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laurahowes.bsky.social
Editor (she/her) @cenmag.bsky.social into biomolecules, drug discovery, and biotech. Also beer, skiing, and the joys of being an immigrant in Germany. All views expressed here are absolutely mine, especially when they're right. DM for Signal.
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And to add to this: if something is on the public internet, journalists can cover it and you have no control over this. Yes, preprints need be covered cautiously, but have you seen the state of what makes it through peer-review sometimes?!

submitted 2 hours ago • 2 comments

Are you a US-based researcher who’s tempted to move abroad? Initiatives are springing up to tempt researchers to move from the US. We want to hear from people considering these offers. cen.acs.org/policy/resea... #chemsky🧪 #phdsky #academicsky

submitted 1 day ago • 5 comments

From the other room a disembodied voice just dismissively says "it sounds like a Christmas advert"

submitted 2 days ago • 1 comment

The same day this story goes live trying to work out what might happen to the drug approvals process, Biohaven became the latest firm to announce a pushed back PDUFA date ir.biohaven.com/news-release...

submitted 3 days ago • 0 comments

Two excellent pieces of news about @cenmag.bsky.social reporters and their stories: First up, Priyanka Runwal's excellent article on efforts to treat sickle cell disease in India has won a AAJA 2025 Journalism Excellence Award. You can read that story here: cen.acs.org/pharmaceutic...

submitted 3 days ago • 1 comment

Things are changing so fast at the FDA that when I emailed a trade group for comment on a policy announced yesterday morning, they sent me an answer about the new policy from the day before. Here's a humble attempt to tally up the way these changes might affect drug dev: cen.acs.org/pharmaceutic...

submitted 4 days ago • 0 comments

Although temporarily paused by a court order, NSF's restructuring plans have many worried about the agency's future. “The entire landscape of American science, research, and engineering are under heavy attack,” one NSF employee says. cen.acs.org/policy/resea...

submitted 4 days ago • 1 comment

Big changes in #WHO leadership as the global health agency grapples with the loss of U.S. funding. Mike Ryan, who has led the health emergencies program, is leaving. www.statnews.com/2025/05/14/w...

submitted 4 days ago • 1 comment

ATTN #ChemSky: It's time to nominate folks for C&EN's Trailblazers 🎉 This year, we'll be featuring disabled chemists & chemical engineers, and highlighting their research and how they make their workspaces more accessible! Nominate someone here by June 4: cenm.ag/nominatetrai... #DisabledInSTEM

submitted 4 days ago • 0 comments

I have no idea if there is any connection to the measurement of length, or the guy who gave the unit his name, but I feel #chemsky needs to be alerted to this

submitted 4 days ago • 3 comments

"For me, the answer now lies in refusal, the withdrawal of participation from systems that require dishonesty as the price of belonging." Today I am resigning from the National Science Board and the Library of Congress Scholars Council. I wrote about my decision in TIME. time.com/7285045/resi...

submitted 5 days ago • 489 comments

Those lentil-weaving hippies at the London Stock Exchange Group reckon the global green economy is worth $7.9tr, is the fourth largest sector in the world, and has grown faster than every industry barring technology over the past decade. www.businessgreen.com/news/4413438...

submitted 6 days ago • 2 comments

The text of EO is now available. It does.... very little beyond directing HHS to write regulations to make lower drug prices happen. Except there's no legislation that allows such regulations to happen.... so, it's no real surprise that the main pharma stock indexes are all up today.

submitted 5 days ago • 4 comments

any ALS researchers follow me here? or ppl know of researchers on BlueSky studying ALS? will go looking for myself, but trying the passive option first.

submitted 6 days ago • 0 comments

So ahead of the potential signing of this EO today, trying to think this through. DJT says he wants to reduce the price of drugs for US consumers. Biopharma will push back, but it seems inevitable that those of us outside the US will see drug prices go up. What happens next?

submitted 6 days ago • 6 comments

#chemsky 🧪

submitted 6 days ago • 0 comments

Guys, I just want to say that on Friday I renewed my library card and took out a bunch of books that are not worthy, or serious, or educational. They're just stories, and they have already fundamentally made my mental health better. Thank God for the story tellers.

submitted 6 days ago • 65 comments

I think the word I am looking for is holy frick. GDP contributions from 2019 to 2024. Germany's GDP would have been 6% lower, had it not been for foreign workers. (HT @maxkrahe.bsky.social)

submitted 9 days ago • 9 comments

My latest for @cenmag.bsky.social: cen.acs.org/education/AC... #ChemSky

submitted 9 days ago • 2 comments

White smoke! 💨 (Got this graphic out just in time!)

submitted 10 days ago • 1 comment

Big news today: Bill Gates will wind down the Gates Foundation in 2045, earlier than previously planned, with accelerated giving over the next 20 years. “There are too many urgent problems to solve for me to hold onto resources that could be used to help people." www.statnews.com/2025/05/08/b...

submitted 10 days ago • 21 comments

Sweet!

submitted 10 days ago • 0 comments

Germany's central medical library, ZBMed, is building an alternative to PubMed. It will be open source, based on MeSH & associated data standards, built to be sustainable in case PubMed becomes unreliable - with APIs & MeSH maintenance. Open meeting called! 1/2 www.heise.de/news/Wegen-T... #MedLibs

submitted 11 days ago • 1 comment