Kristen Kroll (@kristenkroll) My terrific former student/lab member and colleague Renata Shen did the primary writing on this installment of our "women in STEM" essay series, on physicist Chien-Shiung Wu. Wu's life prompts us to r...

🧪 The latest installment of our "women in STEM" series, on physicist Chien-Shiung Wu.
substack.com/profile/6958...

Noncitizen voting in federal elections is already illegal. The SAVE Act doesn’t fix a real problem; it creates one. It builds a giant bureaucracy to hunt for rare cases and ends up blocking huge numbers of eligible citizens who did everything right. #sheshed

Kristen Kroll (@kristenkroll) In our new Substack series featuring women in STEM, we’ll tell one story at a time, about women whose discoveries changed medicine and science, and what it cost them to be heard. Each week, we’re goi...

🧪 A new series on women in STEM (introductory essay below), to raise awareness among the public, especially since education, science, and hard won rights gained by the last generation of women are under existential threat in the US. Feel free to share.

substack.com/@kristenkrol...

Boy, if I were Donald Trump, I’d be pissed that my supposedly loyal Vice President has gone completely and totally silent on social media since these Epstein emails dropped. Vance always does this when it gets really bad—just disappears. Like Homer in the hedges.

"That government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth": Heather Cox Richardson explains America's tilts between democracy vs. oligarchy past & present "There is nothing more American than standing against kings...what will make the difference...is remembering that we are we the people. This is our moment. Let’s get out there and do it." HCR-10/14/25

How did we get to the longest oligarchic retrenchment in America’s history (e.g. now)? How did ‘movement conservatism’s’ rhetoric, ideology, and misinformation campaigns of the past ~45 years bring us to this point? And where do we go from here? Dr. Richardson illuminates our history and future.

Kristen Kroll (@kristenkroll) Republicans are constantly trying to eviscerate Democrat-supported programs that benefited rural states like Medicaid spending, SNAP (the supplementary nutrition program formerly known as food stamps)...

substack.com/@kristenkrol...

I’m old enough to remember when we had a system of checks & balances that involved Congress, when Congress controlled the purse and legislated, and the president respected the Constitution & rule of law. I’m old enough to remember when a U.S. president wouldn’t want to be King George or a dictator.

No Kings 2 - National Protest (West County, STL) · No Kings **In America, we don’t put up with would-be kings.** Our peaceful movement is only getting bigger and stronger. “NO KINGS” is more than just a slogan—it’s the foundation our nation was built upon. Bo...

I'm attending No Kings's event, “No Kings 2 - National Protest (West County, STL)” - sign up now to join me! www.mobilize.us/nokings/even...

Kristen Kroll (@kristenkroll) Where will you be? Will you be wearing a costume somewhat prematurely re Halloween and the amazing Portland resistance? Find a protest near you-https://www.nokings.org/#map We inhabit the twilight ...

substack.com/@kristenkroll/

Where will you be? Will you be wearing a costume somewhat prematurely re Halloween and the amazing Portland resistance?

Find a protest near you-https://www.nokings.org/#map

We inhabit the twilight preceding the potential loss of democratic governance…

🧪 Many official government websites now have partisan propaganda about the government shutdown (as below for NIH/HHS)--this is an illegal violation of the Hatch Act. See the instructions below for registering your objection to this illegal use of government webpages for partisan propaganda.

For many years now—we must stand up for democracy, if we want to continue living in one.

This

Kristen Kroll (@kristenkroll) What the best evidence actually shows: Large, modern, better-controlled designs The 2024 Swedish population study (n≈2.5M) used sibling analyses to control for shared genetics and environment. Result...

🧪Guideline convergence across specialties and borders leads to the same recommendation: acetaminophen remains appropriate first-line therapy for fever and pain in pregnancy.

Don’t let disinformation drive clinical care. substack.com/@kristenkrol...

I’m guessing those kinds of assertions are coming, never mind that of causes of death to be concerned about include the obsession with guns in America but with no corresponding gun laws whatsoever. You want to prevent unnecessary wrongful death, that’s where you start.

Speaking diplomatically when the person you’re talking to is not basing anything they ‘think’ on actual facts and reality IS somewhat crazy-making. I only try so hard, after that you have to call it off and tell them when they want to deal in reality, you’re there for them.

There’s a choice of whether or not to learn science—if they don’t want to learn, they’ll have to know that their opinion means nothing because they are willfully ignorant

I think we have to address the misinformation coming from this admin in particular and referring to the actual science, of the kind explained reasonably here. And I have worked with many brilliant scientists on the spectrum, and often appreciate their unique approach and perspective on our research.

Kristen Kroll (@kristenkroll) For those who have asked me about recent assertions by RFK Jr. regarding Tylenol and autism, please see this article and the NYT deep dive penned by Sam Wang, who has also studied this topic in depth....

🧪on recent assertions by RFK Jr. regarding autism and Tylenol: You may wish to pass this along to others who need to separate facts and data from the unsupported or falsifiable assertions made by those with much less knowledge leading our HHS.

substack.com/@kristenkrol...

Kristen Kroll (@kristenkroll) Anyone who watched the 2011 White House Correspondents' Dinner got a glimpse of how much Trump hates being mocked. President Obama and Seth Meyers spent nearly five minutes roasting Trump over his pro...

So important
substack.com/@kristenkrol...

Kristen Kroll (@kristenkroll) https://youtu.be/HMGD1KCYFOw Stephen and Jimmy go online to create their own show…and warn that our mainstream media and the current regime would like for them to ‘shut their traps’—amazing!

Stephen and Jimmy go online to create their own show…and warn that our mainstream media and the current regime would like for them to ‘shut their traps’:

substack.com/@kristenkrol...

Stephen’s conservative cousin returns to have “a word” with us 😂😂

Please stay, satirical Colbert, as reality truly has that “well known liberal bias” you once called out, regarding democracy and the common good.

Now more than ever, we need you: other Stephen Colbert!

fb.watch/CcSqeXuH_4/?...

Kristen Kroll (@kristenkroll) https://fb.watch/C8WkS8BNio/?fs=e Love both of these guys—sane, humane, thoughtful voices in a world that increasingly seems utterly unhinged. Thank you Stephen and Prof. Reich

Love both of these guys—sane, humane, thoughtful voices in a world that increasingly seems utterly unhinged. Thank you Stephen and Prof. Reich

substack.com/profile/6958...

Happy to speak with you further, as a prof in the life sciences at Washington U. My email is kkroll@wustl.edu and I can also reach out to you…although I’m currently working on many grant applications and manuscript submissions so I’m more than a little over-committed at this fraught political time.

We’re still holding on for now, in part due to philanthropic support stepping in where the NIH is beyond sluggish. I think anyone wholly depending on federal funds will have problems these days, because the system is broken.

One can only hope, as we now need a prescription to qualify for a COVID booster, and likely the new variants will be worse than ever given declining herd immunity/vaccination.

Congratulations, Stephen! You saved our sanity for decades with incisive satire, brilliant commentary, kindness and humanity.

Will miss you dearly. And yes, reality DOES still—perhaps now more than ever—have a “well known liberal bias”.

Please don’t be a stranger in our living rooms and lives

Indeed

And then we brought them to the US to work for us