right! Furthermore, the OMB has to read & respond to all new comments (this slows them down, forces them to engage with the potential impact of these policies). And additionally, a strong showing by the public tells politicians we care about this and so they pay attention and care more too.

There's an OMB rule change that would require political oversight of scientific grants, and could pull any that don't "reflect presidential priorities" Another country has tried this before! It was the USSR and it was called Lysenkoism. By @thsaey.bsky.social www.sciencenews.org/article/omb-...

I see this often among my grantees. Uncertainty about maintaining funding on a grant (even thought it has been found meritorious in peer review, high priority in programmatic review, and was already awarded) makes conducting the science extremely challenging. substack.com/@27unihted/n...

What's more nonsensical: smashing a pumpkin using a number, or growing flowers inside a sneeze? Our paper on graded inconceivability is out now in Cognition! Come for the cognitive science 🧠🔍, stay for the whimsy 🌼🧚! 🔗Journal link: bit.ly/gradedInconCog

Now out (for realz) in Cognition: "People Make Graded Judgments About The Inconceivable" (by Hu, Sosa, & me) Free preprint: www.tomerullman.org/papers/grade... Journal link: bit.ly/gradedInconCog @jennhu.bsky.social @cognitionjournal.bsky.social

🧵 For US colleagues: Many of you may have already seen discussion of OMB’s proposed revisions to the Uniform Guidance for federal financial assistance, Docket OMB-2026-0034. The proposed changes could have significant implications for federally funded research.

As of today, I am officially a Full Professor. I would not wish pursuing the tenure-race twice on even my greatest enemies (you know who you are), but I am profoundly grateful to the mentors, colleagues, trainees, & incredible friends that have helped me along the way. share.google/QcorDYWiI5OI...

Candice Odgers, psychology and CPIP affiliate, has spent 25 years studying adolescent mental health. In a TED Talk, she challenges what she calls a dangerous gap between the scary stories adults tell about teens and what the research actually shows. go.ted.com/candiceodgers

An excellent talk from Candice Odgers about teen mental health, tech and what to do about it.

New paper in Cognitive Psychology on how people combine visual 👀, auditory 👂, and haptic information 🖐️ to make causal judgments. Led by Elyse Chase (www.elysechase.com), with Kevin Smith, and Sean Follmer. 📜 authors.elsevier.com/a/1nHnI2Hxok...

The OMB has proposed rules that would, among other things, have political appointees override peer review and allow sudden grant termination. This morning I wrote a comment on this proposal in my own words. It only took a few minutes. You can do the same: www.regulations.gov/document/OMB...

"Acquiring one grape costs Alex $2 billion. Alex offers to sell Mike one grape a month for the next 12 months for $1 billion per grape. Alex asks for the full $12 billion up front and provides Mike with one grape for the first month..."

Darmok and Jalad at Potomac

⭐️From Elizabeth Lapidow, Amberley Stein, Giovanni Thomas & Caren Walker: Young Children Use Causal Knowledge to Guide Question Asking

Here is another thing you should do to oppose OMB’s proposed Federal Financial Assistance Rule (OMB-2026-0034). Pressure congress. They have the power to stop it! 5calls.org/issue/federa...

Hey everyone: this is important: please take a few minutes to post a comment objecting to this brazen attempt by #Trump administration to politicize ALL science: www.regulations.gov/document/OMB...

THE OFFICIAL @standupforscience.net GUIDE FOR TALKING TO ANYONE ABOUT THE OMB RULE PROPOSAL!! www.standupforscience.foundation/policy-and-a...

⭐️From Emily Liquin: More Time and Effort, Same Curiosity: Expected Effort Does Not Impact Curiosity

Ever wondered what you need to do to blow away journal reviewers and academic talk audiences with content that is both maximally fun AND maximally informative? Tune in & you might just learn the secret formula... 👀 Thank you for humoring me and coming on!! @ebonawitz.bsky.social

Super fun chatting with Adani @adani.bsky.social You can check out our convo below.

Calling all Scientists! Research Administrators! Deans! Fans of Science! No one is coming to save us. Here is your assignment. I have written a step by step, easy to understand "how-to" document to help you comment on the proposed OMB rule. elizabethginexi.substack.com/p/what-we-ne...

audio version courtesy of @ebonawitz.bsky.social here: on.soundcloud.com/CYE0rKB2RZAZ...

Summary of Key Changes in OMB’s Proposed Federal Financial Assistance Rule. Russell Vought is going destroy American Science. elizabethginexi.substack.com/p/summary-of...

