Annika Barber

Little grey dog named Goose sits on a couch by a window chomping on a toy Canada goose.

A Goosey with his goose. 🪿 🐶

Not at a @standupforscience.bsky.social rally today…because I’m at the Mid-Atlantic regional @sacnas.bsky.social gathering! There are many ways to stand up for science- rally, call, mentor, march, meet - just do something!

Graph of award probability of R35 and R01 from NIH factbook as a function of review rank percentile. As is apparent, 2025 is a significant departure, with lower award probabilities at all scores <40 and significant departures from norm, where even being in the top 10% is no longer a nearly certain indicator of success. Data source: https://report.nih.gov/nihdatabook/report/302

The data is in: the NIH goalposts have shifted.

What were once almost certain fundable scores have become coin flips and what used to be likely grants have become aspirational, leading to fewer awards.

Another manifestation of how HHS policies have led to fewer awards and less science.

I watched this late (just last week) and visibly grimaced when you said this. Too sadly prescient.

5/ Right now, they are arguing in court that they have replaced the old, unlawful process.

But my colleagues inside say this is false.

NIH isn't actually following the new processes they laid out.

I beg everyone, lab members and students alike, to at least put a date and their initials in all file names!

Planned retreat from coastal areas is totally reasonable, otherwise all of us will be bearing the insurance costs for the (mostly wealthy) people building on ocean view properties as sea levels rise. I live in a 110 year old NJ home. We should be building homes that will still stand in another 110.

I have to do Career Day at my kids' school, what's a good way to teach them about science? I was thinking of giving them a fun activity and then making them fill out a lot of paperwork before abruptly canceling it

Olympic Drosophilist, y’all!!! 🪰 I’m suddenly interested in skiing!

The hallmark of a good intro!

The journal we submit to will need to pry each citation from my clenched fists. I love them all. Individually and specifically.

The problem with being such an avid reader since my #papersofnote days is that I cannot have a reasonable number of citations. I want to take you on a grand tour of the literature! This manuscript draft is 7.25 single spaced pages. 84 references. #academicsky

Every dollar spent by NIH generates $2.46 in new economic activity across the nation Source: https://www.unitedformedicalresearch.org/nih-in-your-state/

Cost of fighter jets, ranging from $63M to $177M each

👩🏻‍🔬 vs ✈️ spending:
-NIH $ supports 2-4X economic ROI in Every Single State and turned 37.8B into 92B economic activity nationwide in 2024
-The US also paid Boeing 3.4T for new aircraft; Army had 17 deadly crashes in 2024
-We can support ~94 five-yr research programs for the cost of 1 (ONE) fighter jet

Grumpy claymation penguin sits on a chair with text saying “well now I am not doing it”

If you email me at 5:36 pm on a Friday to ask for something and then send a “gentle reminder” at 8:29 am on Monday, it makes me contrary.

"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed."

-Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1953

White House stalls release of approved US science budgets The US Congress rejected sweeping cuts to science agencies. But the NIH, the NSF and NASA have had their spending slowed.

Congress rejected massive cuts to US science budgets for 2026, but much of the money still isn’t flowing to researchers.

The culprit? The White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is quietly slow-walking the release of funds. 🧵👇

My brain first read this as “enormous amounts of ham” and i was thinking it might not be so bad. 🙃

Goose, a small dog, stand on the Rutgers campus near the medical library, trying to follow every student he sees

If the Fly Club speaker invites Goose to her seminar, he gets to go, right? #sciencewithgoose #meiosis #chromosomesegregation

Mine in this week’s @newyorker.com

Unrepentant small grey dog on a fleece electric blanket. Annika sits coldly at the other end of the couch with a regular blanket.

Was all excited to WFH under the heated blanket. But *somebody* has claimed it for himself! He’ll share the couch, but he needs the whole blanket for his nest.

They probably already put foster kids in juvenile facilities in your state. They do in PA. They do in NJ. My kids have been housed that way. #fostercare

Einstein - AI Homework Agent Einstein logs into Canvas and does your homework automatically. He has his own computer — he can watch lectures, read essays, write papers, and participate in discussions.

The push to make everything on Canvas accessible to screen readers also makes everything machine readable. Enabling this monstrosity. Which is why I put so little on Canvas anymore.

companion.ai/einstein

A theory I have is that the bay leaves in my parents’ spice cabinet had been there since the early 90s and taste more like dust than bay. Got myself some up to date bay leaves in my late twenties and suddenly a taste was present!

I had the same thought. 💀

Even if you don't follow sliding sports, you won't regret following Ken! His knowledge and enthusiasm makes somewhat niche sports seem really interesting even to the uninitiated. Also he has a cute dog and I am here for the dogs of Bluesky (and cats)

I don't know about and don't follow sliding sports, except fun olympic clips. But I love people nerding out about their special interests! And you do such a good job of it!

Why do I have to pretend that I'm going to print something in order to save it as a PDF. Why do I have to engage in a little ruse.

Beige stucco house mounded in snow. Christmas wreaths still up even tho it’s February.

Damp, sweaty Annika in front of same house, front walk and steps cleared.

Small dog in a car rut in the snow. He is squinting peevishly. You can see lil paw prints.

Luckily for me, I really like shoveling. Did our sidewalks and our elderly neighbor’s while my husband dug out the cars and our other neighbor who is on-call for the water works. Goose is less enchanted.

Amusement park for flies

Strong dislike for this view that bland, formulaic scientific writing is desirable. I mean, we have to read this stuff, give us some flow