Stanford AAUP
@stanfordaaup.bsky.social
The Stanford Chapter of the @aaup.bsky.social. Fighting to preserve academic freedom for all. All Stanford academic staff are eligible to join. Opinions our own. Find out more and join here: https://aaupstanford.org
Most-recent common ancestor of the bacterium that causes Lyme disease was about 60,000 years ago, well before there were people in the Americas. I don't think the chipmunks were doing gain-of-function experiments. Figure 3 from Walter et al. (2017): doi.org/10.1038/s415...
Bill Grueskin@bgrueskin.bsky.social · 4d agoRFK told Dana Bash that Lyme disease “almost certainly” came from gain of function research. Which is utterly false. www.medpagetoday.com/infectiousdi...
THIS IS WHAT PEOPLE POWER ACCOMPLISHES! Thank you thank you thank you to everyone who wrote comments, contacted Congress, and yelled! This is OUR WIN! @standupforscience.net www.politico.com/news/2026/08...
Senate finalizes funding patch that would block Trump’s grant overhaul
Language is included to delay the president’s move to put political appointees in charge of grant approval.
politico.com
Do you study human ecology, human behavior, or human institutions? Is your work relevant to climate change, adaptation, or sustainability? Join us at Stanford! 🌲🤓🌲 My department will be running a junior search in Environmental Behavioral Sciences this year. Happy to answer any questions.
Assistant Professor in Environmental Social Sciences, Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability (Environmental Behavioral Sciences) - Stanford University, California, United States
Stanford University invites applications for a tenure-track Assistant Professor in the field of Environmental Behavioral Sciences within the Department of Environmental Social Sciences. The scope of t...
facultypositions.stanford.edu
www.propublica.org/article/fede...
How Trump’s “America First” Administration Could Shut U.S. Scientists Out of the Next Nobel-Worthy Discovery
A proposed White House rule would give political appointees unprecedented control over scientific funding. One physicist, who helped discover the Higgs boson, explains how the rule would’ve stifled th...
propublica.org
My letter to Yale President McInnis about Yale reportedly in talks to 'bend the knee'. Text in the Alt.
It's part of a major federal court case over those cancelations. Here's what the government admitted as part of a process meant to avoid discovery (and perhaps spare it from sharing more damaging records):
Shocking revelation in court documents that the Trump administration canceled billions of dollars of grants for energy projects based solely on whether states voted for Trump. ... and this is the sanitized version they presented to avoid discovery! www.nytimes.com/2026/07/24/b...
Trump Administration Admits Canceling Grants to States That Did Not Vote for Him (Gift Article)
Federal officials said in court documents that they halted billions of dollars in funding for energy projects to states “based solely” on whether they backed President Trump in the 2024 election.
nytimes.com
11. I don't think I have to help anyone read between the lines here. AI: good. Universities: bad. Trades: good. Academics: bad. It's a straightforward continuation of the Vought/Vance "the universities are the enemy" program.
"The National Institutes of Health admitted to using an internal search tool to flag UC grants that mentioned 'health equity,' 'work force diversity,' 'structural racism,' and 'sexual orientation.' " apnews.com/article/cali... 1/3
White House admits it used keywords to kill billions worth of California research grants
Federal agencies that terminated more than a thousand research grants at the University of California last year admitted that they used keywords related to diversity, gender, vaccine hesitancy and COV...
apnews.com
A quick word on Taco Bell: That's where we found the suspected lettuce, and it's not bc Taco Bell is gross. It's bc Taco Bell is REALLY GOOD at tracing product! Keeping track of exactly where they got their ingredients, & exactly what restaurants each shipment of ingredients went to!
Bhattacharya tries to take credit for HIV advances while his policies undermine the field.
27 UNIHTED@27unihted.bsky.social · 3w agoIn response to Representative Dean noting that HIV is not isolated to any single continent Bhattacharya said: “I don’t know if that’s true actually... open.substack.com/pub/27unihte...
“Practitioners of analytic philosophy will be aware that the charge of absurdity or incoherence is not an uncommon or even an unjust criticism of many claims made within their own discipline.” @ramoran.bsky.social on the Boghossian report on the humanities:
The Wrong Way to Criticize the Humanities
A recent report, commissioned by the chancellors of Vanderbilt and Washington University, invites further intrusions on scholarly self-governance.
bostonreview.net
The American Diabetes Association appears not to have learned their lesson the first time around (below). Now they've blocked publication of an editorial about this event that was slated for publication in the same journal, Diabetes Care, this week. But here it is. You know what to do.
Community Voices: On the Events of the American Diabetes Association 86th Scientific Sessions
The editorial and the seven opinion articles posted here were scheduled for publication on July 13, 2026, in the journal, Diabetes Care. All articles were provided, in advance of the scheduled publica...
zenodo.org
Carl T. Bergstrom@carlbergstrom.com · 2mo agoFrom 500 views in the first two months to over 100,000 views in the last few days. The ADA opinion piece that was too scary to be distributed at the ADA meeting has gone full Streisand. Y'all are doing the Lord's work.
This is crucial and often unmentioned. Almost every single diagnosis of declining faith in universities fails to mention that it is runs in parallel to declining faith in almost all American institutions. Any failure to recognize this means it is really flawed or not a serious effort.
