Twenty years ago, the notion that people could elect a Black man named Barack Obama President of the United States and a Muslim named Zohran Mamdani Mayor of New York City would’ve seemed completely outlandish

Voters can sometimes surprise us in beautiful ways. Remember that during the midterms

What neuroscientists want from a new NINDS director The search is underway for the next director of the U.S. National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, who will face a range of challenges, neuroscientists say, but will also have an…

www.thetransmitter.org/policy/what-... with quotes from me, @jasonshep.bsky.social, Nathan Smith, Eve Marder and Walter Koroshetz

Our new study explored how well various AI chatbots responded to health questions on various topics.

Sum: not great.

Nearly half (49.6%) of responses were problematic.

See study: bmjopen.bmj.com/content/16/4... via @bmj.com

Postdoctoral Researcher: Involvement and Engagement Queen Mary University of London seeks a Postdoctoral Researcher to work on Parkinson’s cohorts using PPIE, mixed methods and stakeholder engagement.

Queen Mary University of London is recruiting a Postdoctoral Researcher to work on Parkinson’s cohorts using PPIE, mixed methods and stakeholder engagement. Closing date: 30th April

www.dementiaresearcher.nihr.ac.uk/job/postdoct...

(Calling on faculty to step up b/c I know recurrent donations can be hard with grad student / postdoc salaries)

Scientists, it's time to pay your taxes. This arrangement—where a small number of dedicated scientist activists fight for the whole of the ecosystem—isn’t sustainable.

sciencefightclub.substack.com/p/scientists...

“Despite all the ‘support’, not a single scientific society has donated to Stand Up for Science…(except Lasker Foundation and NRDC)….I can’t even get a response to my emails.”

Disappointing. I set up monthly donation - other faculty pls do the same!

San Diego cancer breakthroughs at risk from funding cuts and delays, experts say Researchers say changes in how the National Institutes of Health approve and distribute grants are putting patients, cures and the entire biotech industry in peril.

A very well produced story from NBC in San Diego about disruptions to can cancer research.

www.nbcsandiego.com/news/investi...

Teen Brain Bootcamp A free email course for teachers and parents on the science of executive function. Start anytime, at your own pace

📣 Teachers and parents! Want to understand how teens think, learn and grow?

This #BrainAwarenessWeek, sign up for our email course on the science of adolescent brain development.

🧠 Start today: knowmag.org/TBB_Bluesky

This course is supported by a grant from @danafoundation.bsky.social

Neuroscientists challenge NIH’s proposed data-access policy The changes would restrict the sharing of human neuroimaging, transcriptomic and genetic data.

A new data-sharing policy proposed by the NIH would result in “substantial harm to scientific progress,” a neuroimaging consortium says.

By @claudia-lopez.bsky.social

#neuroskyence

www.thetransmitter.org/data-sharing...

📢 Applications open for the 2026 Butler-Williams Scholars Program from the National Institute on Aging!
📅 Aug 3–6, 2026 | Rockville, MD
⏳ Deadline: March 31, 2026
A training opportunity for junior faculty & postdocs entering aging research.
Apply: www.nia.nih.gov/news/butler-...
#AgingResearch

Following @joshuasweitz.bsky.social post and discussions with him and the Vox story, I have estimated R01 success rates for each NIH institute and center with enough awards for this to be meaningful.

A long 🧵...

1/25

This makes me so sad. What do you tell them? I don’t have any high schoolers approaching me about this - but I imagine I would want to strongly encourage them to keep pursuing science but would also feel compelled to acknowledge the challenges. Not an easy balance to strike.

Assisting with final stages of puzzle completion. #Caturday

Kamala Would Have Never Women's Relaxed T-Shirt1 | NoireSTEMinist This just might be the softest and most comfortable women's t-shirt you'll ever own. Combine the relaxed fit and smooth fabric of this tee with jeans to create an effortless every-day outfit, or dress...

Kamala would have never! #KamalaHarris #VPHarris #VicePresidentHarris #KamalaDHarris www.noiresteminist.com/product-page...

I’m an NIH whistleblower. The scientific community cannot afford to avoid politics “Scientists are often encouraged to avoid politics. But this advice is outdated, if it was ever correct in the first place,” writes Jenna Norton, NIH whistleblower.

A heads down approach will not save science. We need to speak up, live our values, and demand integrity.

www.statnews.com/2026/03/12/n...

A line graph of the fraction of multiyear funding. The line for FY2025 increased in the last third of the year and the level in FY2026 is already high.

Working on a NIH multiyear funding tracker...

