The successor to Washington and Lincoln and Roosevelt and Reagan👇
Richard Lenski
@relenski.bsky.social
Evolving better E. coli for 75,000 generations. Prof at MSU, but opinions my own. (Ok, I also speak for billions -- er, TRILLIONS -- of E. coli.) Website for LTEE: the-ltee.org Banner pic from NYC, shared by Darwin. (The microbiologist, not the other one.)
I worked for New York’s largest medical center at the start of the pandemic. There were morgue trucks on the streets. They set up emergency medical tents in Central Park. Healthcare worker colleagues died. It is horrific that RFK Jr is on national TV lying that ICUs were empty.
I’m trying to reconcile Trump still owning Operation Warp Speed as a victory (which it was) with GOP claiming the vaccine killed millions of people. Isn’t the person to blame, then, Trump, not Fauci??
The State Department said it takes "full responsibility" for "hastily" altering and then presenting a map of Africa at a global AIDS conference that mislabeled every single country it highlighted. An analysis by Reuters found a watermark in the map image that suggests it was made with OpenAI.
Elon Musk is planning to spend at least $100 million to help Republicans in this year’s midterms. That’s just 0.014 percent of his current $702 billion net worth. Oligarchs can rig the system at the expense of everyone else, and only spend pennies doing so. We must get Big Money out of politics.
Can someone explain how Axios could publish this and not note that DOJ has lost 18 of these cases and not won a single one? 0-18 is smart brevity.
The Fauci hearing was a disgrace. Here are some reminders of how it really went down in 2020. Never forget.
A mother gave the government her fingerprints, tax records, and DNA to get her 6-year-old daughter back. She did everything officials asked. ICE used that information to find and arrest her. A child welfare system became a deportation tool. open.substack.com/pub/adamkinz...
ICE Turned Family Reunification Into A Deportation List
A program created to place migrant children with relatives has become a pipeline for deportation arrests.
open.substack.com
www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-i...
The professor facing prison in ‘antifa’ case: ‘They want to scare all who oppose ICE’
Erik Davis is accused by the government of a ‘conspiracy’ to obstruct ICE – experts say it’s part of a pattern to criminalize lawful organizing and ruin activists’ lives
theguardian.com
This is a well-produced segment. I encourage you to watch so you can hear the noise for yourself. The professor of environmental health science that they interviewed called it an “unprecedented new noise source.”
Neighbors say noise from Michigan data center is 24/7 and upending their lives
One Michigan community has been experiencing the reality of a data center next door for a couple of years now, and they say the sound has changed their lives.
wxyz.com
"The Fire This Time" | @pkrugman.bsky.social on wildfires, climate crisis & the assault on climate scientists "for being right" www.youtube.com/watch?v=cwyi... p.s. yes, there's a shout out for yours truly p.s. #2 fun fact--I grew up just down the street from Robert Frost's home in Amherst MA
The Fire This Time
YouTube video by Paul Krugman
youtube.com
Missed payments. Slashed staffing. Broken security. A patient who froze to death on the roof of a hospital. Inside American Healthcare System, the for-profit healthcare company driving hospitals around the country to financial chaos.
Sorry for this cute looking “incorrect” E. coli! Here is real one 😅 from this cool blast from the past journals.asm.org/doi/pdf/10.1...
Vivek Mutalik@vivekmutalik.bsky.social · 2w agoNew Preprint 🥳 Here we wondered how phages that have been extensively studied in laboratory E. coli strains actually behave when they encounter a real pathogen such as O157:H7 strain...one with a far more complex cell surface & one of the most consequential foodborne pathogens in the United States.
I suppose it was inevitable that the Gordie Howe Bridge would start with a goal and end with a fight.
Fast-moving wildfires in Spain and France, including near Bordeaux, forced over 200,000 people to evacuate or to shelter at home. Follow live updates.
Fires Rage in Spain and France, Forcing Thousands to Flee: Live Updates
Firefighters were racing to contain blazes that were moving closer to Madrid and Bordeaux.
nytimes.com
“.. The deal: a Trump-branded hotel, golf and residential project inside a Saudi development helmed by the crown prince. ..!Only now is the fuller picture coming into view.” @forbes.com www.forbes.com/sites/danale...
From @joshuasweitz.bsky.social "Nihilism and its Alternatives As a The Washington Post subscriber and admirer of many in their news team, it was shocking (but not surprising) to read Scott Atlas’ July 2nd OpEd: “Abolish the NIH“. substack.com/home/post/p-...
Decoy effects and the White House vision of transferring federal funding of science to corporate interests
Why a recent call to abolish the NIH is a decoy to accelerate the OSTP-endorsed transfer of federal science funding to corporate interests
substack.com
I guess it's something the judge called it out, but fake citations routinely get lawyers sanctioned and that should have happened here. The standard of conduct for DOJ lawyers should be *higher* than for private attorneys, not lower.
Kyle Cheney@kyledcheney.bsky.social · 3w agoThe 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...
Case in point: the new Trumpian lead for the next National Climate Assessment is literally a #climate denier, disputing the most basic science fact about #climatechange. This is Stalin-like science.
Peter Gleick@petergleick.bsky.social · 4w agoThere have been 5 US National Climate Assessments, each advancing the science of #climate threats, prepared by the nation's top scientists.The 6th will be prepared by climate deniers & MAGA political hacks & will be a scientific embarrassment, forever to be ignored. www.politico.com/news/2026/07...
🚨 HEADS UP: If you haven't submitted a comment on the OMB proposal yet, there's still time - but it's running out! There are only 3 days left to push back against Russell Vought's attempt to give political appointees unprecedented control over federal research funding. Take Action: zurl.co/J92d9
Daniel Engber writes, "With little progress being made on the various biosafety laws that have been proposed in Congress, the nation has been left with just the vengeful spectacle of lab-leak prosecutions." www.theatlantic.com/science/2026...
Lab-Leak Payback Has Begun
Indictments, subpoenas, and debarments are hitting American scientists embroiled in the controversy over COVID’s origins.
theatlantic.com
Why is Ebola still outpacing us? The answers are in this article. "Deep budget and personnel cuts and attacks on vaccines have hobbled health agencies-- We have the tools and knowledge to contain Ebola but lack the commitment to invest in the resources and workforce needed to use them effectively."
Amesh Adalja@ameshaa.bsky.social · last mo.“We have at our disposal..deeper knowledge about the genetic makeup of viruses, how they work, and how to confront them with antiviral treatments and vaccines. So why does each successive onslaught from the microbial world—as we recently saw with COVID—seem to get worse?” time.com/article/2026...
The OMB rule should be the most talked about topic right now. Why? It codifies political interference in all fundamental aspects of scientific discovery. We would not have Wegovy, Ozempic, Herceptin, Tamoxifen or other drugs if science was censored. 🧪 27unihted.substack.com/p/how-to-sto...
Political control of NIH is about to become the law, but you can stop it
Read our short guide on the "Regulation for Federal Financial Assistance," learn how you can leave an effective comment, and other actions you can take
27unihted.substack.com