If you block junior scientists from ensuring that they can afford to live (or start families!) in the exorbitantly expensive areas around their workplaces, only family-subsidized solitary rich kids will be able to pursue careers in research - amidst exponential inflation, increasingly few people.
Current NIH leadership want you to think they are using rigorous, consistent & scientific processes to screen studies to align them with agency priorities.
But the process that they have put down on paper is a sham.
It’s important to know NIH is not following its own guidance. Here’s why:
🧵1/
Stand Up for Science
New York City National Day of Action Rally!
Saturday, March 7, 12pm - 2pm
City Hall Park
Rally to defend scientific integrity, protect public health, and protest political interference in the scientific enterprise.
Meet PSC members at the Broadway and Park Place entrance.
Hoping for a big turnout tomorrow!
Sabotaging the NSF fellowship is a blunder
"After making a massive mistake of curtailing the entry of excellent foreign-born scientists, the administration is compounding the error by further restricting the development and availability of domestic scientists."
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Thank you for your service @nmrkaygee.bsky.social !
New paper showing that bacteria with more genes for cooperation can live in a broader range of habitats and that genes for cooperation are more more likely to be in the accessory genome www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/... @lauriebelch.bsky.social
In our latest work, we characterise the Tmn defence system. We reveal plasmolysis as a new way to block phage infection, dramatically reducing secondary infections.
Great profile of @ntidpres.bsky.social in the @themindhears.bsky.social
themindhears.org/2026/02/25/p...
I’ve spent a lot of time over the past two years thinking about genome evolution and how recent research revealing complex gene-gene interactions has complicated traditional ‘gene-centric’ genomic approaches to evolution. So here is a review that consolidates these thoughts!
rdcu.be/e6pHY
With Eugene Koonin, we propose a concept of “the selfish ribosome”, under which evolution of life is viewed as a ribosomal takeover, where the ribosome evolved to consume most of the cell’s resources, while other cellular componentry ensures the propagation of the ribosome. arxiv.org/abs/2602.23268
The number of researchers who*don't even respond* to review requests is appalling. If you can't or don't want to review, fine. But don't waste everyone's time by ignoring three or four emails that can be dealt with one click.
Claire Shipman is a former television journalist, and it shows.
Going live to tape and telling the world how your university was invaded and your student abducted on the same day is exactly how you fight authoritarianism.
Cover of The Lancet:
@thelancet.com
www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...
I'll translate it for you Dave. There's going to be a small club getting funded and you're not in it.
Grantmaking will become industrial policy executed through academia.
I've been using Google Notebook where you can upload a paper collection and ask questions about it. I find it really helpful in writing where I can ask it to find information in the collection quickly e.g. "which paper experimentally manipulated X to test Y?" Beats manually scanning a bunch of PDFs.
Federal funding for US biomedical research is moribund.
Since October 1 2025, NIH is -80% in new grants and -70% in values (total dollars).
Labs are closing down and researchers are leaving science.
To what end?
"Stunning bat cave footage captures disease spread risk for first time". Amazing footage of wildlife interacting with bats at the "Python Cave" in Uganda.
What’s holding back clinical use of phage therapy in the UK?
Our workshop last year brought together international experts, biotech and regulators to find out
Meeting Report out now in Nature Microbiology with our take on the challenges and opportunities facing the UK phage therapy sector
Only have about a week left to comment on this--DoE trying to remove many areas from being classified as a "professional" degree, including nursing and public health. This will limit access to student loans and ultimately drive students from the fields.
the evolutionary and ecological consequences of cooperation
the evolutionary and ecological consequences of cooperation
Huge thanks to @asn-amnat.bsky.social for inviting our review on the evolutionary and ecological consequences of cooperation. @annadewar.bsky.social @asgriffin.bsky.social @lauriebelch.bsky.social www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/...
New round of NSF GRFP declines without review. If you were affected:
1) Write NSF
2) Write your Congressperson
3) CC us at grfp@grant-witness.us so we can compile + follow up
Details and template at grant-witness.us/grfp-letter
This is the link to the post: bsky.app/profile/noam...
Most microbes don't live in shaking flasks; spatial structure shapes how microbes interact and evolve at every scale, as we discuss in our recent review @jeroenmeijer.bsky.social @simonvanvliet.bsky.social @bedutilh.bsky.social @bramvandijk.bsky.social and others
academic.oup.com/femsre/artic... 🧵👇
It's most likely true. If they had actually read our grant, they would have realized there was nothing DEI related in it. But it was terminated anyway.
NATIONAL DAY of ACTION Take back our science, health, and democracy! Join us MARCH 7TH, 2026 NEW YORK CITY, NY and nationwide! Register, volunteer, and donate! standupforscience.net/march7
NEW YORK CITY! Join your local March 7th rally to take back our science! Learn more at standupforscience.net/march7
#rally
#March7
#ImpeachRFKJr
#science
#standupforscience
How to make phages work for you! A big hurdle is you. 🧪 🦠 mGem: Immune recognition and clearance of bacteriophages—implications for phage therapy | mBio journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...
Three postdoctoral fellowships in quantitative biology are available as part of a new Quantitative Biology Initiative in the Department of Biology at the University of Maryland.
Best consideration date: 3/14
Job Ad:
umd.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/UMCP/j...
Department:
biology.umd.edu/people
ASV members at your service -- check out your ballot!
@szparalab.bsky.social
@drjdennehy.bsky.social
@salehlabparis.bsky.social
@skytree42.bsky.social
@paulturnerlab.bsky.social
Also but not online: Louis Mansky, Liang Deng, Kai Wu, Shou-Wei Ding, Cristina Rosa, David Buchholz & Patrick Creisher
Happy 134th birthday to humans knowing that viruses exist! OTD in 1892 Dmitri Ivanovsky presented his evidence of a tobacco mosaic disease caused by filterable agents (not bacteria!). Martinus Beijerinck confirmed this independently in 1898. And voila, virology is born!
FDA's decision not to accept Moderna's flu vaccine filing has sent shock waves through pharma. "When there’s uncertainty about the path to approval & the reliability of the process, that really has pretty serious consequences,” one player told @jasonmast.bsky.social. www.statnews.com/2026/02/12/f...
