Jakub Otwinowski

excited that this paper is finally out in @pnas.org :
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Led by Gian Marco Visani (effort initiated by Michael Pun), fantastic collaboration with @pgtimmune.bsky.social @asya-minervina.bsky.social and Phil Bradley.

A graph showing agreement with various statements about science as well as conspiracy theories

Snapshot of US beliefs about science and flat-earthy stuff. [1000+ people surveyed, +/- 3%] carsey.unh.edu/publication/...

I appreciate the offers from other scientists to help Harvard (students, labs, etc) through this attack, but what would be most helpful is for you to use your position to contact your elected representatives and make it clear this fight isn't just Harvard, it will affect you, and their districts too

Screenshot of email stating "The subaward and the associated amounts listed above will need to be removed from the current and future year awards, and any other amounts budgeted for activities related to the Hong Kong research must also be removed. No rebudgeting of these funds is permitted, and no involvement or collaboration with researchers in Hong Kong or China is permitted in connection with the activities of this award, regardless of whether any funds are transferred," with the "no involvement" clause highlighted.

I received a surprising and disturbing request from NIH on Friday. They wrote to cancel a subaward to Hong Kong on one of my grants. (This was disturbing but not surprising.) They also ordered us not to interact with our collaborators in Hong Kong on any work under the award:

Per source, NIH has been instructed to hold off from issuing ALL awards to Harvard, Cornell, Columbia, Brown, and Northwestern (including med schools)

Agency staff have also been instructed to not speak about this funding freeze to grantees and applicants

See this chart for one stark example: NIH funding has dramatically slowed down.

Grant awards are down *$3 billion* so far, compared to same time period last year

I asked the White House to explain.

“This is not a researcher entitlement program,” said an official, defending their new approach.

The censorship regime of Jay Bhattacharya

Today, a collaborative grant we submitted to the National Institutes of Health won't be reviewed. No one's will.

Grant reviews have been halted for study section after study section.

Yes, I am mad. But, folks outside science should be even madder.

a 🧵

This is not news to most scientists by now, but others might be interested.

Biomedical research is undergoing tremendous damage, even beyond the firings at NIH, CDC, and NSF; the suppression of data sharing; and the attacks on initiatives to improve scientific quality.

Federal Register hold makes ‘end run’ around court pause on NIH funding freeze NIH-related updates to the Federal Register, which are required for the scheduling of study sections and advisory councils, are on hold indefinitely, according to an email reviewed by <i>The Transmitt...

A large portion of grants awarded by the U.S. National Institutes of Health cannot be funded for the foreseeable future because of an indefinite hold on submissions to the Federal Register, according to an email reviewed by The Transmitter.

By @avaskham.bsky.social

bit.ly/3X8ngz8

Last year, we published a paper showing that AI models can "debunk" conspiracy theories via personalized conversations. That paper raised a major question: WHY are the human<>AI convos so effective? In a new working paper, we have some answers.

TLDR: facts

osf.io/preprints/ps...

I am reeling from the cuts at NSF- a close friend and colleague, who was an outstanding PO and absolute asset to the evolutionary biology community, was just fired. This is simply because he COULD be- he was still in the 2 year probationary period after changing jobs at NSF.

Goddamn it.

Science funding agency threatened with mass layoffs National Science Foundation staff heard the plans at a meeting Tuesday.

National Science Foundation "is planning to lay off between a quarter and a half of its staff in the next two months," Politico reports. www.politico.com/news/2025/02...

This is a disaster.

It feels strange to be living in a nation hell-bent on self-inflicted decay, helpless to do much about it.

Opinion | How to Fix America’s Two-Party Problem Proportional representation could help restore American democracy.

Interactive piece on proportional representation in the NYT today 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥

www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

Going to #neurips and #mlsb. Let me know if you want to meet up!

Super excited to preprint our work on developing a Biomolecular Emulator (BioEmu): Scalable emulation of protein equilibrium ensembles with generative deep learning from @msftresearch.bsky.social ch AI for Science.

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