I am co-editing a special issue on the "Neural Bases of Language Processing in the Wild" together with @swathikiran.bsky.social on Brain and Language (zero embargo period). If you are interested, I am happy to chat more (currently at my favorite #snl2025). www.sciencedirect.com/special-issu...

1. Federal funding for research promotes tech, biomedical, and scientific discovery in the US, and provides training for the sci/tech workforce that has brought immeasurable wealth to the US over the past 75 years.

Today's executive order includes a provision that will obliterate both functions.

1. After getting some further insight into changes at NSF (thanks to those who reached out), I deleted a previous post where I tried to make sense of Cheatham's memo as reported in the Science story below.

A question sort of related: Is it appropriate to say “oh biscuits” in the US? (Bluey’s dad taught us that)

FYI: The Spencer Foundation, Kapor Foundation, The William T. Grant Foundation, and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation have collaborated to offer $25K rapid response grants.

"This rapid response bridge funding opportunity is for scholars and teams whose grants have recently been cancelled by NSF."

I am so heartened to this seriously AWESOME #SaveNSF website go up today!!!!

Has a take action toolkit with:

1. Press outreach templates
2. Social media toolkit
3. Elected official outreach
4. Talking points

Check it out and share widely!!!! Likely more to come.

www.savensf.com

🔔BREAKING🔔

The NSF has frozen all research grant awards—cutting off life-saving science midstream and demanding ideological screenings for future funding.

This is censorship disguised as oversight.

Here’s how you can help us spread the word ➡️🧵(1/3):
www.nature.com/articles/d41...

My latest. It’s feelings-forward and was hard to write.

“It’s an isolating experience when your industry, the source of your livelihood, is being uniquely targeted by your own government, and many Americans are either completely unaware or cheering on its demise.”
www.chronicle.com/article/high...

More than 150 leaders of America's colleges, universities, and scholarly societies issued "A Call for Constructive Engagement" in response to the ongoing government intrusion into #highered. Read the full statement: www.aacu.org/newsroom/a-c...

What RFK Jr. said was reprehensible. He should be ashamed of himself and step down.

On the Old North church tonight

If you work at a university, make sure to demand that staff do a routine check if SEVIS twice a day. It’s the only way to know if your student is being targeted for disappearances. Also make safety plans for anybody with even minor citations like parking tickets.

Adorable. The Boston ducks have protest signs #handsoff

Now THAT’S some #GoodTrouble. #HandsOff

Excellent excellent excellent from Princeton president and constitutional/ political theorist Chris Eisgruber. There's been far too little of this kind of thing; here's hoping others follow his good example.

www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...

“Liberty is a practical and priceless way of living”. A powerful piece that reminds us why America was an oasis in the last century and how fragile liberty can be.

🧵Yesterday, I received notice that my #NIH grant, on the social environment, lifecourse, epigenetics & #birthoutcomes in Black families, was terminated. This grant represented a critical effort to address the ⬆️ rates of maternal & infant mortality in the US, particularly among Black mothers & babies

1. For the past thirty years I've had the best job in the world.


I've had the opportunity to follow my curiosity; explore the workings of nature and society; mentor students and junior colleagues in the same process; and teach generations of students about it all.

90% of people diagnosed with pancreatic cancer die from the disease. That's why the medical community is excited about the results of a small trial in which nearly half of the pancreatic cancer patients who received an mRNA vaccine for the disease remained relapse-free three years later.

Nothing will kill more children than the ongoing decimation of CDC, NIH, and USAID work to lift vaccine uptake in the US and world.

Child survival rose 75% in the last 50 years. Vaccines account for 40% of that. Measles vax alone was 60% of the benefit. www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...

Update to @fordschool.bsky.social tool that lets you figure out how much federal funding public schools in your congressional district may lose

Now includes that info by state legislative district as well.

poverty.umich.edu/federal-educ...

The platform I run, Children Helping Science, is supported almost entirely by US government science funding, both directly and in collaboration with CHS researchers.

Here's the note we sent to users today - we need help gathering your stories and citations! Submit here: forms.gle/zFnzrVURntdZ...

"No one is coming out of the sky to give you your grant money. Your citation portfolio won’t survive this market crash. Your credentials mean nothing. Everything is going to change."

New for @undark.org

undark.org/2025/03/06/o...