🦎 Helping Appalachia's hellbenders make a comeback. Research led by GCC Director Bill Hopkins and GCC affiliate Erin Hotchkiss is supporting recovery efforts through captive rearing, habitat restoration, and community engagement.

North America's largest salamanders are in trouble. Researchers in Virginia are helping them survive

The number of hellbender salamanders has been declining for decades, but researchers in Virginia have now made a breakthrough that may help them survive.

wvtf.org

Rocks are like time capsules. They reveal ancient life and climates. They’ll help us fight climate change. They record the birth, life, and death of continents. They give us a framework for understanding lithosphere-biosphere dynamics at a global-scale. They’re ace, frankly [2/2]

The editorial from Science this week (by @holdenthorp.bsky.social and citing @cdelawalla.bsky.social and @standupforscience.net ) is also good (by different). www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

University science in the US needs a coherent plan

The Trump administration continues to degrade America’s scientific establishment, causing widespread harm to the country’s broader interests and well-being. Last week, the Association of American Univ...

science.org

🚨PhD position alert!🚨 We're hiring a PhD to investigate isotope compositions of sulfur-bearing organic molecules to try to develop potential bio-signatures. Funded by NCCR Genesis and joint between Johanna Marin-Carbonne @unil.bsky.social and myself! career5.successfactors.eu/career?caree...

I hope every day you all are trying to cultivate joy. A kindness to a neighbor. A long walk. Poetry. Birdwatching. Meditation. Being silly and playing peekaboo in a checkout line with a cute baby. These are dark times, and joy is something the bastards cannot take from us. Fight for it.

White House science policy captured headlines this week, with the announcement of awards for its flagship AI program, Congressional hearings, and a Vannevar Bush-esque report "Science: A New Golden Age." We fashioned the news into one big story—incl. key updates at NSF. Reported w/ Kaia Glickman:

White House rolls out AI funding — and signals a new era for US science

Chief US science adviser calls for a shakeup in funding while handing out grants to accelerate research with AI.

nature.com

Here is the best take I have seen on what the Trump administration is doing to American science. It really is as simple as he says. www.science.org/content/blog...

15. I keep coming back to this line. It is willful misrepresentation of our federal funding agencies' mission beyond discovery: developing that R&D workforce (and a pipeline of ideas) that flow into the private sector so beloved to our author. We employ trainEES because trainING is what we do.

"Instead, it’s time for politics...This destruction will take place most easily in an atmosphere of worn-out apathy and helplessness, so give them the opposite. Make it hard for these people, because if they get their way it’s for sure that they want to make it very, very hard on you."

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

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

1. The new Trump / Kratsios plan for US science appears explicitly designed to destroy US universities. Diverting money to tech donors is probably just a bonus. Gift link.

Trump’s Plan for Science: More Money for A.I., Less for Universities (Gift Article)

Michael Kratsios, President Trump’s science adviser, proposed overhauling how the government funds research. Democrats said Mr. Trump’s actions had weakened science.

nytimes.com

AAUP says the Trump admin is going after universities, & today WSJ says “White House to Redirect Billions in Research Funds Toward AI, Away From Colleges.” Ppl have asked me why Project 2025 and the Trumpist right want to kill US science. This is why: like Orban, they want to kill universities.

AAUP@aaup.org · 2w ago

OUT TODAY, the AAUP just released the first comprehensive account of how the Trump administration has taken the same playbook it's used on law firms & foreign governments & turned it on American universities. US higher ed has, in effect, become a target of a massive extortion racket. 🧵

1/ Trump's OSTP just dropped "A New Golden Age" — a big vision for reforming US science: less bureaucracy, more risk-taking, DARPA-style bold bets. Sounds great. Except it's landing inside an administration whose actual actions look nothing like it. www.whitehouse.gov/science/#cover

Good, but the question remains, will it matter or are they just going to do what they want?

Liz Szabo@lizszabo.bsky.social · 2w ago

White House Faces Stiff Pushback on Subjecting Grants to Political Review www.nytimes.com/2026/07/16/u...

Good, but the question remains, will it matter or are they just going to do what they want?

Liz Szabo@lizszabo.bsky.social · 2w ago

White House Faces Stiff Pushback on Subjecting Grants to Political Review www.nytimes.com/2026/07/16/u...

Super excited that our paper led by @sandinmm.eurosky.social in PNAS is out! We show that crown-group eukaryotes were already taxonomically and ecologically diverse throughout the Mesoproterozoic, revealing complex communities well before the Neoproterozoic radiation. www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Environmental phylogenetics supports a steady diversification of crown eukaryotes starting from the mid-Proterozoic | PNAS

Molecular clock and preservation of early microfossil assemblages suggest that eukaryotes were present and already diverse more than ~1600 million ...

pnas.org

NSF grantmaking update Three weeks ago (6/28) New grants: 1835/5202 — 35.3% of avg. Obligations: 1.9/3.08 billion — 61.6% of avg. Now (7/20) New grants: 2850/6,397 — 44.6% of avg. Obligations: 3/4.04 billion — 74.3% of avg. Data from grant-witness.us/funding_curv...

