Bill Nihilist

Another opportunity for Touch Grass Populism @dkthomp.bsky.social

So there you have it, twin study estimates were greatly inflated, and molecular data sets the record straight. I walk through possible counter-arguments, but ultimately the uncomfortable truth is that genes contribute to traits much less than we always thought.

The missing heritability question is now (mostly) answered Not with a bang but with a whimper

I wrote a little bit about the "missing heritability" question and several recent studies that have brought it to a close. A short 🧵

No more paylines at the NIH
grants.nih.gov/news-events/...

In class discussion about social media & young people's mental health today. One student had a brilliant insight drawn from her own life where she was allowed to be on electronics when she was with her dad but not at her mom's house. We need a within-subjects study of kids of divorced parents!

"done", "finished" -this language is how you package resignation, disengagement, and hopelessness to Americans opposed to Trump. You give them a statement they're likely to agree with about Trump striving towards fascism, then present it as a fait accompli. The subtle message 'resistance is futule'

I really hate it when scientists keep saying that “we need to rebuild trust in science,” because it implies that scientists are to blame for the mistrust rather than the millions of dollars of dark money that have funded political attacks on science in order to advance a far right agenda.

@thetransmitter.bsky.social presents a portrait of the state of neuroscience in 2025 through four lenses: its focus, its output, its people and its funding. Each view features analyses of major trends and more. Explore the end of year report: bit.ly/4oNeTVC

#neuroskyence #StateofNeuro

When you have your office door closed and someone knocks anyway

What a tragedy. Awful

Imagine using this to stop the construction of a data center

Uh oh, the march has ground to a halt. There's an adorable King Charles Spaniel and no one has the heart to do what must be done 😢

Unfortunately, last night I was eliminated as a contestant on Great Baby Bake Off. Sometime after determining the challenge was "muffins", one of the toddler judges changed his mind and threw my entry on the ground in a fit of pique.

NIH awarded 37 percent fewer neuroscience-related grants in 2025 than in past years But the agency has spent nearly its entire budget for this fiscal year, which ends tomorrow.

“It’s hard to know if I should close down my existing projects and/or redouble my efforts writing new grant applications,” Joshua Jacobs, associate professor of biomedical engineering at Columbia University, told @thetransmitter.bsky.social.

By Natalia Mesa

www.thetransmitter.org/funding/nih-...

The morning walk to daycare drop-off, downtown Wilmington

I get that the news cycle is packed right now, but I just heard from a colleague at the Smithsonian that this is fully a GIANT SQUID BEING EATEN BY A SPERM WHALE and it’s possibly the first ever confirmed video according to a friend at NOAA

10 YEAR OLD ME IS LOSING HER MIND (a thread 🧵)

Only single cell sequencing of the all these post docs will reveal why

Babe, we GOTTA go to this street festival, they're gonna have DJ Foodtrucks!

1) "Antifa" is now a terrorist group

2) There is no definition of Antifa beyond being anti-fascist

3) Under 18 U.S. Code § 4, it is "misprision of a felony" to fail to notify authorities re: terrorism

4) You're now a criminal for not turning in your grandpa for his activities 1941-45 🫡

Genuinely no, I don't. I follow scientists and mainstream political / economy folks

This article would be More convincing if it included any real examples of bad behavior on blue sky instead of one weird tweet from one weird guy with no likes. In the persuasion business it's called "evidence"

Central administration of oxytocin modulates the infant rats response to social isolation Several lines of evidence suggest that oxytocin modulates the formation and maintenance of social bonds. In the current experiments we investigated th…

I was only 7 years old the last time this was studied! It's great to see the classics get some love, but it's considered poor form not to give a shout out to the original artist when you cover their song

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

When you devote your life to the message that empathy is evil and gun deaths are an acceptable price to pay for gun rights, you shape the world with your words. Maybe Charlie Kirk didn’t expect to be a victim of his own worldbuilding, but his death is consistent with the world he helped create.

Who doesn't love CCR!

A substantial part (but not all) of this increased investment is multi-year funded grants.

My current estimate is that multi-year funding has been used in lieu of ~2400 annually funded grants that could have been made.

2/2

There's only one piece of advice to young researchers that really matters:

Pug licks or perish

🧪 And House appropriators say: no cuts to NIH budget!

House subcommittee version just came out (link below). Holds NIH flat at $48 billion.

To be clear: this is far from over. But a good sign that science still matters across both sides of aisle.

YOUR VOICE MATTERS!!

Making them wear high-visibility vests over camo is such a good joke you couldn’t write it

Small towns have the advantage that it's not only possible but ultimately inevitable that a sense of local celebrity will coalesce around a small dog who rides on the back of a bike.

For reference: the tea tax that led to the Boston Tea Party was only 12.5%