Roy Plotnick

Every Scientific Empire Comes to an End America’s run as the premier techno-superpower may be over.

www.theatlantic.com/science/arch...

Shared with an excellent candidate

Yet another Mazon Creek animal reconsidered

I have a potential student for you. Can you email me the info when you can?

E.P.A. Says It Will Eliminate Its Scientific Research Arm

www.nytimes.com/2025/07/18/c...

The story about Colbert being cancelled because…. Trump doesn’t like him, should be a warning shot to everyone. The oligarchy has the power… they will use their money to silence you.

Time to rise up.

Honorable mentions: total
2020 1788
2021 1786
2022 1377
2023 803
2024 1719
2025 2535

Awarded GRFPs since 2020. Yearly totals:
2020: 2076
2021: 2074
2022: 2193
2023: 2555
2024: 2036
2025: 1500

Nope
Don't think that data is available

Here are the ecology and evolutionary biology numbers: Awarded Ecology: 44 (2.9%), Evolutionary Biology 19 (1.3%); Honorable Mention Ecology 198 (7.9%), Evolutionary Biology 74 (2.9%). Again, the drop off from Honorable Mention to Awarded is telling.

Some numbers on the 2025 GRFP awards. Total awards: 1500. Total in Geoscience: 85 (5.7%). Total in paleontology/paleobiology: 2 (0.13%). Honorable mentions: 2535. Total in geoscience: 217 (8.6%). Total in paleontology/paleobiology: 11 (0.43%). Not good.

Indiana University Bloomington
B.A. in Earth and Atmospheric Sciences
B.S. in Atmospheric Science
B.S. in Earth Science
B.S. in Environmental Geoscience
Indiana University Indianapolis
B.A./B.S. in Geology
Indiana University Northwest
B.A./B.S. in Geology

Here is the list:

Ball State University
B.A./B.S. in Geology
M.S. in Geology and Natural Resources
B.A./B.S. in Environmental Geoscience
M.A. in Environmental Geoscience
Indiana University Bloomington
B.A. in Earth and Atmospheric Sciences
B.S. in Atmospheric Science

Editorial: Indiana University, Ball State and Purdue are gutted without logic or thought Taking an axe to degree programs at Indiana University makes no sense.

Many of these are geoscience programs!

Editorial: Indiana University, Ball State and Purdue are gutted without logic or thought www.chicagotribune.com/2025/07/07/e...

Research Alert‼️ Why were ~50 enigmatic, small crustaceans from the Carboniferous Period found clustered together? Paper led by my good colleague Russell Bicknell. Here's a short news story: collections.museums.ua.edu/2025/07/03/o... Belated #FossilFriday #paleontology #fossil @almnh.bsky.social

It's a tragic point to make re the direct line connecting the killing cuts from EOs DOGE & now reconciliation bill to these deaths by cuts.

Pressure Congress to do their jobs this fall & vote back the cuts. All of em.

Resist here www.standupforscience.net/take-action

#SUFS
#SaveNOAA
#SaveFEMA

I spoke to @ninalakhani.bsky.social for this article and reading it was still a gut punch. The US’s gold-standard scientific funding system has been completely demolished. I genuinely don’t know what to do with what remains.

And it’s going to get even worse under the new budget.

Will be explaining what paleontologists actually do, why it is important, and why it is under dire threat in the US to the annual gathering of Mensa on Friday (not a member, they invited me).

Are there any folks in science journalism space in NY, or the US in general who would be interested in doing a story on the Paleontological Research Institution? They are one of the 10 largest fossil museums in the US and desperately need ~1-2million dollars by December to pay off their mortgage 🧪

New Evidence Suggests Dinosaurs Would Have Driven Selves To Extinction Through Greed And Complacency Anyway ITHACA, NY—Shedding new light on the vanished reptiles that once dominated the planet, paleontologists at Cornell University told reporters Thursday they had discovered evidence that suggested dinosau...

New Evidence Suggests Dinosaurs Would Have Driven Selves To Extinction Through Greed And Complacency Anyway — theonion.com/new-evidence...

My thought was the 1977 paper on marine community biodiversity. But here are his most cited papers: ‪Richard Bambach‬ - ‪Google Scholar‬ share.google/dxJ9NGFE1q52...

None in life sciences beause obviously biomaterials and agriculature are not important areas for the future.

This wouldn't happen if they had submitted handmade tales

They mention the "archeological protein community." I don't know about preferred job titles.

Nice! Just wish they would not confuse archaeologists with paleontologists.

Thanks for the thread! Only caught the end

I have a Fulbright student from Norway scheduled to come in August ... Has already made all of her plans for her stay, and now we are no longer sure what will happen. Heartbreaking, and severely damaging and wasteful for US science.

Picture of a sign that says "America's only monarch" with a drawing of a monarch butterfly

My sign is ready #NoKingsDay

There are a lot of verses to this. It is called "The Productus Song.' Will see if I can find my copy.

Yup