David Malakoff

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

Powerful step-by-step reasoning models get confused by random feline facts. Credit: Meagan Cantwell/Science

Random cat facts can increase the odds an LLM gets a math problem wrong by as much as 700% (To be fair to the AIs, cats are pretty confusing). That and more of the best in @science.org and science in this edition of #ScienceAdviser: www.science.org/content/arti... 🧪

Contrarian climate assessment from U.S. government draws swift pushback Researchers say DOE report cherry picks data to downplay threat of greenhouse gases

So what makes a climate assessment? In short: not this new Energy Dept report, which rehashes contrarian greatest hits with areas of known uncertainty -- that climate scientists talk about all the time.

It's all a little grim. Who needs 721 authors when you have 5?

With boost to NIH budget, Senate panel rejects Trump’s plan to slash agency Republicans on spending committee push back against proposed reorganization and overhead cuts

The National Institutes of Health’s budget, and structure, would be preserved under a Senate bill for the 2026 fiscal year.

Hidden features of volcanic “lava bombs” have been caught on video.

Learn more: scim.ag/478PIqq

NSF plans abrupt end to lone U.S. Antarctic research icebreaker Imminent termination of the RV Nathaniel B. Palmer shocks polar scientists

NSF plans abrupt end to lone U.S. Antarctic research icebreaker | Science | AAAS www.science.org/content/arti...

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

Odds of winning NIH grants plummet as new funding policy and spending delays bite | Science | AAAS www.science.org/content/arti...

The Senate just posted the report language of its FY26 science appropriations bill. This text lays out what they want done and carries the force of law if it is included in the final spending bill.

It's a line-by-line refutation of Trump's proposed budget for NASA and NOAA.

Senate panel raises hopes that NSF will restore killed grants Republicans promise to work with Democrats to salvage defeated amendment

Senate panel raises hopes that NSF will restore killed grants | Science | AAAS www.science.org/content/arti...

How a string of deadly shark attacks made a remote island a hub of lifesaving research After 11 deaths, Réunion Island in the Indian Ocean became a center for shark attack science

Over 8 years, sharks attacked 30 people around Reunion, killing 11, accounting for an extraordinary 18.5% of known global shark fatalities over that period -- and spurring an urgent research effort. www.science.org/content/arti...

Russian scientists’ international collaborations to be vetted by security services under new law Move will have a chilling effect and further isolate the country from the global scientific community, researchers say

“The new law will negatively affect further international collaborations of Russian chemists and other scientists, as many of them will prefer not to participate in such projects amid the fears of possible attention from security services,” says one chemist www.science.org/content/arti...

Exclusive: NIH suspends dozens of pathogen studies over ‘gain-of-function’ concerns Trump executive order leads to pauses on U.S.-funded research into TB, influenza, COVID-19, and other diseases, dismaying some scientists

Exclusive: NIH suspends dozens of pathogen studies over ‘gain-of-function’ concerns | Science | AAAS www.science.org/content/arti...

Senate panel rejects Trump’s proposed cuts to agricultural research House spending committee has taken similar position on 2026 request

A key Senate spending committee has joined its House of Representatives counterpart in rejecting deep cuts that President Donald Trump’s administration proposed for research at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) for the 2026 fiscal year that begins on 1 October www.science.org/content/arti...

China tops the world in artificial intelligence publications, database analysis reveals The country also leads in patent filings and the number of AI researchers

In 2000, China-based scholars produced just 671 AI papers, but in 2024 their 23,695 AI-related publications topped the combined output of the United States (6378), the United Kingdom (2747), and the European Union (10,055). www.science.org/content/arti...

Effort to revive New Zealand’s extinct moa stirs controversy Suggestions that nation’s Indigenous Māori wholeheartedly back project draws criticism

A hybrid moa created through genetic engineering would not be “a taonga [treasured] species, and it does not revive ancestral relationships with the moa just because it kind of resembles one,” notes one observer. www.science.org/content/arti...

Judge orders NIH to restore hundreds of grants cut under Trump William Young calls terminations illegal, berates agency for discrimination

Judge orders NIH to restore hundreds of grants cut under Trump | Science | AAAS www.science.org/content/arti...

