Inthewildlight

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.

I am never going to get over the fact thar so many Americans died that corpses stacked up in nursing homes and hospital morgues, that refrigerator trucks had to be brought in for the overflow, and that the big takeaway from Important Pundits is there should have been *less* mitigation.

This is a moment of truth for American medicine & public health—including its academic associations & schools

If you cannot condemn Trump’s concentration camps & his kidnapping, trafficking, torture, & disappearance of people, what exactly are you for?

It is time to speak out

If not now, when?

How Not to Defeat Authoritarianism Moderation used to help Democrats win, but its advantages now have been greatly exaggerated.

"Every democracy facing this challenge has learned you don’t defeat authoritarians by being more reasonable. You defeat them by being more determined and by uniting the country against their most visible vulnerability: their corruption."

Worth the wait

www.bostonreview.net/forum/how-no...

WATCH: Minneapolis resident and U.S. citizen Aliya Rahman describes being detained by ICE YouTube video by PBS NewsHour

This is incredibly powerful testimony.

Ms. Rahman is very tough and clear and was treated horribly.

Warning: I can't watch it without tears of rage.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrcW...

This. It’s the baseline for our nation, even liberals. We must change it or we will end up here again (if we manage to stop fascism this time)

Have a great race! My BiL ran one this morning in 3 degrees.

Were you an Early-Stage investigator whose clock ran out between September-November 2025? You’ve just been given a short-term automatic extension to March 31,2026!!

grants.nih.gov/grants/guide...

It really is a genuine tragedy for public health that what used to be a non partisan issue—fighting cancer—is now a partisan one

We could ELIMINATE cervical cancer, but, sadly, animus towards vaccines is now the default MAGA/MAHA position, & it looks like RFK Jr is coming for HPV vaccines next

The story is not that there are two conflicting versions of what happened.
The story is that the federal government is lying about what happened.
There is plenty of evidence.
Your job, our job, is to sift that evidence and describe what actually happened ffs.

I came to Minneapolis to report on what's going on, and one of the main questions I showed up with is "just what is the scale of the resistance?" After all, we're all used to the news calling Portland a "war zone" or whatever when it's just some protests in one part of town.

Citing one example, Mr. Bovino said agents had faced “significant resistance” when merely trying to use a restroom at a gas station. “A lot of people would call that stalking,” he told reporters at a news conference. “I don’t think any of us would like to be stalked, but being stalked for eight to 10 hours at a time is not a very favorable climate.”

Yes stalking someone during all their waking hours and making them think like they are a threat to have their life upended at any given moment must be a terrible thing
www.nytimes.com/2026/01/22/u...

Applications have opened for our #DIScience Graduate Certificate! This robust 12-credit hour graduate certificate equips you to push the boundaries of health services, clinical, and public health research. Learn More: medschool.cuanschutz.edu/accords/Core...

Elon Musk's Grok AI floods X with sexualized photos of women and minors When contacted by Reuters for comment by email, xAI replied with the message "Legacy Media Lies."

Federal inaction and the lack of strong guardrails for AI systems are making women and children less safe online. Companies have proven they can’t or won’t do the right thing so Congress needs to set guardrails for AI to protect people’s rights and safety.

Read our full statement by AAP President Dr. Andrew Racine on today’s HHS announcement about the childhood immunization schedule: www.aap.org/en/news-room...

Researchers Are Hunting America for Hidden Datacenters The nonprofit research group Epoch AI is tracking the physical imprint of the technology that’s changing the world.

Eerie and fascinating www.404media.co/researchers-...

On delayed application review, the NIH grant terminations lawsuit appears to be headed for a settlement.

Both plaintiffs and defendants have submitted a joint document outlining their agreement. Judge Young must sign off on it before it takes effect.

Here's what it says and what all this means 🧵

Hey #statssky and #geronsky and #realworlddata lovers, if you're into data linkage and high quality data for #dementia research, and if you're an early stage investigator, have I got a mentoring program for you! See what the #NIA has posted and log on to the informational webinar next week!

Girls ages 16 years or younger who received HPV vaccines were 80% less likely than their unvaccinated counterparts to develop cervical cancer.

Evidence from 23 studies showed that HPV vaccination lowered the incidence of high-grade cervical precancers.
🧪 www.cochrane.org/about-us/new...

California’s Child Farmworkers: Exhausted, Underpaid, and Toiling in Toxic Fields - The American Prospect State officials are failing to protect the health and safety of thousands of young field laborers, an investigation has found.

Today I want to tell you about farmworkers.
Specifically, the child farmworkers of California's Central Valley.
As young as 12 years old.
In a blue state that is failing to ensure their health and safety.
Amazing investigation in 2 parts from our friends at @capitalandmain.bsky.social. Part I:

Check all the NIH review deets for deadlines during the shutdown here! 🧪

[Justin, host, librarypunk podcast] "'Part of a fascist project to offload the work of thinking, especially the reflective kind of thinking that reading, study, and community engagement provide ... That kind of thinking cultivates empathy and challenges your assumptions.'”

Assistant/Associate/Full Professor, Environmental Anthropology - New Haven, Connecticut job with Yale University, Department of Anthropology | 704970 The Department of Anthropology at Yale University seeks to hire a full-time tenure-track or tenured assistant/associate/full professor in environme...

Yale Anthropology is doing an open rank search for environmental anthropology. Happy to answer questions in DMs (I am not on the search committee). We’re a lovely department (imo) and given the current higher ed atmosphere, Yale has been doing a decent job at getting us thru (knock on wood).

Teen Vogue took young people seriously. It's impossible to overstate how important, how rare, and how profoundly needed that is.

it's time for journos to start asking Johnson meta questions

"Speaker, on 5 occasions last week you said 'I haven't seen it' when asked about news events w/big implications for public policy. Do you ever read the news, and do you agree it's problematic for the Speaker to be so woefully uninformed?"

This. This. This. @kenmartin.bsky.social @schumer.senate.gov @hakeem-jeffries.bsky.social: take note. You organize not by pandering to some mythical center, but by meeting people's needs. This has to be about what people do for each other. Not what your pollsters and consultants advise. Get to work.

With millions at risk of losing SNAP in the coming days, a reminder: hunger doesn't happen in isolation. When food assistance disappears, families use rent money to eat. Then come evictions and homelessness.

Housing, food, healthcare—it's all connected. Cut one thread and the whole thing unravels.

If you are serving on NIH study sections that have been cancelled, PLEASE continue to work on your reviews. NIH will do everything their power to ensure the meetings happen eventually, and the more prepared you are when those meetings are rescheduled, the better.

"The liberty and security of our fellow citizens is our great object, and not the prompt execution of the laws. Indecision, delay, blunders, nay villainous actions in the administration of government, are trifles compared to legalizing the full exertion of a tyrannical disposition."