This is *exactly* the kind of policy one would enact if they were controlled by an adversarial foreign government. Want America to lose the race for the future? Here's a great idea for you!

Michael Clemens@mclem.org · yesterday

This will devastate our research+innovation capacity, bedrock of the 21st century economy. 35% of *all* employed people in the US with STEM PhD degrees are both foreign-born *and* graduated from a US university. —> nap.nationalacademies.org/resource/292... Shutting them out is extremist folly.

lots of chemistry PhDs don't understand ingredient lists Just like lots of juris doctorates don't seem to understand the constitution lately

Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · 3d ago

JD Vance on his son: "I want him to live in a country where you don't need a PhD in chemistry to understand the ingredient list at the grocery store"

When scientific fact consistently proves the Trump Administration wrong, they resort to calling it "partisan." Scientific journals are critical to our nation's scientific enterprise. The DOJ's letters attempting to intimidate and silence them damage our nation's ability to lead around the world.

DOJ Official Queried a Dozen Journals on 'Partisan' Views in 2025

The Justice Department fulfilled the public records request for the letters just as their author departed the agency.

aip.org

Big waves pounded coastal Southern California on Tuesday as scattered rain showers swept through hot, humid air. The muggy weather will get worse before it gets better.

Southern California Is Hot and Steamy Again

Temperatures soared across the region on Tuesday. The muggy weather will get worse before it gets better.

nyti.ms

Parents Trying To Gauge If Son Complete Idiot Before Deciding Whether To Move To Better School District https://theonion.com/parents-trying-to-gauge-if-son-complete-idiot-before-de-1819579233/

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

I think it is important to read the interagency agreement story with the following data in mind, showing that NIH is billions of dollars and thousands of grants behind schedule with the end of the fiscal year approaching. @noamross.net & @scott-delaney.bsky.social grantwitness.org/nih/analyses...

Joshua Weitz@joshuasweitz.bsky.social · last wk.

The agreement "signed by Dr. Bhattacharya and Dr. Robert Kadlec at the Defense Department" ... "could allow the Defense Department to go around Congress and gain access to billions of dollars meant for infectious disease research" and involve ~$2 billion of NIAID's budget (!!!). 🎁

“From Paris, it seems like a mystery. How could the United States, which has set the pace for global science for nearly a century, systematically dismantle its dominant position – and, above all, why?” From here, too, mes amis. www.lemonde.fr/en/opinion/a...

Trump takes aim at American science as China pulls ahead

NEWS ANALYSIS. For US President Donald Trump, science is plagued by 'woke ideology.' His administration announced that, starting in October, research projects eligible for funding must align with 'gov...

lemonde.fr

Over the next 18 months, California voters will have two chances to approve spending billions of dollars to bolster the state’s scientific enterprise in the wake of cuts to federal research by President Donald Trump. https://scim.ag/4df0lKy

California to vote on spending $16 billion to boost research after Trump cuts

State initiatives this fall and in early 2028 will gauge voters’ appetite for science, but controversy has grown around one proposal

scim.ag

Trump's OPT tax on foreign students sounds like some technical thing against foreigners. It's not It is a tax designed specifically to destroy academic programs that actually make universities money. The purpose is to bankrupt American universities. Hurting foreign students is secondary.

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

US national debt surpasses $40 trillion. www.nytimes.com/2026/08/19/b...

mRNA vaccines vs cancer success —melanoma (Phase 3, RCT, definitive, announced today) —triple negative breast cancer —pancreatic cancer —non-small cell lung cancer —glioblastoma

Big if true!

Richard Sever@richardsever.bsky.social · 4w ago

Lots of debate about the infamous furin cleavage site (FCS) in SARS-CoV-2 and it's alleged uniqueness. But Paul Bieniasz see "numerous examples of potential FCS acquisition...during normal coronavirus replication", concluding "such events are likely commonplace". www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

NEW: The Trump administration delayed a rule last year requiring traceback records in 24 hours. It could have sped up the effort to pinpoint the source of the contamination. The case count is up to 24,500 suspected and confirmed cases. 🎁 www.nytimes.com/2026/08/15/h...

How Cyclospora Evaded the U.S. Food Safety System to Sicken Thousands (Gift Article)

The Trump administration delayed a rule last year that could have sped up the effort to pinpoint the source of the contamination. Critics charge that food safety oversight has eroded overall.

nytimes.com

Apple: ~$2.2 billion Nike: $986 million FedEx: ~$800 million Amazon: $640 million General Motors: $500 million Giant corporations are raking in millions in tariff refunds and getting even richer. But remember: corporations passed tariff costs on to you. Where's YOUR refund?

