Imagine watching The Pitt and imagining that Gloria the VP is the hero of the story. Cause sometimes working in healthcare is like that. What have we done?

I caught measles in the second grade. I was healthy, it was the sickest I’ve ever been for that long. I spent 2 weeks with high fevers, in a dark room, mostly sleeping till the fevers broke. I can easily see how it could have been so much worse. Why would any one want to pass this risk on to kids?

Exclusive: RFK Jr. and the White House buried a major study on alcohol and cancer. Here’s what it shows. Kennedy wants to “Make America Healthy Again” — but doesn’t want you to see a report that could do just that.

Exclusive: RFK Jr. and the White House buried a major study on alcohol and cancer. Here’s what it shows.

www.vox.com/health/46008...

We will never know what these projects would have discovered to improve the human condition, just because the wealthy wanted more.

Screenshot of NSF budget cuts to various programs

Social, Behavioral, & Economic Sciences is getting hit with a 67.6% cut, worse than other programs within NSF. Funding for archaeologists comes from the division for Behavioral and Cognitive Sciences, which is facing a 77.3% cut.

It appears every post doc program has been 100% cut.

“The only thing the shadow truly fears is being discovered. The work isn’t done till you step into the shadow and look out of its eyes…. And feel compassion and affection for the shadow beast.” — Ann Shulgin

“The only thing the shadow truly fears is being discovered. The work isn’t done till you step into the shadow and look out of its eyes…. And feel compassion and affection for the shadow beast.”
— Ann Shulgin

New paper: Caregiving burden, receipt of palliative care, and the use of bereavement support: secondary analysis of population-based data

bmcpalliatcare.biomedcentral.com/articles/10....

Congratulations Maja!

The pursuit of science brought our family to the US decades ago. Dad became a research powerhouse, pushing science forward on neuroendocrines & HIV for decades. Glad he isn’t alive to see the NIH being mutilated like this.

Pacific Northwest's ‘forest gardens’ were deliberately planted by Indigenous people Finding suggests humans have added value to forests in lasting ways

"A new study reveals that isolated patches of fruit trees and berry bushes in the region's hemlock and cedar forests were deliberately planted by Indigenous peoples in and around their settlements (in the Pacific Northwest) more than 150 years ago."

From 2010 to 2016 (latest data I have ), NIH research contributed to EVERY drug approved by the FDA

Meet Gracie Himes, age 20.

Her goal: Fight cancer by developing new medicines.

On March 3, her dreams were shattered when Trump admin cuts hit West Virginia University, which rescinded her PhD program offer.

www.wsj.com/us-news/educ...

May we hold what needs to heal with compassion for ourselves and others.

We are coming up to 5 years since the pandemic and lockdown. There is still so, so much shock and grief. There is still so much left unsaid and untold from those pandemic waves. So much left to say. So many people who I wish were still with us.

USDA eliminates two food safety advisory committees The U.S. Department of Agriculture has eliminated two committees that advise it on food safety, the agency said on Friday, raising concerns about government oversight of the food supply as the Trump administration seeks to downsize the federal bureaucracy and slash costs.

USDA has eliminated two food safety advisory committees for microbiological contamination and meat inspection. Most recently, they had been reviewing regulatory approaches in response to the fatal Listeria outbreak from Boar’s Head meats and fatal Cronobacter contamination in powdered infant formula

Methane emissions are turbocharging climate change – these quick fixes could slow it down Cover landfills and manure tanks and shrink dairy herds, for a start.

Two articles this week on reducing agricultural methane emissions fail to mention the most obvious, especially in the Global North: reducing livestock numbers via shifts to healthier plant-rich diets, freeing land for carbon uptake!
www.wri.org/insights/red...
theconversation.com/methane-emis...

Your attention span is a commodity, your emotions are good for business. Put it down.

Therefore, Ananda, be islands unto yourselves, refuges unto yourselves, seeking no external refuge; with the Dhamma as your island, the Dhamma as your refuge, seeking no other refuge.
Mahaparinibbana Sutta (DN 16)

Goodnight sleep tight.

Handwritten notes on a metal table at the National Science Foundation, 2/18/25. The messages include "You deserve better! Thank you!"; "Thank you colleagues! This RIF is WRONG. These orders are immoral & illegal"; and "Your service will forever be remembered and deeply valued - ENG directorate".

This morning, the US National Science Foundation fired 168 employees, approximately 10% of its workforce, for no cause other than they were the agency's most recent hires. 🧪

Co-workers are leaving supportive messages before they have to clear out of the building at 5 p.m. Sent to me by a source ⬇️

Shout out to all HCW who remember the pandemic waves.

If you're not up to date, for obvious reasons, PLEASE GO GET YOUR VACCINES NOW.

How a Canadian scientist and a venomous lizard helped pave the way for Ozempic - National | Globalnews.ca In 1984, Dr. Daniel Drucker, an endocrinologist from the University of Toronto, discovered a hormone that helped pave the way for popular diabetes drugs such as Ozempic.

This is the most relevant article to NIH and research cuts I’ve seen.

Imagine if this was today , how many people would be saying “Why are we studying Gila Monsters and their impact on diabetes ? That’s wasted money !”

globalnews.ca/news/9793403...

Jobs and top talent will likely be irretrievably lost by then. This is prime post-doctoral fellowship pipeline season.

We are so close to solid tumor treatment breakthroughs using CAR-T cell therapies & immunotherapies. I can’t imagine why or how anyone thinks hamstringing American basic sciences & research universities is a good move.

Gene editing technology began by people studying salt marshes. Ozempic began by folks studying the venom of Gila Monsters. Support for basic science has empowered us to understand our world. Tethering it to applications health has transformed and saved countless lives.

“I don’t quite know what healing is but my sense of it, the process of it is to touch with Love that which you so often touch with fear and anger.”— Stephen Levine

Bioaccumulation of microplastics in decedent human brains - Nature Medicine Pyrolysis gas chromatography–mass spectrometry reveals the presence of microplastics and nanoplastics in human kidney, liver and brain tissue samples from 2016 and 2024, with higher proportions found ...

NEW RESEARCH: The amount of tiny, shard-like particles of plastic, especially polyethylene, is rising in human brain tissue in tandem with their rising concentration in the environment and is higher in the brains of people with dementia.

Maybe…let’s fund science? 🧪

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

What happens when that clinical trial you’re loved one just qualified for is abruptly shut down? Or the disability hearing they were waiting on is cancelled & never rescheduled?