Michael Atzmon

These DIY air purifiers could make clean air more accessible during wildfires As wildfires rage across the country, smoke plumes from scorched structures pose a major health threat. Sneaky particles can creep through vents and other home openings, but buying high-quality HEPA f...

Wildfire smoke is covering large areas of the US. Time to make a Corsi-Rosenthal Box. They work!
www.spokesman.com/stories/2025...

Dr. Lucky Tran (@luckytran) on Threads Since the start of COVID, the number of people reporting a disability soared. Yet the majority of the world acts like COVID is over, and Long COVID doesn't exist.

A picture is worth... (from the NY Times) www.threads.com/@luckytran/p...

Exclusive: NSF faces radical shake-up as officials abolish its 37 divisions Changes seen as a response to presidential directives on what research to fund

This is terrible news! I have served on NSF panels, gone to excellent NSF funded conferences, and been the grateful recipient of NSF grants. Seeinf the destruction of the infrastructure of science support is heartbreaking !

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

Today I lost an NIH grant training clinicians to do research about intimate partner violence with perinatal women.

More women are murdered in the perinatal period than die of obstetric complications.

I didn't just lose a grant. We lost an entire cohort of people building careers to prevent that.

The University of Severance We already passed an “Institutional Neutrality” bylaw to prevent anybody who wields institutional power here on campus to take a public stance “on political or social issues and events not directly re...

wrote a guest essay for our student paper.

@michigandaily.bsky.social found the perfect illustration.

www.michigandaily.com/opinion/op-e...

Truly sad to see, although not unexpected. I was able to do 2 REUs, UMich and UCLA, which was incredibly important coming from a small undergrad (Oberlin). I often credit the REUs as giving me the varied research understanding/skills that I needed to get into and later use in grad school. 💔🪐👩🏻‍🔬🧪🛰️🚀🔬

"Developing a device that could treat severe bleeding. It seems to have caught the committee’s attention for using the words “victims” — as in gunshot victims — and “trauma.” Creating biosensors to detect infectious diseases. The grant appears to have been tagged for the repeated use of “POC,” an acronym often used for “people of color” but in this context meaning “point of care” — that is, the place where people receive medical treatment — and “barrier,” referring to a part of the biosensor itself. Designing eye-tracking technology for diagnosing and treating concussions. It appears to have gotten flagged for referencing “traumatic” brain injuries and the “status,” meaning the condition, of patients."

ProPublica looked into science grants that Ted Cruz's team flagged as "radical" and "neo-Marxist" and, uh.

This would be good comedy if it didn't matter so much www.propublica.org/article/ted-...

Elon Musk’s $1 Spending Limit Is Paralyzing Federal Agencies The DOGE-mandated credit card freeze is delaying shipments of critical supplies, stalling travel, and stopping employees from doing their jobs.

DOGE's crackdown on agency spending means that federal researchers can't do vital experiments, order liquid nitrogen tanks to preserve samples, or refill basic but necessary lab equipment. My story with @zoeschiffer.bsky.social: www.wired.com/story/doge-e...

How have we not got masks in healthcare? Why are teachers still told to wash their hands for airborne transmission. @rthonwesstreeting.bsky.social Labour promised to clean the air. What’s going on? Why the delay, the science is showing the opposite of UKHSA guidance. We need urgent action on this!

NSF downsizes summer research program for undergraduates Many participants are from groups underrepresented in science

"downsizes" is a weak way of saying "forced to cancel dozens of programs, which jeopardizes future STEM careers of talented undergrads" @science.org www.science.org/content/arti...

Every scientist, long before they were a scientist, was a little kid who stood in front of a fish tank or stared up at the stars or turned over a rock to look at the bugs underneath and said “wow”. On the best days, working in science still feels like that.

Not the first time scientists show how detached they are.

An update with latest data available for graph of life expectancy vs health care expenditures per capita for 20 countries and one outlier.

Departing the New York Times I left to stay true to my byline

I wrote for The Contrarian about my decision to leave the New York Times contrarian.substack.com/p/departing-...

Line graph from FRED showing a steep increase in the number of labour force workers over 16 in the U.S. with a disability. There is a sharp increase from ~6 million in 2020 to close to 9 million in 2023

Something that keeps me up at night: The growing global number of people disabled by Covid & how they will be left further deserted as the climate crisis escalates

public communications, I truly hope that the violence directed at you and your family stops. 2/2

Have you answered her detailed account of the faculty perception of how uninformed the Regents are? I don't blame her for not wanting to engage with misleading, uninformed, accusations. Also, some members of the Jewish community resent your pretending to speak for them. Whatever I think of your 1/2

No worries, I did not expect a productive exchange. I do feel an obligation to defend the reputation of valued colleagues who have shown great integrity and are being attacked for speaking the truth.

I’ve cared for infants who stopped breathing w/ pertussis.

School aged kids who died of flu or COVID.

And many of my patients can’t be vaccinated because they’re on chemotherapy or are immune compromised.

Vaccinations save lives of those who get them & those who cannot.

It’s that simple.

I will add that antisemitism should be fought vigorously. By attributing antisemitism to those who disagree with your bias, you are trivializing it and fueling it. 3/3

when applied selectively (See image in Chronicle article) and when revised to undermine due process. 2/

So you want us to believe that the following are part of a policy designed to protect UM reputation?? Disallowing a student vote, assaulting protesters, issuing misleading statements about the assault, firing an employee based on unverified allegations? Your "Rules and Order" are a sham 1/

You are using a straw man argument here, and you know it. I was referring to the violence inflicted on peaceful campus protesters. You don't know who my allies are other than the current Senate leadership. Should I declare you an ally of soldiers who brag about their wanton destruction/killing?

Opinion | The University of Michigan’s Assault on Truth College leaders crack down on protests — and lie about it.

How about *inflicting* physical harm on peaceful protesters you disagree with on UMich campus? www.chronicle.com/article/the-...

The current Board makes a mockery of shared governance. Less than a decade ago, there were Board members who took time to meet with SACUA.

And here we have a Regent of the University of Michigan publicly bullying a (Jewish, female) faculty member because she did not send out a public statement quickly enough to his liking--after she send him a private message of concern the moment she learned about the incident.

that concerns about elimination of DEI programs were based on public statements by a colleague of yours on the Board. Finally, this is not the first time you single out a faculty member for personal attack because they spoke truth to power. UM deserves better.

the kind of which has not been seen in years. The administration and the Board of Regents have given them plenty of reasons to sound the alarm. Let us remember, for example, the selective violence inflicted on peaceful protesters, presumably with the blessing of the Board. You know full well 3/