Anu Puppala

A hotdog and pretzel stand with large hanging bottles of mustard, ketchup, and mayonnaise. The bottoms contain squeeze tubes to dispense the condiments.

I have been traveling and today I present to you...the thing I saw in the Frankfurt airport.

Is it efficient? Undeniably. Does it probably work better than the normal way? Oh certainly. Produce less of a mess? Probably?

But the existence of Condiment Udders gives me a deep, aghast disquiet.

Reporting live from Chicago, there’s no “hellscape” I’d rather be in.

Some schools will be starved of resources. Other schools will be offered bribes. The end goal is the same. To make the universities an extension of the Trump administration. Shame on any of these institutions willing to take the bribes.

Huntington’s disease treated successfully for first time in gene therapy trial UCL trialled hours-long surgical procedure to treat disease which causes dementia and paralysis Huntington’s disease, a devastating degenerative illness that runs in families, has been treated successfully for the first time in a breakthrough gene therapy trial. The disease, caused by a single gene defect, steadily kills brain cells leading to dementia, paralysis and ultimately death. Those with a parent with Huntington’s have a 50% chance of developing the disease, which until now has been incurable. Continue reading...

Huntington’s disease treated successfully for first time in gene therapy trial

Bluesky now platform of choice for science community It’s not just you. Survey says: “Twitter sucks now and all the cool kids are moving to Bluesky”…

Good to see @bsky.app has emerged as the social media platform of choice for science stuff
arstechnica.com/science/2025...

And the second part…

Everyone interested in public health should take the time to read this statement.
This is the first part…
#IDsky 🧪

Trump freezes $200 million in UCLA science and medical research funding, citing antisemitism The Trump administration has frozen roughly $200 million in National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health and other federal agency-funded research at UCLA, citing allegations the school d...

www.latimes.com/california/s...

Odds of winning NIH grants plummet as new funding policy and spending delays bite Funding multiyear grants up front will sharply cut number of investigators receiving awards

Researchers’ chances of winning a grant from the National Institutes of Health have dropped under a new policy. scim.ag/4f7uew2

After 15 years of controversy, Science retracts ‘arsenic life’ paper Science has retracted a 2010 paper describing a strain of bacteria that purportedly substituted arsenic for phosphorus, an element present in all known life. Science/AAAS Fifteen years after publis…

After 15 years of controversy, @science.org retracts ‘arsenic life’ paper

Zincore, an atypical coregulator, binds zinc finger transcription factors to control gene expression Zinc finger proteins (ZNFs) are the largest family of transcription factors, yet how they activate gene expression remains unclear. In this study, we identified Zincore, a protein complex consisting o...

In today’s publication in Science we introduce Zincore: a novel protein of QRICH1 and SEPHS1 and functions as a transcriptional coregulator dedicated to zinc finger transcription factors. Here’s how we found it: 🧵 www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... 1/11

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

Exclusive: National Science Foundation staff were told today that the agency’s 37 divisions—across all eight directorates—are being abolished and the number of programs within those divisions will be drastically reduced.

from www.instagram.com/yeweijun98

Slime molds eat the microbes on decaying plants but not the microbes on decaying animals. Badhamia (Physarum) polycephala is an unusually adventurous eater who also enjoys mushrooms, oats, and probably a number of other things!

I wonder what's up with the peanut

Summary Table of the massive defunding of biomedical research in the United States
www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

How laypeople evaluate scientific explanations containing jargon - Nature Human Behaviour Cruz and Lombrozo examine how laypeople make sense of scientific explanations and find that although jargon reduces understanding, for short explanations, jargon makes the explanation more satisfying.

“We find that jargon increases satisfaction because laypeople assume the jargon fills gaps in explanations that are otherwise incomplete.”
Some required reading here as a science journalist 🧪

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

He's right. "Nothing short of devastating"
By @holdenthorp.bsky.social @science.org
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Victoria Gray looking radiant in a black evening gown

Victoria Gray and Jennifer Doudna sitting together

Victoria Gray, the first individual to be cured of sickle cell disease with a CRISPR-based treatment, and Jennifer Doudna, #CRISPR pioneer, at the Liberty Science Center Genius Gala! 👑👑

Now *that’s* a cover letter ⬇️

(But perhaps not the best idea to test the editor’s mood quite this way in current times…😄)

Excited to announce our paper on ancient Borrelia genomes is finally out! 🦠💀We document the evolutionary history of louse-borne relapsing fever, published today in @science.org‬ with @lucyvandorp.bsky.social and @pontus-skoglund.bsky.social #aDNA 🏺🧪🧬
Main findings and paper below: 🧵⬇️

US researchers must stand up to protect freedoms, not just funding Curtailment of freedoms and disregard for the rule of law in the United States is destroying the ability of science to serve the nation’s, and the world’s, interests. Researchers can take action.

The authors of a Comment article in Nature “urge STEMM scientists in the United States to avoid the mistakes of the past and instead stand together and fight for both personal and academic freedom.” #Academicsky 🧪

I'm a current Harvard graduate student and I found out today that I had my NSF GRFP terminated without notification. I was awarded this individual research fellowship before even choosing Harvard as my graduate school

"You can't have science without scientists.”

Northwestern has not received any NIH funds since March. No written communication about why or what can be done. Thank you Ben Singer for raising awareness at #ATS2025

Rapid Response Bridge Funding Program In the face of recent abrupt shifts in federal funding for education research, including large-scale terminations of National Science Foundation (NSF) research grant awards, we have developed a rap...

I’m generally a cynic. Glass half empty kind of guy. But then I see something like this and think…there are good people out there. be positive and have hope. There is light in darkness. Early career scientists are being prioritized. Take a look! 🧪

www.spencer.org/grant_types/...

The do’s and don’ts of scientific image editing Acceptable image-editing practices are partly a matter of common sense. But researchers say journals and funders could help scientists by standardizing policies.

The do’s and don’ts of scientific image editing

Acceptable image-editing practices are partly a matter of common sense. But researchers say journals and funders could help scientists by standardizing policies.

@sarareardon.bsky.social reports

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

#booksky

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

Steve Kerr wore a Harvard basketball shirt after the Warriors’ win tonight: “Yes, this is me supporting Harvard. Way to go. Way to stand up to the bully.”

Harvard says it will not yield to Trump’s demands - The Boston Globe Lawyers for Harvard University said Monday the school will not comply with a list of expanded demands from the Trump administration.

Lawyers for Harvard University said the school will not comply with a new list of demands sent by the Trump administration on Friday.

Protein editing using a coordinated transposition reaction Protein engineering through the ligation of polypeptide fragments has proven enormously powerful for studying biochemical processes. In general, this strategy necessitates a final protein-folding step...

Excited to share that our protein editing method from the Muir Lab is now published in @science.org

We believe that protein transposition will enable new biochemical studies of PTMs and open up new intersections of proteins and small molecules

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