How to revive science in America | PNAS How to revive science in America

www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Massive budget cuts for US science proposed again by Trump administration Budget proposal would also curb federal payments for scientific publishing.

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

Chopping science means progress stops. Time to write home about the value of American science. Science Homecoming has resources on our website. Encourage your colleagues to pencil up ✏️

Some science cuts in Trump's proposed FY27 budget

❌ NIH: -$5B, including all of NIEHS, NIMHD, FIC & NCCIH.
❌ EPA: -4.6B
❌ NSF: -3.8B
❌ NASA Science: -3.4 Billion
❌ NOAA: -1.8B, including the entire Oceanic and Atmospheric Research budget ($605M)
❌ AHRQ: All of it. -$296M, 100%

And there's more.

New paper with @cantlonlab.bsky.social out now in Dev Cog Neuro! We scanned 3-5yr olds with fMRI and found that number words activate regions of cortex also involved in visual numerosity perception, even at the earliest stages of counting acquisition doi.org/10.1016/j.dc...

Pinker letter

Alan had us give Pinker $10,000 for a letter

On the topic of motive: Will some journalist please investigate how or why an academic (Steven Pinker) used our field to legally defend Jeffrey Epstein. @npr.org

www.npr.org/2026/03/09/n...

👩🏾‍🔬🐝🌌 Want to write popular science articles about your research for small-town newspapers in the U.S. to boost trust in science and support science literacy? Science Homecoming @sciencehomecoming.bsky.social has the information, tools, and volunteers to help you.

www.sciencehomecoming.com

Wow and I always thought the most damning citation of Larry Summers was the epigraph from *Slow Violence and the Environmentalism of the Poor* (2011)

first empirical paper from the Aulet lab! What does learning to count do to a brain? We trained neural networks on different tasks and only counting (i.e., predicting the number of dots in a dot array) reorganized representations around number. New preprint:

Where was this talk?

The boys’ club: How Epstein’s influence shaped the exclusion of women in STEM In one email, an AI researcher suggested it’s “hard to be brilliant if you are worrying if you look fat or why another woman hates you.”

Good to see journalists scrutinizing “The Edge Network,” an intellectual circle of academic men who think that women are inherently inferior to men.
(and great interview by @laurenaulet.bsky.social)
19thnews.org/2026/02/epst...

To: Jeffrey epstein[jeevacation©gmail.com] From: roger schank Sent: Mon 1/4/2010 12:15:13 PM Subject: there is a simpler explanation about women and intelligence intelligence comes about in part from real focus (goal-directed (this is why you have the absent minded professor caricature) it is a rare woman who is not first and foremost focussed on what thinking and feeling about her hard to be brilliant if you are worrying if you look fat or why hates you or why you dont own a kelly bag roger schank http://www.rogerschank.com/

Relevant to today's conversation about AI's inherent sexism, here's an email from cognitive psychologist and early AI theorist Roger Schank, arguing to Epstein that women can't be truly intelligent, because they care too much about what other people think.

The statute Pinker was paid-commenting on was even specifically about how you entice children for prostitution

‘The smart, the rich, the powerful’: Epstein associated with Silicon Valley elite years after his release from prison Billionaires and intellectuals attended events with the disgraced financier years after he served time for sex offense, files reveal

Scan your intellectual events for women who might object to inviting a sex offender

Epstein replied: “last year, at the last minute the women said no epstein. . am i going to have the same issue again…”

“In terms of women, I don’t see a problem with this list,”

www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

Never forget Epstein’s little helpers – the powerful men who knew about his crimes, and helped him out anyway | Marina Hyde I’m sorry, but this is not just a political scandal. Time to refocus on the horrific mistreatment of women and girls, and the role of these ghouls, says Guardian columnist Marina Hyde

Never forget Epstein’s little helpers – the powerful men who knew about his crimes, and helped him out anyway

Marina Hyde nails it.

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

I’m really curious to hear how Pinker parses his words to try to defend himself from this.

(Sadly, he’ll likely just try to ignore it and hope it goes away. That is, unless there’s pressure to have him address the issue.)

Why did Jeffrey Epstein cultivate famous scientists? The Epstein files revive questions of whether the disgraced financier sought to merely cultivate famous scientists, or to shape science itself

The Epstein files revive questions of whether the disgraced financier sought to merely cultivate famous scientists, or to shape science itself

Epstein doc saying paid Pinker

Epstein doc saying Pinker assisted

Pinker statement re Epstein

New Epstein files say that Steven Pinker was paid $10,000 to help Epstein’s defense (even though Pinker previously said he wasn't paid).

I’m so glad the NYT put Trump’s “nationalize voting” remarks into a big, scary headline— these are exactly the kind of remarks the press used to treat as hyperbole, rhetoric, not worth commenting on

This made me weepy

The thing that a lot of these guys have in common is that for them science is about personal brand-building and advancement of the self. Their norms serve their status competition, not a greater good.

Academics vying for a spot in Epstein‘s world. There are so many. I feel the need to make a thread, so I don’t keep confusing them. 1/

"the hysteria that has developed around the abuse of women"

Jeffrey Epstein’s Intellectual Enabler How did Epstein meet so many luminaries in the worlds of science and technology? It all might trace back to literary agent John Brockman.

You can google the edge network, and their activities. He’s agent for Pinker, Dawkins, Dennett and many others:

newrepublic.com/article/1548...

Yes! and it makes sense why there were so few women in that group

For that group, science is personal brand-building and advancement of the self — thinness of principles is like grease.

Same but then I started noticing that there were very few women in it

I was curious about the fact that there were seemingly no women scientists mentioned, even of equivalent caliber, and came across what is, seemingly, beef between Epstein and Brockman debating whether "the women are all weak" or not

Brockman is founder of “The Edge network”, a citation ring, and long time agent/broker to many academics you know

Don’t miss Nicholas Christakis desperate, fawning, flattering an already-convicted child rapist…