“We are not afraid to entrust the American people with unpleasant facts, foreign ideas, alien philosophies, and competitive values. For a nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people.”
— President John F. Kennedy
Much different than Dire Straits but beautiful. Needed this for our Sunday morning...
youtu.be/w-OfUq5HXX8?...
I've had NIH funding since 1992 and while I've had good scores incl. 1%, my early grants included some >10%. Only about 50% of my later grants would be below 10%, and just a couple below 5%. At Scripps I couldn't survive without 2-3 grants.
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.
Congrats. Much deserved for such an excellent biography.
Maybe there is something to this germ theory after all…
So... A friend was supposed to give a PURELY SCIENTIFIC talk at NIH within the next couple of weeks and it was cancelled because of a "new process" where all speakers/talks have to be CLEARED BY A POLITICAL APPOINTEE.
Richard Sidey
Filmmaker / Photographer
"Eye to Eye with a Killer Whale in Antarctica.
While out filming wildlife in the brash ice, a pod of Type B1 Killer Whales investigated our zodiac for just over a minute, allowing us to lock eyes with this magnificent apex predator. An incredible experience."
You seem to find a large number of buttons. Any idea why they end up where you find them?
Finnigan the cat curled up asleep next to my arm.
Finnigan at rest.
There seem to have been several newspaper articles with headlines of "British wife" or "wife from Oxford".
💉 THREAD OF THE DAY
Plotkin, one of the true “titans” of vaccine development, knew the horrors that would happen if RFK Jr became health secretary
“I did everything I could when Kennedy was up for confirmation, to convince people like Senator [Bill] Cassidy to vote against him — and failed”
Today, 1 in 10 Americans lives with a rare disease. Most of the 7,000+ identified worldwide still have no approved treatment.
Last year, @scripps.edu added its 18th FDA-approved medicine for one of these conditions—advancing options for patients with few alternatives. #RareDiseaseDay
Installed in 1410, the Prague Astronomical Clock has stood over the Old Town Square for more than 600 years.
This episode is about harvesting anger productively, taking up more responsibility, and drawing lines.
If science is a public good, defending it means showing up—and saying no.
#ScienceCounterpunch
www.youtube.com/watch?v=KDTt...
This week's cover @thelancet.com
Cover of the biography of Francis Crick by Matthew Cobb showing a famous picture of Crick using his slide rule to point out a feature on the model of DNA structure,
There are few intimate biographies of those early pioneers of DNA structure and molecular biology and none with the depth that @matthewcobb.bsky.social has explored in Crick. It reveals the complexity that was Francis Crick. Fittingly the last pages stir emotion at our loss of a unique individual.
"Most of the published government-agency and intelligence reports [...] deliver different conclusions, seemingly on the basis of political rather than scientific arguments."
Indeed. The answers are to be found in the peer-reviewed scientific literature with credible experts doing the work.
Scripps Research Prof. Dale Boger has developed a new molecule with the potential to protect against resistance for decades to come. To get the next-generation antibiotic into the hands of patients, however, will require external support for preclinical trials. More: ow.ly/5ths50YklTW
Fragile egos? It would not surprise me that they see what actually happened as laughable compared to their predicted outcomes for the Great Barrington Declaration.
If you are in need of a comprehensive answer about the origins of SARS-CoV-2, I might have a book recommendation to you & SAGO 😅
www.amazon.com/dp/B0FKNDRJ8Z
Cover of I Told You So!
"In his new book, I Told You So!, Matt Kaplan—a longtime science correspondent for The Economist—traces a lineage of internal resistance to paradigm-changing scientific ideas from the Victorian era to today."
Read the #ScienceBooks Review: https://scim.ag/4c70qjX
Such a wild place. A fight for survival. But when the calm returns, even in the darkness, I would happily raise a glass to the fortitude of the house and the efforts of the river. Thank you for adding even more pleasure to my memories of Villager. Great writing.
I was fascinated by the house battling intrusion from the river in Villager. If the damp was only outside, I would live there. Now I see the wildness of the river, I have much more respect for that house. Bring on the wet.
RFK Jr is fine with his MAGA/MAHA crew spewing toxic mercury (Hg) into the air
But he won't give US funds to Gavi to buy vaccines for low income nations unless they remove thimerosal, an ethyl mercury proven as safe
It's methyl mercury that is toxic—a different form of Hg never used in vaccines
Henrietta Lacks
Henrietta Lacks was a Black woman whose (ovarian) cancer cells were used wo her/her family’s consent. Her cells are what would become the HeLa cell, the first immortalized human cell line & one of the most important in medical research.
#BackHistoryMonth
A lot of people, including me, were wondering how an IRB could ever approve this study.
The answer is that no IRB did. The person who “signed off” on approval from the only ethics board that reviewed it had resigned three years earlier. His signature was used without his knowledge.
This local Wolfdog joined an Olympic ski event and triggered the finish-line camera. This is Nazgul. He snuck into a cross-country skiing sprint this morning and raced the homestretch with some competitors before being escorted home. 14/10 someone get him a medal
