Michael Pollard

Today, 1 in 10 Americans lives with a rare disease. Most of the 7,000+ identified worldwide still have no approved treatment.

Last year, @scripps.edu added its 18th FDA-approved medicine for one of these conditions—advancing options for patients with few alternatives. #RareDiseaseDay

Installed in 1410, the Prague Astronomical Clock has stood over the Old Town Square for more than 600 years.

This episode is about harvesting anger productively, taking up more responsibility, and drawing lines.

If science is a public good, defending it means showing up—and saying no.

#ScienceCounterpunch
www.youtube.com/watch?v=KDTt...

This week's cover @thelancet.com

Cover of the biography of Francis Crick by Matthew Cobb showing a famous picture of Crick using his slide rule to point out a feature on the model of DNA structure,

There are few intimate biographies of those early pioneers of DNA structure and molecular biology and none with the depth that @matthewcobb.bsky.social has explored in Crick. It reveals the complexity that was Francis Crick. Fittingly the last pages stir emotion at our loss of a unique individual.

"Most of the published government-agency and intelligence reports [...] deliver different conclusions, seemingly on the basis of political rather than scientific arguments."

Indeed. The answers are to be found in the peer-reviewed scientific literature with credible experts doing the work.

Scripps Research Prof. Dale Boger has developed a new molecule with the potential to protect against resistance for decades to come. To get the next-generation antibiotic into the hands of patients, however, will require external support for preclinical trials. More: ow.ly/5ths50YklTW

Fragile egos? It would not surprise me that they see what actually happened as laughable compared to their predicted outcomes for the Great Barrington Declaration.

If you are in need of a comprehensive answer about the origins of SARS-CoV-2, I might have a book recommendation to you & SAGO 😅

www.amazon.com/dp/B0FKNDRJ8Z

Cover of I Told You So!

"In his new book, I Told You So!, Matt Kaplan—a longtime science correspondent for The Economist—traces a lineage of internal resistance to paradigm-changing scientific ideas from the Victorian era to today."

Read the #ScienceBooks Review: https://scim.ag/4c70qjX

Such a wild place. A fight for survival. But when the calm returns, even in the darkness, I would happily raise a glass to the fortitude of the house and the efforts of the river. Thank you for adding even more pleasure to my memories of Villager. Great writing.

I was fascinated by the house battling intrusion from the river in Villager. If the damp was only outside, I would live there. Now I see the wildness of the river, I have much more respect for that house. Bring on the wet.

RFK Jr is fine with his MAGA/MAHA crew spewing toxic mercury (Hg) into the air

But he won't give US funds to Gavi to buy vaccines for low income nations unless they remove thimerosal, an ethyl mercury proven as safe

It's methyl mercury that is toxic—a different form of Hg never used in vaccines

Henrietta Lacks

Henrietta Lacks was a Black woman whose (ovarian) cancer cells were used wo her/her family’s consent. Her cells are what would become the HeLa cell, the first immortalized human cell line & one of the most important in medical research.
#BackHistoryMonth

A 'sticky' myth has returned as America's vaccine wars shake Australia With immunisation rates declining and outbreaks of infectious diseases like measles increasing, the consequences of vaccine hesitancy in Australia are becoming clearer.

"Australia's fight against vaccine hesitancy - ABC News"

A lot of people, including me, were wondering how an IRB could ever approve this study.

The answer is that no IRB did. The person who “signed off” on approval from the only ethics board that reviewed it had resigned three years earlier. His signature was used without his knowledge.

This local Wolfdog joined an Olympic ski event and triggered the finish-line camera. This is Nazgul. He snuck into a cross-country skiing sprint this morning and raced the homestretch with some competitors before being escorted home. 14/10 someone get him a medal

Also, if you borrow an author's book from a library in the UK, that author gets more than 12 pence per loan in Public Lending Rights. Any author can earn up to £6,600 per year this way.

Inconceivable indeed …🔻

Art work called Twist at Nobel Park, San Diego, consists of metal disks in a cement path.

Close up of metal disks at Nobel Park in San Diego. Each disk has a letter of the bases A, T G, C of DNA and are organized as the A-T or G-C base pairs.

I've discovered the secret of...Nobel Park, San Diego. The artwork Twist consists of metal disks in cement. Each disk has A, T, C or G laid out as base pairs of a section of DNA. Keep looking down because you never know what you might discover. 🧪

Prof @michaelemann.bsky.social explains how bad actors attack scientists as "political" regardless of the objectivity of their output.

🗣️ "I didn't come to politics. Politics came to me!"

🗣️ "They would much rather have you just be quiet and take it!"

Full chat: youtube.com/watch?v=O4PF...

🧪⚛️

It’s so funny to think about the fact that there’s people out there deferring every life decision to this

Enjoy! We will be opening a nice bottle tonight ourselves because 💩💩💩 is certain to be hitting the fan of medicine/science going forward.

YouTube video by Bad Boy of Science Ep1: Peter Hotez and Michael Mann: Science Under Siege

My #ScienceUnderSiege co-author @peterhotezmdphd.bsky.social & I join @philippmarkolin.bsky.social for the inaugural episode of the #ScienceCounterpunch podcast: www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4PF...

The first epsiode of the Science Counterpunch is now live!

Prof @peterhotezmdphd.bsky.social and Prof @michaelemann.bsky.social join us to discuss who is attacking science and why, what tactics you should watch out for, and how you can fight back!

YT Link: youtube.com/watch?v=O4PF...

🧪⚛️

Announcing: Science Counterpunch Fighting back for science & scientists was never more urgent

Here is an announcement for everybody who is sick and tired on the attacks on science and scientists.

It has been months in the making, but now we are ready to fight back.

First episode airs tomorrow 5pm UK.

New episode every friday.

Incredible guests lined up.
open.substack.com/pub/protagon...

Vintage black-and-white photograph of Sofya Vasilyevna Kovalevskaya (1850–1891), renowned Russian mathematician and the first major woman in modern mathematics. The young woman looks straight ahead with a thoughtful, composed gaze. She wears a formal dark Victorian blouse with a tall, stiff collar, and wide dark ribbon accents across the chest. Her hair is short dark, thick, and neatly styled.

Mathematician Sofya Kovalevskaya was the first woman to:

+ Earn a doctorate in #mathematics (in the modern sense)
+ Be appointed to a full professorship in mathematics

She was also one of the first women to work for a scientific journal as an editor. She died #OTD in 1891.

#WomenInSTEM

This made me ugly cry 😭

I will never claim that he was perfect…every president in my lifetime has pissed me off for one reason or another.
But…dammit, I’m so tired of the constant feeling of uneasiness and uncertainty 😔

Prasad overruled FDA staff to reject Moderna's flu vaccine application The rejection is the latest instance of Vinay Prasad overruling career FDA scientists to place vaccines under harsher scrutiny.

Scoop: Top FDA official Vinay Prasad overruled the agency’s reviewers when he refused to accept Moderna’s application for a new influenza vaccine, STAT has learned.
www.statnews.com/2026/02/11/m...