Of course, @standupforscience.net is taking action. MARK YOU CALENDAR for our EMERGENCY SCIENCE MEETING June 2nd at 4pm et. We will be giving an overview of the rule and assigning EVERY SCIENTIST IN AMERICA their marching orders. Register here: events.standupforscience.net/stand-up-for...

"I am told by several lesser gods that the boulder understands the seriousness of the moment, though I will grant that the stone has not said this to me directly."

Review request Spouse with open milk 🤝 "smell this and tell me if it's bad?"

🤔

I’m posting a lot about Colbert, but it’s because I am much sadder about his tenure ending than I imagined. It just says something so sad about the nature of this political moment. Yet, I’m also so thrilled for him to have the freedom to do whatever his heart desires.

Glad to see this from the president of Johns Hopkins and the chancellor of U Kansas A rare public acknowledgement from university leaders that the current NIH and NSF funding delays are not okay and are a violation of Congressional intent. www.wsj.com/opinion/get-...

We just got approved to hire a teaching professor in Quantitative Methods! This is the *very* rare tenure track teaching position at Berkeley. I'll be chairing the search committee. Official job ad coming later this summer!

Reposting for no particular reason... ok, there is a reason.

“The fact is that we’re looking at a real drop in research being done by the people of MIT… Frankly, it’s a loss for the nation. When you shrink the pipeline of basic discovery research, you choke off the flow of future solutions, innovations and cures — & you shrink the supply of future scientists”

out now in Psych Review, a project many years in the making: "Reverse Engineering the Centered Self" bit.ly/4wp9fgN

I went to go look, and this time last year, NSF SBE had funded 216 awards. This year, they have funded 2.

73% of mothers with kids under 18 are in the workforce. More than flowers or brunch, working moms need: -Paid family leave -Equal pay -Universal childcare -Universal healthcare (But get your mom flowers, too)

they wrote on parchment that they hung to dry the ink, but the teachers couldn't grade last night because it was windy and the canvas was down

Daughter's Google AI Overview attached below. I guess in medias res is, in general, a good literature choice, since it bypasses "101002010410101004100234012010100201041010100410023401201010020..." Stories would be pretty boring and weird if they all started that way.

We are looking for a new colleague with expertise in middle-childhood/adolescence developmental science to join us in Copenhagen. Open rank and can be both applied and/or basic science. Please share with relevant colleagues. employment.ku.dk/faculty/?sho...

Want to spark conversation and build community at #CogSci2026? Submit your proposal to host an Affinity Group or a Discussion Group session! The deadline is May 18! 🗓️ Learn more at cognitivesciencesociety.org/cogsci-affin...

Based almost entirely on something Tomer Ullman told me, and I hereby nominate him as First Dean of Shenanigans. COMIC ◆ www.smbc-comics.com/comic/shenan... PATREON ◆ www.patreon.com/ZachWeinersm... STORE ◆ smbc-store.myshopify.com

Two very good pieces documenting the dismantling of U.S. Science. The first one by Philipp Markolin: www.protagonist-scie... 1/3

My story on the NSB terminations:

The United States now has the most government restrictions on academic freedom of any high-income country. www.chemistryworld.com/news/academi... Raw data from @vdeminstitute.bsky.social —> academic-freedom-index.net/research/Aca...

In FY24, the Harvard Management Corporation (responsible for the university endowment) paid $89M in compensation: paddockpost.com/2026/02/10/e... During this same period, the endowment underperformed the S&P500 by about $4B.

I love how we’re all trying to just live our lives normally as our gov’t charges the key organization that investigates & dismantles white supremacist groups w fraud and a Texas R1 university just banned all mention/study/and teaching of anything related to sexual orientation and gender identity.

Today, our #SCIMaP team released an impact analysis of the White House proposed FY 2027 NIH and NSF budgets. Bottom-line: if enacted, cuts to science and medical research would lead to $35B in economic losses and 150,000 lost jobs in communities all across the US. scienceimpacts.org 🧵

New paper in PBR: "Working memory’s pointer system is governed by physical objecthood, not spatiotemporal information" rdcu.be/fd2tY Without valid WM pointers, we miss OBVIOUS changes in visible items; the study shows that this "resetting" process is all about objects and not spatiotemporal change!

🚨 NSF is already quietly eliminating the SBE Directorate, despite Congress’ mandate that NSF support the behavioral & social sciences. Steps to counter this are in motion. If you - have an SBE proposal under review - serve on an SBE grant panel You can help! Fill out this form: shorturl.at/xuKw2

Hi friends at #CDS. If you're looking for drop-in hours, I'll be hanging out by the windows/couches at the cds hotel reception desk (by the free latte machine!) from 1:45 to 2:30 today. Students and all junior folk are especially encouraged to drop by to introduce yourself and have a chat!