Daniel R Williams

4 takeaways from the week: In a world that craves stability, Trump brings the chaos — NPR President Trump’s trade war sent global markets reeling this week. How Trump has handled tariffs shows the farthest thing from stability and predictability. A look at this and three other takeaways.

NPR is killing it with the truth: “In a world that craves stability, Trump brings the chaos”

Broken link?

That Cardboard Box in Your Home Is Fueling Election Denial A previously unreported boom in profits for the shipping supply giant Uline has provided the funds for a deeply conservative Midwestern family to bankroll anti-democracy causes around the country.

Much of the cardboard and paper goods strewn about our homes are sold by a single private company, with its name, Uline, stamped on the bottom.

Few Americans know that a multibillion-dollar fortune made on those ubiquitous products fuels far-right candidates across the country.

(Published 2022)

Athens Ohio showed up for democracy !

Visas revoked for 12 UC Davis students and graduates, university says Chancellor Gary S. May says the federal government provided no explanation for the terminated visas.

#handsoff our students. this is not ok www.abc10.com/article/news...

I loved going to Young’s Dairy as a kid. More flavors of ice cream than you could ever hope to try

The World Health Organization building

The World Health Organization will slash its budget for 2026-27 by more than a fifth after the US withdrew, and other nations reduced, its funding.

WHO reportedly plans to cut back the scale of its projects and workforce to tackle a funding gap of nearly $600m this year
www.bmj.com/content/389/...

A picture is worth a thousand words.

The administration says they're cutting a trillion in government spending. So far, 2025 spending is $1.89 trillion. It was $1.76 trillion at the same time last year. Spending is on pace to increase by 7.4% from last year.

www.marketwatch.com/story/despit...

Countries boost recruitment of American scientists amid cuts to scientific funding American scientists have long worked abroad, but recruitment efforts are increasing due to cuts by the Trump administration.

American scientists have long worked abroad, but recruitment efforts are increasing due to cuts by the Trump administration.

PhD student opening: understanding of the relationships between assimilate supply, metabolism and seed architecture at the Leibniz Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research

www.ipk-gatersleben.de/en/career/jo...

#PlantSciJobs #genetics #metabolomics #crops

Code sharing in ecology and evolution increases citation rates but remains uncommon Biologists increasingly rely on computer code to collect and analyze their data, reinforcing the importance of published code for transparency, reproducibility, training, and a basis for further work...

I'd like to encourage folks to publish their code. Not only does it make studies more transparent and reproducible, but it also increases citation rates!

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

$2.5M grant will support nature-based study of pathogen resistance in perennial crop systems Plant pathogens — microorganisms and other disease-causing agents — can wreak havoc on agricultural

Perennials + polyculture = powerful possibilities. 🌻

Danforth Center Member @ajmiller4233.bsky.social is collaborating on a grant led by @universityofkansas.bsky.social
to explore how planting long-lived, multi-species crops could combat plant pathogens.

Learn more ⤵️

The externalities of cars scale with weight, size and speed: space taken, gas burned, tire particulates, noise, pavement, cost to consumer and, above all, crash force, injuries and fatalities.

Shrinking cars would accomplish most of the goals of EVs with many ancillary benefits, like fewer deaths.

T. kok-saghyz transplants when first planted and after 10 weeks when flowers began opening

High rubber yields were supported by high planting density, longer growing season, and late harvest in a single season. The study also investigated bulk seed production in a greenhouse environment for the first time.
#HortScience doi.org/10.21273/HOR...
#plantscience

Some European countries and Canada issue advisories for travelers to the U.S. — NPR The advisories come after some citizens from European countries and Canada have been detained and deported by immigration officials while traveling to the United States.

Never thought I’d have to make plans for what to do if my husband’s visa is cancelled and he’s denied entry to the country we live in.

I’d be afraid to travel here too.

apple.news/AHL4Vn2feQji...

Opinion | Why Did Elon Musk Go After Bunkers Full of Seeds? (Gift Article) Gene banks are like a survivalist cache: our nation’s safeguard against all future challenges to growing the food we need.

Generations of dedicated public servants have, unseen by the general public, done all kinds of extraordinary things that benefit all of us—like preserving the genetic diversity of crop species that sustain humanity.

Musk is blindly slashing it all.

www.nytimes.com/2025/03/22/o...

Opinion | Why Did Elon Musk Go After Bunkers Full of Seeds? (Gift Article) Gene banks are like a survivalist cache: our nation’s safeguard against all future challenges to growing the food we need.