For a good expert take on why Denmark recommends fewer vaccines than the US 👇 Denmark has much better monitoring than the US and in 2024 had 113 total HepB infections in the whole country, whereas the US has an estimated 640,000 cases www.science.org/content/arti...

Why does Denmark recommend so few childhood vaccines? A Danish scientist explains

The U.S. plans to follow the Scandinavian country’s minimalist schedule. That may be a mistake, Jens Lundgren says

science.org

When I was growing up in NJ, all the cool cars had a "South of the Border" bumper sticker.

Tacky, Rude and Beloved: Is an I-95 Landmark Worth Saving? (Gift Article)

South of the Border harks back to a different time in the South, before the region diversified and exploded in growth.

nytimes.com

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette story about the recent NIH grant terminations. www.post-gazette.com/news/educati... 1/3

So far, terminated NIH grants have cost University of Pittsburgh $40 million

The federal government has unexpectedly ended two more research grants at the University of Pittsburgh, which in one case, upends 16 years of research...

post-gazette.com

The Nobel committee could (finally) do the funniest thing... Award Fauci the Peace prize, as I suggested in my first post here. bsky.app/profile/jsro...

American Society for Virology@amersocvirology.bsky.social · last mo.

ASV stands in support of Dr. Tony Fauci and his long career advancing the health of Americans and protecting them from the worst infectious diseases.

I’m a peptide enthusiast. I’m not *that* kind of peptide enthusiast.

Science Magazine@science.org · last mo.

Peptide enthusiasts might soon be able to buy the controversial products more easily from regulated sources. https://scim.ag/4pLVPZl

Rand Paul released Fauci's diary and Klepper can't wait to get the juicy details... if there are any

Rosenblum in the news. 👍👍

Scott Horton@robertscotthorton.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Marc Rosenblum, head for statistics at DHS, resigns, saying he is delighted to no longer be involved in supporting the agency's war against facts and the truth. www.wired.com/story/dhs-of...

What about the pre-pro-peptide committee? (somebody had to say this, no?)

Fred Armisen's SNL Badumtiss Drum Solo

ALT: Fred Armisen's SNL Badumtiss Drum Solo

static.klipy.com

Eric Topol@erictopol.bsky.social · 2mo ago

The pro-peptide stacked FDA advisory committee voted to lift the ban for BPC-157, as expected. This ban lifting is baseless and will give the public a sense of legitimacy for a peptide with no clinical trial data to support safety or efficacy. Pathetic.

Ok, cool new antibiotic, but what really drew me in was the name. A depsipeptide named "manikomycin"... why?

A natural depsipeptide antibiotic binds the E-site of the bacterial ribosome - Nature

Improved fractionation strategies can identify antibiotics with previously unseen scaffolds and mechanisms, exemplified by manikomycin from Streptomyces rimosus, which acts by targeting the E-site of ...

nature.com

It really is as simple of this. One mild addition: it's the Trump administration with consent from every Republican member of Congress...

Derek Lowe@dereklowe.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Thoughts on the various Trump administration proposals to revamp US science funding - and what they all have in common:

🧵The US no longer meets criteria for measles elimination. Utah's outbreak has lasted for more than a yr. And cases this yr are at a 35-yr high. I talked w/pediatricians treating measles & talking w/parents who don't vaccinate. My latest @wired.com @kffhealthnews.org www.wired.com/story/the-ch...

‘The Child Is Terrified’: Measles Doctors Speak Out

Hear from six pediatricians in measles hot spot Utah, as the US faces infection levels not seen in over three decades and prepares to lose its status as a country that eliminated the dangerous disease...

wired.com

The Trump administration’s cuts to the largest global HIV program last year resulted in sharp drops in both prevention efforts and treatment for the people most at risk from the disease. www.nytimes.com/2026/07/21/h...

1,700 H.I.V. Treatment Sites Closed After Trump Aid Cuts, a Study Finds (Gift Article)

New research also shows that children and high-risk adult populations have been particularly affected.

nytimes.com

Note the date

Ryan Marino, MD@ryanmarino.bsky.social · last yr.

CDC is no longer surveilling outbreaks caused by campylobacter, cyclospora, listeria, shigella, vibrio and Yersinia. What could go wrong?