Michael Pollard

I missed this from a couple of weeks ago, but if you're an NIH-funded investigator, please read.

Peer review will exist to make things look legitimate, but can, and will, be over-ruled. Funding decisions, ultimately, will be done by political appointees.

grants.nih.gov/news-events/...

NYTimes

Today is a dark day for American science and biomedicine. My comments in @nytimes.com

www.nytimes.com/2025/12/05/h...

Important thread 🧵 on what eugenics is and isn’t from @jackiantonovich.bsky.social. Thank you, Jackie!

Writing in ink and pencil in Franklin's notebook, from Churchill College.

Franklin searching for the structure of DNA in 1952, with triple and quadruple strands, some of which exclude a helix. She was working with the wrong structure of the bases, so would be unable to find the right answer.

Its never failed to amaze me that using the correct structures for base pairing, so essential to achieving the structure, was little more than being in the right place at the right time - Donohue's knowledge and Watson's fiddling. It pays to be with smart/lucky people, not essentially by yourself.

Genomic evidence supports the “long chronology” for the peopling of Sahul Genome data provide support for the first settlement of Australia and New Guinea via at least two routes by 60,000 years ago.

Humans took two routes to reach the ancient landmass Sahul about 60,000 years ago.

Learn more in #ScienceAdvances: https://scim.ag/3XOFMwn

The U.S. Is Funding Fewer Grants in Every Area of Science and Medicine (Gift Article) A quiet policy change means the government is making fewer bets on long-term science.

New York Times article on science funding with some depressing but familiar curves with interactive graphics.

www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

Gosh, whoever could have predicted 🤨

Magnum bottle of Stella Rosa Prosecco Love Series.

Let's get this open.

Peter Hotez: Mapping the Anti-Science Machine Howie and Harlan are joined by Peter Hotez, a vaccine expert and an outspoken opponent of health misinformation, to discuss vaccine skepticism and the forces—from wellness influencers to HHS secretary...

My Yale medical school @thehowie.bsky.social @hmkyale.bsky.social Health & Veritas Podcast

insights.som.yale.edu/podcasts/hea...

Matthew Cobb (@matthewcobb2) This was a terrific discussion with Eric about my new biography of Francis Crick.

Now live, and thanks to @erictopol.bsky.social for organising this!

Here's an extract from my chat with @erictopol.bsky.social about Crick; this is about his involvement in 1980s work that helped lead to today's "AI"'s. Full video here: substack.com/home/post/p-...

Worth dropping into.🧪

That's excellent.

I know there have been arguments over who missed out on a Nobel. But is there a male version of Franklin? Someone who had their work used as part of Nobel winning science but did not receive due acknowledgement? Science is so competitive, its hard to belive there isn't.

NIH shake-up to grant decision-making draws concerns of political meddling Policy drops “paylines” based on peer-review scores and requires geography and other factors to guide approvals

In a potentially dramatic change to how it chooses what science to fund, NIH is ending a long-running practice at many of its institutes of establishing, and making public, a threshold peer-review score needed for a grant application’s approval. https://scim.ag/48ck2zu

A Bluesky tweet: “Just remember that given the abundance of neurodivergent people in science, it’s far more likely that autism causes vaccines.”

WSJ

Neither do the French. .

Australia's Head explosion sums up and decides Perth's TikTok Test match The innings of a lifetime from Travis Head may be the resounding memory from an often farcical first Test in Perth, won by Australia and lost by England in spectacular fashion.

"The Barmy Army, stunned into reckless late-afternoon abandon, began hurling beer trays at each other, creating a cascade of cardboard which was still only the third or fourth strangest thing happening at that given moment."
#TheCricket

Change on CDC website links vaccines and autism. What does it mean for doctors, parents? The updated page casts aside decades of research by scientists around the world, which has found no link between childhood vaccines and autism.

My interview with @dallasnews.com www.dallasnews.com/news/public-...

Being an ex-Aussie, I welcome any and all cricket posts.

After unprecedented autism-vaccine messaging change, scientists, advocates say CDC no longer trustworthy

My comments with @cidrap.bsky.social @lizszabo.bsky.social

www.cidrap.umn.edu/childhood-va...

Excellent. Love the comments.

After unprecedented autism-vaccine messaging change, scientists, advocates say CDC no longer trustworthy

Scientists tell Americans not to trust the CDC.

Instead of a global leader in science, the CDC has devolved into “a propaganda machine for RFK Jr.'s fixed, immutable, science-resistant theories,” said @pauloffit.bsky.social.

www.cidrap.umn.edu/childhood-va...

BBC

Whooping cough outbreaks surge, fueled by waning immunity and falling vaccination rates New details from health officials suggest the whooping cough surge may be part of a national pattern driven by slipping vaccine coverage and waning immunity, with infants bearing the brunt.

"In the first three months of 2025, the U.S. tallied 6,600 cases — four times last year's pace and 25 times 2023's. Several states are posting their highest case totals in a decade, and outbreaks from Louisiana to South Dakota to Idaho make clear this surge isn't regional. It's everywhere." 🧪

CDC Vaccine Website Promotes Antiscience Claims of Autism Ties The CDC this week quietly changed its official language to suggest vaccines may cause autism, a claim that scientists say has no basis in evidence

When you have a bias "vaccines cause autism" and you go looking for evidence to support that claim, you aren't doing science. You are simply feeding on your own BS.🧪

How awful. This is outright health disinformation, lying to the American people. Not only is there massive evidence showing no link between vaccines & autism, there’s not even a plausible mechanism based on what we’ve learned about the genetics of autism, some environmental exposures in pregnancy

I really hate it when scientists keep saying that “we need to rebuild trust in science,” because it implies that scientists are to blame for the mistrust rather than the millions of dollars of dark money that have funded political attacks on science in order to advance a far right agenda.