The OMB Proposal block is a huge win! But Vought has other avenues for his science destroying plans, like the NSF proposal. Register for the webinars to learn about the key NSF changes and draft strong public comments: zurl.co/yigKl And, leave your public comment: zurl.co/4R18f

In Arizona alone, a staggering 450,000 people—including more than 100,000 kids—have lost food assistance since Trump's "big beautiful bill" passed. Nationwide, 4.5 million have been pushed off SNAP to fund tax cuts for the rich. That there aren't uprisings in every city, every day, is incredible.

Arizona’s Food Stamp Crisis Is Coming for the Rest of the U.S.

The number of people who receive nutrition assistance in Arizona has dropped significantly in a matter of months.

nytimes.com

Bluesky said it was "fighting Russian efforts to hijack real users’ accounts to post fake content, an apparently novel tactic." www.nytimes.com/2026/05/21/b... 🎁 #giftlink

Bluesky Says Kremlin Is Hacking Its Platform to Spread Propaganda (Gift Article)

The company said it was fighting Russian efforts to hijack real users’ accounts to post fake content, an apparently novel tactic.

nytimes.com

You don’t want hands free driving, you want trains. You want trains you want trains you want TRAINS

We found that the sepsis rate in second-trimester pregnancy loss hospitalizations increased by more than 50% under Texas’ abortion ban. Here’s how we did our analysis. (Published Feb. 2025)

Texas Won’t Study How Its Abortion Ban Impacts Women, So We Did

Since Texas banned abortion, no one has studied the statewide effects on pregnant women experiencing complications. Here’s how we sifted through data on millions of pregnancy hospitalizations and anal...

propublica.org

Estrogen Receptor friends.....has anyone had trouble with their PPT (ER alpha agonist) from Tocris lately? Our lab and another in my department have not been getting consistent results and we are beginning to wonder if it is the drug.

“It could take at least a year for OMB to respond to the comments and amend the draft rule”. Friends, this is a direct result of our collective action. The OMB Rule that would require political review of grants has prompted at least 50K comments. Thanks to all who commented, and you still can.

A Proposed Rule Would Politicize Medical Research. Scientists Are Not Happy.

In tens of thousands of comments, researchers, doctors and others warned the rule could hamper progress on important health issues.

nytimes.com

This is the key point: Academic freedom is not just about protecting higher education, it is about preventing state control of civil society institutions to promote its ideology and suppress dissent.

Victor Ray@victorerikray.bsky.social · 4w ago

I wrote about Florida Governor DeSantis' getting rebuked by the 11th Circuit for his tyrannical (and unconstitutional) "Stop WOKE Act." Hopefully, this will serve as a warning to other GOP states (but I doubt it). www.ms.now/opinion/flor...

Last chance people! You can leave as many comments as you want. Yesterday I left six specific comments referencing specific statutes and why they are a terrible idea.

Ashley Juavinett, PhD@ashleyjuavinett.bsky.social · 4w ago

Let’s get to 100K! If you have not submitted a comment yet, your deadline is NOW/Monday.

Did you write your comment yet on the OMB rules on federally funded science yet? No? Don’t worry, you can do it this weekend. Here are some resources that can help you get started.

What an amazing way to kick off #SBN2026! 🎉 Our first session on mentorship lead by Drs. Nancy Forger, Alexandra Castillo- Ruiz and Laura Cortes sparked an inspiring discussion about the value of strong mentor–mentee relationships and the impact they have on scientific careers.

RESPECT Every politician should be doing this. Mayor Coffman has spent every Friday night since February sleeping at Aurora, Colorado’s homeless center, serving breakfast in the morning, and learning firsthand what works and what doesn’t.

“Copenhagen reported that 62% of its residents are now commuting to work or school by bike — an increase from 52% in 2015 & 36% in 2012, when the City Council launched a 14-year-plan to improve the quality, safety & comfort of cycling.” #Copenhagen chose. They keep choosing even better every year.

Copenhagen has taken bicycle commuting to a whole new level

Cycling has been a part of that good life in Copenhagen for decades. In recent years, it has enjoyed yet another unfathomable surge in popularity — taken to the next level thanks to constantly improvi...

latimes.com

Study (N=8,097) finds women more likely to finish a PhD before 30 & have children after 35. Men tended to become parents during doctoral studies & often had 3+ children by 40. Early-career mothers had lower citation rates; fathers had no such penalties. www.insidehighered.com/news/faculty...

Female Academics Increasingly Delay Motherhood Until Age 35

“Pronounced penalties” for those early-career staff with children may explain why Ph.D.s postpone becoming parents, a recent study finds.

insidehighered.com

Think I might have chosen the experts at one of the worlds most admired zoos *that has been doing this for 50 years*.

