Sean Gibbons 🦠💩

NATIONAL DAY of ACTION Take back our science, health, and democracy! Join us MARCH 7TH, 2026 NEW YORK CITY, NY and nationwide! Register, volunteer, and donate! standupforscience.net/march7

NEW YORK CITY! Join your local March 7th rally to take back our science! Learn more at standupforscience.net/march7

#rally
#March7
#ImpeachRFKJr
#science
#standupforscience

Children in American concentration camps in the 21st century. The inhumanity of it.

A line graph shown the number of NIH new and competitive awards funded for fiscal year 2026 (through 2/13/26) compared with fiscal years 2021-2025. The fiscal year 2026 is lagging well behind with only 569 awards made through 2/13/26 compared to >2000 for previous fiscal years.

New and competitive renewal awards.

The number of awards is 569 compared with more than 2200 through the same date in earlier fiscal years.

All ICs have now made awards except for NIAAA, NCCIH, NLM, FIC, and OD. NEI (Eye Institute) made its first award during the new period.

3/4

A short-acting psychedelic intervention for major depressive disorder: a phase IIa randomized placebo-controlled trial - Nature Medicine A single intravenous dose of the psychedelic dimethyltryptamine, combined with psychological support, produces rapid and lasting reductions in depressive symptoms in adults with major depressive disorder.

A single dose of the psychedelic drug dimethyltryptamine (DMT), given with psychological support, rapidly reduced depressive symptoms in 34 adults with major depressive disorder, according to a clinical trial published in Nature Medicine. 🧪#mentalhealthsci

New @fwf-at.bsky.social CoE Microplanet study in @nature.com Food! CoE Key Researcher @cdiener.com @medunigraz.at with experts from DK, US, NL proposes a hybrid strategy for objective dietary assessment combining AI tools with "omics" biomarkers. www.nature.com/articles/s43...

Excited to see @cdiener.com's community-scale metabolic models tools getting a shout-out in this @natbiotech.nature.com editorial.

Specifically, mentioning Nick Quinn-Bohmann's recent paper on predicting personalized SCFA production (for precision nutrition): www.nature.com/articles/s41...

AlphaFold Database welcomes community datasets Latest AlphaFold Database update adds high-value datasets for microbial and viral proteins, generated by specialist communities

Delighted to see over 17 million new protein structure predictions from novel proteins in AllTheBacteria are now integrated into the AlphaFold Database at @ebi.embl.org !
Huge work from @gbouras13.bsky.social @oschwengers.bsky.social and friends to generate these.

www.ebi.ac.uk/about/news/u...

Culturing microbiome therapeutics with big data www.nature.com/articles/s41...

The economic cost of Brexit has just been laid bare – and it’s devastating A decade on, the economic cost of Brexit has just been laid bare – and it’s devastating. Here's what the figures say.

Because of Brexit, the UK GDP is 6–8% lower than it would have been, business investment is 18% lower than in comparable economies, and both employment and productivity are around 4% lower. Can’t wait to see in a decade how Trump has damaged the US economically.

Middle-class Americans are selling their plasma to make ends meet Last year, people in the U.S. made an estimated $4.7 billion selling their plasma. Donation centers are popping up in middle-class neighborhoods, including suburban strip malls and college towns.

My god do we need UBI

“Researchers have found that when a new plasma center opens in a neighborhood, foot traffic at local grocery stores increases, interest in payday loans declines and crime goes down, an indication of the way money from plasma props up households’ finances for necessities.“

"We can have democracy in this country, or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can't have both." –Justice Louis Brandeis

Words spoken many years ago that are just as relevant today.

We must continue the fight to get big money out of politics.

Writing is thinking.

It's not some marginal boring task you can skip. It's the heart of it.

pretty stunning chart

America’s Future Is Hungary MAGA conservatives love Viktor Orbán. But he’s left his country corrupt, stagnant, and impoverished.

Remember: Viktor Orban has built a corrupt, stagnant Hungary that is much poorer than it should be

www.theatlantic.com/magazine/arc...

