Alex Silver

Poster-style graphic with bold text reading “TELL YOUR REPRESENTATIVES: THE QUACK RFK Jr. HAS TO GO!” A large photo of RFK Jr. is overlaid with a yellow biohazard sign, while a man’s shoe is about to kick him out. At the bottom, logos and text say “Stand Up For Science” and “Fuel the fight: standupforscience.net.”

🚨BREAKING NEWS: Congresswoman files articles of impeachment against RFK Jr. We've been sounding the alarm for months, sending 3k+ quack-o-grams, and collecting 25k petition signatures calling on our reps to impeach & remove RFK Jr.

We’re closing in on him. Help us WIN the fight. 🦆 zurl.co/vkZQV

800 detainees are missing after being held in Alligator Alcatraz in July, showing no record of their location in ICE’s database.

Other detainees have been mistakenly deported or sent to detention centers thousands of miles away.

The cruelty is the point.

Signs Referencing Climate Change Along with Web Pages Removed from Acadia National Park The Bar Harbor Story is generously sponsored by The Witham Family Hotels Charitable Fund.

The federal government has censored the work of dozens of scientists, including work by my lab, on the impacts of climate change on Acadia National Park. Signs have been removed from Cadillac and Great Meadow. They’re also removing signs about the Wabanaki’s sacred connections to Cadillac.

Autism does not need to be cured

Ableism does

The end

They’re gonna blame the moms.

They always blame the moms.

They’re blaming moms for using the only safe pain reliever that in no way causes autism but WILL cause undue guilt and anguish.

Tylenol doesn’t cause autism.

ACOG reaffirms that acetaminophen is safe for managing pain and fever during pregnancy. No reputable studies support suggestions like those in HHS’s recent announcement linking acetaminophen use in pregnancy to autism; in fact, high-quality studies show no such risk. https://bit.ly/47Wxc59

No I don't want "humane" deportations, for the same reason I don't want "friendly" cops in schools or "understanding" genital inspectors at sporting events.

The problem is the fascism, not that the fascism is rude.

Glad Science collected this data (though the results are entirely unsurprising). GenAI cannot accurately summarize scientific papers, sacrificing accuracy for simplicity.

And shame on publishers who are pushing genAI summaries on readers. Great way to accelerate an epistemic apocalypse.

ICE Is Deporting People to Africa on Nearly Un-Trackable Military Flights Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is deporting people to African countries like Ghana on military flights that are nearly un-trackable.

NEW: Air Force jets are doing ICE flights to Africa with transponders turned off, making them nearly un-trackable.

This includes the third-country removal to Ghana and another secret flight. We figured out where it landed.

From me for @rollingstone.com:

www.rollingstone.com/politics/pol...

Education Research Analyst GS-1730-14 (MP) <p>There are two positions located in the U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Science in Washinton, DC. The&nbsp;Assessment Development Expert and the Assessment Administration Expert is respon...

The National Center for Education Statistics is hiring two researchers to work on NAEP, the first green shoots after DOGE came through back in February. They limit to 150 applications, so move fast if interested.

www.usajobs.gov/job/844948000

www.usajobs.gov/job/844947600

FWIW, "yours for the restoration of the Republic" was a common salutation American fascists gave to each other in the 1950s and 1960s. This is from a 1952 letter by Ohio white supremacist terrorist Peter Xavier. The rest of the rhetoric here might be familiar too.

NSF STEM K-12 (STEM K-12)

🚨 Major shake-up in NSF funding for K-12 STEM ed:

Caps proposals at $750K max for 3 years. Prior cap used to be $5M up to 5 years for some programs.

Archives several existing programs (DRK-12, AISL, CSforAll, TD, parts of ECR:Core). Combines into broad program with much lower expected # of awards.

You can tell yourself we are not living under a personalist authoritarian regime or you can listen to the spokesperson for that regime

What Danielle said.

According to the Yale Budget Lab, the average effective tariff rate in this economy right now is 18.2%

Let me put that another way.

President Trump has raised taxes on American businesses and consumers by -- on average -- 18.2%

Police responding to reported active shooter at Villanova University The Radnor Township Police Department asked that students and nearby resident shelter in place. It was not immediately known if there are any injuries.

The Radnor Township Police Department asked that students and nearby resident shelter in place. It was not immediately known if there are any injuries.

2 bits of data from new Economist/YouGov poll.....

13% support for cutting research funding to universities. 24% among Republicans. Polling on this continues to be catastrophic for the Rs, suggests Dems should be learning far harder into standing up for science and our universities. 1/

Is this about academia

They recovered over 180 bullet shells at the CDC. Debris from shattered glass is still being cleaned up. I am completely stunned at how quickly the news cycle has moved on. This was an act of terrorism targeting public health experts, and the response seems to be a collective shrug.

Moral kombat (with Kiley Hamlin)

🚨 New ep! We talk w/ Professor Kiley Hamlin (@jkileyhamlin.bsky.social‬) about her dev sci path, training w/ legends (Woodward, Wynn, Bloom, Santos), & her Nature Comms paper showing 5-day-olds prefer helpers over hinderers. Plus: reconciling ManyBabies & replication woes.

itsinnate.fireside.fm/31

I don’t know who needs this right now, but I really enjoy browsing “Paper Skygest”, a feed of posts on academic papers *from people you follow*. I think it’s what a lot of us are actually here for

Sorta feels like "they are actively gutting cancer research" should be finding more purchase out there

Psych Academic Job Market Slack Interest Form

(please share widely!) With the start of August quickly approaching, I wanted to announce that the usual slack for fellow people on the Psych Academic Job Market for the coming cycle has been activated. If you are interested, feel free to fill out this form to join!
forms.gle/2DBgs8S1fktS...

NYC Mass Shooting Was Nearly Impossible to Prevent, Experts Say

Holy shit, they did it. They wrote the headline.

The Human Toll The US is undergoing rapid social, economic, and policy change. If you've been impacted, we want to hear your story! To participate, visit: https://tinyurl.com/thehumantoll Study sponsored under University of Wisconsin-Madison IRB Protocol #2025-1096. PI: Dr. Jessica Calarco Participants must be at least 18 years of age and reside in the US [image of a person with their face in their hands]

How have you been impacted by the changes we've seen under the current administration? What would you want to say to those in charge?

I'm launching a new research initiative to collect and share anonymous stories of the human toll. And I'd be very grateful for your help.

tinyurl.com/thehumantoll

In advance of next year's (likely dire) job market, here are the 2024-2025 numbers from the psych job wiki: the overall number of tenure-track job listings in psychology and neuroscience fell slightly, from 860 to 822 (this doesn't include canceled searches, which are often not properly reported).

I doubt that there is a single family in America that hasn’t benefitted directly from the NIH.

Faculty Support of George Mason’s President Draws Federal Investigation

Faculty who wrote to defend their president and object to a DOJ investigation of their university...are now being investigated by the DOJ.
The most banal defense of free speech and academic freedom will trigger the full wrath of the US government now.
www.nytimes.com/2025/07/28/u...

I don’t want the NIH to be fucking profitable, I want it to cure cancer and Alzheimer’s

The NIH’s 2024 budget of just under $37B generated $95B in economic activity in 2024 alone. 99.4% of new pharmaceuticals approved from 2010-2019 came from NIH-funded research. I’m hard pressed to think of anything that generates as much direct economic benefit as our NIH did before they destroyed it

Just look at this shit. Seriously look at it. He’s so thoroughly evil.