A possibility which I am now working on understanding is that funds from terminated grants were not used to other NIH grants as Director Bhattacharya has said they were
Instead, it seems that they may have been returned to the Treasury, effectively cutting the NIH appropriation.
20/20
This Zenith Movie was taken on Sol 3731 (2023-02-03) at approximately 17:16 LTST and a solar longitude of 19.14Β°.
Hey I did a fun thing with @warren.senate.gov about breaking up giant healthcare conglomerates
Spectacular. Well done. With you and Montana it's a TAMU takeover.
Instead of BCCing a confusing security email to a JPL org list with probably 1000s of people, a business manager sent it so that everyone can reply. The fact that we've only had maybe 5 people reply all asking if it is real is a miracle that makes me believe in god again.
Rocks, sand, and layered buttes. NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS/Kevin M. Gill
A panorama from the Mars Curiosity Rover taken late last week (Sol 4821) looking towards the distant Yardang Unit. Part of a much larger 360 degree MastCam panorama.
flic.kr/p/2rZJQyd
Screenshot of a nasa FB post that says 3:36 4 F17 < NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Ad... β’β’. NASA - National Aeronautics and Space NASI Administration e β’ Follow 3hγ» Explore with us! Learn more about NASA Force, a new initiative to recruit the nation's top engineers and technologists in support of America's space program. Applications are opening soon: https:// go.nasa.gov/4|ctjOz NASA 626 41 ~ 72
Itβs weird how this doesnβt say βoops we accidentally pushed out/incentivized to leave/firedβ a lot of engineers and it turns out engineering projects need those.
Got a message about @agu.org award nominations. Fun fact: only 1 (ONE) of 51 Macelwane winners (highest early career award) in the last decade was not a prof. The message is: want to be recognized? Luck into a professorship first. I should have self-nominated and pointed this out. Next year.
I had the same thought. One said Epstein's weirdness was enough *because* he had funding. We won't need to rely on morals if temptation isn't there. No, it doesn't absolve the wretches associated with JE (many didn't need money either), but make it easy to tell horrible rich people to screw off.
Maybe the Thompson & Barnes (2014) Science paper on the BAM. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
I'd be interested to see the final list you use, too.
This should constitute the sole requirement for voting: Does this seem like a good argument? If they say yes, no ballot.
The Sixth One Will Shock You.
No really, I saw this, and I thought wait 6? What's the sixth one?
Anyone heard anything about any Scubed proposals being asked for budgets or declined yet? With the next cutoff in 6 weeks, it would be nice to have some reviews before I write new proposals for the next round.
So even if some get notifications to submit a budget today, it might take a month for that to happen. And they may not send out rejections until after everything is done. I guess I should adjust my hoping that we have reviews by the Aug cutoff.
Anyone heard anything about any Scubed proposals being asked for budgets or declined yet? With the next cutoff in 6 weeks, it would be nice to have some reviews before I write new proposals for the next round.
A line graph showing NSF grant awards made through 2/27/26 for fiscal year 2026 compared with grant awards for fiscal years 2021-2025.
NSF Update (Awards through 2/27/26)
Directorates to follow
1/10
One year in the federal assault on climate science β a review and prospective
The 5 biggest obstacles to AI data centers in space
There are five main objections to building AI data centers in space.
Engineering challenges are one thing.
When you need to defy the laws of physics, that's where you get into trouble.
bigthink.com/starts-with-...
#space #astro #physics #ai
I relate to this thread, and @swin24.bsky.social is right there was a kind of raw and ugly selfishness that came out.
But I also think a lot of the divisions that were shown during COVID were due to media and misinformation. Fox News worked nonstop to drive a wedge into our society andβ¦
This is an approximate true color view of Saturn and its moon Titan. Titan is seen here hovering near Saturn's rings. This composite is made of images that were taken by Cassini's camera system, the Imaging Science Subsystem (ISS) on May 22, 2015 and received on Earth May 24, 2015. The camera was pointing toward Titan and Saturn, and the images were taken using the green, violet, and infrared filters. Credit: NASA / JPL / SSI / Val Klavans about.me/valerieklavans
Titan in front of Saturn - From Val Klavans (valklavans.bsky.social) - https://flic.kr/p/sAJDww
Closely related to whatβs going on in science.
We are not going to be able to divorce science from universitiesβthinking and talent and ideas canβt be created for science in outside institutions if universities shrivelβ and the path forward is to work together to defend them and promote education.
Re #2: a bit of the talk here is people have conflate AI as only search summaries and LLMs, which in that context frequently suck, without realizing that in a number of applications they are hugely useful. Some of the problem is rejection of obsequious Silicon Valley hype, which I also sympathize.
Webb maps the mysterious upper atmosphere of Uranus π΅
This first vertical view of its ionosphere reveals auroras shaped by the planet's tilted magnetic field and how Uranusβs atmosphere has continued to cool over the past three decades.
Read more π www.esa.int/Science_Expl...
π π§ͺ
Just my impression but like Dems disagreeing about fold or fight, science advocacy faces the same question. I too am torn on what balance of an AAAS versus Stand up for Science approach is best. Maybe the balance should be based on the cross-field heterogeneity. I watch with interest.
I appreciate the view that funding is important, but towards some disciplines, there is anti-science tendency that a focus on funding hides. The final paragraph, despite its careful caveats, is too generous to the GOP on science. I get that's my opinionβbut as a climate scientist, a justified one.
I was exactly saying that an editor probably wrote it without your approval and this informed my initial disconnect between the article and the Atlantic's editorial frame.
Maybe this is the issue that writers don't get final say of headlines and subs, because the headline of your article is literally "The Republicans Made Peace with Science". Whether or not you really think that, the reader is going to interpret what you write through that initial lens.
Funding is important and mostly preserved, but it isn't the only issue. And relative to inflation, funding isn't actually that great, not mentioning the collapse of state university support.
So the finding about funding is interesting, but generalizing to "made peace with science" is not supported.
Some in GOP rely on cherry picking and stripping context for individual grants as political cudgel. Sens. Cruz & Paul, former Rep Lamar Smith, delight in this behavior.
Calling the GOP anti-science as a whole is not correct, but neither is the thesis that republicans have made peace with science.
I appreciated that distinction when I read the article initially, but my point is it isn't just the Trump admin with anti-science elements. As an example, the Congressional Planetary Science Caucus has exactly 2 Rs of 18 members. And the R chair, Bacon (NE-02), is retiring.