Carl Zimmer@carlzimmer.com · last mo.

The US government is entering a partnership to store frozen cells and other biological samples from endangered and threatened species with Colossal, a private company best known for claiming to "de-extinct" dire wolves. Story by me & @catrineinhorn.bsky.social Gift link: nyti.ms/43Rzhfw

A 20 year study on 2 NIH diversity programs in Science Advances shows they doubled undergrads' odds of getting a Ph.D. That is, before the funding for those programs and for the study itself was terminated last year: www.statnews.com/2026/06/17/n...

NIH diversity programs doubled undergraduates’ odds of getting a Ph.D., 20-year study finds

A new study found that two diversity-oriented programs supported by the NIH doubled the odds that an undergraduate would earn a Ph.D.

statnews.com

When you see the story about how the world now has its first trillionaire, and when you see the story about how laboratories in Congo have run out of supplies to test for Ebola, it is important to understand that in many ways these are the same story.

I think this is what NYC must have felt like during the events seen in the documentary Ghostbusters

Neuroscientists argue that discontinuing in vivo models before using them to fix historical sex inequities in research risks embedding a male bias in biomedicine. #Biomedicine #Neuroscience #Neuroskyence

Scientists Caution that Phasing Out Animal Research Prematurely Could Risk Women’s Health | The Scientist

Neuroscientists argue that discontinuing in vivo models before using them to fix historical sex inequities in research risks embedding a male bias in biomedicine.

the-scientist.com

Proposed changes by the Trump administration to rules that govern how federal dollars are spent "would inevitably lead to unlegislated reductions in funding and damage US leadership in science, both in academia and industry," writes H. Holden Thorp in a new #ScienceEditorial. https://scim.ag/4uK0fBj

A statement from AAAS CEO Sudip Parikh on OMB rule politicizing federal grantmaking:

"Trump seems far more interested in padding his own and his cronies’ pockets than in boosting the fate of humanity. And so, he has given Vought free rein to destroy key engines of progress—including universities, research institutes and professional associations." www.ms.now/opinion/russ...

Opinion | Russ Vought is doing his part in the Trump administration’s war on scientific progress

Jessica Calarco: Under newly proposed Office of Management and Budget rules, every research grant awarded by the federal government would be vetted by political appointees.

ms.now

1.7 billion Canadian is about 1 billion- ish USD. or about 1/10 the YEARLY budget of (the underfunded) NSF. This ain't gonna solve the issue. No. We stay and fight.

JJ @jjbrainstorm.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Canada is spending $1.7 billion to do just that.. www.canada.ca/en/innovatio...

@nycsanitation.bsky.social I’d like to report a sweep

Well, would ya look at that! NSF is going to send >10% of its current budget to industry (read: tech start ups) instead of universities…it’s as if the admin is trying to dismantle our basic science mechanism and use it as a start up fund for private companies 💁🏻‍♀️ www.nsf.gov/tip/updates/...

NSF announces $1.5B NSF X-Labs initiative to pursue generational breakthrough science efforts

nsf.gov

still not quite over the fact that i watched 15 year olds get sued for millions of dollars for downloading twelve songs and now we all have to accept AI slop because every tech company in the known universe decided that IP laws don't exist now that they're inconvenient for them

Remember: Wealth cannot be separated from power. We're seeing in real time how the extreme concentration of wealth is distorting our politics, rigging markets, and granting unprecedented power to a handful of people. Taxing the rich isn't just an economic issue, it's a defense of our democracy.

Kind of surprised that this hasn't been bigger news. It's finals week for a whole lot of universities, and yet, Canvas (a learning/grading platform used by ~9,000 schools globally) is currently inaccessible because of a pay-or-have-your-data-leaked hack. www.insidehighered.com/news/tech-in...

“PAY OR LEAK”: Hackers Target Big Higher Ed Vendor

The criminal extortion group ShinyHunters breached Instructure last week. The hackers, who have also attacked individual universities, demanded the ed-tech giant pay up or face a data leak.

insidehighered.com

The abstract deadline for #SBN2026 has been extended to May 8 🎉 If you've been thinking about submitting an abstract to attend our conference and enjoy the spectacular views of Niagara Falls and nearby places, you still have time! Submit an abstract here: whova.com/call_for_spe...

Penn State Biology is hiring! We have an opening for a tenure-line faculty position in plant biology - if you'd like to pursue awesome science in a supportive and interdisciplinary community of researchers, consider applying! psu.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/PSU_Ac...

Tenure-Track Faculty Position in Plant Biology

APPLICATION INSTRUCTIONS: CURRENT PENN STATE EMPLOYEE (faculty, staff, technical service, or student), please login to Workday to complete the internal application process. Please do not apply here, a...

psu.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com