Google 2026: “This is more of a comment than a search result”

New episode! We constantly use sounds to send out signals about our identity. But what percent are we aware of? Not much! Lauren Hall-Lew @lhlew.bsky.social and Jennifer Nycz @jennycz.bsky.social join us. Wherever podcasts are to be had. becauselanguage.com/144-sociopho... @academic.oup.com

The US National Science Foundation will award about 30% fewer new research grants this fiscal year than in the last one, Nature has learnt. go.nature.com/3UcGoNW

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.

go.nature.com

1. Science is a communal, human effort, which exists as an enormous conversation among scientists, sharing and challenging ideas and collectively building knowledge. >>

Tell me again how canceling humanities and science grants saved taxpayer money. “Put more simply: documents and interviews establish how a first-time contractor was paid millions of dollars to apply a novel solution designed by a golf club manager to a national landmark.”

How the Reflecting Pool Came to Mirror Trump’s Washington (Gift Article)

A hospitality manager for the Trump Organization traveled to Las Vegas to find a solution to problems at a national landmark. This is the untold back story of the fallout.

nytimes.com

"The Trump administration admitted that it terminated nearly 300 federal research grants 'solely because' the projects were connected to states that voted against Donald Trump in 2024 and had two Democratic senators in office, according to court filings." www.nbcnews.com/politics/tru...

Trump administration concedes it canceled research grants in blue states

The administration said 284 research grants were canceled because they were in states that voted against Donald Trump in 2024.

nbcnews.com

The C.D.C.’s parasite-surveillance team, which was instrumental in tracing the origin of the 2013 cyclospora outbreak, had 11 scientists before DOGE began gutting federal agencies. Now it has three. www.newyorker.com/culture/prog...

You may have never heard of the Agency for Healthcare Research & Quality. But they are the only federal agency supporting work that brings basic research & discovery down to practice: www.nytimes.com/2026/07/23/s...

Health Care Agency Discontinues Dozens of Active Research Awards (Gift Article)

The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality slowed the awarding of new grants last year. Now it is stopping existing ones.

nytimes.com

US research excels because generations of scientists have been free to pursue difficult questions, challenge conventional wisdom, and publish findings without political interference. The Trump admin wants to change that. @afthighered.bsky.social Full statement: www.aaup.org/news/aaup-af...

AAUP, AFT Reject Trump’s Radical Plans to Overhaul Scientific Research Funding

AAUP President Todd Wolfson and AFT President Randi Weingarten issued a statement in response to the Trump administration’s proposal to transform how the federal government funds research.

aaup.org

Of course they did.

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

Non-tenure-track syntax/cog-sci position at Michigan State, starting 8/16! Must have PhD or be ABD in Linguistics. 5-course load + advising student research. #linguistics 🐦🐦https://careers.msu.edu/jobs/linguistics-instructor-ast-professor-fixed-term-east-lansing-michigan-united-states

Linguistics Instructor/Ast Professor Fixed Term - East Lansing, Michigan, United States

Working/Functional Title Linguistics Instructor/Ast Professor Fixed Term Position Summary The Department of Linguistics, Languages, and Cultures at Michigan State University seeks a full-time Instruct...

careers.msu.edu

"The humanities are not a luxury. They are how a democracy understands itself." www.nytimes.com/2026/05/07/a...

DOGE’s Termination of Humanities Grants Is Ruled Unconstitutional

nytimes.com

A federal judge ruled on Thursday that the Trump administration’s cancellation of more than 1,400 previously approved grants by the National Endowment for the Humanities violated the Constitution, while also creating a broad “chilling effect.”

DOGE’s Termination of Humanities Grants Is Ruled Unconstitutional

A lawsuit against the National Endowment for the Humanities drew wide attention for revealing how DOGE had used ChatGPT to cancel grants.

nyti.ms

Entire NSF science advisory board fired by Trump administration www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Entire NSF science advisory board fired by Trump administration

Members of the National Science Board, which the US Congress founded in 1950, were given no explanation for their termination.

nature.com

National Science Board eviscerated; Trump admin fires all 22 members arstechnica.com/science/2026...