Seed and tuber collections are really, really, REALLY important.

A short thread 🧵 1/5

🧪 #plantscience

Opinion | Why Did Elon Musk Go After Bunkers Full of Seeds? Gene banks are like a survivalist cache: our nation’s safeguard against all future challenges to growing the food we need.

“the N.P.G.S. budget is shoestring and its staffing minimal…And yet, with a trivial investment of 0.000008 percent of the federal budget, N.P.G.S. scientists quietly enable and safeguard our food system, worth around $1.5 trillion. Talk about return on investment.”
www.nytimes.com/2025/03/22/o...

Image: Example image and creation of the ground-truth data used for machine learning. Credit: Current Biology (2024). DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2024.11.021

Researchers discovered that different photoreceptors control distinct regions of a seedling’s stem. The team’s findings could inform crop innovation, making plants more resilient & improving agricultural success.

buff.ly/3WYchZ1#Plan... #Science #Plants #Crops #Plants #Agriculture

Is planting trees 'DEI'? Trump administration cuts nationwide tree-planting effort The Trump administration's efforts to end DEI programs is hitting some unexpected targets, including a nationwide effort planting shade trees in neighborhoods to reduce extreme heat.

The Trump administration's efforts to end DEI programs is hitting some unexpected targets, including a nationwide effort planting shade trees in neighborhoods to reduce extreme heat.

“Orchestrated assault”: New tsunami of NIH grant cuts hits South Africa hard Agency moves to terminate nearly 1000 awards, including programs involving “DEI”

"The memo suggests that (...) HHS has directed NIH to quickly terminate 945 specific grants—only some of which are in South Africa. Multiple researchers have told Science that their grants related to LGBT health inside the United States were also terminated today."

Nine hundred and forty-five.

A graphic with quote "“An evil deed is not redeemed by an evil deed of retaliation. Justice is never advanced in the taking of a human life. Morality is never upheld by a legalized murder.” The quote is attributed to "Corretta Scott King, speaking about the death penalty" Above the quote is a photo of a sign that reads "no to death penalty"

Coretta Scott King was a staunch advocate to end the death penalty, both before and after her husband Martin Luther King, Jr. was murdered.

Coretta’s words ring truer than ever today as we fight against President Trump’s plans to expand the use of capital punishment.

The University of Pittsburgh pauses its Ph.D. admissions process amid research funding uncertainty A spokesperson for the University told WESA Friday that the school has "temporarily paused additional Ph.D. offers of admission," while Pitt works to understand how proposed federal funding cuts could...

Pitt to pause PhD admissions, following Vanderbilt and USC, because of uncertainty of NIH funding to academic universities.

Who will teach and train US scientists for pharma and biotech? Should we import them from countries that do?

www.wesa.fm/health-scien...

Data Scientist I - Phenotyping/Data Science ...

We are HIRING! Join us as a Data Scientist or Postdoc working on geospatial (UAV/satellite) analysis and PlantCV development. See details in the job ads.

www.paycomonline.net/v4/ats/web.p...

www.paycomonline.net/v4/ats/web.p...

📣 TWO WEEKS UNTIL WE STAND UP FOR SCIENCE! 📣

On March 7th, we’re Standing Up for Science in DC & ALL 50 STATES to make our voices heard. We hope you’ll join us! ☀️

#sciencenotsilence #scienceforall #standupforscience2025

NIH + NSF scientists affected by today's layoffs: C&EN is working on understanding what expertise the government lost today. Give me a ring? (Signal: Laurel_Oldach.07)

Office desk without any personal items or decor

Today, along with 2,000 other NIH employees, I had to clear out my office 😭

It was truly the honor of my life to work with such incredibly passionate people focused on improving human health. I’ve never experienced a more positive culture where *everyone* cared about their job and serving others.

German and US flags

To US colleagues who have lost or are in imminent danger of losing their jobs: please DM whether we can accommodate your research.

I worked in Max-Planck Institute for seven years and loved every day of it. For anyone getting affected by the current changes, I can strongly recommend @maxplanck.de

I mis-added earlier, here's corrected post: How many scientists and interior workers were fired today? Between news article estimates and social posts, I count over 10k:

5200 @ NIH
1200-2000 @ DOE
800 @ USDA
2,300 @ Dept. of Interior
1,300 @ CDC
(I haven't heard any FDA, EPA, or NASA numbers)