Apparently the "boring billion" was actually exciting! We provide molecular evidence of complex Mesoproterozoic eukaryotic communities. So happy to see this out 🥳 Thanks to @phoebefossil.bsky.social , Hélène Morlon & @fburki.bsky.social for a lovely collab! doi.org/10.1073/pnas...

For my geologist friends: some andamooka opal from Australia featuring cross-bedding!

In addition to disrupting the lives and dreams of great students from around the world, this will degrade the economic, technological, and national security of the United States.

Ben Allen@evodynamics.bsky.social · 3w ago

Congrats we just made it impossible to come here for a PhD www.bostonglobe.com/2026/07/16/m...

The US built the greatest talent magnet ever, attracting the smart, skilled, and striving. They’d come to study, then stay and build things here, or leave with positive impressions and fruitful connections. Helped make the US wealthy and powerful. Then America chose to throw it away. And for what?

Ben Allen@evodynamics.bsky.social · 3w ago

Congrats we just made it impossible to come here for a PhD www.bostonglobe.com/2026/07/16/m...

you europeans saying i need to chill a bit but you have to understand that life is good here in the states too it's only midnight on friday and im kicking back drinking a beer while writing a grant proposal to a federal funding agency that probably no longer exists

Carbonate triple oxygen and carbon isotope effects of chemical pretreatments on tooth enamel and eggshell #stableisotopes www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Carbonate triple oxygen and carbon isotope effects of chemical pretreatments on tooth enamel and eggshell

Carbon (δ13C) and oxygen (δ18O) isotope values of biominerals are widely used to infer information about ancient environments, ecosystems, and climati…

sciencedirect.com

Effects of ionic strength and pH on 18O enrichment kinetics in aqueous carbonate and bicarbonate solutions #stableisotopes www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Effects of ionic strength and pH on 18O enrichment kinetics in aqueous carbonate and bicarbonate solutions

Oxygen isotopic composition plays a crucial role in the study of Earth's past climate conditions as well as understanding fluid-mineral reactions. Geo…

sciencedirect.com

New: An analysis of a huge wave of public comments on a White House proposal to change federal grant-making found that about 95% were posted in opposition. Via @aniloza.bsky.social @jaspar.bsky.social www.statnews.com/2026/07/15/t...

Flood of comments on White House grantmaking overhaul is largely negative, analysis shows

An analysis of public comments on a White House proposal to change the way federal contracts and grants are doled out shows widespread opposition

statnews.com

Trump is driving another nail into the coffin of US science ft.trib.al/hkOyneh

Trump is driving another nail into the coffin of US science

Under proposed reforms, political appointees will review grants to ensure they “advance the President’s priorities”

ft.trib.al

I know y'all *just* finished writing you public comments on the fascist NIH takeover plan but the fascist NSF takeover plan public comment period is now open (until August 24) www.federalregister.gov/documents/20...

Agency Information Collection Activities: Comment Request; National Science Foundation Proposal/Award Information-NSF Guidance on Financial Assistance

The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) is announcing plans to renew and revise its collection for its financial assistance policies and procedures. In accordance with the requirements of the Paper...

federalregister.gov

Regional variability but global flux balance in the deep sulfur cycle | PNAS www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/... #stableisotopes

Regional variability but global flux balance in the deep sulfur cycle | PNAS

Sulfur is a key volatile that influences Earth’s redox state, climate, and deep geochemical cycles. Subduction zones are the primary pathways carry...

pnas.org

This is important! I also mailed my senators and representative.

elizabethginexi.bsky.social@elizabethginexi.bsky.social · 3w ago

Step 2: Now email the comment you submitted in opposition to the OMB rule to your Senators and Congressional Representative. Tell them why you submitted and urge them to fight Vought!

OUR WORK IS NOT DONE. In unusual move, NSF issued a request for information on plan to conform grant policies to the proposed (unfinalized) OMB rule. Plan includes changes to grant termination provisions & disallowing publication costs. Comments due August 24. www.federalregister.gov/documents/20...

Agency Information Collection Activities: Comment Request; National Science Foundation Proposal/Award Information-NSF Guidance on Financial Assistance

The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) is announcing plans to renew and revise its collection for its financial assistance policies and procedures. In accordance with the requirements of the Paper...

federalregister.gov

And here it is confirmed. Not only doe this hurt science in the US but it will undermine the pipeline of trained scientists and engineers that enter the United States economy. Does the private sector care about this?

NSF plans cuts to core science programmes to fund White House initiative

A proposed clawback of already distributed research funds comes as the US agency struggles with a squeezed budget and a backlog of grant applications.

nature.com

Benjamin Gill@sedgeochem.bsky.social · last mo.

So the US National Science Foundation (NSF) is diverting a large amount of public money for basic science into areas of science that already well funded by investors and for profit companies. This will continue to undermine the pipeline of trained scientists and engineers from higher education. 🧪