Kevin Winker

Alaska lawmakers override 2 Dunleavy vetoes, restoring $50M in education funding Lawmakers recessed without considering the policy proposals for which Gov. Mike Dunleavy called the special session.

Good work, Alaska legislature.

www.adn.com/politics/ala...

YouTube video by The Tom Lehrer Wisdom Channel Tom Lehrer - Poisoning Pigeons In The Park

RIP Tom Lehrer. Here was his most important ornithological contribution:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=yhuM...

Oh, man. One of the greats. Who will carry on his ornithological pursuits (with pigeons)?

Wow. Scientists have edited mosquito DNA to prevent the spread of malaria to humans "while supporting essential physiological functions... and negligible fitness costs" to the mosquito population.

Potentially ending the mosquito-born spread of malaria to humans.

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

Trump's EPA reaffirms Biden-era Pebble Mine veto The Environmental Protection Agency is sticking with its veto of the proposed Pebble Mine project in southwest Alaska.

The next step in the long-running Pebble mine saga:
www.ktoo.org/2025/07/24/t...

US senators poised to reject Trump’s proposed massive science cuts Committee gives first hint that policymakers might preserve, rather than slash, funding for US National Science Foundation and other agencies.

More on bipartisan support for science funding in US Congress:
www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Perfect representation of scientific papers. 😅

Please to see (via Natural Science Collections Alliance) that Congress is starting to relocate its spine with respect to science funding:

mailchi.mp/aac902e4f04e...

Glamour ornithology...

Science philanthropy faces a new reality As the ground under American science shifts in troubling and unpredictable ways, questions have arisen as to how philanthropies should respond. Having recently led a private foundation that supports s...

Good letter on the scale, scope, and principles of philanthropic science funding in the U.S.

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

Is that *bacon* in a beverage?? You gotta tell me more...

Opinion | Alaska Cannot Survive This Bill

This piece from Alaskan legislators shows how the deep rift between the reality of rural (red-state) life and the narrative of national conservative politics has been so far out of alignment for so long that it is about to crash into a wall

Americans deserve better

www.nytimes.com/2025/06/27/o...

Super hinky!

Business Community Calls on Congress and the Trump Administration to Reverse Funding Cuts to Universities | Association of American Universities (AAU) “Many of us have founded companies and launched ground-breaking products based on campus discoveries, spanning biomedical engineering, gene therapy, pharmaceuticals, digital infrastructure, and…

Business Community Calls on Congress and the Trump Administration to Reverse Funding Cuts to Universities www.aau.edu/newsroom/lea...

Congress shows first signs of resisting Trump’s plans to slash science budgets House panel rejects cuts to agricultural research, and Senators express doubts about cuts to NIH and forest research

Good: Congress is pushing back on proposed budget cuts to science:

www.science.org/content/arti...

Last Day to Take Action: CDC Public Comment on Vaccines Closes TODAY 6/20 11:59pm EDT Tell the CDC we need broad access to vaccines and science-based expert advisors; Public comment to CDC ACIP vaccine committee closes TODAY 6/20 at 11:59pm EDT

Today 6/20 is the last day to make public comments to the CDC before the vaccine committee meeting: precaution.substack.com/p/last-day-t... Written comments are getting flooded with antivax comments. Support vaccine access by submitting a written comment or registering to speak. #medsky #pathsky

First ever skull from ‘Denisovan’ reveals what ancient people looked like Ancient proteins and calcified dental plaque identify heavy-browed fossil from China as a Denisovan.

Wow -- a Denisovan skull fragment.

www.nature.com/articles/d41...

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

Yes! It seems to be designed to be a royal pain. And of course note of these three matches the Federal fiscal year.

(Our fiscal year ends in the middle of field season. An annual aggravation designed to bring on early aging.)

Re-reading the Dire-Genes-of-Thrones literature for something else I'm working on.

This piece by @devoevomed.bsky.social is dope. Hits the technical, ethical, even legal issues.

ADD YOUR NAME: Sign the Open Letter in Support of NIH Staff Join the courageous and committed National Institutes of Health (NIH) public servants by adding your name now.

*URGENT* please support NIH research and the NIH employees who are standing up for science at the risk of losing their jobs! Sign *TODAY* in support of the Bethesda Declaration. The senate appropriations committee is reviewing the NIH budget Tuesday at 10 am. SHARE widely! 🧪

NIH scientists publish declaration criticizing Trump's deep cuts in public health research Scores of National Institutes of Health researchers and staffers have come forward to send their Trump-appointed leader a letter challenging policies they say undermine the NIH mission.

Very important apnews.com/article/nih-...

Everyone involved in trying to pass off that ChatGPT-extruded disinformation manifesto as a scientific report should be, at the very least, barred from public office for life. The MAHA report is dangerous criminal misconduct and an offence to the process of science.

Trump Has Cut Science Funding to Its Lowest Level in Decades The lag in funding extends far beyond D.E.I. initiatives, affecting almost every area of science: chemistry, computing, engineering, materials and more.

The reductions in funding touch virtually every area of science and seem certain to harm American competitiveness.

www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

USGS’ biological research arm could vanish next week - High Country News Trump is on a multipronged mission to eliminate a science agency that conservationists, toxicologists, universities and more call irreplaceable.

What a shame it is to be represented by a government that shows such disregard for the natural world, and for those that do the noble work to preserve it.

www.hcn.org/articles/usg...

Eleven thoughts on a really shitty House budget War on the poor, a death-knell for American nuclear, over $6 trillion in extra debt, and more!

Are you wondering what's in the big bill the Republican House is trying to push through? Here's one take: it stinks:
www.slowboring.com/p/eleven-tho...

The 80-year recipe stoking America’s Prosperity:

1) Free-market capital investments in brilliant ideas…
2) enabled by Engineering Innovations…
3) based on Science Research in Universities…
4) funded by Grants from the US Government.

It’s time more people understood this.

You cannot maintain American universities’ reputations while also curtailing faculty and students’ freedom of speech, annoying though it might be. People do not come to American universities to learn from the associate dean.

R.I. Judge Orders Halt to IMLS Dismantling In Rhode Island v. Trump, district court judge John J. McConnell Jr. ordered a halt to an executive order dismantling the Institute of Museum and Library Services. Plaintiffs in ALA v. Sonderling requ...

Good news for museums and libraries (and for the rule of law):

www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/...

New type of reprint/pdf request:

"I'm currently actively collecting datasets related to this research field, with the goal of building an open AI research system."

It's never been my intent to write scientific papers to train AI models. I do wish the copyright issues would get resolved, though.