Jeremy Berg

Really sad news, @jeremymberg.bsky.social @joshuasweitz.bsky.social

a cartoon character says just take a look will you while holding a tablet ALT: a cartoon character says just take a look will you while holding a tablet

I conclude that NIH should make use of the large amounts of data that they have available to examine hypotheses before proposing developing new policies.

6/6

I go on to note that previous analyses by NIH have looked at R01 grant success rates by the race of the investigator have revealed statistically significant effects that could not be accounted for by educ. background, training, previous awards, publication record, and other factors.

5/6

This and related analyses show that success rates do vary somewhat by state although these differences are not statistically significant, at least this this small data set.

4/6

A scatter plot of the number of SBIR/STTR grants versus the number of applications by state. This shows that the number of awards is highly correlated with the number of applications.

I analyzed the only publicly available data about award and, importantly, application numbers by state, those for the small business SBIR/STTR grants.

The number of awards is HIGHLY correlated with the number of applications.

3/6

The comment was triggered by Director Bhattacharya statement that he "want(s) Iowa, Nebraska scientists, scientists at every institution, to be able to compete on the same level playing fields with the brilliant scientists here in Massachusetts.”

2/6

I have a new comment piece out in Nature today.

rdcu.be/e7LVS

1/6

Useful explanation as always! The number of new awards fell in 2025, dramatically so in the 5-20th percentile range. It’s partly due to multi-yr awards, but that’s not enough to fully explain the drop. Did NIH take the unspent funds from terminated grants and return them to the US treasury?

Steve isn’t quite ready for Tuesday. Actually… he’s not really ready for anything.

How Congress can restore the independence of US science Members must go beyond reinstating US government research spending and re-establish decentralized governance at the National Institutes of Health and other agencies.

The most impt change at #NIH and to US science this year is bigger than grant cancellations— it’s how the agency is governed.

For 75 years NIH has been largely independent of presidential control. That’s changed this year. New piece from me and @nataliebaviles.bsky.social in @nature.com
🧪

My quote of the day

One of the things you learn as an actor is that human beings are capable of almost anything. I'm sort of in the business of illustrating that fact.

John Lithgow

I use Alpha fold-3 for protein structure prediction on occasion. Otherwise, it’s a big ”Nope”.

How much more evidence do we need? The ultra-rich and the governments supporting them will destroy everything for the sake of profit, power and pride. Nothing is precious to them - not human life, not the living world - except their own wealth and status. Our survival depends on resisting them.

goddamn is this a breath of fresh air after Allred 2024

They all look alike…

Ig Nobels to move awards to Europe due to concern over US travel visas Scientific awards – which honor research that makes people laugh and then think – to move away from ‘unsafe’ US

🧪 🇨🇭 #IgNobel awards come to Switzerland as US unsafe for scientists
#HoppSchwiiz
www.theguardian.com/science/2026...

Remembering Phil Bourne Personal reflections on a legendary scientist, leader, builder, and mentor

'Phil was also the founding Editor-in-Chief of PLOS Computational Biology, where he created the beloved Ten Simple Rules series. He was so prolific in the series that the meta-article “Ten Simple Rules for Writing a PLOS Ten Simple Rules Article” literally includes, as Rule 4: “Be Philip E. Bourne.”

DenseBreast-info, Inc. | Dense Breast Tissue Information Resource The world's leading medically-sourced website on dense breasts developed for patients and providers and cited as "the most up-to-date and comprehensive."

For a good source of information, see densebreast-info.org

@drwendieberg.bsky.social is Chief Scientific Advisor.

Posted without comment...

www.usajobs.gov/job/860190200

Actually, the Constitution requires a SEPARATION of church and state, which is why I want religion entirely out of the Government.

@schumer.senate.gov
@kaine.senate.gov
@slotkin.senate.gov
@markwarner.bsky.social
@hakeem-jeffries.bsky.social
@chrismurphyct.bsky.social

a man in a suit and tie is standing in front of a blackboard with the words " anyone ? anyone ? " ALT: a man in a suit and tie is standing in front of a blackboard with the words " anyone ? anyone ? "

Ben Stein from Ferris Bueller!

I am in a short clip near the end.

My vibes seem much less like “deranged activist” and more like…

2/3

Pittsburgh rally aims to stand up for science at Allegheny Landing Park This is the second year the rally is held in Pittsburgh

WTAE ABC story from Saturday morning before the @standupforscience.bsky.social rally.

www.wtae.com/article/pitt...

1/3

Let’s get one thing straight: We are not a Christian nation. We are a nation where you are free to be a Christian.

Your religion guides you, not all of us. It’s as simple as that.

Excellent work by @markhisted.org and Natalie Aviles!

Cutting cancer and obesity research isn't how you make America healthy, in case you were wondering

Here is a plot of the FY2025/FY2024 ratios by NIH Reporter search term.

"Opioid" was down 20% compared to 24% for "Cancer", a bit better, but still pretty substantial.

THIS IS A DEVASTATING CHART OF GRANT FUNDING...

The reductions in the number of new and competing renewal R01s by topic (based on simple searches in NIH Reporter).

The cuts are across the board: Cancer down 24%, Alzheimer down 45%, Obesity down 29%, Child by 21%.

Transgender was down by 84% but represents only a small number of grants.