Ed Yong

Medical Research Funding — Unbreaking How the administration is breaking the government, and what that means for all of us.

One of the reasons I love this piece is that, in clearly showing why the administration’s attacks on medical research funding are so devastating, it also makes one of the clearest cases for why that funding has always mattered. unbreaking.org/issues/medic...

Medical Research Funding — Unbreaking How the administration is breaking the government, and what that means for all of us.

I urge everyone to read Unbreaking’s new page on everything the govt is doing to destroy & diminish medical research funding.

It’s the best thing I’ve read on this topic: @lizneeley.bsky.social & co have such done an incredible job.

unbreaking.org/issues/medic...

Medical Research Funding — Unbreaking How the administration is breaking the government, and what that means for all of us.

Hi! We just released three new pages. First up, we break down the devastating defunding of medical research in the US, including grant terminations and delays representing nearly $5B in funding losses, cuts to future funding, and attacks on training programs: unbreaking.org/issues/medic...

👋 Hi, we’re Unbreaking, a volunteer-run collective working to document our current moment of institutional collapse and its human costs—as well as the pushback and resilience work already underway. We believe this is critical work for building and retaining political agency.

I can’t recommend this enough.

UNBREAKING, a new project from @lizneeley.bsky.social & co, documents & explains our many concurrent institutional collapses.

It’s beautifully executed work, full of intellectual & moral clarity. 3 pages are live, more will come. It’s SO GOOD, & I learned so much.

Genuinely delighted that @unbreaking.org is now doing our work in public. I cannot tell you what it means to be a part of it, or how much its already helped me. If my Meeting the Moment newsletter has helped you, Unbreaking is going to bowl you over. So much more ambitious and helpful. Join us!

An Immense World (Young Readers Edition): How Animals Sense Earth's Amazing Secrets How Animals Sense Earth's Amazing Secrets

AN IMMENSE WORLD: YOUNG READERS EDITION is out today! 🥳

I’m really grateful to AnnMarie Anderson for adapting it, Rebecca Mills for illustrating, Tom Russell for shepherding, and Rose Eveleth for reading the audiobook.

(And it’s dedicated to Typo.)

bookshop.org/p/books/an-i...

👇🏼👇🏼👇🏼

Encouraging news I would've missed if it weren't for Liz's weekly update: "The Rutgers University Senate passed a resolution proposing a Mutual Defense Compact in which members of the Big Ten conference will pool funding and legal, policy, and communications capacity and expertise."

More of this!

I flew home from #SciTalk25 last night, so this week’s Meeting the Moment debrief was written at altitude, while I watched lightning pulse in thunderclouds.

What’s happening in science & higher ed: buttondown.com/liminalcreat...

Thread to come after some much needed coffee and hiking.

Week 10 Figuring out what to focus on now & what next in science and higher ed

The latest issue of @lizneeley.bsky.social’s essential weekly newsletter on the continuing attacks on science & higher-ed, and living through these times: buttondown.com/liminalcreat...

Ed Yong on the Pandemic’s Legacy on Science Research and Reporting | KQED As part of our series looking at the legacy of the pandemic five years on, we talk to Ed Yong about how COVID changed our relationship with health news, reporting and research.

I’ve had a several dozen requests to write or be interviewed about the 5th anniversary of Covid and said no to all of them… except this one with @alexis-madrigal.bsky.social. Here’s our chat on the things we’ve memory-holed, and where we go from here.

www.kqed.org/forum/201010...

Week 9 Figuring out what to focus on now & what to focus on next in science and higher ed

Modern science is international. Travel is essential for training & collaboration, but the US is not reliably safe for many of us. We all have ways to confront the threat, even if leadership is failing us.

More on that + Dept of Ed in this week's debrief buttondown.com/liminalcreat...

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Week 6 Figuring out what to focus on now & what to focus on next in science and higher ed

The World Health Organization calculates that measles vaccinations saved 60 million lives, 2000-2023. On Thursday, CDC scientists were forbidden to co-author papers with WHO colleagues.

Other attacks on science + what to do about them in this week's debrief buttondown.com/liminalcreat...
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A little red-orange bird lands on a branch and spreads its wings and tail out

Vermilion flycatcher🪶

📷 Alameda Creek

This bird, which is rare for the Bay Area, was spotted in last year's Christmas Bird Count. No one has seen it for 7 weeks, and a lot of folks have looked. And then it just showed up in the same spot 2 days ago.