National Science Board eviscerated; Trump admin fires all 22 members

Members had planned to release report that US is ceding scientific ground to China.

arstechnica.com

Humanity did that. Science did that. Publicly-funded research did that. Excellent universities did that. Diversity did that. International cooperation did that. Artemis II is a perfect example of what we can do at our best. Welcome home, Integrity crew!

BREAKING: In response to huge cuts in Trump's budget request, NSF is shuttering its SBE directorate. Staff will be transferred to other parts of the agency and "grants that align with Administration priorities" will be maintained. That & more w/ @maxkozlov.bsky.social & @edwrdchen.bsky.social

Massive budget cuts for US science proposed again by Trump administration

Budget proposal would also curb federal payments for scientific publishing.

nature.com

Can you read English cursive? Ever wanted to volunteer from the comfort of home for a useful cause? Have I got an offer for you... The Newberry Library in Chicago is always in need of transcribers to help decipher historical handwritten documents. If this is you, learn more about it below:

If you read cursive, the Newberry has a job for you.

The Newberry Library in Chicago is scouting transcribers to demystify its handwritten collection. As Dan Kelly wrote in yesterday’s Chicago, the archive’s hunt for “living Rosetta…

share.google

Absolutely wild.

Simon Fisher@profsimonfisher.bsky.social · 7mo ago

“Humans across multiple languages spontaneously associate the nonwords kiki & bouba with spiky & round shapes, respectively...We tested the bouba-kiki effect in baby chickens. Similar to humans, they spontaneously chose a spiky shape when hearing a kiki sound & a round shape when hearing a bouba.”😲🧪

The Mapping Black Language project is working to document how Black Americans speak, and how their language shifts and varies—and they’re looking for people to interview

Today my @nytimes.com colleagues and I are launching a new series called Lost Science. We interview US scientists who can no longer discover something new about our world, thanks to this year‘s cuts. Here is my first interview with a scientist who studied bees and fires. Gift link: nyti.ms/3IWXbiE

L’ACL encourage le gouvernement du Québec à reconsidérer son décret visant à interdire l’usage de certaines formes d’ #écritureinclusive. // The CLA calls on the Govt. of Québec to reconsider its decree banning forms of #inclusivewriting. #linguistique #linguistics cla-acl.ca/pdfs/Ecritur...

It’s funny how often grifter pseudoscience results in “answers” that blame, punish, and control women, isn’t it?

Please boost! #linguistics student here at Swarthmore is running a survey for English speakers (who don't know Mandarin / any other tone languages) about how we learn tones. Take a few minutes to help out with this student research! swarthmore.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_...

“The site announcing America’s new design studio is a hot mess. That’s a clue.”

Authoritarian by design - DesignObserver

The "America by Design" initiative, issued by the Trump administration, pushes a harmful narrative with questionable visuals

designobserver.com

There's a new Collaborative Research Center focusing on the common ground at the University of Tübingen (where I did my MA), with a variety of really cool looking PhD and postdoc opportunities in linguistics starting in October: uni-tuebingen.de/en/283575

must be incredibly frustrating and disheartening to have federal funding that was promised to you for important work suddenly and arbitrarily ripped away

Best of Dying Twitter@bestofdyingtwit.bsky.social · last yr.

“In light of the President's statement about cancellation of my government contracts, @SpaceX will begin decommissioning its Dragon spacecraft immediately”

Please join SOBLAC – The new @lingsocam.bsky.social SIG of Black Language and Culture! www.lsadc.org/AF_MemberCom... Help us spread the word!

Responding to the mass cancellation of NSF grants, Fazio (@lkfazio.bsky.social), a researcher who studies misinformation: “What can US researchers do in this situation? One thing is clear: do not surrender to political pressure or abandon crucial research questions.”

Nature@nature.com · last yr.

There are ways to keep crucial research going https://go.nature.com/3GWY3m3