We were already worried because the NIH has not been following that process, opting not to include external scientists on the search committee. But sadly, even the watered down process was completely scrapped to install someone ideologically aligned with RFK. This weakens NIH substantially.

NIH historically followed a rigorous process to identify qualified candidates for institute directorships, . Involving a search committee with internal and external scientists who help interview and recommend candidates to the NIH Director. open.substack.com/pub/sciencea...

Demand that NIH Maintain the Scientific Credibility of its Institute Directors

The institute directors at NIH are top scientific leaders who in principle can redirect grant money as they please. The Trump NIH must not install new directors without a real hiring process.

open.substack.com

RFK jr overrode the NIH recommendation for NIAID Director to appoint his own preferred candidate (who applied, but NIH declined to interview), per @politico.com. Institute directors have final say on funding decisions and are critical to the integrity of NIH. 🧵 www.politico.com/news/2026/08...

A lab-leak proponent is in line for Fauci’s old job

Steven Quay is in final vetting to run the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

politico.com

Interested in doing a postdoc in plankton ecology, on topics of community assembly, trait-based ecological resilience, stressor interactions, harmful algal blooms and others? Contact me to discuss developing a proposal for MSU's EEB Presidential Postdoc Fellowship (Nov 1 application deadline).

Lars Brudvig@lars-brudvig.bsky.social · 2d ago

Join us through the Presidential Postdoctoral Fellowship in EEB! Conduct your own research, mentored by 2+ EEB faculty. $65k salary + research/moving $. All areas of EEB welcome. Apply by 11/1 I co-chair this search and am happy to field questions Spread the word! eeb.msu.edu/initiatives/...

Officially recruiting postdocs at GW. If you are interested in genetic novelty, structural variation, or evo genetics please get in touch! We have data sets on mulitple organisms with large population sizes (Drosophila, Megalonaias nervosa) and species in decline (fireflies, mussels, elephants).

Our descent into mean-spirited, selfish barbarism continues.

The New Republic@newrepublic.com · 2d ago

President Trump is banning students majoring in degrees that don’t make enough money from taking out college loans. Degrees for social work, art, religious studies, teaching aides, and music will be hit the hardest. trib.al/aaAEu6v

Demanding to examine a child's genitals for them to play sports is fucking insane

Gillian Branstetter@gbbranstetter.bsky.social · 2d ago

An initiative on the ballot in Washington state in November would require all athletes seeking to play girl's sports from kindergarten to high school to undergo "genetic screening, a testosterone-levels test, or an examination of their reproductive anatomy" before they can play

Using lists of three is not an "AI tell." It's a common trait in human writing because our brains biologically want to make sure there's always one thing to marry, one thing to fuck, and one thing to murder.

All due respect, if you didn’t look like this in the spring of 2020, I don’t really care about your opinion of Dr Fauci

I've got a new chapter out, Insights Into Retinal Remodeling In Retinal Degenerative Disease: bryanwjones.com/2026/07/insi...

I’d bet real money 💴 that this happened because some staffer typed, “Give me a list of African countries” into ChatGPT. www.bbc.com/news/world-u...

US government lists fictional nation Wakanda as trade partner

Officials say it was an error to add the fictional nation from Black Panther to the list.

bbc.com

My great technician is leaving the lab, and I'm trying to replace her. Are you or someone you know interested in evolutionary genomics research that combines animals experiments (with flies!) and molecular biology? Come work with me! Application info at the link evoldir.net/brian/evoldi...

I coded a really messy thing today and got a lot done but I’m cranky over some family matters and honestly even though I wasn’t there I do not feel good that there was a mass shooting right next to my home in a place I go often.

So here I am living three blocks from Seattle Center where there was a mass shooting and it appears none of the bullets who killed people came from either the 15 year old arrested or his associate who was killed with a gun on him. There’s a lot of ire that we were not notified of shooters at large.

#ScienceWin

Dr. Becca@docbecca.bsky.social · last wk.

Holy crap my R01 was just renewed. Literally staring at the NoA in disbelief. I was told back in April it would not be funded and I was mentally preparing to wind the lab down. Now here we are with the chance to rebuild (again, if you've been with me for a while).

The right wing evangelists who believe witchcraft is real and the left wingers who want trans people to live in peace finally agree on something. JK Rowling is a demon.

Alex Says Stuff@alexsaysstuff.bsky.social · last wk.