One last thing I’ll say about this is that judging by people’s messages, the audio version has some stuff not in the edited online transcript, including a discussion of the false tension around empathy in journalism, and a bit about paying attention to sparrows.

This is excellent

Week 5 Figuring out what to focus on now & what to focus on next in science and higher ed

Every Friday, I write a debrief about what’s happening in science & higher ed. It goes out late, and is written for all the friends & colleagues I wish I could sit down and talk it through with over drinks.

buttondown.com/liminalcreat...

‘The Interview’: Ed Yong Wants to Show You the Hidden Reality of the World The Pulitzer Prize-winning science writer talks about burnout from covering the pandemic and how bird-watching gave him a new sense of hope.

On the cutting room floor is the bit where the host introduced their interview series, The Interview, and I asked how long it took to come up with the name. Anyway, here’s me talking about birds and science and burnout and moving through the world. The photo’s nice! www.nytimes.com/2025/02/22/m...

Week 4 Figuring out what to focus on now & what to focus on next in science and higher ed

We do this all to stay focused, not flooded. I share the sense we’ve made in a late Friday night debrief.

There is a lot to feel sad & sick about. I can’t tell you things will be okay, but I can tell you A LOT about efforts to make it better.

This was week 4.

buttondown.com/liminalcreat...

If you care about science & higher ed in America right now, your world has changed.

We have been forced into a battle we didn’t choose.

Whatever our titles, our jobs now also includes emergency response, psychological first aid, organizing & many other things we weren’t trained in

Week 3 Figuring out what to focus on now & what to focus on next in science and higher ed

Well. I have been informed that it is the weekend, again.

When you are ready to sit down together & figure out what just happened and what to do, we’ve got you: buttondown.com/liminalcreat...

It’s also okay if you’re coming in hot! “What the actual fuck??” is a sensible start place at the moment.

The Ed's Up - On Doing Something When the COVID-19 pandemic started, I had reported the topic, knew people to call, had built enough credibility at my workplace to take big swings, and had...

(and my newsletter, explaining why I’m so proud of Liz. And bird photos buttondown.com/edyong209/ar...)

Week 3 Figuring out what to focus on now & what to focus on next in science and higher ed

Here’s @lizneeley.bsky.social’s latest newsletter, documenting the ongoing attacks on science and higher ed, and figuring out what to focus on: buttondown.com/liminalcreat...

1/8. This week I had a few different conversations with scholars who, in the face of the attacks on science and institutions of learning in the U.S., are wondering what to do. One suggestion I have is: keep doing your work. It matters in and of itself. Why do I say that? A few reasons.

This is the kind of simple and direct message we need right now: long-term damage aside, this attack is going to very quickly make it even harder for people to have the jobs and medical care they need.

Scientific institutions have a long history of anticipatory obedience Societies should learn from this and speak up to support inclusion

"Anyone who has studied science under the Nazis...cannot fail to be dismayed and alarmed at the parallels in the response so far of scientific institutions and academies to the purges and abuses of power following Trump’s executive orders" 🧪 #scicomm

www.chemistryworld.com/opinion/scie...

And I really appreciate this framework too bsky.app/profile/lizn...

@lizneeley.bsky.social is publishing a weekly newsletter to track the ongoing attacks in science and higher ed. If you want to keep abreast without drowning in the news, I recommend it: buttondown.com/liminalcreat...

Emergency Response Checklist. Text says "When bad news hits, don’t freeze. When you’re SCARED, use it." Then it breaks down the acronym: SAFETY CHECK Look for immediate danger and ensure your own safety first. ASSESSMENT Just how bad are things now? (Think DEFCON readiness levels). RISK EVALUATION What is the threat to you? (Deportation? Getting sued? Being hacked?) DECIDE Now you know what to do first. Revisit according to your assessment. You’ve got this.

And finally, this isn’t about exhaustive knowledge about what is happening - it’s about figuring out what to DO.

We made an acronym to help us cope each time we feel our adrenaline spike. That & more in this week’s issue: buttondown.com/liminalcreat...