Audrey Brumback

A Furious Debate Over Autism’s Causes Leaves Parents Grasping for Answers The Trump administration’s embrace of unproven or debunked theories about vaccines and Tylenol has left doctors fielding questions from worried parents.

Clinicians have to explain to desperate parents the few knowns and the many unknowns about autism’s development. With the federal government now giving advice that doctors dispute, some families wonder whom they should believe.

A Revived Focus on an Unproven Link Between Tylenol and Autism Studies over the last decade of acetaminophen use in pregnancy — including a recent scientific review — have yielded mixed results but have not found a causal connection.

A Revived Focus on an Unproven Link Between Tylenol and Autism
"Studies over the last decade of acetaminophen use in pregnancy — including a recent scientific review — have yielded mixed results but have not found a causal connection." www.nytimes.com/2025/09/05/h...

Great news! The Baltimore Museum of Art is taking “Amy Sherald: American Sublime,” which was originally scheduled to take place at the National Portrait Gallery. artbma.org/exhibition/a...

For the Pritzker fans (like me), this is a great speech he made:

Loved ones, fellow officers pay tribute to fallen DeKalb Police Officer David Rose Family, friends, and fellow officers gathered at First Baptist Church in Atlanta on Friday morning, honoring Rose, who was killed by the gunman who shot at the CDC.

Today we gathered to honor Officer David Rose. He was a man of quiet integrity. He loved food, motorcycles, and most of all, his family.

He answered the call. Our call. And gave his life to protect the community he served

We will be forever grateful. Rest in peace.

www.11alive.com/article/news...

In 1977, Disabled activists occupied the Federal Building in San Francisco to demand the passage of Section 504— legislation to protect against disability discrimination.When the building was cordoned off, in an effort to starve activists out, The Black Panthers *Broke In* to deliver them hot meals.

As always, Ted Chiang is great in this interview.
cdh.princeton.edu/blog/2025/08...

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In the wake of Friday's shooting, we're all asking:

What happens now? How can we be safe?

Our union, AFGE Local 2883, released a powerful letter addressing these concerns. It's worth a full read:

📄 www.afge2883ga.org/post/in-soli...

Gunman in Deadly C.D.C. Shooting Fixated on Covid Vaccine, Officials Say

RFK Jr. knows the consequences of his rhetoric.

“Mr. Kennedy has previously called the C.D.C. a “cesspool of corruption,” and a fascist enterprise. He accused C.D.C. employees of covering up vaccine harms to children, comparing it to the Catholic Church’s coverup of child sex abuse.”

Gift link.

Science is effectively dead in the US for at least the next 3½ years, and will then take another several years to even get started again. Canceled research doesn’t just uncancel itself, and scientists who find opportunity elsewhere won’t just come flocking back.

The damage is generational.

YouTube video by 803Fresh 803Fresh - Boots On The Ground (Official Music Video) "Where Them Fans At?"

as the chronically insightful @tressiemcphd.bsky.social said on @samsanders.bsky.social's show, "boots on the ground" is the people's song of the summer: www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQxQ...

Opinion: I fail to see the rationale for not supporting Gavi As a former head of an African state, I am acutely aware that falling short on funding Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance means children in Africa will die. I urge the world to continue supporting this initia...

Africa’s children need continued access to lifesaving vaccines. In Devex, President @jmkikwete makes the case for fully funding @gavi – and explains why the world can’t afford to fall short. www.devex.com/news/opinion...

Mary K. Gaillard, 86, Physicist Who Probed the Subatomic Universe, Dies

Mary K Gaillard, a theorist who had a knack for telling experimental physicists where to look, died in her home on May 23 at 86.

Dr. Gaillard was an unpaid scientist at CERN for more than a decade, & the first woman physicist hired & tenured at Berkeley:

www.nytimes.com/2025/07/31/s...

Always share this cartoon when I see it 🩺

When you strip away humanity

Still seeing *wayyyyy* too many scientists trying to keep their heads down and stay out of the fray.