This looks at the amount of multiyear funding (grants having a budget period 366 days or longer) for new and competitive renewal awards divided by the total amount of new and competitive renewal award funding over the same period.

1/5

Thank you for doing this! Do you know if the % multiyear grants awarded varies across institutes? At conferences with panel sessions with NIH Institute directors they said levels would stay low (5-10%) ……but this looks frighteningly high…….

UMR Releases Annual NIH Economic Impact Report: 2026 Update - United For Medical Research A PROVEN, RELIABLE INVESTMENT: NIH RESEARCH GENERATED $94.15 BILLION IN FY2025 — A 250% RETURN FOR EVERY $1 INVESTED NIH Research Funding Supported 390,863 Jobs Nationwide   WASHINGTON, DC – March 10,...

In 2024, #NIH was 2.8% of the federal budget of HHS & less than 1% of total federal spending.

NIH research generated $94.15 BILLION in new economic activity in 2025 (390,863 jobs).

The 250% ROI at a fraction of the total budget speaks for itself.
🧪 www.unitedformedicalresearch.org/statements/u...

“We will not stop fighting …until girls worldwide are not being forced anymore to marry before they finish school; until we see justice for survivors of sexual abuse …where women are equally paid and represented, whether in newsrooms, in boardrooms, in governments”

And we voted no.

Why is research led by women retracted less frequently? - LSE Impact A recent study found research by women had fewer retractions. Are women betters researchers, or does the finding reflect wider structural issues?

‘A recent study found research papers with women as first authors had fewer retractions than those with men as first authors. Curt Rice argues these findings indicate more troubling patterns of power and attention in academic publishing.’

blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsoci...

Community gathers at Bell Tower to 'Stand Up for Science', protesting national limitations to research Attendees spoke about a range of issues impacting scientific inquiry and the environment — from national funding cuts to state rulings impacting environmental health and safety.

Thanks to UNC's Daily Tarheel for great coverage of Saturday's Stand Up for Science UNC rally, including the important role played by UNC undergraduates in SUNRISE UNC 🧪
www.dailytarheel.com/article/univ...

Stand Up For Science Founder and CEO Colette Delawalla speaking at the Washington D.C. Take Back Our Science Rally!

Stand Up For Science Founder & CEO Colette Delawalla states three demands:

1. Remove RFK Jr.

2. Reinstate the American Dream of Science.

3. Science should be driven by scientists not political appointees.

Join the fight!
standupforscience.net/march7

Universal healthcare, universal childcare, public health, education, cancelling student loans, science and research funding, welfare programs are all much better uses of that much money.

100%. I think about this every time I see figures for money spent on ICE, money spent on this war, even money spent on the f***ing ballroom…….

So many ways to spend the money that would actually help people.

Warm congratulations to The Brain Prize winners 2026, Professor David Ginty and Professor Patrik Ernfors, for their pioneering work on how the nervous system detects and processes touch and pain.

Karolinska Institutet
HHMI

#Neuroscience #BrainPrize2026

TAKE BACK our SCIENCE RALLY! - three days away!

With just 3 days to go, let's CHECK IN!

* What rally are you attending?
* What's your sign going to say? What t-shirt will you wear?
* What is YOUR biggest issue? #Research, #healthcare, #education, #climatechange, all of the above...

▶️ We want to hear from you: Smash that "reply" button! ◀️

ProPublica Sues Education Department for Withholding Records About Discrimination in Schools Under Secretary Linda McMahon, the work of the Office for Civil Rights, which aims to protect students from discrimination, is cloaked in secrecy.

www.propublica.org/article/educ...
Dept of Ed cut staff, shifted priorities, and won’t share data.

“Complaints about transgender students playing sports and using girls’ bathrooms at school have been fast-tracked while cases of racial harassment of Black students last year were ignored”

Meet the neuroscientist running for Congress Sam Wang, a neuroscientist running for the U.S. House of Representatives, has been interested in “fixing bugs in democracy” for decades.

@samwang.bsky.social , an autism scientist who made headlines for his data-based analyses of congressional districts, is running for a House seat in New Jersey.

By Lauren Schenkman

www.thetransmitter.org/policy/is-th...

We urgently need to know more. And yet…..I really don’t want to know more (i.e. I’m scared about all the negative health effects).

Hopefully we can figure out what exposure types matter the most and whether cells (microglia / macrophages?) can be assisted in eliminating NPs from tissues.

Have you tried Jeremy Kay or Daniel Saban at Duke? Or Yirong Peng at UCLA (although not sure how much they are focusing on gliosis)?