Theresa O

This afternoon, I was in a meeting with Jay Bhattacharya, and I can confirm this is *exactly* what he both wants and will be doing.

THIS IS NOT HYPERBOLE.

Chart showing early career grants awarded from 2016 to 2025. grants steadily increased until 2025, where it hit the lowest point in the past 10 years.

That contract has brought the US to the fore of scientific discovery and innovation, but this year that seems to be going in the wrong direction

Subjects drawing the ire of the admin have been hurt,yes, but also Alzheimer's, cancer and HIV/AIDS research (analysis of NIH data by @jaspar.bsky.social)

Notice of Request for Information; Accelerating the American Scientific Enterprise The Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) requests input from all interested parties on Federal policy updates that aim to accelerate the American scientific enterprise, enable groundbreaking...

The Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) is seeking input on Federal policy updates to accelerate the American scientific enterprise.

This is your chance to give some feedback on how the past ~10 months have gone for science.
www.federalregister.gov/documents/20...

I plan to highlight:

Oregon pilot program giving cash to homeless youths sees staggering reduction in homelessness The state program gave participants $1,000 cash payments each month for two years. At the end of the project's first phase, 91% of participants reported being in stable housing.

An Oregon pilot program giving cash to homeless youths sees a staggering reduction in homelessness. The program gave participants $1,000 cash payments each month for two years, and at the end of the project's first phase, 91% of participants reported being in stable housing.

The U.S. Is Funding Fewer Grants in Every Area of Science and Medicine (Gift Article) A quiet policy change means the government is making fewer bets on long-term science.

www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

Check out this blog post from @clairemkbowen.bsky.social showing how federal data shape your entire day—often without you even noticing. Federal data are everywhere! It’s the invisible infrastructure powering daily life and the big decisions that shape our futures. #statssky

Increasingly concerning that the Trump Admin is obliterating data so we can’t document what they’re destroying. In this case, gold standard tracking of health care access, insurance coverage and costs. It’s a study that will help us understand the impacts of the Big Beautiful Bill.

MEPS seems to be gone as of now. This is very bad. These are critical pieces of data about health care and they belong to the American public.

While we wait to see what is going on, please note that you can still get most of what is in MEPS microdata from IPUMS: meps.ipums.org/meps/

CEO-to-worker pay ratio in 1965: 20-1

CEO-to-worker pay ratio in 1990: 75-1

CEO-to-worker pay ratio today: 280-to-1

Trickle-down economics was always a sham.

Nothing has ever trickled down.

Today's biggest science news: Doomed comet explodes | Comet 3I/ATLAS course alteration | Dark matter detected? Wednesday, Nov. 26, 2025: Your daily feed of the biggest discoveries and breakthroughs making headlines.

NEW from me - NSF cancels grant scheme for social science research.

Seems the NSF quietly archived ALL calls for DDRIG grants in the SBE directorate. This is a massive blow for PhD students wanting to do cutting-edge social science research. 🏺🧪

🚨We analyzed 138 million geocoded property tax records to quantify how municipal boundaries spatially overlap onto economic segregation in every US metro area—creating disparities in localities’ ability to fund public goods. And we made an interactive map of our results! [1/16]

An internal document from NIH which states that documentation must be provide for each funded grant but that no documentation need be provided for applications that are not selected for funding including those that are skipped back on overall impact scores.

This is concerning.

NIH is changing their policy so that staff have to prepare justification for every application that is funded BUT NO DOCUMENTATION FOR APPLICATIONS THAT ARE SKIPPED (BASED ON PERCENTILES).

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The NIH director told attendees the NIH doesn't do enough innovative research.

“What puts lives at risk is doing research that’s incremental,” Bhattacharya said. “All it does is advance the careers of the researchers that do it. It results in publications that don’t get used and aren’t replicable.”

This is fab! These book club kits that the UMN library offers would be great for postdoc and PhD book club professional development groups! Thx for posting about them @heatherrandell.bsky.social !

University of Minnesota Libraries announcement: Read with friends! Cozy Book Club Kits are here! Read with your friends! University Libraries first collection of book club and buddy reading kits are now available.

