blekhman.bsky.social - Profile | ThreadSky | a Reddit-style client for Bluesky

Love this example. In 1981 John Hopfield received this small $283K NSF grant to study an obscure topic -- artificial neural networks: www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/... The results of this NSF grant are the basis of a multibillion-dollar AI revolution, for which Dr. Hopfield won a Nobel prize last year

submitted 1 day ago • 0 comments

Spring evening, Hyde Park, Chicago

submitted 2 days ago • 0 comments

It's great to see some initiative from the EU, but unfortunately this will not move the needle. $566 million is nothing -- just the cuts to Harvard alone ($2 billion) is 4x this amount. www.nytimes.com/2025/05/05/w...

submitted 4 days ago • 2 comments

Why are they trying to kill the goose that lays the golden eggs? #WithoutNSF the US would not be at the forefront of science innovation in the world. #SaveNSF #StandUpForScience www.nsf.gov/policies/doc...

submitted 7 days ago • 9 comments

This might be a controversial topic, but as a professor of medicine, I feel that I must speak up: I believe that the germ theory is real

submitted 7 days ago • 0 comments

Do people in the same household share strains when they have the same species? How many cells transmit when a strain is shared? Can strain composition be dynamic when species composition is stable? We answer these and related questions for the facial skin microbiome in our latest paper. 🧵[1/10]

submitted 8 days ago • 3 comments

I received a surprising and disturbing request from NIH on Friday. They wrote to cancel a subaward to Hong Kong on one of my grants. (This was disturbing but not surprising.) They also ordered us not to interact with our collaborators in Hong Kong on any work under the award:

submitted 11 days ago • 11 comments

Sending you all some peace from Chicago

submitted 11 days ago • 0 comments

In today's journal club we had a great discussion of this new paper, describing a clinical trial of defined bacterial consortium to treat C. diff recurrence. Exciting times for microbiome therapeutics! www.nature.com/articles/s41...

submitted 14 days ago • 1 comment

Keep in mind that this is just the beginning. I wouldn't be surprised to see an "official" NIH page saying that vaccines cause autism next. We're far from the bottom. www.npr.org/sections/sho...

submitted 19 days ago • 1 comment

Metabolites are not genes — avoiding the misuse of pathway analysis in metabolomics www.nature.com/articles/s42...

submitted 21 days ago • 0 comments

Cherry blossoms 🌸 are back at Jackson Park. Fortunate to have this park in our neighborhood

submitted 23 days ago • 0 comments

Come and work with me! The Nature Micro team is expanding and we're looking for someone to champion microbial ecology, plant micro & related areas for the journal Knowledge of microbial ecology/plant micro is desirable but we're open to applications from all microbiologists Link below 👇

submitted 28 days ago • 1 comment

Great to see a successful clinical trial for phage therapy! But these p-values are making my eye twitch www.fiercebiotech.com/biotech/biom...

submitted 26 days ago • 4 comments

You know the situation is really dire when they bring back the dire wolf

submitted 31 days ago • 0 comments

I'm delighted to share a useful FREE web-based app portal of powerful bioinformatics tools for microbial genomes and shotgun microbiome sequences! It's called Micromics and is built by Middle Author Bioinformatics, led by co-founder @ironark.bsky.social omix.midauthorbio.com

submitted 31 days ago • 7 comments

The reason biologists in your timeline are furious by this PR: the idea that species that diverged millions of years ago have only 20 genetic differences defies the fundamental principles of evolution. Like saying you turned a Honda Civic into a Formula 1 car by changing the oil

submitted 31 days ago • 3 comments

Heartbroken to learn of Sayan's passing. I was fortunate to work with Sayan on a few occasions - beyond being one of the smartest people I know, he was always so kind and thoughtful, and just incredibly fun to talk to about science. May his memory be a blessing. www.mis.mpg.de/news/loss-sa...

submitted 32 days ago • 0 comments

Big crowd in Chicago #handsoff

submitted 33 days ago • 0 comments

Just decided to impose a tariff on Starbucks because of our trade deficit. I spend hundreds of dollars a year buying coffee from them, but they never once hired me to teach a class there

submitted 36 days ago • 0 comments

Timeline cleanse. Rainbow over the grand canyon, taken a couple of weeks ago

submitted 38 days ago • 0 comments

Maybe it's a good time to remind everyone that 40% of US Nobel Prize winners are immigrants. America benefits when we welcome global talent. When we block international scientists, we diminish our own future www.forbes.com/sites/stuart...

