Christopher Schmitt, Ph.D

I became a scientist, but I don’t know if my career will exist in five years | Opinion “The opportunities I had as an aspiring researcher are gone. The path to a better life for kids in Sacramento is slipping away.”

Opinion from a plant science PhD. student in Wisconsin who grew up in Sacramento, attended UC Davis, and is worried the Trump administration is killing science

"STEM careers at risk: NIH funding cuts impact the sciences | Sacramento Bee" share.google/BfnM7qnrFt1j...

not the main issue here but i'd really appreciate it if democratic politicians spoke out in support of big-city life and culture with the same energy and reverence that all politicians have for small towns

los angeles is "real america" and so are all the other big cities the president hates

How a discovery in Yellowstone National Park led to the development of PCR - Richmond Scientific A discovery in Yellowstone National Park led to the development of PCR, the gold-standard COVID-19 tests used to fight the global pandemic.

Reminder: Nobel-prize winning PCR (1983), used in basically all genetic tech today, was only possible because of extremophile bacterium discovered in 1964 in Yellowstone funded by a small ~$80k NSF grant with no obvious application at the time. #science 🧪
www.richmondscientific.com/how-a-discov...

My Canadian university, Queen's, is offering TWENTY 4-year funded PhDs (40k CAD/yr) for a student of ANY citizenship who has been accepted at a top 100 US university but have had offer rescinded OR are reconsidering offer due to US policy.
Details found here👇

www.queensu.ca/grad-postdoc...

I’ve been studying gene regulation in primates for over 20 years, and using RNA-seq since 2008 to compare expression across species. We thought we were being careful. We used curated orthologous exons to minimize alignment bias and focused on biologically meaningful comparisons.

We were wrong.

Two distinct host-specialized fungal species cause white-nose disease in bats Nature - The identification of two cryptic species of the fungal pathogen that causes white-nose disease in bats highlights the need to integrate studies of genetic variability in pathogens into...

🧪 White nose syndrome in North American bats appears to have been introduced from a cave system in the Ukraine back in 2006. Fantastic new research shows that European bats are affected by two separate clads of the fungus, but only one clade has (so far) been introduced to N-America: rdcu.be/epN7x

We're thrilled to announce that the FIRST International Conference on Palaeogenomics will happen in Stockholm, Sweden, June 23-26 2026!

Topics will span from humans to wildlife and sediments 🧬🦣💀🦠 bring it on!

Save the dates!

Follow @palaeogenomics.bsky.social for news

👉icp2026.palaeogenomics.org

Marvel could pay for my healthcare for the rest of my life for a fraction of 1% of profit from Spider-Man Noir, a character whose original comics I edited. For Peter David to die in medical debt, co-creator of Spider-Man 2099 and writer of countless seminal Hulk and X-Factor comics—that's a disgrace

We're looking for TWO lecturers (in Conservation Biology & Evolutionary Ecology) to join us in this beautiful corner of the world! Come join our pretty awesome (if I do say so myself!) department! 💚 @zoologyotago.bsky.social

otago.taleo.net/careersectio...

otago.taleo.net/careersectio...

Restoring Gold Standard Science By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including section 7301 of title 5, United

tl;dr — this EO co-opts the language of open science to implement a system of political control wherein presidential appointees are given broad latitude to designate any number of reasonable scientific activities and inferences as scientific misconduct, and to penalize those involved accordingly.

May 24, 2025 word cloud of 165 unique words or phrases, flagged 10904 times, within 2118 terminated NIH grants.

As of yesterday using publicly available data via Grant Watch grant-watch.us/nih-data.html:

05/24/2025 word cloud depicting 165 unique words or phrases, flagged 10904 times, within 2118 terminated NIH grants.

@standupforscience.bsky.social
@altnih4science.bsky.social

🚨 A new rule would let career scientists like NSF/NIH program officers be replaced by political appointees

Already 14,000+ public comments, deadline is Friday

📣 Comments can be short. Courts consider them—and scientists with NSF/NIH experience are especially impactful

Speak up! shorturl.at/WKuBj

Trump Has Cut Science Funding to Its Lowest Level in Decades (Gift Article) The lag in funding extends far beyond D.E.I. initiatives, affecting almost every area of science: chemistry, computing, engineering, materials and more.

The @upshot.nytimes.com has put together a vivid illustration of how the Trump administration has hollowed out American science. Gift link: nyti.ms/4kBTVql

Teeth first evolved as sensory tissue in the armored exoskeletons of ancient fish, fossil scans find Anyone who has ever squirmed through a dental cleaning can tell you how sensitive teeth can be. This sensitivity gives important feedback about temperature, pressure—and yes, pain—as we bite and chew ...

New paper from the lab: Our teeth arose as sensory organs on the outside of the body of ancient jawless fish.!! Congrats to Yara Haridy and the team!
Background and video: phys.org/news/2025-05...
Open Access Paper: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
News and Views: www.nature.com/articles/d41...

