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audreydrotos.bsky.social
auditory neurophysiologist/professional mouse dj @ UPenn Geffen Lab • founder @your.neighborhoodscientist.org • science advocate • cellist • long distance runner • she/her • my views are not penns
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Share why doing and supporting science is patriotic at the poll below! 🇺🇸

Everybody needs to read what is going on inside the NIH. This is what independent journalism looks like, talking to real sources in the middle of a conflict; and not the billionaire-fluffing press paying influential op-ed writers to normalize and whitewash the actions of the current administration.

If you have some ~cool sounds~ and you’re okay with them being used as stimuli for research, we’re collecting natural sound recordings for a project! Bonus points if they’re sampled at 192kHz or higher 😊 send me a message if you have something like this we’d love to use it!

Good morning ☀️

NSF GRFPs terminated for those in graduate school and already attending Harvard, too.

I had SO much fun speaking about how amazing hearing is at Philly’s @pintofscience.us last night!! Thank you to my amazing lab @geffenlab.bsky.social & @mikelhaggadone.bsky.social for coming out to support! 🧠 🍺

Pint of science with @audreydrotos.bsky.social, Dmitrios Boufidis, & Jacqui Barker - all there to celebrate brains & brain research. Sold out; packed house. So fun!

The Supreme Court could rule that today is Friday May 16 and Alito and Thomas would dissent

I am a proud HHMI Gilliam Fellow alumn. The HHMI funded me at a critical time in my career - a real inflection point that made me realize that I had a place and future in science. I always looked to the HHMI as a safety net to those historically excluded by academia, 1/4

Everything seems terrible in the world but this is Marvin, a scared little shelter pup we adopted last week. We love him and his little tail wags and sweet kisses and goofy mannerisms so much. Thanks for bringing us a lot of joy in such a hard time, little buddy ❤️

Heartbroken to hear that the @hhmi.org Hanna Grey fellowship competition is being cancelled this year. I poured so much work and creativity into this app and am very grateful for everyone who helped me revise. It is such a difficult time to be a young scientist.

Philadelphia friends! We SO NEED to celebrate science. Let's raise a glass to brains. Join us Wed, 5/21 for Pint of Science. I'll be opening for headliners Dimitris Boufidis, @audreydrotos.bsky.social, & Jacqui Barker. 😊 Tickets (to support the org, $2): pintofscience.us/events/phila...

The Human Genome Project cost taxpayers $3 Billion. Two decades on, it has generated a staggering return on investment of $1 Trillion, with benefits in medicine, agriculture, energy, the environment, & more. If you want to boost the economy, funding science is one of the best things you could do.

Scientists work together with others across all sectors of our communities, including public health. This week, we’re bringing you an article from Alyssa Maturen, who leads a vaccine coalition & discusses how vaccines build strong, healthy communities for everyone. You can read & subscribe below:

Pretty amazing graphic to go with the @financialtimes.com article about the cost of Trump's attack on US science NIH is HUGE! www.ft.com/content/67fd...

LOUDER FOR THE PEOPLE IN THE BACK

Thirty-eight of 43 experts cut last month from the boards that review the science and research that happens in laboratories at the National Institutes of Health are female, Black or Hispanic, according to an analysis by the chairs of a dozen of the boards.

The US National Institutes of Health has terminated nearly 800 research projects at a breakneck pace, wiping out significant chunks of funding to entire scientific fields Read the full story: https://go.nature.com/3EuFRPV

boston globe editorial board: harvard is making the right decision, and universities should band together to fight. www.bostonglobe.com/2025/04/16/o...

Having so much fun at Max Planck this week learning about cutting edge neural techniques & so much incredible science (and meeting Nobel laureates!) 🧠

Harvard will not comply. “No government — regardless of which party is in power — should dictate what private universities can teach, whom they can admit and hire, and which areas of study and inquiry they can pursue.” — Harvard President Alan M. Garber www.thecrimson.com/article/2025...

Washington Post: 'NIH scientists have a cancer breakthrough. Layoffs are delaying it.' 'A big step forward in cancer therapy has been slowed by layoffs and new restrictions at the National Institutes of Health, where it was developed.' www.washingtonpost.com/science/2025...

Today we released our fourth article for @your.neighborhoodscientist.org! During this time when my future and the future of US science is uncertain, I’m finding a lot of comfort in my colleagues who continue to do beautiful work and Francesca’s words resonate deeply with me. Read & subscribe below:

Booker finally yields after more than 25 hours of speaking 👏👏👏

“This will go down as one of the darkest days in modern scientific history” 🧪 www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Philly friends: Save the date! @audreydrotos.bsky.social (& I ++) will be sharing the good word with Pint of Science on the evening of 5/19 - details to come.

This program has existed for 30+ years, through multiple administrative transition and with bipartisan support. The canceling of these programs is executive overreach by this administration.

We polled Nature readers to ask if they were thinking of leaving the US for jobs abroad. Three-quarters of them (who said they were US-based scientists) said yes. 🧪 www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Every academic should be making noise about this right now. Your research is not more important than what's happening. This is it. The fight has come to our doorstep and we have to acknowledge it.

JUST BECAUSE THE CLOWN CAR GOES VERY FAST DOES NOT MEAN IT ISN’T FULL OF CLOWNS

This is wildly cool. (The data and the visualization.) We should all know that #NIH has made a HUGE investment in cryo-EM over the past decade. Killing NIH, as Trump is doing, hugely sets back studies like this.

Instead of letting Trump pick them off one by one, American universities need to band together and fight back. Even being Trump's alma mater did not save UPenn from massive cuts.

If you are visiting the United States, having a negative view of Trump is enough to get you denied entry. If this was coming out of Russia or China, we would deplore such an authoritarian attack on freedom of expression.

This is horrible to post, but I may as well post it. We are essentially shutting down research operations in my group, which is focused on treatments for pediatric brain cancer. I’m a well funded investigator, and there’s no choice. Science can’t function without the stability of NIH

Please contact me right away with stories about researchers and patients who have been adversely impacted by firings, disruptions to research, or discontinuation of treatment. [email protected]. I'm gathering this information for the congressional HELP Committee. Thanks.

“Our ability to conduct research, teach, & speak freely is under threat. This may be an existential moment for higher education. Colleges & universities are a key part of the fabric of American society. What we do is critical to the U.S. economy, technology, public health, & scientific advancement”

My piece for @your.neighborhoodscientist.org on the importance and value of basic science research. I’m proud of the work we do as scientists and hope to share this pride with the taxpayers who make our research possible. Please subscribe to the YNS newsletter and amplify their advocacy. 🙏

You can read @mikelhaggadone.bsky.social’s beautiful piece about the importance of basic science research (and all the cool things we have learned from it!) on our website! 🧪🔬