1. This isn’t going away!

2. Science *IS* political!

3. It’s not too late to step up and take action!

4. You’ll feel so much better if you take action w/ others!

@standupforscience.bsky.social

45-year-old Venus Williams becomes the oldest woman since Martina Navratilova to win a singles match apnews.com/article/venu...

From ATP to MRI: Mildred Cohn's Pioneering Work in Nuclear Magnetic Resonance ATP is the stuff of life.  Without it, cell communication shuts down, muscles freeze, and anything requiring ready energy (which is to say, darn near everything) stops.  For biologists, it's a critica...

Mildred Cohn was born 112 years ago today. In the middle of the 20th century she pioneered the use of Nuclear Magnetic Resonance to probe the chemical processes governing the storage and release of energy in ATP. Here is her story!

tinyurl.com/3xn9hhs2

#WomenInSTEM #ChemSky #HistSci 🧪

I made a book, a very tiny book.
On vintage paper with watercolour illustrations and a nonsense verse.
If anyone wants to publish it for me I would be overjoyed. This is just a rough to see how it works out

Kennedy provides a bunch of references for his claim that thimerosal in vaccines (barely used anymore) is harmful.

If a high-school student submitted this as their reference list, they would fail.

I will do what Kennedy didn’t - actually look at them. 🧵

Breaking: The Trevor Project received a stop-work order last night on its contract with the national 988 suicide prevention hotline. The Trump administration is eliminating the option for LGBTQ callers to the hotline to press 3 and connect with someone who specializes in LGBTQ mental health.

Iran Join Rick as he explores the most surprising and fascinating land he's ever visited: Iran. In a one-hour, ground-breaking travel special on public television, you'll discover the splendid monuments of...

In the spring of 2008, I feared America was on the verge of war with Iran — and, believing that it’s good style to get to know people before you bomb them, I made “Rick Steves’ Iran,” a one-hour special that could (and would) only debut on PBS. Sadly, this special has become pertinent again today.

NIH cuts quash $323 million for neuroscience research and training “I am frightened for the state of the future of our field if this isn't reversed rapidly,” says Joshua Gordon, professor of psychiatry at Columbia University and former director of the National…

Neuroscience research and training has taken a $323 million hit in the form of grants rescinded by the U.S. NIH, according to an analysis by @thetransmitter.bsky.social.

By @claudia-lopez.bsky.social

#neuroskyence

www.thetransmitter.org/funding/nih-...

FYI: The House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology, Democratic Staff, is trying to get more info on the impact of recent research grant terminations.

If your award has been canceled since Jan 20, you can fill out this survey: democrats-science.house.gov/grantcancela...

On this date in 1967, the Supreme Court legalized interracial marriage nationwide. Mildred & Richard Loving got married right here in DC. #LovingDay

Heard of "Darwin's paradox"? It refers to Charles Darwin's observation that coral reefs are wildly productive despite occurring in nutrient-poor tropical oceans. Reefs are, so the story goes, oases in marine deserts 🏝️...

Turns out that 2/3 of these assertions are very wrong...

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A graph showing NIH funding for new and competitive renewal grants for FY2024 and FY2025 showing a much lower rate of investment for FY2025.

I updated my funding curves last night.

Here are the results for new and competitive renewal grants.

The rate of investment has dropped substantially. This is apparently due to a requirement for DOGE review.

I am calling this effect the "Downward DOGE"

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a woman in a black and white dress is making a funny face . ALT: a woman in a black and white dress is making a funny face .

This morning, courageous NIH workers shared a document they are calling the “Bethesda Declaration” with Dr. Bhattacharya, urging him to reverse some of the actions that are badly misaligned with progress toward the NIH mission.

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Way too soon: SAPD walks back denial of hate crime in the murder of Jonathan Joss

This is only happening because of the activism and noise people have been making about Jonathan Joss. Imagine how many Indigenous or LGBTQ+ people have been murdered and forgotten because they're not celebrities or have no public backlash to police ignoring hate