Jeff Boissoneault

Good morning with good news: Solar and wind globally generated a record 471 TWh in May 2025 or 19.3% of the world's electricity!

Global S&W Generation in May
2025 471 TWh
2024 400 TWh
2023 360 TWh
2022 311 TWh
2021 267 TWh
2020 214 TWh
2019 188 TWh

It skyrocketed 154% since 2019. Wow!
#energysky

Bumper sticker depicting a enlarged Minnesota with the text “Make Minnesota Bigger”

Heard we’re discussing re-drawing districts so I wanted to drop an idea

✨New preprint from me, Drs. Anna Kirkland, and Lindsay Squeglia at MUSC & Dr. @louisemewton.bsky.social at @sydney.edu.au✨ We used 3T MRS to examine age- and alcohol-related associations with metabolites in dorsal anterior cingulate cortex in 84 17-22 year olds that were recruited for alcohol use.

The NIH budget will INCREASE by $400 million — not slashed by 40%, as Trump proposed — according to a proposal by Senate appropriators, says Sen Murray.

"Some have asked if there will even be an NIH by [2029]. The commmittee's resounding message is yes—Congress has your back", she says.

Almost missed that this is out! Former postdoc Liz Necka led this long overdue FMRI study formally comparing two types of pain modulation: Placebo analgesia & predictive cues. TLDR: these are NOT the same! Placebo analgesia reduced cue effects, & brain mechanisms were nearly all dissociable. 1/4

Given that OMB is part of the Executive Office of the President, this should read

"after intervention by OTHER top White House Officials."

Senator Murray Slams Trump Admin for Choking Off Lifesaving NIH Medical Research - Senator Patty Murray Washington, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Vice Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, issued the following statement on reports today that President Trump’s Office of Manageme...

BREAKING: Trump wants to illegally cut off $15 billion in lifesaving NIH research.

Research to cure cancer, Alzheimer's, and so much more is on the line.

These people are LYING about waste, fraud, and abuse at NIH to justify attacking medical research—we all need to say so.

My full statement. ⬇️

Trump Administration Puts New Chokehold on Billions in Health-Research Funding The National Institutes of Health can’t award grants to outside researchers under a new White House restriction.

NEW
The White House is blocking the NIH from awarding new research grants for the rest of the fiscal year

Chokes off billions in research funding

Gift link www.wsj.com/politics/pol... with @nidhisubs.bsky.social

Fantastic news!

Looking for a postdoc or staff scientist with brain slice electrophysiology experience. If you or someone you know is interested in, message me.

Exciting news for RSMj: Dr. Jane Metrik will serve as the next President of the organization stating after the 2026 conference. Join us in congratulating Jane. We look forward to her leadership as RSMj enters into its 10 year.

China Is Poised to Buy More EVs Than Gas-Only Cars This Year Affordability, charging advances and subsidies are supporting the inexorable rise of electric cars in the world’s biggest auto market.

China is probably going to pass 50% EV new car sales this year. ICE technology is a dead man walking www.bloomberg.com/news/newslet...

Some positive signs this morning that the #NIAAA funding funnel may be starting to move. After only 6 NOAs were issued from June 1 to July 6, 39 have been issued since July 7th. Hopefully, the NIAAA T32s are coming soon, along with many long-overdue NOAs.

I am recruiting a postdoctoral scholar to join my lab at Dartmouth. The ideal candidate will have experience in EMA, passive physiological data, and/or digital therapeutics. Interest and/or experience in chronic pain and co-occurring disorders is preferred. apply.interfolio.com/169836

Just to clarify, it's still a really bad bill and it would have been better if Murkowski had just voted no. Contact your House Rep ASAP and tell them to vote no!

Today our @unm.edu @casaa.bsky.social T32 training grant is no longer funded. We are waiting for our renewal that is pending. I spent most of yesterday crying with worry about how I will support our amazing trainees. Today I celebrate them and the joy of seeing them present at CPDD and RSA. 🧵

A megabill mystery: New solar and wind tax comes as a surprise to Republican senators "I don't know where it came from," Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., the chairman of the Budget Committee, told NBC News after he released the 940-page legislation.

senate republicans are claiming they don’t know who was behind the tax on wind and solar added last minute to the megabill 🤔

lindsay graham: "i don't know where it came from."

murkowski: “we looked at it like, where did this come from?"

lummis: “add me to the group that doesn't know the answer”

How the Senate GOP’s New Tax on Renewables Could ‘Kill’ the Industry As bad as previous drafts of the reconciliation bill have been, this one is worse.

Republicans are now suddenly planning to TAX renewable energy, transforming the repeal of the IRA from a challenge to a full-blown crisis for American solar and wind.

I spent the last 24 hours putting this story together to explain why.

Please share! This is really important!!!

@heatmap.news

The US is falling behind the curve on solar power – a key energy source of the 21st century. We are losing our edge to China on the technology that we originally invented.

Now Senate republicans want to take out our solar industry at the knees in their "Big Beautiful Bill":

two men in suits and ties are waving their hands in a room ALT: two men in suits and ties are waving their hands in a room

NIH BREAKING NEWS NIH BREAKING NEWS

Hearing from multiple sources that an email went out late yesterday afternoon

Effective immediately: Please do not terminate any additional grant projects. Please pull back all grant projects that are in the cue to be terminated.

So proud of @oliviaortelli.bsky.social giving her first RSA talk... and blasting it out of the park!! #RSA_ISBRA2025

Hey! You! Yeah, you, fellow #RSA2025 attendee! What are you doing Monday at 9:30?

What's that? You're eating beignets in the French Quarter? Actually, that sounds pret--No! Get the beignets to go and come to Empire A for a scintillating symposium about how to study drinking episodes in daily life

Alcohol research community: thank you for your submissions to #Alcohol - we are excited to share that our Impact Factor has climbed to 2.9, our highest IF to date #rsa2025

@dougmat-uwec.bsky.social

Frame #51000 from S04 -E11 - Battle Ayu Sweetfish-628205

Led by my student, Ian McNamara, we found pain and alcohol were related in daily life in patients with chronic pain, though it's a lot more complex than a social media post can convey

Ian did a great job with an unreasonable number of analyses that really call into question the person advising him

This is concerning, with the article noting "what could be a major win for an industry threatened by heightened scrutiny of alcohol's health effects." Rather than detailed, frank recommendation to inform users, "the new alcohol-related recommendation will probably be limited to a sentence or two."

ICE just arrested Brad Lander, the NYC Comptroller and one of the leading candidates for Mayor, without grounds.

He was conducting routine immigration court work, escorting individuals from hearings.

He asked ICE for their warrant - well within his legal rights.

This is political intimidation.

UM Center Hires Inaugural Mansfield Chair of Japanese and Indo-Pacific Affairs

Big personal news! After 11 years at UMaine, this fall I will start a new position as the inaugural Mansfield Chair of Japan and Indo-Pacific Affairs at the University of Montana. I will miss my colleagues and students in Maine, and am thrilled for this next adventure!

www.umt.edu/news/2025/02...

MORE YOUNG: "It is palpably clear that these directives and the set of terminated grants here also are designed to frustrate, to stop, research that may bear on the health – we’re talking about health here, the health of Americans, of our LGBTQ community. That’s appalling."