A Little Grime Can Boost Kids’ Health. But What Kind? Researchers are homing in on how kids reap long-term health benefits from getting dirty, whether cuddling furry pets or playing with friends.

Is a dirty baby a healthy baby? 👶🧼 We dig into the health benefits of exposing kids to the outdoors.

You Know What? Maybe the Time Is Right for an AOC Presidential Bid She’s only 36, and there’s a good argument that she should run for Senate and bide her time. But she also could be a formidable White House candidate.

from the perspective of someone who might want to be president, the best time to run for the white house is now, not later. so if AOC is thinking about it — if the white house is her ambition — then her best bet is to throw her hat in the ring

🧵 New preprint! Our 4-lab team evolved Streptococcus pneumoniae in antibiotic-treated mice of varying immune states and discovered something surprising: bacteria rarely evolved resistance. Instead, they found a different way to survive — by rewiring RNA turnover.
🔗 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Someone has sure already made this observation but the fact they can convert all those empty warehouses into prison camps means they could have converted them into housing, community centers, job training centers or, hell, libraries or schools all along. It’s always a matter of will not resources.

A new systematic analysis of intermittent fasting from 22 randomized trials shows no advantage for weight loss or other outcomes compared with regular diet advice
www.cochranelibrary.com/cdsr/doi/10....

FUEL THE FIGHT FOR SCIENCE FIGHT BACK! standupforscience.net/donate

This March 7th we are rallying for a second time in D.C. and nationwide! Join the fight by visiting standupforscience.net/march7 or fuel the fight for science by visiting standupforscience.net/donate
Thank you!
#March7
#standupforscience
#ImpeachRFKJr
#RemoveRFKJr
#science

Ofelia Torres, teen who fought to have her father released from ICE custody, dies from rare cancer Ofelia Torres, 16, died on Friday from Stage 4 alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma, a rare and aggressive form of cancer, her father's lawyer confirmed.

A child dying of cancer spent her final days fighting to free her wrongfully detained father from ICE custody.
 
This comes just weeks after a mother from Maryland was denied the right to be at her son’s side as he died from cancer.
 
Not one dime for this cruelty.

www.cbsnews.com/amp/chicago/...

“Asked how the cuts have affected science, one [researcher] said, ‘This is like asking, how do you think dropping an atomic bomb on New York City will affect the future of Broadway musicals? This is a generational loss of innovation, technology, and economic power.’” 🔗 archive.ph/2026.02.12-1...

A familiar move with a new twist: Trump tries to cut CDC funds he just signed into law A federal judge in Illinois quickly issued a restraining order after the Trump administration slashed more than $600 million in CDC grants to four blue states.

And at CDC, too.

www.npr.org/2026/02/13/n...

Of so many things to be infuriated about, this is perhaps my biggest gripe. Pancreatic cancer patients, who face a future without hope, are being denied a potential game-changing therapy
www.mskcc.org/news/can-mrn...

Especially now…you’re hiring a colleague. The state of US science and academia requires that you and your colleagues stand up for each other and have each others backs.

If they’re great researcher but there are obvious flags, trust me, there are other great researchers out there to hire

NEW: Another NIH institute director hasn't been renewed — the director of NIAMS (arthritis, musculoskeletal and skin diseases institute).

That leaves a whopping 15 of 27 institutes and centers without a permanent director.

19 people.

China turns the tables in biotech For at least a century, major scientific research initiatives have reliably occurred in the United States, usually in response to geopolitical competition. This helped establish the country’s status a...

“Success in US science has come from sustained funding and welcoming the best talent from around the world, yet both of these advantages are in decline”

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Yesterday morning kids were sent running from their bus stop in panic because ICE showed up. This guy at today’s ICE Out of Lindenwold protest is a must watch 😭. @maddow.bsky.social

It's incredible to me that people think Elon Musk is intelligent.

He is a Grade A moron who was born rich and failed up.

This article is an excellent example of his gross incompetence wasting our government's time and money, years prior to the malignant stupidity and moral tragedy of DOGE.