The members of RFK Jr.’s new vaccine committee have published little on vaccines Purge at immunization panel represents a major loss of expertise, as measured by scientific papers

The members of RFK Jr.’s new vaccine committee have published little on vaccines | Science | AAAS www.science.org/content/arti...

Congress shows first signs of resisting Trump’s plans to slash science budgets House panel rejects cuts to agricultural research, and Senators express doubts about cuts to NIH and forest research

Congress shows first signs of resisting Trump’s plans to slash science budgets | Science | AAAS www.science.org/content/arti...

Exclusive: NIH documents reveal inconsistencies in grant terminations as agency reviews 3200 more Evidence of agency’s uneven guidance to employees and role of DOGE could play into legal case against cuts

Exclusive: NIH documents reveal inconsistencies in grant terminations as agency reviews 3200 more | Science | AAAS www.science.org/content/arti...

African countries fall far short of mpox vaccination targets Continent faces a shortage of doses and distribution challenges

“It is a difficult time:” Mpox continues to spread in Africa but vaccination efforts are falling far short. www.science.org/content/arti... (by @cohenjon.bsky.social)

‘Devastating.’ NIH cancels future funding plans for HIV vaccine consortia Researchers decry agency’s decision just as new leads reinvigorate search for long-sought vaccine

‘Devastating.’ NIH cancels future funding plans for HIV vaccine consortia | Science | AAAS www.science.org/content/arti...

Dozens of active and planned NASA spacecraft killed in Trump budget request Proposal would end nearly all new major science missions

Dozens of active and planned NASA spacecraft killed in Trump budget request | Science | AAAS www.science.org/content/arti...

China is quietly preparing to build a gigantic telescope Astronomers are puzzled by the silence over an instrument that could briefly reign as world’s biggest

China is quietly preparing to build a gigantic telescope | Science | AAAS www.science.org/content/arti...

Will NSF’s flagship training program survive under Trump? Despite 50 Nobelists and 75,000 alumni, NSF’s graduate research fellows could be a vanishing breed

Will NSF’s flagship training program survive under Trump? | Science | AAAS www.science.org/content/arti...

To boost nuclear power, Trump orders controversial rewrite of radiation safety rules Researchers have long debated the risks posed by low levels of ionizing radiation

To boost nuclear power, Trump orders controversial rewrite of radiation safety rules | Science | AAAS www.science.org/content/arti...

Is a photo subversive? NSF staff overcome obstacles to 75th anniversary portrait Management tried to quash outpouring of support for beleaguered agency

The unsanctioned 20 May event was not a protest against the policies of President Donald Trump’s administration. “We just wanted to show our appreciation for all the advances in science that NSF has funded over the years,” said an organizer. www.science.org/content/arti...

NIH director faces pointed questions at first staff town hall Jay Bhattacharya says he disagrees with firings, supports minority health studies

NHI Director on layoffs: “I actually don’t have any transparency in how those decisions were made, and actually I’m quite upset about that. It would be nice to have had some say.” www.science.org/content/arti...

Indian police are trying to ‘read minds' of suspects, over neuroscientists' objections A controversial profiling of the brain’s electrical activity has shaped court decisions and bail applications

NEW: Proponents of the technology claim it is near-infallible. But multiple scientific and legal experts say BEOS rests on scant evidence. an actual case,” says one scientist. | Science | AAAS www.science.org/content/arti...

NSF’s grant cuts fall heaviest on scientists from underrepresented groups Projects to broaden participation were cut disproportionately—and were often led by Black scientists, women, and those with disabilities

NEW: “We’ve been fighting for decades to increase participation by people from these groups. And now they’re seeing that there may not be a place at the table for them. It’s frightening.” | Science | AAAS www.science.org/content/arti...

More context:

Our tracker (grant-watch.us) currently lists 877 terminated NIH grants. We have 820 rows in the tracker, but some rows list multiple grants.

As of yesterday, NIH RePORTER listed 807 NIH grants specifically at Harvard.

So we're looking at over 1600 formally terminated NIH grants now.