Derek Lowe

Now is a good time to revisit construction of a #Corsi-RosenthalBox air filter.

"The Corsi-Rosenthal Box is an affordable DIY air-cleaning system made with simple materials found in hardware stores. The box fan pulls air through the filters on the sides and blows out clean air."

E. coli outbreak in Florida linked to raw milk The E. coli outbreak comes as Trump officials face pressure to loosen regulations on raw milk

21 sick, including 6 kids, from raw milk in Florida. Thanks Kennedy.

If anybody ever interviews a computer while pretending it’s me after I die, please put them in jail.

I honestly can't tell if he is a liar or if he doesn't understand what is happening at NIH where others (DOGE, Memoli, other political appointees?) are implementing policies without regard to what he says.

Of course, these are not mutually exclusive.

Disordered Proteins Brought Into Line

New computational methods conjure up ligands for the famously difficult class of disordered proteins - but how far can they go?

Screen shot of a Just The News article saying: “National Institutes of Health Director Jay Bhattacharya, meanwhile, is fending off a mutiny by nearly 500 self-identified staff — some perhaps laid off in reduction-in-force plans — based in part on an alleged "list of banned words" in grants recommended for funding, especially those related to diversity, equity and inclusion. "This one is really frustrating," Bhattacharya told Just the News. He informed representatives of the "Bethesda Declaration," named after NIH's Maryland home base, at their July 21 meeting that "I ordered there be no banned list" to his staff months ago, but some program officers "took it upon themselves" to create ad hoc, unofficial lists. “

Wow! So Bhattacharya is now saying in right leaning rags that it’s been rogue program officers that created banned words lists at NIH. 🤣

What a sad, small person he is!

“Program officers ‘took it upon themselves’ to create ad hoc, unofficial lists…”

I’m the same way! Thermodynamics is apparently wasted upon the young.

Agreed on this thread. The “Fine, we’ll just Gerrymander New York and California” response is (a) awful and (b) almost certainly the right move. I hate the place we’re in, but here we are.

hey uh #chemsky is this what it looks like?, i.e. a tenured chemistry professor found the wrong* result, publicized it and the university responded by removing her from a tenured position and putting her in a full-time teaching position

*correct but somehow politically inconvenient

Two tips from a Democrat who has run campaigns: (1) Never, ever donate to Democratic national or state party. (2) Never, ever donate to a specific candidate from a link you receive. Search and find their local website and use the donate link there.

The central problem with the "this is really scary stuff" argument is federal elected Ds not acting like it

It's why the Democratic Party polls so poorly at the moment

Real time footage of what goes on inside the echo 650 series acoustic liquid handler

I delete this junk constantly, and I am so anti-Trump I can hardly describe it. This crap has to stop for the Democrats to win.

I.e., parts of the party apparatus have to start treating Trump as more than a fundraising opportunity.

“Garber, in a conversation with one faculty member, said that the suggestion that Harvard was open to paying $500 million is ‘false’ and claimed that the figure was apparently leaked to the press by White House officials...”

www.thecrimson.com/article/2025...

“How does the computer know something happened if no one tells the computer about it” is the easy-reader way to explain why we still need human reporters and data-collectors

And I also find it genuinely alarming that even some people on this website don’t seem to grasp this

I’m a Cardinals fan by birth, but I’m fine with the Red Sox as my AL team.

I will confess to being here partly just to root against the Astros. . .

A Not-So-Fond Farewell to Vinay Prasad The Steve Urkel of COVID Twitter turned out to be incompetent at both drug regulation and being an authoritarian apparatchik

Angie Rasmussen takes a blowtorch to Vinay Prasad #scicomm

my God, we are so fucked

He keeps his beard wilder than mine, on the average

The Vatican Observatory Looks to the Heavens It’s run by a Michigan-born Jesuit—and a meteorite expert—known as the Pope’s Astronomer.

From this angle, anyway, the Vatican's chief astronomer looks like a near-double for me (!)
www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...

For someone who claims to be committed to fostering a culture of respectful dissent, Jay Bhattacharya could at the very least respond to @jeremymberg.bsky.social's respectful inquiries about his factually incorrect & politically motivated statements.

This is a very good one about COVID origins.

Masked ICE agents hauled workers out of a pizza place in my Massachusetts town today.

Do I feel safer? No, the opposite. Do I feel wealthier? Not a bit. Do I feel that justice is being served? No, not that, either.

I’m mostly infuriated by armed, masked men roaming around and grabbing people.

@simonhammann.bsky.social this is new

NEW: The bipartisan Senate Appropriations Committee has rejected Trump’s proposed $18 billion, 40% cut to the National Institutes of Health budget and endorsed a $400 million increase.

DO NOT GIVE UP! Our advocacy is working. Keep speaking up and calling your elected officials.

I don't know who originally coined "The Age of Endarkenment", but we need to use this more.

Senate Democrats have a chance to show their voters they can effectively stymie President Donald Trump as Republicans work to advance spending bills and a flurry of nominations. But publicly and behind closed doors, the Democratic Party is grappling with whether to resist or - in Minority Whip Dick Durbin's words - seek a "quid pro quo," Jordain Carney reports. Inside Democrats' lunch Wednesday, senators talked through potential September strategies. Among the ideas they are floating is securing policy wins, like preserving soon-to-expire Affordable Care Act tax credits, or getting a commitment from Republicans not to pursue more rescissions.

Dear god these people are pathetic.

Colossal’s “de-extinction” work is ridiculous and completely overhyped by credulous readers of their press releases.

I am happy to do what I can to make the above point of view more widely known.

One thing I cannot emphasize enough in these benighted times is that NO ONE who is not a US Citizen should be crossing the US Border in either direction unless they have no other choice.

It's immensely unsafe.