Usha Lee McFarling

Lab Dog author Melanie D.G. Kaplan at the KSJ offices with beagle pal Moira Rose.

We have a VIP (and a VIB!) at the @ksjatmit.bsky.social offices today. @melaniedgkaplan.bsky.social is speaking to Knight fellows about her book Lab Dog.

Unfilled vacancies have depleted NIH advisory councils, key players in grant approvals Only one new member was added to NIH advisory councils, which make final recommendations on grant awards, during President Trump's first year

Unfilled vacancies have depleted NIH advisory councils, key players in grant approvals www.statnews.com/2026/01/22/n... via @statnews.com

🚨Climate reporters🚨Great opportunity to see field research in the Arctic this summer for two weeks at Alaska's Toolik Field Station. www.woodwellclimate.org/project/evol...

No one’s quite sure how to fix pulse oximeters. The FDA asked this lab to find answers In the search for how to fix pulse oximeters, FDA regulators have turned to a single small lab in San Francisco whose visionary founder helped develop modern blood monitoring tools.

If you want the backstory on this study, and what it took to complete this study, @usha.bsky.social wrote about it at the start in 2022

www.statnews.com/2022/12/16/p...

FDA-funded study of pulse oximeter accuracy yields surprising and confusing results A long-awaited study commissioned by the FDA has muddied the path forward on how to reduce racial bias in pulse oximeter readings

A long awaited study on pulse oximeter bias didn't yield the answers researchers hoped

“We got a very clear signal that we do not adequately understand pulse oximeter performances in sick patients" - @iwashyna.bsky.social

www.statnews.com/2026/01/12/p...

FDA-funded study of pulse oximeter accuracy yields surprising and confusing results A long-awaited study commissioned by the FDA has muddied the path forward on how to reduce racial bias in pulse oximeter readings

Important new story by @aniloza.bsky.social on pulse oximeters and their performance on darker skin. This area continues to frustrate researchers. www.statnews.com/2026/01/12/p...

Poster advertising AI and Journalism/Free Speech/Public Discourse event on 2/27/26 at 4 pm at the MIT Welcome Center.

How is AI changing how we communicate and how can we use its tools more ethically? Join us at MIT on Feb. 27 for this important conversation about journalism, free speech, and public discourse -- all currently under threat. Please share; all are welcome.

From an email to one of our faculty members....

Not even Plato can escape censorship at Texas A&M!

Ensures that all the diseases covered by the previous immunization schedule will still be available to anyone who wants them through Affordable Care Act insurance plans and federal insurance programs, including Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program, and the Vaccines for Children program. Families will not have to purchase them out of pocket. Among peer nations, the U.S. will continue to offer the most childhood vaccines for free to those who want them.

Copy Editing Matters, from HHS's release on the new childhood vaccine schedule: All the diseases will still be available to anyone who wants them

Poster showing the Lost Knowledge Project will meet from 10-3 on Jan. 23 in Cambridge, MA.

Incredible poetry event Jan. 23 to make visible all the cuts (and trauma) from cutting federal research funding. Register here: luma.com/phmnhtwn

Knight Science Journalism Academic-Year Fellowship - Knight Science Journalism @MIT Applications for the 2026-2027 fellowship class opened on November 15, 2025 and will close on January 9, 2026. Apply Now→ In December 2025, KSJ held an informational webinar for applicants […]

A reminder that applications for the MIT KSJ Fellowship close this Friday, January 9. So if you're applying this year, get those applications and references in. ksj.mit.edu/fellowships/...

Waiting for the new movie Renaissance Park

Exclusive: Have scientists found Leonardo da Vinci’s DNA? Inside the decadeslong quest to reveal the genes of a genius—and revolutionize art authentication

Wild story by Richard Stone at Science. Do we have Leonardo's DNA? www.science.org/content/arti...

The Victor K. McElheny Award for Local and Regional Science Journalism The Victor K. McElheny Award honors outstanding local and regional journalism covering issues in science, public health, technology, or the environment.

