Tony Ferrante

@tonyferrante.bsky.social

Dad, husband, doctor, scientist and teacher

RESPECT Every politician should be doing this. Mayor Coffman has spent every Friday night since February sleeping at Aurora, Colorado’s homeless center, serving breakfast in the morning, and learning firsthand what works and what doesn’t.

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American science is shrinking. 
A Post analysis found that, halfway through this fiscal year, the number of competitive grants awarded by the National Institutes of Health is down by more than half compared with the same period last year. https://wapo.st/3OgoHKV

For U.S. medical researchers, shrinking labs and bare budgets are the new reality

The Trump administration has slashed the number of grants from the National Institutes of Health, with far fewer focused on women, cancer and mental health.

washingtonpost.com

Mathematician & NASA 𝘩𝘶𝘮𝘢𝘯 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘱𝘶𝘵𝘦𝘳 Katherine Johnson died #OTD in 2020. She was instrumental in the success of the first US manned spaceflights, calculating complex trajectories enabling humans to reach orbit & land on the moon. Her story was told in 𝘏𝘪𝘥𝘥𝘦𝘯 𝘍𝘪𝘨𝘶𝘳𝘦𝘴 (book/movie). #WomenInSTEM #BHM

A split-image portrait of Katherine Johnson, the pioneering Black NASA mathematician: On the left, a black-and-white historical photo from her NASA career in the 1960s shows a smiling middle-aged woman wearing cat-eye glasses and a light-colored dress with white collar and trim, seated at her desk with a globe and papers in the background. On the right, a color photo from 2015 depicts an elderly Katherine Johnson (in her late 90s) seated in a wheelchair during the Presidential Medal of Freedom ceremony, wearing glasses, a dark suit jacket, an orange top, a blue ribbon with the medal, and holding a green item in her lap, as she looks directly at the viewer with a gentle expression. The side-by-side images contrast her youthful professional life with her honored later years.

I'm at the Willard Hotel where I've been denied entry and kicked out of the Reclaiming Science event with NIH director Bhattacharya & other top agency leaders. @jocelynkaiser.bsky.social and I registered for the event months ago yet were told capacity was full, even as they let in dozens of others.

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Jane Richardson was born #OTD in 1941 + Developed the Richardson (ribbon) diagram to represent proteins' 3D structure (becoming a standard representation for protein structures) + MacArthur Fellow, 1985 + Elected, Nat'l Academy of Sciences, 1991 + President, Biophysical Society, 2012 #WomenInSTEM

Vibrant color portrait of Jane S. Richardson, the visionary biophysicist and artist who revolutionized structural biology with her invention of ribbon diagrams. She gazes warmly at the camera with a bright, knowing smile that radiates quiet brilliance and decades of curiosity. Her silver-blonde hair woven with gentle waves. Large, elegant dangling earrings catch the light, and she wears a richly patterned brown blouse embroidered with intricate turquoise paisley motifs and delicate beadwork that echoes the molecular elegance she has spent her life depicting. Behind her floats a luminous, dreamlike backdrop of glowing molecular structures--interlocking hexagonal and ribbon-like forms in electric blues, teals, and greens--blending science and art in a single, living canvas.Hand-drawn and hand-colored (by Jane Richardson) scientific artwork known as a Richardson ribbon diagram (or “ribbon model”), one of the iconic visual inventions of Jane Richardson that transformed the way we see and understand protein structures. A graceful, three-dimensional tangle of protein backbone ribbons twists and spirals through space, rendered in soft pencil lines and luminous watercolor hues. Smooth golden-brown coils represent α-helices that curl like elegant ribbons, while broad teal-green arrows trace the flat, pleated strands of β-sheets slicing through the molecule with directional purpose. Thin, looping golden threads connect the secondary structures, creating a delicate, almost dance-like choreography of biology’s hidden architecture. The entire form is framed by a simple olive-green mat and dark border, giving the drawing the quiet dignity of both fine art and precise scientific illustration—a timeless bridge between molecular reality and human imagination.

As a doctor and scientist working to advance health, science, and economic growth in NY, I’m urging @governor.ny.gov to invest in the Empire Biomedical Research Institute to keep the state competitive, sustain jobs, and grow our life science economy. @gothamist.com reports: tinyurl.com/5fab5k7u

NY medical schools press Gov. Hochul to put up billions for scientific research

The request comes amid continuing uncertainty over federal funding, with research and thousands of jobs on the line.

tinyurl.com

American science has transformed the world in the last 80 years. There is almost nothing in our modern lives that can’t be traced back to an experiment or engineering project funded by the federal government at our universities. All of it and our future are at risk.

Many warned me about the risks of speaking up publicly for science. I’m here to say I’ve faced no retaliation. On the contrary, I’ve received support, appreciation, and even some positive outcomes. Do what you can to save 🧪