Cover of report "Mission Aborted: how NASA illegally implemented the president's budget request without congressional approval. Minority staff report, prepared by members of the committee on science, space, and technology, us house of representatives, April 2026

This report came out today by minority staff of the House science committee on how three NASA missions were aborted due to NASA illegally following the FY26 president's budget request instead of congressionally approved budget. Very important reading. 🔭🧪 democrats-science.house.gov/staff-report...

Whoa—machine learning strikes again (in a good way)

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

Right, I remember reading that, but that doesn't look like the percentage from last year. Weird...

A graph from the from page of the NIH Reporter website showing the number of extramural awards award by month for fiscal years 2022-2026. The curve for fiscal year 2026 lies below the other curves.

My NIH update

Let me start by saying again how glad I am that NIH is now posting these curves on the Reporter front page.

It is satisfying that leading by example from outside has led to this change and (I hope) reflects a commitment for NIH_leadership™ to hold itself accountable for this.

1/6

If they keep using MYF for this fraction of new awards, and end up spending all of their budget for the fiscal year, would this end up running afoul of the stipulation in the appropriations bill that MYF be capped at the same level as last year? Or am I misunderstanding something here?

Damn...

We are using this one in my lab. Pretty handy and user-friendly!

On the expansion and evolution of a master’s project Academics often lament that hardly any master’s projects – even the best ones – get published. The student moves on. Other research takes priority. No one has time to do the final analyses. Here I tel...

Academics often lament that hardly any master’s projects get published. The student moves on. Other research takes priority. No one has time to do the final analyses. Here I tell how one master’s project was, through persistent teamwork, finally carried over the finish line: go.nature.com/4aKs7N3

A post from Jason Locasale quoting Paul Thacker complaining about a Nature story from Max Kozlov using data from NIH Reporter that I posted on my Bluesky account.

Apparently Jason Locasale and Paul Thacker have a problem with using publicly available data from NIH Reporter about the number of new and competitive renewal grants from fiscal year 2026 compared to previous fiscal years because I first posted it.

1/2

Impact Dashboard - Impact Counter | Impact Counter Visualize the human impact of funding changes for aid and support organizations.

Meanwhile: www.impactcounter.com/dashboard?vi...

Committee Releases Conferenced Defense, Homeland Security, Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies, and Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies Bi... United States Senate Committee on Appropriations

The conference (agreement between House and Senate) appropriations bill that includes HHS and NIH was released this morning.

www.appropriations.senate.gov/news/majorit...

1/5

Can we predict what the overall success rate for new grants should be this year based on this rule? Wondering if this is roughly the same as last year or if other shenanigans going on last year muddy that a bit. (Not that there won't be new shenanigans this year, but happy to ignore that for now...)

NIH funding underlies all of these advances--support fundamental science, and the bridge from there to the clinic 🧪

Stuck in an infinite pdf2pdf conversion loop.

It is hard to overstate the impact that the NIH multiyear funding debate happening in congress right now could have on biomedical research over the next few years.

Towards an evolutionary baseline model of Plasmodium falciparum for population-genomic inference Malaria has caused over 15.7 million deaths in the 21st century and was responsible for ∼600 thousand deaths globally in 2023 alone. Although many effective antimalarial drugs have been developed and ...

We wrote a perspective piece about important considerations when building an evolutionary baseline model for population genomic inference in the deadliest malaria parasite- Plasmodium falciparum.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

patrick star from spongebob squarepants with his hands folded ALT: patrick star from spongebob squarepants with his hands folded

Likewise, Congressman Cole from Oklahoma is the chair of the overall House Appropriations committee.

If you can, reach out to his office as well.

It is noteworthy that OMB is willing to veto a bill over a minor-seeming NIH operational issue.

This makes me think this is part of a bigger plan...

Congressman Aderholt from Alabama is the chair and he is apparently willing to help OMB here, adding report language (which is toothless) rather than including this in the law.

If you are from Alabama, please contact his office and your Senators and share your thoughts.

2/3

a close up of a brown surface with a few spots ALT: a close up of a brown surface with a few spots

The appropriations bill that includes NIH is being finalized.

The Senate bill includes a bipartisan amendment from Senators Capito (WV) and Baldwin (WI) limiting multi-year funding of grants.

The House version does not and OMB has issued a veto threat if the House includes such language.

1/3

My quote of the day

Patriotism is supporting your country all the time, but your government only when it deserves it.

Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain)

Just a reminder that measles virus is very infectious with one infected individual spreading it to (on average) 12-18 others in a susceptible population.

With vaccination rates below 92% or so, measles is likely to spread extensively and quickly.

Neural posterior estimation for population genetics Simulation-based inference methods are increasingly being used in population genetics due to their flexibility and ability to be applied in settings where likelihood-based methods are intractable. Per...

Popgen folks, Jiseon, Nate, and Andy, along with Yuxin Ning and Franz Baumdicker, just released a really cool new method for simulation based inference (think ABC) using normalizing flows. It seems to work really well! full joint posteriors ftw!
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Good news.

Faculty expressing their concerns seems to be having effects.

If you are in academia, make sure your administration knows your views on the compact.

Wait till the Van Buren boys hear about this...

a dog is sitting on a rug in front of a brick wall and a plant . ALT: a dog is sitting on a rug in front of a brick wall and a plant .

A summary of training, fellowship, and career development awards

Fiscal year 2025 (compared to fiscal year 2024)

1/12

For more information about the Friday night massacre at CDC, I wrote up an analysis of who got terminated and what that means for public health.

Grateful to @saveamericamvmt.bsky.social for supporting and amplifying. We are in really terrible trouble.

rasmussenretorts.substack.com/p/the-death-...

a cartoon of donald trump with the words be prepared above him ALT: a cartoon of donald trump with the words be prepared above him

When I was at NIH and shutdowns loomed, it was discovered that the administration was planning to shut down PubMed. The head of NCBI called the powers that be and pointed out that this would threaten patient safety

Who knows what will happen now

Just in case, remember Euruope-PMC
(europepmc.org )

Establishing a Fixed Time Period of Admission and an Extension of Stay Procedure for Nonimmigrant Academic Students, Exchange Visitors, and Representatives of Foreign Information Media Unlike most nonimmigrant classifications, which are admitted for a fixed time period, aliens in the F (academic student), J (exchange visitor), and most I (representatives of foreign information media...

ADD YOUR THOUGHTS ON LIMITING STUDENT VISA TO FOUR YEARS

Comment period ends September 29th

www.federalregister.gov/documents/20...

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Interesting news about grants to prevent mass violence being canceled in MN and elsewhere. "Not all ...have been canceled. Asked about two grants awarded to the sheriff’s office in Palm Beach County, Florida – where Mar-a-Lago is located – a sheriff’s office spokesperson said the grants are active."

a woman stands in front of a white board with the words you need to be careful written on it ALT: a woman stands in front of a white board with the words you need to be careful written on it

WARNING WARNING WARNING

#ResearchAdmini

I am hearing reports of NIH Awards being issued with ~15% indirect cost rate without comment. I believe the hope is that they will be accepted with noticing this.