Max Kozlov
@maxkozlov.bsky.social
science reporter covering biomedical research at Nature | proudly Ukrainian 🇺🇦 maxkozlov.com signal: mkozlov.01
Russia's spare disclosures combined with unverified rumours of a lab accident have triggered a plague scare. Here's what scientists know — and what Russia won't say. go.nature.com/4AVaSoD
Plague scare: what scientists know — and what Russia won’t say
Unverified rumours swirl around the death of a Siberian laboratory technician. Nature talks to a biosecurity specialist to unpack the fallout
go.nature.com
NEW: In March the White House released an FY27 budget request that zeroed out the National Science Foundation's directorate of Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences (SBE). For months it was unclear what would happen. Now, with FY26 over, the damage to SBE is coming to light. My reporting:
‘Complete devastation’: How NSF gutted its social sciences research
Agency body that funds sociology, linguistics, and archaeology studies in U.S. gave 90% fewer new grants this year
science.org
After our investigation into sham honor societies, many universities quietly deleted posts congratulating their faculty on joining them. Others... are still posting new ones! @stonybrooku.bsky.social news.stonybrook.edu/newsroom/pre...
Stony Brook University Professors Inducted into European Academy of Engineering - SBU News
Stony Brook University professors make up two of 14 members elected internationally STONY BROOK, NY – October 1, 2026 – Two professors from the State University of New York at Stony Brook (Stony Brook...
news.stonybrook.edu
OMB's focus on NIH and NSF, which has confused a lot of folks, pretty much boils down to stopping money going to universities.
Cole Donovan@colesci.bsky.social · last wk.But collectively, the narrow focus on grants to universities is misguided, especially when one accounts for the balance of where the money actually goes (source: NCSES). A plurality of federal R&D funding goes to businesses, followed by internal R&D expenditure, followed by higher education.
🚨 Watch for FAKE journals, FAKE conferences, FAKE societies! Exclusive: Sham scientific societies are misleading star researchers www.nature.com/articles/d41... "...a sprawling international constellation of suspicious academies and societies..."
Exclusive: Sham scientific societies are misleading star researchers
A Nature investigation reveals a network of organizations that have been building their ranks through deceptive practices.
nature.com
Kicking science journalists out of MAHA events? Seems to be a familiar playbook. I'm sorry this happened to you @sherylnyt.bsky.social bsky.app/profile/maxk...
Sheryl Gay Stolberg@sherylnyt.bsky.social · 2w agoBIG MAHA SUMMIT today at Waldorf-Astoria. Vance and RFK Jr. will speak. I was denied a press credential due to. “limited space. “Here I am getting turned away. I’m 5 feet tall. I don’t take up that much space.
We’ve written about predatory publishers, fake papers, fake peer review and imposter researchers…. Now suspect ‘learned societies’ 🧪 #academicSky Exclusive: Sham scientific societies are misleading star researchers www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Exclusive: Sham scientific societies are misleading star researchers
A Nature investigation reveals a network of organizations that have been building their ranks through deceptive practices.
nature.com
SCOOP: Top researchers at Columbia, Stanford, and others thought they were elected to elite scientific societies alongside Nobel laureates. The catch? The organizations are a sham. I spent the last month diving deep into a massive academic scam spanning continents, for @nature.com
Exclusive: Sham scientific societies are misleading star researchers
A Nature investigation reveals a network of organizations that have been building their ranks through deceptive practices.
nature.com
Yes this was one of the sham societies we investigated as part of the network! The same person uploaded the doctored RASNZ picture to Google Maps also uploaded the doctored European Academy of Engineering one we report on in the story
SCOOP: Top researchers at Columbia, Stanford, and others thought they were elected to elite scientific societies alongside Nobel laureates. The catch? The organizations are a sham. I spent the last month diving deep into a massive academic scam spanning continents, for @nature.com
Exclusive: Sham scientific societies are misleading star researchers
A Nature investigation reveals a network of organizations that have been building their ranks through deceptive practices.
nature.com
A Nature investigation reveals a network of organizations that have been building their ranks through deceptive practices go.nature.com/4z2zuKu
Exclusive: Sham scientific societies are misleading star researchers
A Nature investigation reveals a network of organizations that have been building their ranks through deceptive practices.
go.nature.com
Journalists are annoying. Officials get tired of our questions; readers may wish we asked different ones. (Frankly, we annoy each other as we compete for scoops.) But being annoying — pushing our government for answers — is part of the press freedom that makes America great.
The Washington Post@washingtonpost.com · 3w agoMS NOW said its journalists were denied access to the White House grounds Saturday, a day after President Trump said he would ban the outlet, as well as CNN and Politico, from the site. The president said Friday he disliked how they covered him.
New: Officials battled over NIH in the Oval Office today, per people familiar. RUSS VOUGHT criticized NIH "woke" spending and floated executive order to review its grants. JAY BHATTACHARYA defended NIH's alignment with Trump. TRUMP appeared to side with Vought. with @rbeggin.bsky.social
Vought pushes for scrutiny of NIH grants in Oval Office clash
A heated debate took place in the Oval Office on Friday, with some Trump officials accusing the National Institutes of Health of funding grants that conflict with the president’s agenda.
washingtonpost.com
People are using AI to impersonate real science journalists. And one even got PUBLISHED. In Science. www.linkedin.com/posts/caroli...
Fake Caroline update: The person who was impersonating me managed to get an article published in Science, under my by-line. And they got paid for it! I've seen the pitches (bad), and the email…...
