Again, to dispel many wrong replies... I have done biomedical research for 39 years. Universities and colleges are amazing places to do research. They are *cost-effective*: we educate and we discover, both at once. If federal $ goes away, the research part goes away. I am certain of this. - ThreadSky

samwang.bsky.social • 19 hours ago

Again, to dispel many wrong replies...

I have done biomedical research for 39 years. Universities and colleges are amazing places to do research. They are *cost-effective*: we educate and we discover, both at once.

If federal $ goes away, the research part goes away. I am certain of this.

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ftp-coward.bsky.social•19 hours ago

You’ve have 39 years of experience doing biomedical research but RFK Jr cut the head off a dead whale. So who am I supposed to believe?

samwang.bsky.social•19 hours ago

Wow, hard to argue with this point. Welcome to 2025.

Safely down here in replies, I can point out that I have published on
- whale brains,
- autism,
- vaccine safety, and
- psychedelic drugs.

...but it is undeniable: I have never stuffed a bear cub in a car trunk.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1cvsw4gLGwbW-xghkqHiTH6rR42fSzJrt/edit?rtpof=true

samwang.bsky.social•19 hours ago

by the way, this means that I, too, have handled the brain of a dead whale. TMI maybe

ahmadjohary16.bsky.social•1 hour ago

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My wife Samar and I have a campaign searching for your light ✨.
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ahmadjohary16.bsky.social•1 hour ago

jennysinclair.bsky.social•10 hours ago

There’s an intelligence joke here but I’m not touching it.

coreymutter.bsky.social•18 hours ago

I only program on psychedelic drugs, nowhere near functional enough to write academic papers on them.

samwang.bsky.social•19 hours ago

A few strong institutions, including Harvard and Princeton, are in a position to fight back. At these places, it is possible to resist for maybe 5 years. If that resistance succeeds, it reduces the likelihood of the sabotage to U.S. strength to spread everywhere else.

https://bsky.app/profile/mbkplus.bsky.social/post/3lohq6ab2bk23

jdolbow.bsky.social•2 hours ago

I’d like to see your math on how you would get to maybe 5 years for either institution. Harvard seeking $800M in loans doesn’t strike me as something that can be done every year for five years.

williameburns.bsky.social•1 hour ago

Another question is how this affects donations. Do people stop donating either out of fear of the administration or sympathy with its project, or do they donate more out of solidarity?

scottlgreer.bsky.social•18 hours ago

if Harvard, Princeton, or others are still under this kind of attack in five years we have lost bigger battles than the one for science

paulaptb.bsky.social•17 hours ago

And after 5 years they close the doors having spent all their undedicated endowment.

Just want to be clear there is a cost involved.

ed-tracey.bsky.social•18 hours ago

Universities should form some sort of mutual defense pact (which I think may have already happened in some limited cases). Similar to Clause Five of NATO.

A team push-back is more likely to succeed.

joelyjoelyjoelyjoe.bsky.social•18 hours ago

It’s important to note that every dollar the NIH distributes for basic research returns between $2 and $3 in economic activity, on average. It’s one of the best investments we can make as a nation. Only Donald Trump and his idiotic minions don’t understand this.

mgharris.bsky.social•4 hours ago

It's possible that they do understand. Educated, middle class people are the bane of authoritarians. They prefer more poorly educated, economically precarious electorate who are easily manipulated. The comfortable life of luxury and progress is only necessary for the few oligarchs.

mgharris.bsky.social•4 hours ago

Moreover it can be explicitly sold to the disadvantaged as a benefit. A lot of people understand from early on that they will never be lawyers doctors etc and they can be manipulated to envy these so-called elites. It's easier to bear economic distress when you mostly see others in the same boat.

mgharris.bsky.social•4 hours ago

The oligarchs of course are never accused of being elites. Their criminality or quasi criminality can even be leveraged to suggest that anyone at all, even the disadvantaged, could rise to the same level. persuading the poor to support oligarchs because 'this could be you one day!'

mgharris.bsky.social•4 hours ago

That's why it is absolutely counterproductive to accuse any of them of cheating the way into elite colleges and cheating or plagiarizing to get their qualifications. That just makes them more relatable to people who know they couldn't get higher education qualifications without a thumb on the scale

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