Mary O'Riordan

What if NIH had been 40% smaller? Replaying history with less NIH funding shows widespread impacts on drug-linked research

This paper does a great job with a "It's a Wonderful Life" scenario about NIH, supposing the consequences of the bottom 40% of the funding NIH grants never existed.

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

tl:dr The world would lose a lot, but directly and indirectly

I wanted to get a video of this ghost crab but every time I got close to their hole they scuttled back in, so I tried getting clever with it. I made a little sandcastle and shoved my phone into it, hit record, and walked away. Crab was VERY suspicious of this addition to their environment.

The US town that pays every pregnant woman $1,500: ‘We’re not OK with our babies being born into poverty’ Infants in Rx Kids in Flint, Michigan, saw lower rates of prematurity and other issues, saving millions in NICU visits

So Flint, Michigan gave $1,500 to all pregnant people, plus $500 each month for the first year of the child’s young life.

It saved Flint $6.2 million dollars a year, due to lower rates of rates of prematurity and low birth weight, with fewer corresponding admissions.

The right thing, AND cheaper.

Peroxisomal metabolism of branched fatty acids regulates energy homeostasis - Nature A UCP1-independent mechanism of thermogenesis involving ATP-consuming metabolism of monomethyl branched-chain fatty acids in peroxisomes is described and a previously unrecognized role for peroxisomes...

Peroxisomal metabolism of branched fatty acids regulates energy homeostasis

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Flesh-eating bacteria cases climb to 22 in Louisiana; 2 deaths tied to Louisiana oysters Louisiana has reported 22 cases of flesh-eating Vibrio vulnificus this year, with four deaths. Health officials warn of risks from warm Gulf waters.

There have been 22 cases of Vibrio vulnificus reported across the U.S. South, including 2 recent deaths in Louisiana. That brings the state’s 2025 toll to 6 fatalities. It’s a bit of a “perfect storm,” as shifting ocean conditions and loss of CDC capacity collide.

Civil servants standing in solidarity. From NIH, NSF, EPA, CDC, NASA and now FEMA! Text reads Courage is Contagious

Welcome FEMA to the letter resistance!! The Katrina Declaration was released today out of concern that we are going back to a time when our response was its own man-made disaster. Say Never Again and sign in support!!!

@rebelfema.altgov.info

act.standupforscience.net/forms/sign-o...

This image is figure 2 which shows the user interface of the Bad Vaxx game used for the experiments.

A study published in Scientific Reports reveals that an online game can enhance individuals' ability to identify vaccine misinformation. The game uses inoculation theory to expose players to manipulation techniques that are commonly used by anti-vaccine groups. go.nature.com/3JiHq5L 🧪

Clinical trials and research training stalled as billions in NIH funds sit idle Billions in NIH research funds remain unspent, stalling clinical trials, halting grants, and disrupting training for future scientists.

New report from AAMC about clinical trials, other grants, and training

www.aamc.org/about-us/mis...

a snippet of a mini-comic, at top - straight line stretches from point A to B. Immediately below, same dot at A, then becomes a curving, meandering line that winds through the page and ends at a point with rays and a question mark emanating from it. Text reads: "Nothing can do this for you - that robs you of experience and conflates answers with learning. Rather, it's all the decisions you make along the way, the mistakes, struggles, and surprises! These pathways you create - this is learning.

my statement on Ai from the mini-comic I'm making as syllabus for a new class I'm teaching this fall. It's simple, but I pretty much said all I have to say on it - it robs you of decisions and struggle - and the joy of being surprised. It robs you of learning...

Ranking Member Lofgren Calls Trump Out for Corrupt Executive Order Requiring Political Appointees to Approve Federal Grants | House Committee on Science, Space and Technology The House Committee on Science, Space and Technology

“This Executive Order is nothing short of obscene," said Ranking Member Zoe Lofgren (D-CA). "In what world does Donald Trump think that Americans want political appointees – who, need I remind the President, are unelected bureaucrats – making decisions on what science gets funded?”

We outraised every single candidate in this race without a DIME from corporate PACs.

How? YOU.

Every dot on this map is someone who believes in what we’re building — and the latest polling shows I’m the *strongest* Democrat to beat Rogers.

Let’s do this, Michigan 💪

A remarkable paper. Davisson and colleagues describe an in vitro reaction running under plausible prebiotic conditions that efficiently and stereoselectively aminoacylates a model tRNA.

This suggests a path through which nature may have chosen L vs. D amino acids!

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

State health officials warn about infected raw milk More than 20 cases of infections linked to consumption of raw milk from single farm.

Public health officials have linked 21 Campylobacter and Shiga toxin-producing E. coli infections to raw milk from a Florida farm. Six of the infections were in children younger than 10. In Florida, sale of raw milk is permitted for animal consumption only.

www.tampabay.com/news/health/...