Mark Copelovitch@mcopelov.bsky.social · 3w ago👇🎯 The tell about this is that none of these people claiming academia had a trust problem benchmark universities to other societal institutions or spend any time banging on about the problems with those institutions: bsky.app/profile/mcop...
The U.S. is just a few dozen measles cases away from exceeding the number of cases recorded in 2025.
U.S. Measles Cases Reach Over 2,200—Nearly Totaling All Measles Cases Recorded In 2025
The U.S. is just a few dozen measles cases away from exceeding the number of cases recorded in 2025.
forbes.com
CDC stopped monitoring parasite now causing explosive diarrhea across the country
CDC Stopped Monitoring Parasite Now Causing Explosive Diarrhea Across The Country
MAHA.
huffpost.com
New NSF policy essential bans all collaboration with Chinese scientists. This is another disaster for science. www.science.org/content/arti...
New NSF policy would ban almost all collaborations with Chinese scientists
Agency drops attempt to mitigate risk in favor of outright prohibition on working with most Chinese research institutions
science.org
Nothing says "intellectual diversity" quite like a mandatory law dictating forced enrollment in a bureaucratic safe space for policed thought. Ohio lawmakers want you to think freely, or else. 👀
A bill mandates Ohio university students take a required course at 'intellectual diversity centers'
That requirement: Ohio university students must complete a three-credit hour course in American civic literacy to graduate.
woub.org
This is a horrifying story about the growing dangers of ubiquitous surveillance and a good reason for Stanford residents to continue to pressure the admin to get rid of the Flock cameras on campus. www.thedrive.com/news/how-flo...
How Flock Cameras Wrongly Tracked Me for Days Over ‘Stolen’ Plates and Sent Police After Me
A simple error got magnified by Flock's nationwide surveillance camera network and ended with four cop cars boxing me in.
thedrive.com
John Ioannidis recently blasted us as SBM for criticizing supposedly "serious scientists." But were MAHA/MAGA doctors serious scientists or political propagandists using science as a shield to stave off criticism? Don't trust my answer. Just watch their videos. My latest.
Should We Treat MAHA/MAGA Doctors as Serious Scientists or Political Actors? Their Own Videos Provide the Answer.
Although MAHA/MAGA doctors wrapped themselves in the protective cloak of science to stave off criticism, we are under no obligation to treat doctors who spread COVID disinformation and right-wing poli
sciencebasedmedicine.org
The only catch is, you need to know how to pronounce "Peabody."
Dr Briana Pobiner@brianapobiner.bsky.social · last mo.Job alert! Academic Engagement Coordinator, Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, @harvard.edu. "The Academic Partnerships department manages the integration of the Museum into the University curriculum | [this is] a teaching and research support role" jobs.smartrecruiters.com/HarvardUnive...
I made a 2-page Take Action Flyer for anyone to download and use! We need all hands on deck! drive.google.com/file/d/1ppq4...
OMB Rule Flyer - Take Action.pdf
drive.google.com
Scott Atlas, the champion of herd immunity as an Fox News commenter and the Trump Advisor during COVID, weighs in with a DEEPLY MININFORMED op-ed in the WaPo. www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/202... 1/7
Opinion | Abolish the NIH
A $48 billion government monopoly should give way to the market.
washingtonpost.com
Data suggest that it's not a lack of trust in science so much as polarization + a general lack of trust in institutions. When we consider counterfactuals, scientists are actually quite highly trusted. www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Have people stopped trusting science? The data tell a surprising story
Some say there’s a global crisis of trust — but research reveals where the real problems lie.
nature.com
This is the NIH grant screening disfavored words list published by Nature: media.nature.com/original/mag...
media.nature.com
I hope my UNC AAUP colleagues and those around the nation join us in submitting comments on the OMB proposal regarding Federal funding--share widely @unc-ch-aaup.bsky.social @stanfordaaup.bsky.social @utaustinaaup.bsky.social @aaup-penn.bsky.social @texasaaup.bsky.social @wesleyanaaup.bsky.social
Mark Peifer (He, him)@peiferlabunc.bsky.social · last mo.As everything started to go to heck in a hand basket, both in terms of support for science in the US, and support for scholarship as a whole at UNC, I realized that faculty advocacy, which i had ignored, was crucial. Joining the @aaup.org was a wise move--their leadership has been remarkable 1/2
This is more terrible news for New College and the adult learners and working people of Sarasota and Manatee Counties. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...
Florida college seized by DeSantis in ‘anti-woke’ push to triple in size
New College of Florida to acquire USF Sarasota-Manatee in deal that leading Democratic lawmaker says ‘reeks of grift’
theguardian.com
Last week, one of New York's most iconic universities, The New School, laid off 19 full-time faculty and 68 staff members. Along with coerced "voluntary" separations and early retirements since December 2025, these mass firings constitute a major gutting of The New School's full-time faculty.
“Cautionary Tale”: NYC’s The New School Guts Faculty & Staff as Colleges Intensify Austerity
The Trump administration is continuing its assault on higher education, but in a departure from its earlier high-profile fights with individual institutions like Harvard, it is now rewriting the feder...
democracynow.org