Dr. Jennifer Pfeifer

Let's please keep the remaining staff at NIH, NSF, etc in our thoughts even as you lose sleep over your own lab and scientific career.

They are enduring pure chaos to try to hold the fort.

See snapshot from wapo.st/4feKKuu (gift 🔗) saying they are "barely holding it together"

I just left the Everglades Immigrant Interment Camp. No, I’m not using their ridiculous name. It was a very tough to witness humans in those cages. Every Floridian should be ashamed that our taxpayer money is being used for this.

‘It’s a nightmare.’ U.S. funding cuts threaten academic science jobs at all levels “There is a lot of pressure to essentially leave the country or not pursue research,” one Ph.D. student says

I can't stress enough how close U.S. science is to the cliff.

"Numbers released in May by the National Science Foundation (NSF) indicate that if Congress approves the cuts to the agency proposed by the White House, the number of early-career researchers it supports could fall by 78%" (@science.org)

I grew up in rural South Carolina with a single mom who worked multiple jobs. At times, we relied on Medicaid and SNAP—like so many others. My heart breaks for those now wondering if that help will still be there.

Imagine having all that power and choosing to make people’s lives worse.

Shameful.

The Trump administration is withholding $81 million from Oregon in federal funding for K-12 schools. Unacceptable.

Reviewer notes: So you’re interested in “lagged effects.” In some fields, researchers who end up with time series of two variables of interest (X and Y) like to analyze (reciprocal) lagged effects between them. Does X affect Y at a later point in time, and d...

New blog post! Let's say you've measured two variables repeatedly and want to investigate how one affects the other over time. Here are some recommendations for how to do that well.

www.the100.ci/2025/06/25/r...

As context, remote NSF staff had to relocate to VA by last Monday, June 16, for full-time in-person work.

Let's see if this HUD announcement comes tomorrow. But if it does, what a cruel thing to do:

"Hey uproot your families and relocate here by June 16"

"J/k lol, we're kicking you out" 🫠

Would you eat a ghost pepper for a prize? - Dan Kwartler Welcome to Risky Business, the game where we find out how far people will go to win a prize! Today’s contestants are a 21 year-old, a 16 year-old, and a 12 year-old. They'll compete in a series of thr...

Would you eat a ghost pepper or swim in honey for a prize?🌶️🍯
Research suggests that adolescents are more likely than adults to try new things and take risks, which are ways they learn about and explore the world!
Watch the new TED-Ed video about risk-taking now: ed.ted.com/lessons/woul...

Huge thanks to @anniewaldman.bsky.social and @propublica.org for shining a light on these terminations. These terminations are a major blow professionally. But they'll wreak far more havoc on the health and livelihood of so many humans.

The US now has no vaccine advisory committee, no CDC director, and an anti-vaxxer as Health Secretary.

RFK Jr justifies firing scientists on the CDC’s vaccine advisory committee due to “conflicts of interest.”

Yet RFK Jr made almost $100K a year from anti-vax lawsuits and almost $90K a month from his anti-vax nonprofit.

The person with the biggest conflict of interest at HHS is the one leading it.

Update from Shawn Hubler

“The issue here goes beyond Los Angeles or California: If the president of the United States can, without notice to the governor and without the constitutionally required request of the governor, send the military into our city, he can do so in any city in America at any time and for any reason”

The Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices meets on June 25th, but RFK Jr. just fired every member and is replacing them for the sake of “rebuilding trust” and “gold standard science”.

So you’re telling me that the new members will be up to speed on all the data in 2 weeks?

GTFOOH.

Seeing some reactions to this calling it a strongly worded letter.

While true in a literal sense that this is a letter, it’s unprecedented—and an escalation of a growing trend of unrest inside NIH.

This took bravery. Each of the signers put their career on the line.

We should acknowledge that.

Eight US states seek to outlaw chemtrails – even though they aren’t real States introduce chemtrail-coded legislation as conspiracy theories take root in some US chambers

The US is ruled by a small fringe group of conspiracy-spreading imbeciles.