Yeah, I think this is something that's hard to get across to people - it's not just that Rowling has transphobic views, but that she's actively funding transphobic campaigns and SLAPP suits.

Just checking, are you hating AI enough? "AI Companies Are Buying Antique Books, Ingesting Their Contents to Train Models, and Then Destroying Them at Incredible Scale" futurism.com/artificial-i... #SarahConnorLeadTheWay

AI Companies Are Buying Antique Books, Ingesting Their Contents to Train Models, and Then Destroying Them at Incredible Scale, Even If Almost No Copies Remain

AI companies are quietly obtaining rare books, ingesting their contents, and then destroying them -- even if they're exceedingly rare.

futurism.com

The Solar Do-Nothing Machine is a whimsical solar-powered toy created by Charles and Ray Eames in 1957, designed to convert sunlight into electrical energy to power motion displays. Despite its name, it serves as an educational tool promoting awareness of solar energy and conservation.

In my lifetime, the two most impactful medical interventions I can think of have been antiretrovirals for HIV and vaccines for COVID, and Fauci has been deeply involved in both.

Ilan Schwartz@germhuntermd.bsky.social · last wk.

Fauci has “saved more lives, created more amazing infrastructures for developing research opportunities, cured more people, provided health care to more people both in the United States and abroad, probably, than any single scientist in his lifetime” - Larry Corey @fredhutch.org

Finally posted an ad for the postdoc position on my new NSF-funded project—come help build a new method to study plants' responses to environmental variation in space and over time, and figure out interesting ways to use it! Apply by 23 August to ensure consideration. Details: buff.ly/qTvaqvD

It's not often single author primary research papers are published in our field & it's even rarer when the author is a Nobel Prize winner Check out the new work by Eric Wieschaus in @dev-journal.bsky.social Flattening maternal gradients in Drosophila embryo journals.biologists.com/dev/article/...

Maternal patterning in early Drosophila embryos: how much information can single maternal gradients supply?

Highlighted Article: Comparison of the patterning capacity of Drosophila embryos that have only one of the three maternal gradients known to control anterior posterior patterning.

journals.biologists.com

The White House has finalized changes to F, J & I student visa terms. Beginning Sept 15 2026, visas will generally be limited to four years, replacing the current Duration of Status policy. https://www.ascb.org/science-policy/white-house-finalizes-changes-to-international-student-visa-terms/

What up, slide nerds?! Wait, are you NOT a slide nerd? Do... do you want to be? Join the nerd side. We have #Quarto slide themes 🤓 And we have EMIL, which might be even better! Come hang out with us tomorrow on the Labbbb! #rstats

Isabella Velásquez@ivelasq3.bsky.social · last wk.

Do you dabble in Quarto, and really want to make slides that make people go, wow 😯 Learn from the amazing @emilhvitfeldt.bsky.social tomorrow, where he will demonstrate the ✨ art of slidecrafting✨ for creating reusable, custom slide themes. Hope to see you there! pos.it/dslab

My apartment is three blocks from the part of Seattle Center where the shooting happened. We kind of treat the fountain area like our front yard. I wasn’t even there but I am unsettled and glued to the news. I can’t imagine what the people who were there are going through.

Our hearts are with everyone impacted by the tragic events at Bite of Seattle. Experiences like these can affect children, teens, and adults in different ways. ❤️ https://bit.ly/4fExGyY

Philomena Cunk

Nanoraptor@nanoraptor.danamania.com · 2w ago

You suddenly get a narrator describing your life and there’s no way to turn it off - everyone can hear it. While shopping, at work, at home, with friends - the voice narrating your every move goes on. Who do you hope is the voice of this narrator?

Dear microbiome enthusiasts: I'm excited to be moving my lab to New York University this fall (& the NYU Institute for Engineering Health); with joint-appointment @isbscience.org I'm hiring a postdoc @ NYU to look at diet-driven evolution in the gut: apply.interfolio.com/189980 Please share! 🦠🤓

The Justice Department appears to have included a fake AI-generated. citation in an ICE detainee's case. Judge Jarbou, a Trump appointee in Michigan, called it out: storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

I think people who do not work in media have trouble grasping how genuinely terrifying it is watching organization after organization (even those ostensibly held by entities able to fund them!) continually get carved down into nothing. Lights going out all over

Asher Elbein@asherelbein.bsky.social · 2w ago

"Most of the affected employees were at National Geographic, both at the cable network as well as editorial and operations." 🫠