Unsurprised to learn that I am obsessed with the Bridgerton Charlie XCX 360 reimagined as a string quartet because Peter Gregson rearranged the piece.
A Little Chaos soundtrack has gotten me through the last decade of academia and 360 joins the academia hopecore playlist today.
A line graph showing funding curves for all NIH projects awarded grants for fiscal years 2021-2026. The curve for fiscal year 2026 is lagging behind that for previous fiscal years substantially.
My weekly update on NIH funding.
This is for all projects.
The breakdown for competing and non-competing awards will follow.
1/4
A line graph showing the number of new and competitive renewal awards for fiscal years 2021-2026. The curve for fiscal year 2026 is essentially zero on this scale with 121 awards compared to close to 3000 awards to the same date in earlier years.
These are the curves for new and competitive renewal grants.
The number of new awards is increasing slightly, but only slightly.
17 out of 25 institutes and centers with funding authority have now made awards.
3/4
Every one of my students turned in every assignment for our class. This feels like lightning in a bottle.
Unpopular opinion: biologists are still the ones who understand biology best
"Infrastructure for knowledge production that took years to build cannot be rebuilt overnight." ASA member Stephanie J. Nawyn @snawyn.bsky.social (Michigan State) adds to this reflection on the effects of the administration’s science funding cuts. @us.theconversation.com
Breakdown of the year @science.org
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
A Trump administration change to how the National Institutes of Health awards grants has sharply reduced early-stage investigators’ odds of securing funding, new data from the agency show. Teamed up with @aniloza.bsky.social for this @statnews.com story
www.statnews.com/2025/12/18/n...
NSF plans to streamline merit review to heal self-inflicted staffing wound www.science.org/content/arti...
"What James Watson got wrong about DNA"
By the great Sohini Ramachandran (@sramach.bsky.social) and your boy for The Boston Globe (@bostonglobe.com).
www.bostonglobe.com/2025/11/14/o...
You can disagree and argue as much as you like but the point of evaluating something scientifically is that not every statement should be given equal credence because evidence matters
I made my students a little “book” (just using Google slides) to show them how you all answered my question about how you take notes for research. Just to show the variety.
I just learned about this amazing program that matches high schoolers interested in STEM with mentors, including many past and present NIH trainees. These types of programs are even more important in this day and age. If you're able to help support it, they have a gofundme.
This is one of the best analyses of the total grift and scammery of AI in education I’ve seen, and it is a MUST Read: “Higher Ed’s Rush To Adopt AI Is About So Much More Than AI - defector.com/higher-eds-r...
"Data manipulation by the US Gov...makes crucial datasets untrustworthy and unusable. If the US Government secretly changes datasets for political reasons, researchers relying on the data might erroneously recommend ineffective or counterproductive interventions."
www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...
Comment period ends on Monday for a proposed rule change that would terminate student visas after 4 years. It also puts limits on exchange visitors and reps of foreign media, and shortens the length of time at the end of the visa from 60 days to 30 days.
www.federalregister.gov/documents/20...
This may be the most important paper ever published about NIH funded research.
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Graphs of funding curves for nine NIH institutes from fiscal year 2012.
Since there is some discussion that NIH institutes should not simply use paylines to determine which grants to fund, I thought I would share some old data.
These are plots of funding probability fas a function of percentile score for 9 institutes.
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July 29, 2025 marks 67 years to the day since the founding of NASA. NASA Spinoff—a section of the US space agency’s technology transfer program—compiles just about every commercial technology that has originated in US space research, from freeze-dried food to wireless vacuum cleaners.
Sorta feels like "they are actively gutting cancer research" should be finding more purchase out there
New, from an anonymous NIH insider: Trump is being pushed to spend more NIH money. The White House is ordering NIH to do multi-year budgets for awards. This budget trick means fewer awards, fewer labs funded, and lower paylines for researchers. 🧵
donmoynihan.substack.com/p/alert-the-...
'The myth of meritocracy in science collapses under the financial sacrifices expected at every career stage. From unpaid internships and self-funded conferences to underpaid graduate and postdoctoral positions, the hidden costs of ‘doing science’ are profound.'
journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...
One thing to emphasize strongly is that funding to science is like oxygen to the brain. Temporarily restricting oxygen flow for ten minutes (while you figure your shit out) is going to have the same outcome as shutting oxygen off permanently.
We are close to the ten minute mark.
It's odd that even an authoritarian like Trump would want to destroy US science, but there we have it. It is hard to see any other rationale for this random act of chaos.
www.scientificamerican.com/article/trum...
What do a football jersey, a ski suit, a beach towel, and a scarf have in common? They all show the warming stripes—and open the door to talking about climate change.
Here’s more on how you can join in, and start a conversation today without saying a word!
"The conservative majority knows what it's doing. These same justices would never have allowed a Democratic administration to take similar actions. Yet when Trump bulldozes constitutional limits, the Court waves him on," writes @adambonica.bsky.social. data4democracy.substack.com/p/the-suprem...
Trump Administration Ousts National Science Foundation from Headquarters Building www.scientificamerican.com/article/trum...
We're suing the government to overturn the massive cuts to NSF funding, including to our own program building STEM education pipelines for students from minority and underserved populations. Proud to be part of @aacu.org and to have the support of @democracyforward.org in this fight.
NEW: NSF will be kicked out of their building. Announcement will be made tomorrow by HUD Sec. and Governor of VA. HUD will take over the NSF building over the next two years.
NSF staffer: "There is no planning for NSF, no identified future location, appropriation for a new building or a move."
JB opens by noting the court order freezing the limit. Says scientific funding is being concentrated in a few coastal institutions bc of IDCS. I'll note this is false - we've shown how the proposed cap would lear to economic losses across the country.
scienceimpacts.org