Fake Caroline update: The person who was impersonating me managed to get an article published in Science, under my by-line. And they got paid for it! I've seen the pitches (bad), and the email chai...
linkedin.com
NEW: Yet another group of researchers is suing the NIH and HHS over a massive purge of federal research grants. The class-action suit alleges the Trump admin is violating scientists' first amendment rights by using keyword searches to censor science that doesn't align with its political views.
Researchers Challenge NIH Screening of Grants for Disfavored Viewpoints | American Civil Liberties Union
Class action lawsuit seeks to stop censorship and termination of federally funded scientific research
aclu.org
Helpful thread here from @maxkozlov.bsky.social on why we’re suing the NIH and on what grounds.
Max Kozlov@maxkozlov.bsky.social · 3w agoNEW: Yet another group of researchers is suing the NIH and HHS over a massive purge of federal research grants. The class-action suit alleges the Trump admin is violating scientists' first amendment rights by using keyword searches to censor science that doesn't align with its political views.
NEW: Yet another group of researchers is suing the NIH and HHS over a massive purge of federal research grants. The class-action suit alleges the Trump admin is violating scientists' first amendment rights by using keyword searches to censor science that doesn't align with its political views.
Researchers Challenge NIH Screening of Grants for Disfavored Viewpoints | American Civil Liberties Union
Class action lawsuit seeks to stop censorship and termination of federally funded scientific research
aclu.org
Scientists grew human brain cells inside mice born missing a big part of their brains. The human tissue grew to fill 90% of the space and wired into the spine. But no, it didn't create super-smart mice. Here's what actually happened, for @nature.com
Human brain cells transplanted into mice in ‘most extensive’ integration ever
Lab-grown organoids wire into mice missing a key part of their brain, offering a new way to test drugs for developmental conditions.
nature.com
The experimental strategy overcomes hurdles that have long stymied researchers studying neuropsychiatric illness in lab-grown brain tissue go.nature.com/4ixYQe1
Human brain cells transplanted into mice in ‘most extensive’ integration ever
Lab-grown organoids wire into mice missing a key part of their brain, offering a new way to test drugs for developmental conditions.
go.nature.com
🚨 The NIH is moving to transfer hundreds of millions of dollars in infectious-disease research projects to the DOD under a secret 10-year pact. Here’s what’s happening inside “Operation Prevailing Edge” 🧵👇 www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Revealed: inside the US military's plan to tap huge sums from the NIH
An agreement paves the way for hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of projects to be transferred from the NIH’s institute for infectious diseases to the Department of Defense.
nature.com
Under pressure, the DOD just released the text of its secret 10-year agreement with the NIH. Here are the biggest revelations from the document 🧵
Under pressure, the DOD just released the text of its secret 10-year agreement with the NIH. Here are the biggest revelations from the document 🧵
🚨 The NIH is moving to transfer hundreds of millions of dollars in infectious-disease research projects to the DOD under a secret 10-year pact. Here’s what’s happening inside “Operation Prevailing Edge” 🧵👇 www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Revealed: inside the US military's plan to tap huge sums from the NIH
An agreement paves the way for hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of projects to be transferred from the NIH’s institute for infectious diseases to the Department of Defense.
nature.com
An agreement paves the way for hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of projects to be transferred from the NIH’s institute for infectious diseases to the Department of Defense. go.nature.com/4ycEbk8
Revealed: inside the US military's plan to tap huge sums from the NIH
An agreement paves the way for hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of projects to be transferred from the NIH’s institute for infectious diseases to the Department of Defence.
go.nature.com
Scoop: For nearly a year, NSF has struggled to make new grants. Now we know that it will not catch up. In fact, NSF will award just 6,100 new grants—a 30% y/o/y decline, itself down from a previous avg. of 11,000+. In fact, the last time NSF awarded so few grants was in the early '80s.
Exclusive: NSF set to issue lowest number of new grants in four decades
The US science-funding agency is withholding $1 billion of its budget so that the money can go to a special White House project.
nature.com
The US National Science Foundation will award about 30% fewer new research grants this fiscal year than in the last one, Nature has learnt. go.nature.com/3UcGoNW
Exclusive: NSF set to issue lowest number of new grants in four decades
The US science-funding agency is withholding $1 billion of its budget so that the money can go to a special White House project.
go.nature.com
The NIH has proposed to scrap sharing specific grant app scores. Proponents argue that the current system creates a false sense of precision. But with the increased influence of political appointees in grantmaking under Trump, some say the proposal could introduce even more political interference.
NIH proposes major revamp of how it scores research grant proposals
Proponents argue that the current system creates a false sense of precision, but critics fear that the change could increase political interference.
nature.com
New: NIH's ban on funding projects in South Africa has been lifted. The ban was tied to a Feb 7, 2025 executive order directing agencies to halt foreign aid to South Africa. 18 months later, the agency has determined that grants don't constitute aid, so it was never subject to the EO.
NEW: The NIH is quietly restricting funding for research that evaluates how public policy impacts human health. According to internal documents I obtained, the agency no longer considers policymakers "mission relevant" — a massive shift for the biomedical funder. My latest for @nature.com:
NIH limits funding for research on the health effects of public policy
US biomedical agency no longer considers policymakers as ‘mission relevant’, leaving dozens of grants in limbo.
nature.com
This week, @maxkozlov.bsky.social wrote a piece on how the NIH is limiting funding on the health effects of public policies. What is striking is that the current NIH director's career was all about the health effects of policies, social & economic conditions. scholar.google.com/citations?hl...