We want to highlight the incredible science reporting being done at the local and regional level. Please submit your work for the Victor McElheny Award, which comes with a $10,000 prize. ksj.mit.edu/mcelheny-awa...

YouTube video by MIT Knight Science Journalism Program KSJ Fellowship Info Session for 2026 Applicants (Recording)

For those who missed our informational webinar last week about the @ksjatmit.bsky.social fellowships and tips on how to create a strong application, here’s a recording. 👇🏽https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=dLw88Oempos

"It is not surprising that health news site STAT has some of the best reporting of what is happening now, including a December multipart piece, “American Science, Shattered,” which is the most comprehensive telling of this year’s carnage out there." Thanks for shoutout @gregggonsalves.bsky.social

(2035) Glad I got heart surgery before LLMs were used to teach surgeons anatomy

The Flu Is Trying to Ruin Your Holiday. Don’t Let It. As travelers wedge themselves into planes, trains and automobiles for holiday trips, there’s a good chance they’ll be joined by an unwanted passenger: a new flu strain that seems intent on derailing t...

The flu is ramping up, friends. A few thoughts on that new strain driving cases and what we all can do to try to mitigate the worst of it. My latest for @opinion.bloomberg.com:

Really important.

A ChatGPT diagram of a skull with some weird labels. The lower jaw is both the mandible and the occipital bone. Also, the nasal cavity is between two teeth!

Given all the recent buzz about how great ChatGPT has gotten, including its prowess with images, I figured I'd check in on its anatomical skills. Nope.

Satellites Used to Have Months to Avoid Collisions—Now They Have Days In the era of mega constellations, spacecraft typically have less than a week to avoid crashes

Before satellite mega-constellations began taking off in 2019, satellites used to go months without risking a collision in orbit.

Now they have less than a week to take evasive maneuvers, and the window keeps shrinking. My @sciam.bsky.social story below.

www.scientificamerican.com/article/sate...

Tarbell Fellowship A one-year program for journalists interested in covering artificial intelligence.

An excellent opportunity for journalists interesting in covering AI (and holding the companies building it to account.) Deadline is Jan. 7. www.tarbellcenter.org/fellowship

Welcome! You are invited to join a webinar: Applying to the Knight Science Journalism Academic-Year Fellowship . After registering, you will receive a confirmation email about joining the webinar. KSJ directors will host a live webinar to answer questions about the academic-year fellowship and the application process. This session is a great way to learn what we look for in candidates and how t...

Interested in applying to KSJ's world-renowned science journalism fellowships? Attend our informational webinar THIS THURSDAY, Dec 18 at 2:00 pm EST, where @usha.bsky.social and @ashleythesmart.bsky.social will be on hand to take your questions. Registration Required: mit.zoom.us/webinar/regi...

I fact checked this book and I cannot recommend it highly enough as an essential way to understand the history of propaganda and disinformation and how that impacts us right now.

A rare opportunity to ask KSJ's director your questions about applying for our world-renowned fellowship program. Don't miss it!

Pay attention to what the regime is doing and bear in mind that ingredients for supplements aren't regulated & can come from dubious sources. Frankly, @joho.bsky.social says it best in a split-screen👇

Grading and googling hallucinated citations, as one does nowadays, and now that LLMs have been around for a while, I've discovered new horrors: hallucinated journals are now appearing in Google Scholar with dozens of citations bc so many people are citing these fake things

CONTAINS SQUIRRELS

Welcome! You are invited to join a webinar: Applying to the Knight Science Journalism Academic-Year Fellowship . After registering, you will receive a confirmation email about joining the webinar. KSJ directors will host a live webinar to answer questions about the academic-year fellowship and the application process. This session is a great way to learn what we look for in candidates and how t...

We’ll be hosting a webinar 12/18 on the @ksjatmit.bsky.social science journalism fellowships and how to apply. Bring your questions and stay for the tips. Register 👇🏽
mit.zoom.us/webinar/regi...

"AI is everywhere. It's like Dubai chocolate. But sometimes you just don't want pistachios." Hallway conversation at the great Computation and Journalism Symposium in Miami. #cplusj2025