NIH killed grants on orders from Elon Musk’s DOGE Court documents and internal correspondence show the cost-cutting force has broad control over the world’s largest public biomedical funder.

Who's calling the shots at NIH?

Sworn testimonies and internal e-mails reveal for the first time the breadth of DOGE's control over the world's largest public biomedical funder.

DOGE has provided lists of hundreds of grants to cut, and DOGE is now reviewing ALL NIH awards before they're released

Policy Notice: Implementation of Standard 15% Indirect Cost Rate

The Trump administration is pausing NSF’s 15% overhead restriction pending the results of a lawsuit filed by AAU. Waste of everyone’s time.

Happy 21st birthday to same-sex marriage in Massachusetts (and thank you)! 🏳️‍🌈🍾🍻

It's official.

I filed a Senate Resolution of Disapproval.

RFK is CLEARLY in violation of his constitutional oath. He must resign.

Postdoc job opportunity! We're looking for ECR in evolutionary genomics to study the relation between intra-specific gene expression variability, polymorphism, and macro-evolutionary rates. We have the data in 3 fishes & amphioxus, just waiting for your expertise and enthusiasm!
tinyurl.com/3aewk286

Flyer: Text reads: Using Evidence and Practical Applications to Overcome Misconceptions About Evolution, Nashville, July 11, 2025 at Vanderbilt. A Scopes Anniversary Workshop on Evolution for teachers. Includes $50 stipend. Imagery is old chalkboard with photo cut-out of John Scopes. The text is drawn in chalk.

Teachers, we've partnered with Evolutionary Studies at Vanderbilt (@evolutionvu.bsky.social) to offer a workshop on evolution in celebration of the Scopes Trial 100th Anniversary. Please join us in Nashville on July 11! forms.gle/wECR4X2q5KCQ... #ScopesSymposium #iteachbio #EduSky #edchat

THE NSB (NSF Board) announced the existence and exploration of a pilot program to privatize the GRFP graduate fellowship (my wording). This includes branding opportunities for the companies sponsoring fellowships. This is short sighted and self-destructive, and threatens the mission of the NSF. 1/

Welcome to Save The U.S. National Science Foundation A Girl Looking at a Physics Model TAKE ACTION Save NSF is a coalition of concerned scientists and allies who are working to save funding for scientific grants through the U.S. National Science Foundation. Our mission is to support and advocate for the continuation of vital research and innovation in various scientific fields. NSF funding is critical to this work. Join us in our endeavor to ensure a sustainable future for scientific exploration and discovery.

I am so heartened to this seriously AWESOME #SaveNSF website go up today!!!!

Has a take action toolkit with:

1. Press outreach templates
2. Social media toolkit
3. Elected official outreach
4. Talking points

Check it out and share widely!!!! Likely more to come.

www.savensf.com

Meeting the Moment Together We are returning from the AERA Annual Meeting in Denver reinvigorated and with a deep appreciation for all that scholars and higher education leaders are holding in this moment. Rapid shifts in fed...

FYI “Spencer Foundation, Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, William T. Grant Foundation and Kapor Foundation are providing quick turnaround grants of up to $25k for education scholars impacted by the abrupt NSF grant cancellations.” www.spencer.org/news/meeting...

Exclusive: NSF stops awarding new grants and funding existing ones US science funder also plans to screen grant applications for compliance with ‘agency priorities’.

BREAKING: NSF has frozen all grant funding, as of yesterday. It's unclear when they will resume funding awards, or why the pause has been put in place. www.nature.com/articles/d41...

NIH cancels participation in Safe to Sleep campaign that decreased infant deaths NIH has cancelled its participation in Safe to Sleep, a 30-year campaign to prevent babies from dying in their sleep

NIH cancels participation in Safe to Sleep campaign that decreased infant deaths. Exclusive via Ismael M. Belkoura for @statnews.com www.statnews.com/2025/04/30/n...

Dr. Christopher Schmitt - Vervets and woolly monkeys AnthroBiology Podcast · Episode

First primatology episode of the year with @fuzzyatelin.bsky.social! This interview has everything! Epigenetics! Fieldwork! Colorful monkey genitals! Listen now: open.spotify.com/episode/6vOZ...

Thanks for posting and sorry for not sending images beforehand - I’m having a baby on Friday (!) so I completely forgot! Here’s some belated fuzzy monkey pics for everyone :)

A horrible story but god bless this woman so accurately reading the ICE goons for filth here

How cuts at the National Institutes of Health could impact Americans' health Cuts and layoffs to the National Institutes of Health threaten medical research around the U.S., agency insiders warn.

The National Institutes of Health, the largest funder of biomedical research in the world, has fired 1,300 employees and cancelled more than $2 billion in federal research grants. https://cbsn.ws/4daiCrv

Scientists fear Trump administration cuts to NIH could impact the health of Americans for generations Former National Institutes of Health Director Dr. Francis Collins, who abruptly left his NIH research lab in February, fears aggressive downsizing could impact Americans' health.

Good segment about NIH on 60 Minutes. Please have a look. #NIH