Gavan McNally

Gavan McNally (@gavanmcnally) Australia is sleepwalking into scientific irrelevance   Australia is living through a dangerous contradiction: we publicly praise science while systematically dismantling the conditions required for...

substack.com/@gavanmcnall...

Migrants Failing to Assimilate, 200-Year Study Finds — The Shovel "They refuse to fit in or speak anything but their native tongue"

Migrants to Australia have displayed an inability to assimilate with local values and refuse to speak anything but their native tongue, a study covering the last 237 years has found.

Like a *great* postdoc project

This looks like a postdoc project, definitely an excellent team

Symposia / Satellite Proposals open for IBNS 2026 in Cape Town, South Africa! ibns.memberclicks.net/meetings

Very nice! The care taken in both design and analysis provide a compelling case. An important brick in the awareness wall.

Put it this way:

The universe does not care if we live or die. It is a dangerous and hostile place and the best tools we have to prevent suffering, death, and misery is science.

And it’s an “arms race” in some aspects.

Science has saved more humans than any other investment throughout history.

Our latest on how and why people differ in good decision-making and why some people persistently make poor decisions.

Days have passed since the conference ended, but we want to take a moment to congratulate once again the winners of the Young Investigators Award! Your research is inspiring 🌟

Have recent changes led to uncertainty in your future scientific career?

Wonder it's like in Australia?

Good news!

Monash's is seeking to hire talented EMCRs from other countries.

Come join a wonderful community of brain mappers & modellers!

www.monash.edu/research/eme...

FGF21 analogue PF-05231023 on alcohol consumption and neuronal activity in the nucleus accumbens - Neuropsychopharmacology Neuropsychopharmacology - FGF21 analogue PF-05231023 on alcohol consumption and neuronal activity in the nucleus accumbens

Pleased to see this published. We show an FGF21 analogue selectively reduces alcohol motivation and consumption in mice, potentiates efficacy of low dose GLP1, and reorganises drinking related activity in the accumbens.

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

Catching the tram up the mountain is always a highlight for me.

Then combine this environment with the incredibly low levels of retention of ECRs in the NHMRC Investigator scheme….🤯. The not so clever country.

I see too many DECRA and L1 FT without underlying positions. To make it worse, Embedded Fellowships, as described, are not restricted to ECRs. Universities will need to step up for ECR salaries, and if they wont now why would they at scale needed (200 DECRA p/a) in the future?

And what problem is it solving if they say yes?

Reviewed for plenty, never been paid or offered. May be a discipline thing. But, any evidence paying increases review acceptances or review quality?

And only for “a small number of outstanding individuals”

“Embedded fellowships for up to 2 years will reward excellence by financially
supporting a small number of outstanding individuals while distributing NCGP funding to more
people and projects”

Very much opposite to NHMRC(+). But, someone has to pay salary (eg, 200 DECRA, 100 FT p/a).

Looks like institutions on the hook for a significant salary bill. What could possibly go wrong?

In addition to being ill conceived, the scheme is tremendously wasteful. Very poor retention of 2019 and 2020 cohorts, across all levels, suggests these million dollar investments are ‘once and done’ for most recipients. Like pouring the hard won MREA down the sink.

Comparisons with award data from 2019 and 2020 rounds are telling. Turnover appears substantial.

Zelenskyy calls for 'armed forces of Europe' as US pulls back support Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says Europe can no longer count on the US for support and should create an "armed forces of Europe" to defend itself.

If the US is willing to ignore Europe in its dealings with Russia and Ukraine, who seriously thinks they will care what Australia says about China, Taiwan or anything to do with our region?

The US doesn’t want allies or partners, it wants servants. www.abc.net.au/news/2025-02...

Empires of Ideas — Harvard University Press The modern university was born in Germany. In the twentieth century, the United States leapfrogged Germany to become the global leader in higher education. Will China challenge its position in the twe...

And had ranking systems been around, it is doubtful whether a non-German university would have been in the Top 10.

This is an excellent, if sobering, book that documents the rise (and fall) of universities (and their national economies) - in three countries.

www.hup.harvard.edu/books/978067...

And up next, the remarkable Yulong Li, his first but we hope not last, visit to Australia.

Keynote by the excellent Dr Lizzie Manning at Optogenetics Australia (@drlizziemanning.bsky.social)

Zane Andrews (@zane-andrews.bsky.social) at 4th Optogenetics Australia meeting. AgRP neuron stimulation and feeding.

Wow

A wonderful meeting, submit a proposal and join us in Almeria.

FGF21 Analogue PF-05231023 on Alcohol Consumption and Neuronal Activity in the Nucleus Accumbens Fibroblast growth factor 21 (FGF21) is a liver-derived hormone known to suppress alcohol consumption in mice and non-human primates. However, the role of FGF21 in modulating environmental and behaviou...

Seasons greetings: FGF21, alcohol, and GLP-1.

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