submitted 40 days ago • 0 comments

Working with an interdisciplinary team, we have developed a website to communicate how the White House's proposed cuts to health research would cause losses of $16B and 68,500 jobs. Find out how your community may be impacted. Explore more at SCIMaP: scienceimpacts.org a 🧵

submitted 42 days ago • 207 comments

I think the "just move to Canada/Europe" crowd are underestimating the hurdles of immigrating abroad. Even if jobs were easily available (they aren't), being an immigrant in a foreign country is one of the most challenging life experiences a person can face.

submitted 42 days ago • 5 comments

Spatial transcriptomic imaging of an intact organism. Mind blowing www.nature.com/articles/s41...

submitted 43 days ago • 0 comments

Please call your representatives! A couple of weeks ago it took me 3 hours to reach them. Today it took 2 minutes. We need to keep the pressure up, wherever you are #ScienceSavesLives

submitted 44 days ago • 0 comments

"Universities must maintain transparent, frequent communication with faculty & scientists...Legal challenges buy us time, but we need comprehensive, proactive strategies to sustain scientific infrastructure" elifesciences.org/articles/106... @blekhman.bsky.social Also nailing it @elife.bsky.social

submitted 45 days ago • 0 comments

1/ “The new Trump administration has wasted no time launching a multi-pronged assault on the scientific enterprise in the United States,” Ran Blekhman writes. So what do we do about it? @blekhman.bsky.social #StandUpForScience elifesciences.org/articles/106...

submitted 45 days ago • 2 comments

1/ Today, we publish the first of seven articles in a series exploring ‘Science Under Threat in the United States’. The authors discuss what they describe as the Trump administration's "assault" on science and scientists, and what the response should be. #StandUpForScience

submitted 45 days ago • 1 comment

My OpEd in @elife.bsky.social “It feels as if we are trying to fight a series of attacks on science with one arm tied behind our back and our lips half sewn shut.” “Yet we are not beaten, and some of us are downright energized.” elifesciences.org/articles/106...

submitted 45 days ago • 9 comments

Trying to make sense of the current situation, I put together some thoughts in an op-ed for @elife.bsky.social on what we, as scientists, can do – and what institutions MUST do – to protect science right now elifesciences.org/articles/106...

submitted 45 days ago • 1 comment

Nice to see the NIH funding crisis finally getting real news coverage. Stories from the last couple of days: PBS (3/22): www.pbs.org/newshour/sho... ABC News (3/23): abcnews.go.com/Health/scien... Wired (3/24): www.wired.com/story/the-ch... NY Times (3/24): www.nytimes.com/2025/03/24/h...

submitted 45 days ago • 1 comment

If this is the type of top secret info you get BY ACCIDENT, can you imagine what actual spies are walking away with

submitted 45 days ago • 0 comments

I spoke with Wired about the science funding crisis. NIH cuts are forcing universities to slash PhD admissions, threatening the next generation of researchers. A critical moment for the future of American science. www.wired.com/story/the-ch...

submitted 46 days ago • 1 comment

I have no words

submitted 49 days ago • 2 comments

"Your job is to have ideas and spread them so that they impact other people’s work. Writing is your job. Nothing else. Therefore, everything else that you do is subservient to the activity of writing. Let this revolution take place in your mind." www.nature.com/articles/s41...

submitted 50 days ago • 3 comments

Chilling to see this list of terminated NIH grants. Research on Alzheimer's, HIV, rare diseases, vaccines -- gone. Cancer centers closed, training grants & fellowships terminated. Young scientists stranded. Patients waiting for treatments that'll never come. Just sad. taggs.hhs.gov/Content/Data...

submitted 51 days ago • 3 comments

It's important to say this: Antisemitism on college campuses is real. It has severely impacted Jewish students and faculty. This demands action. But canceling NIH grants is wrong and shortsighted. How is punishing biomedical scientists and stopping cancer research supposed to help?

submitted 52 days ago • 2 comments

First time visiting the grand canyon. Breathtaking. We live in the most beautiful country in the world

submitted 53 days ago • 1 comment

Northern Arizona today. A well needed break

submitted 54 days ago • 2 comments

While we're at it they should do a clinical trial for chicken soup and wearing garlic around your neck

submitted 59 days ago • 0 comments

Spotted today in Chicago 😅

submitted 61 days ago • 1 comment

Great turnout in the snow in Chicago today to #standupforscience - and a lot of really clever signs pushing back on the vile assault on research now underway!

submitted 62 days ago • 2 comments

I’m here!

submitted 62 days ago • 0 comments