“We are going to stop this crime”, said Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who is currently in charge of U.S. science and healthcare, about chemtrails.

Chemtrails don’t exist.

www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

We need to fight for the next generation of US researchers Nature Human Behaviour - Federal funding of science has been cut, and trainee scientists in the USA face an unstable and uncertain future. Nicole Rust explains how and why we should act to support...

My new piece in Nature Human Behavior: "We need to fight for the next generation of US researchers"

All trainees need 3 things to thrive. In the US, those things have been ripped away. Let's brainstorm and fight to get them back.

(share link):
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Bethesda Declaration — STAND UP FOR SCIENCE Support NIH Staff Now!

My deepest respect and gratitude for the courageous #NIH employees who wrote and signed this Bethesda Declaration. I've read it in full, as well as the letter from #StandUpForScience - and I've signed on in support. www.standupforscience.net/bethesda-dec...

New NIH Notice rescinding the no DEI, no Israeli boycott term and condition added to NIH grants (covers the whole university)

This is what Williams refused to sign and declined all federal funding.

grants.nih.gov/grants/guide...

1/2

"We are speaking on behalf of hundreds of NIH staff who are standing up together to say: WE DISSENT.

I am so scared about doing this but I am trying to be brave for my kids because it's only gonna get harder to speak up."

Thank you to Dr. Jenna Norton and NIH scientists for your courage!

a picture of a dog with a lamp on its head and the words need help ALT: a picture of a dog with a lamp on its head and the words need help

ATTENTION:

I am working on a project and need some assistance.

If anyone might have some time this weekend, particularly if you are in a red state, please DM me (and provide an email address and/or cell number) or reach me on Signal (jeremymberg.78).

THANK YOU!

An important read that describes the devastating impacts of these cancellations. Just an astonishing level of callousness and disrespect for the researchers whose grants/fellowships were terminated, the important work they were doing, and the rigorous process via which these grants were awarded.

Could be huge. Especially for those terminated in the anti-DEI purge.

"...NIH will allow individuals whose mentored career development awards prematurely ended on or after January 1, 2025, to be eligible to apply for a new mentored career development award"

grants.nih.gov/grants/guide...

🚨ATTENTION MOMS🚨

Friday, May 30th at 3pm

Meet me outside of the CDC with your pregnant bellies, your babies, your toddlers, your strollers, your signs, and your baby gear.

We are standing up for science and vaccines!
@standupforscience.bsky.social

RSVP: actionnetwork.org/events/moms-...

US science is being taken apart brick by brick.

I hate to say it, but I wonder if "parent" mechanisms are the best strategy right now. That's a major loss: targeted opportunities can provide ECRs with better chances for funding - it's how I got my first R01. Axing them undermines the career progression of our next generation of researchers. 7/

To be clear, I place NO blame on the incredible career folks at NIH who are working as hard as possible to save this indispensable institution for scientific and medical progress in the face of constant attacks from the administration. Takeaway - mechanisms can be 'expired' at any time. 6/

This has been a wild year to launch our NIH Academy but the entire cohort has been amazing. I've had the privilege of getting to know this ECR and I believe she will dust herself off and keep working. But these disruptions come at a huge cost. And worst of all - NONE OF THIS IS NECESSARY. 5/

This means that unless the mechanism is reinstated, the grant cannot be simply repackaged into a parent R01 - because the two mechanisms are frankly incompatible (one disallows pilot data; one requires it). The multitude of harms being inflicted on ECRs through all of this is staggering. 4/

By 2 weeks prior to a deadline, you might be cleaning up references and ancillary docs, proofreading for typos, etc. You're at the finish line... only to have it disappear on you. Worse yet, this is a unique mechanism for ECR's proposing a new direction for which pilot data does not exist. 3/

a close up of a cartoon character with a very angry face and a tie . ALT: a close up of a cartoon character with a very angry face and a tie .

The expiration notice was released 7 business days (13 total) before the deadline. I am INCENSED on her behalf. R01s take months of focused effort, even for experienced investigators. This is nowhere near enough notice to respect how much time and effort is invested in grantwriting. 2/