Brandon Stell

@brandonstell.bsky.social

Very happy to share our new paper in #ScienceSignaling revealing that importin β1 isn’t just important for nuclear transport or neuronal growth. We now show it is key for presynaptic plasticity in the hippocampus, local translation, and memory! www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Subcellular depletion of importin β1 impairs presynaptic local translation and spatial memory

Axonal localization of importin β1 is required for presynaptic functions that support spatial memory tasks.

science.org

Europe's MSCA postdoctoral fellowships are now attracting many researchers who would have gone to the US. So the payline has dropped below 10% (~1,600 fellowships to 17k applicants). Super tough situation. One more reason to double the next Horizon budget, as proposed by the EU Commission.

Tom Emery@drtomemery.bsky.social · 10mo ago

Applications for MCSA are up 64%! 50% now come from outside the EU. Trump effect? The European Research market just got a hell of a lot more crowded. EU should turn on the tap marie-sklodowska-curie-actions.ec.europa.eu/news/msca-po...

Yes, yes, Europe has its benefits. Walkable cities. Cultural heritage. Amazing food. Little gun violence. Healthcare. Governments that are not shut down. But the number of website pop-ups asking one to accept cookies renders the continent pretty much unlivable.

Academia may be a prestige economy but it wasn’t some choice of scientific leadership- we do it to ourselves, every day. Leadership rarely makes tenure criteria too down - it’s a committee of peers that sets it up for institutions. Leadership doesn’t sit on study sections - it’s peers doing it!

The Trump administration just dropped an executive order, "Restoring Gold Standard Science" and there's lots to unpack. This EO reveals more about how the Administration will approach scientific integrity and science in regulatory contexts. Some initial thoughts. 🧵 www.whitehouse.gov/presidential...

Restoring Gold Standard Science

By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including section 7301 of title 5, United

whitehouse.gov

OK we all get that this is literally impossible though, right? Europe and Canada do not have the resources to absorb 75% of US scientists and btw getting jobs in these places was already competitive for the people who live there.

Alexandra Witze@alexwitze.bsky.social · last yr.

We polled Nature readers to ask if they were thinking of leaving the US for jobs abroad. Three-quarters of them (who said they were US-based scientists) said yes. 🧪 www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Pet peeve: I hate how often ppl claim “all the researchers will just move to Europe/Canada!” You vastly under-estimate how little money there is there vs the USA- and unless that changes ASAP this loss is just going to decimate global science, full stop. 🧪🔭

Is everyone huffing paint? Crypto guy claims to have built an LLM-based tool to detect errors in research papers; funded using its own cryptocurrency; will let coin holders choose what papers to go after; it's unvetted and a total black box—and Nature reports it as if it's a new protein structure.

AI tools are spotting errors in research papers: inside a growing movement

Study that hyped the toxicity of black plastic utensils inspires projects that use large language models to check papers.

nature.com