Joanna Chataway

These new drugs are changing lives — the NHS won’t buy them - The Times and The Sunday Times

Growing concerns about NICE methodology and the shrinking NHS medicines budget.

AI Eroded Doctors’ Ability to Spot Cancer Within Months in Study Artificial intelligence, touted for its potential to transform medicine, led to some doctors losing skills after just a few months in a new study.

“The AI in the study probably prompted doctors to become over-reliant on its recommendations, ‘leading to clinicians becoming less motivated, less focused, and less responsible when making cognitive decisions without AI assistance,’ the scientists said in the paper.”

www.science.org/content/arti...

I’m glad this is happening but I agree with you that what is being written about it seems to lack a critical edge. That’s a particularly serious issue because developing and maintaining the capacity to critique intelligently is core to our ability to use AI!

A new ADC drug for Myeloma is great news but the reporting is confined to celebration. So much detail is left out. WHO developed this drug? How long did it take? How long did NICE take to approve it? It can be a traumatically long process for patients.

An Entire Board Just Resigned After Accusing Trump Of Illegal Interference The board members say Trump denied Fulbright awards to several people they had selected for the 2025-2026 academic year.

The entire board of the Fulbright program reportedly resigned today after accusing the Trump administration of illegal interference www.huffpost.com/entry/trump-...

RFK Jr sacks entire US vaccine committee

I had to read this several times as “prioritise growth” and “hit universities over the head” are so mutually contradictory

RFK Jr. threatens to bar government scientists from publishing in leading medical journals The health secretary said the New England Journal of Medicine, the Journal of the American Medical Association and The Lancet are in bed with pharma.

There are some serious critiques of high end journals’ place in research systems and of peer review. Unsurprisingly this isn’t one of them.
www.politico.com/news/2025/05...

Headshot of Anna Vignoles with her quote in a blue box with white text: The Trust supports blue skies research, and as you will hear on some of the podcasts, it is striking just how important ‘out of the box’ thinking is to tackling the real-world challenges faced by our society today. In our centenary year, we are thrilled to be collaborating with such like-minded institutions as the Academy of Social Sciences and the Nuffield Foundation on the next few seasons of this compelling podcast. Logos of Academy of Social Sciences, Nuffield Foundation, Leverhulme Trust.

ICYMI, The Trust is thrilled to team up with @acadsocsciences.bsky.social and @nuffieldfoundation.org to produce the We Society Podcast. Together we will promote innovative social science research that benefits society.

Read here: www.leverhulme.ac.uk/news/new-pod...

@annavignoles.bsky.social

My wonderful PhD student, Weijia Ding, successfully defended her PhD thesis today. Anyone interested in how Chinese universities behave as entrepreneurial universities, talk to Weijia (via me - I’ll pass on your message as she doesn’t yet have an account here).

I received a heartbreaking email today: A paper in a special issue I’m editing is being retracted because one of its authors is afraid of losing their job and their legal status in the U.S. if they publish a scientific study on evolution. Yes, on evolution, nature's engine of diversity.

Is there an argument that a reduced aid budget strengthens the need for an independent DFID? Surely, this is a time for creative thinking and new partnerships. Better led from an independent government department.

We are advertising for two assistant professors in public policy, with digital policy know-how: www.jobs.cam.ac.uk/job/50248/

Be clear about what Trump and Musk’s aid axe will do: people will face terror and starve, many will die | Gordon Brown The decimation of USAid is already having a terrible effect in some of the poorest places on the planet. It damages America: it will harm us all, says Gordon Brown, the UN’s special envoy for global e...

Powerful words from Gordon Brown www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Welcome Kevin! Good to see you here

Metascience 2025 Conference A global gathering for knowledge sharing, community building, and opportunities to define a roadmap of research and intervention priorities to accelerate science.

Very much looking forward to #Metascience2025 this summer in London, organized by @rorinstitute.bsky.social and @cos.io metascience.info.

This will be crucial event in development of metaresearch field, with exciting opportunities to bring together researchers, policy makers and other stakeholders.

Bluesky’s science takeover: 70% of Nature poll respondents use platform Roughly 6,000 readers answered our poll, with many declaring that Bluesky was nicer, kinder and less antagonistic to science than X.

We (who are using Bluesky routinely) knew this already but an official poll showed the majority of scientists now using it and finding it better to discuss and find research as well as waaaaaaay less toxic 🧪 www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Is the UN fit for purpose? (Tom Fletcher) Podcast Episode · Leading · 20/01/2025 · 1h

Longer dog walk than usual earlier - was listening to this Leading episode with Tom Fletcher. Made me think about a lot of things including how we help students navigate different dimensions of AI. Unexpectedly interesting on that. podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/l...

Over 60 German universities quit social media platform X Platform accused of failing to uphold values of diversity, freedom, and scholarship - Anadolu Ajansı

🎉

Am interested to learn about methodology. This looks like a strong argument for R&D spending.

Wow. This is important. Now on BlueSky

House of Commons

bsky.app/profile/hous...

House of Lords

bsky.app/profile/hous...

It’s happening👏

Enjoy! Thanks for all the good work this year. I learn a lot from your journalism.

European Federation of Journalists to stop posting content on X The EFJ represents over 295,000 journalists in 44 countries.

This is huge.

The EFJ represents over 295,000 journalists in 44 countries 👇
www.thelondoneconomic.com/news/media/e...

Strange Today 8.10 am interview with John Bell about the new Ellison Institute! Maybe the interview should have been about the $1 billion and not conducted as though the idea of technology and social/environmental challenges is somehow novel.

Hello Andreas, good to see you here.

How a Universal Basic Income for People Over 65 Increased New Zealand’s Labour Force Participation | IPPO Tatjana Buklijas In 2022, the New Zealand government launched the Older Workers Employment Action Plan (OWEAP), which outlined a series of actions supporting older workers, their employees as well as ...

Such interesting policy from New Zealand as they encourage older workers back into employment. theippo.co.uk/how-a-univer...

Oxford scientist resigns from Royal Society over Elon Musk’s continuing fellowship Prof Dorothy Bishop said fellowship was ‘a contradiction of all the values’ of UK’s national academy of sciences

Heroic move from @deevybee.bsky.social to resign from the @royalsociety.bsky.social as long as Elon Musk remains a fellow.

"“It just....seemed such a contradiction of all the values of the Royal Society. And I didn’t really want to have anything to do with it.”

www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

This is powerful stuff, and gets to the heart of the Royal Society's hypocrisy. Unlike the Fellows elected as genuine scientists who go on to, as Dorothy says, "publish fraudulent work, or go insane and start promoting crackpot ideas", Musk was elected because of his political economic influence.