I just love this. The University of Minnesota Library has launched book club kits! Students can take out six copies of the same book to read with friends. College kids need this sort of stuff now more than ever. 📚📖💙

libguides.umn.edu/bookclubkits...

new paper by Sean Westwood:

With current technology, it is impossible to tell whether survey respondents are real or bots. Among other things, makes it easy for bad actors to manipulate outcomes. No good news here for the future of online-based survey research

Up to 323 cancelled CSR study sections. That's more than the 204 sections cancelled earlier this year. Rescheduling is going to be a hot mess with NIH staff reductions and study section members heading into finals and holidays that limit availability. 🧪

Trump Administration Removes Report on Missing and Murdered Native Americans, Calling It DEI Content - Oklahoma Watch The Trump administration removed a congressionally mandated report on missing and murdered Native Americans from the DOJ website, citing compliance with an executive order against DEI. Senators who ch...

Ignoring a Congressional mandate about a report on missing and murdered native Americans because the administration calls it "DEI".

Problems go away when you don't track and share data.

oklahomawatch.org/2025/11/14/t...

Trump revives policy penalizing immigrants for using safety net programs The public charge rule makes it harder for legal Medicaid enrollees to obtain a green card.

BREAKING: Trump is restoring a rule that penalizes lawfully present immigrants who use Medicaid, arguing that “government benefits should not incentivize immigration.”

Advocates warn the rule will cause both individual suffering & negative population-wide effects.

www.politico.com/news/2025/11...

News Reporter, CNN Weather in Atlanta, Georgia, United States of America | Creative, Content & Editorial at CNN Apply for News Reporter, CNN Weather job with CNN

We’re looking for a news reporter interested in writing about weather science and weather history for a social platform. This is a really great team and you should join us careers.wbd.com/global/en/jo...

Trump slashed spending on clinical trials. The toll is starting to become clear. Grants for 383 clinical trials were terminated and the funding disruptions affected more than 74,000 trial participants, according to new research.

The Trump regime’s cuts to NIH grants disrupted more than 380 clinical trials, affecting over 74,000 participants. The cuts disproportionately impacted trials on infectious diseases and minority communities.

NIH Job Postings Raise Red Flags for Scientists A dozen high-level spots are open for a short period of time

MedPage Today story about NIH Institute Director searches with comments from me and former NIMH Director Josh Gordon.

www.medpagetoday.com/washington-w...

YouTube video by Todd Snider - Topic Statistician's Blues (Live)

RIP Todd Snider. He wrote the greatest song about #statistics you'll ever hear: Statistician's Blues.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPlD...

a man with a beard is looking at the camera with the words priorities written on the bottom ALT: a man with a beard is looking at the camera with the words priorities written on the bottom

Another new policy from the geniuses in NIH leadership.

Apparently, ~70% of grant applications for most mechanisms will not be "triaged", i.e. not discussed at study section.

This is an increase from the ~50% level that has been in place for many years.

I don't know the rationale for this

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Black Life Expectancy Shows Sharp Geographic Divide From 1990 to 2019, Black life expectancy rose in most major metros and the Northeast, but gains stalled or reversed in rural areas and the Midwest.

A new study by LDI Fellow Irma Elo shows a deep geographic divide in Black life expectancy before COVID-19:
⬆️ Gains in cities & the Northeast
⬇️ Losses in the Midwest & rural areas

Read the full Q&A here: https://bit.ly/4ocoeWl

New Insights on Historic Causes of Maternal Deaths In historical populations, female death rates usually exceeded male death rates during the reproductive ages. The most obvious cause of this difference is deaths resulting from childbirth. Parish regi...

With a new measure to understand causes of maternal mortality, historical demographer George Alter finds infectious disease & nutrition improvements likely impacted falling maternal mortality more than shifting obstetrical practices. Just out in Population Studies: psc.isr.umich.edu/news/new-ins...

Department of Education Proposal Excludes Public Health Degrees from “Professional Degree” Definition Discover the new results and implications of Dept of Ed consensus regarding professional degree programs and public health education.

🚨Dept. of Education proposes to exclude public health degrees from the “professional degree” category.

That means new public health experts could lose access to key higher ed resources, like loan limits & reimbursement.

A bold strategy to let infectious diseases win! 🦠

aspph.org/department-o...