What We Lost When We Lost the Greatest Generation It's no coincidence that democracy is backsliding in the US exactly eighty years after the end of World War II.

We are losing the last of the generation who understand just how evil actual fascism is, how hard it is to rid the world of authoritarian governments once they’re established, and how hard it is to build a successful alternative. www.doomsdayscenario.co/p/what-we-lo...

Department of Health and Human Services—National Institutes of Health—Application of Impoundment Control Act to Availability of Funds for Grants Congress appropriated amounts to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to carry out various research objectives for fiscal year 2025. In accordance...

BREAKING: Watchdog government agency finds the NIH and the Trump administration have illegally withheld funds in violation of the Impoundment Control Act, and rips into HHS for failing to justify its slow-walking of funds.

www.gao.gov/products/b-3...

The Supreme Court Just Signaled Something Deeply Disturbing About the Next Term A court fundamentally hostile to the rights of voters places the court increasingly at odds with democracy itself.

My New One at @slate.com on the Supreme Court Potentially Killing the Remaining Pillar of the Voting Rights Act: “The Supreme Court Just Signaled Something Deeply Disturbing About the Next Term” slate.com/news-and-pol...

New analysis predicts sprawling effects of proposed NIH budget cuts Initial analyses of the Trump administration’s proposed NIH cuts neglect key aspects of their long-term economic and health impact, study says.

"While members of Congress asked the CBO to model cuts on the scale of Trump’s fiscal year 2026 budget proposal, the reductions are so large that they broke the models."

www.statnews.com/2025/07/28/n...

Beyond excited to share our #NewPaper in @cellcellpress.bsky.social! Inflamed environments acidify intracellular #pH. BRD4 senses this via transcriptional condensates, tuning #macrophage responses to match demand and consequences of #inflammation authors.elsevier.com/sd/article/S...

Girl with red & white top, giving the middle finger. I'm a Ray of F*CKING Sunshine.

I'm done adulting! Let's just be mermaids. 🧜‍♀️ 🧜‍♂️ 🧜‍♀️ 🧜‍♂️

How about you?

My quote of the day

A Video Quote

Medical miracles don't happen overnight. You have to invest in them. Our investments are in trouble.

(From Francis Collins on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, July 16, 2025)

Colbert should just run for President. I mean, it worked for Trump when his show was cancelled.

Great time to support your NPR and your local PBS stations

The rescission bill has passed the Senate. Once it passes the House, as expected, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting's budget will be zeroed out for the first time since 1967, back when TV stations still broadcast in black and white.

Fear and loathing on study section: Reviewing grant proposals while the system is burning As grants are canceled, delayed and subject to general uncertainty, participating in study sections can feel futile. But it’s more important than ever.

i wrote an essay for @thetransmitter.bsky.social about what it feels like to serve on an NIH grant review panel (study section) right now

www.thetransmitter.org/craft-and-ca...

E-Bikers Ride Much Farther and More Frequently Than Regular Bikers They are not 'cheating,' but are serious transportation.

The “E-Bike Effect:” Those who bought e-bikes increased their average daily bicycle use from 2.1km (1.3 miles) to 9.2km (5.7 miles), a 340% increase. The e-bike share of all their transportation increased dramatically too; from 17% to 49%.

E-bikes support fewer car trips.

V @lloydalter.bsky.social

Old mitochondria regulate niche renewal via α-ketoglutarate metabolism in stem cells - Nature Metabolism Andersson et al. show that intestinal stem cells enriched for old mitochondria are metabolically distinct and have enhanced ability to regenerate the epithelial niche.

Proudly presenting Simon’s @simonsterson.bsky.social‬ paper on asymmetric apportioning of old mitochondria biasing intestinal stem cells for the Paneth cell linage through aKG-dependent metabolism
@naturemetabolism.bsky.social www.nature.com/articles/s42... @helsinki.fi @metastem.bsky.social 🧵1/8

Maybe not the most beautiful experiment in biology but certainly top ten.

What are your nominees?
1/

Frank Stahl, screen capture from: https://youtu.be/7-tnuAqEp9g

RIP Franklin W. Stahl (1929–2025)

here is Frank explaining semiconservative replication of DNA in the marvelous interview from 2020 together with Matt Meselson (youtu.be/7-tnuAqEp9g)

The academic’s mid-summer crisis is a mid-life crisis in miniature:

You realize summer is half gone, & not only that: you see that the longest & least burdened days came early, & they are well past. You compare all you thought you’d do against the days remaining & grieve for what never will be

Wow! France gifted her to us, and now they’ve captured what so many Americans are feeling on Independence Day. The values the Statue of Liberty stood for are no more.

📌 A stunning mural of the Statue of Liberty covering her face was unveiled in Roubaix, France, on July 3, 2025.