Dr Dr Oona Snoeyenbos-West

Graph of award probability of R35 and R01 from NIH factbook as a function of review rank percentile. As is apparent, 2025 is a significant departure, with lower award probabilities at all scores <40 and significant departures from norm, where even being in the top 10% is no longer a nearly certain indicator of success. Data source: https://report.nih.gov/nihdatabook/report/302

The data is in: the NIH goalposts have shifted.

What were once almost certain fundable scores have become coin flips and what used to be likely grants have become aspirational, leading to fewer awards.

Another manifestation of how HHS policies have led to fewer awards and less science.

Ocean temperatures may be protecting Earth from a planet-wide drought Ocean temperatures may be quietly protecting the world from a global drought catastrophe. By analyzing more than a century of climate data, researchers discovered that droughts rarely spread across th...

Not for long it seems 🔥

Ocean cycles like El Niño may be quietly preventing a planet-wide drought—and helping safeguard the global food supply.

Ocean temperatures may be protecting Earth from a planet-wide drought | ScienceDaily share.google/bbD59CyF1cqf...

Elemental mapping of cells of Methanosarcina barkeri. (C-carbon, Fe-iron, P-phosphorus, S-sulfur

Have a look at our new preprint — and the first first-author paper from my recently graduated PhD student Abdalluh Jabaley 🎓

The metallome of Methanosarcina barkeri during electron uptake from a cathode ⚡️🦠 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

The Hidden Potential of What We Flush Every day, people around the world flush billions of liters of wastewater down the drain. Most of it must be cleaned before it can safely return to the environment, but wastewater treatment uses huge ...

...and a cute follow up article for Frontiers for Young Minds, which you can share with your kids. kids.frontiersin.org/articles/10....

Frontiers | Waste to value: microbial electrochemical technologies for sustainable water, material, and energy cycles Global wastewater production exceeds 359 billion m3 annually, of which only 52% is treated, mostly in expensive and resource-consuming processes. Microbial e...

Check out our lead review paper in Frontiers in Science, expertly led by Uwe Schröder and featuring really great co-authors from all over the globe... on new strategies to turn waste into value. www.frontiersin.org/journals/sci...

Great work in ISMEComm: BONCAT as alternative to microautoradiography (“BONCAT provides estimates of single-cell heterotrophic activity consistent with microautoradiography in deep-ocean samples, supporting its application as a non-radioactive alternative in low-activity environments.”) #microsky🧪🦠

Read our review about the "Diversity, ecology, cell biology and evolution of the Asgard archaea" in @natrevmicro.nature.com here: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

By @kassipan.bsky.social @stephkoe.bsky.social @micropat.bsky.social & @gerbenz.bsky.social

Asgard #archaea: have we found our microbial ancestors?
New review (also for newcomers to the field!) by Christa Schleper and Thiago Rodrigues-Oliveira
link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Highly relevant paper 🧪🔓 for the #lightpollution community with very interesting insights: Nocturnal migrating moths 🦋need both, visual and magnetic cues to navigate. Magnetic cues alone are not enough which means they are particularly vulnerable if visual orientation is impaired by excess light 💡

Judging from the prose, the Pentagon appears to be using AI to announce the death of soldiers. If it’s not AI, it’s a person who simply does not care.

Chart showing in many countries, people see their fellow citizens as morally good.

We asked people around the world to rate the morality and ethics of others in their country.

The U.S. is the only place we surveyed where more adults describe the morality and ethics of others living in the country as bad than good. See our full morality report here: www.pewresearch.org/...

💡👇🏻

Nature Report, Killed by Trump, Is Released Independently

When the US govt terminated the National Nature Asst, @phillevin.bsky.social + the author team were determined not to let that stop them.

They re-organized, set up an advisory committee, found funding…and now the brand new Nature Record is open for public comment. 👏🌳👏🌲

Check it out (link below)!

tech CEO in 2026: My computer has anxiety.
venture capitalist in 2026: Here, have 200 billion more dollars.

child in 2006: My NeoPet is angry at me.
mom in 2006: No it isn't sweetie, go to bed.
mom to dad in 2006: We have an idiot boy. Our boy is a little idiot person. It's too late to fix him.

people that hate cats are so funny to me because the things they complain about also are complaints autistic people hear about themselves “unfriendly” “unapproachable” “mean” etc

meanwhile the cats and the autistics are just minding our business and not seeking validation from someone

No Help and Few Options for Travelers Stranded by Mideast Conflict

One woman who called the State Department helpline looking for help said they told her to "stop ranting and raving" and hung up on her.

Another woman said they asked her how to spell Oman.

www.nytimes.com/2026/03/04/t...

" ... up to 52% of future surface temperatures and 38% of air temperatures in the Amazonian lowlands can cause heat mortality in half of the studied community. Our data suggest a limited capacity of insects in the Earth’s most biodiverse regions to buffer future warming" 🧪🌡️📈🦋

This is a big deal! CIDRAP’s Vaccine Integrity Project is providing an alternative to reports from CDC and ACIP, which experts say are no longer following established science.

A 2000 year old barrel sponges in the Banda Sea spawn with the full moon, a rare natural spectacle of life. Found throughout the  
tropical coral reef environments in the Atlantic Ocean, these sponges grow slowly but can live for centuries or thousands of years in

Prediction: many will jump on the AI bandwagon & try to shoehorn their science into this narrow mold whether it fits or not 😑

Governmental support for “quantum biology” writ large in this way is what you get when people use words that sound smart but are ultimately undefined and meaningless when talking to government officials

It can literally mean everything (or nothing), but it sounds “smart”

The cuts to existing programs and graduate research fellowships have a pattern: the Trump Administration is dismantling our ability to study ecology, biodiversity science, and climate research:

They’re putting Silicon Valley billionaires above studying Earth’s life support system.

Of course! 🙂

Time lapse of Aurora from Höfn, Iceland

Shot with a Canon R5 Mark 2 and a Sigma 14-24 f2.8 Art lens. This is 259 shots at 3.2 seconds, f2.8, ISO 2500. Processed in Topaz Photo and Lightroom.

This was around 1am on 13th February, at Vestrahorn.

📸 Danny Reardon
www.facebook.com/1567135261/v...

NSF officials break silence on how AI and quantum now drive agency grantmaking Leaders acknowledge White House role in controversial moves

The National Science Foundation is systematically being converted to the National AI and Quantum Research Foundation.

“I see it as the administration exerting political control over what has traditionally been NSF’s ability to fund the best science.”

Beloved Metro cat snatched by woman at train station found safe A station cat, known for lying on copies of Metro, was stolen from his perch by a woman who stuffed him into her shopping bag last week.

George the cat, nicknamed Metro cat, due to him laying on copies of the free newspaper at West Wickham station, was taken by a woman who stuffed George into her coat last Thursday.
George has been found after entering someone's home via their cat flap.
metro.co.uk/2026/02/25/b...

How many? Too many!?! 👇🏻

Oh no!!

IP theft (from AI) to train AI models!

Imagine such rampant theft in the service of AI?!?!

Deleted!