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

Postdocs and PhD students hit hard by Trump’s crackdown on science. Story by @heidiledford.bsky.social & @humbertobasilio.bsky.social www.nature.com/articles/d41...

submitted 21 hours ago • 3 comments

Science is under threat 🧪 @royalsociety.org royalsociety.org/news/2025/02...

submitted 16 hours ago • 0 comments

NIH cuts are getting the press, but VA research is getting slashed too. What do we lose when VA research goes away? Here's some greatest hits: The nicotine patch, invention of the cardiac pacemaker, first successful liver transplant, development of the CAT/CT scan prospect.org/health/2025-...

submitted 17 hours ago • 7 comments

Thanks to @jbiomech.bsky.social for highlighting our recent article on how people modulate stride frequency in walking, led by @russell-t-johnson.bsky.social #BiomechSky

submitted 21 hours ago • 0 comments

Scientists work for years to get National Science Foundation funding. It’s extremely competitive. If you do, it pays your students. Pays their rent, food & tuition while they do science in your lab. Right now, it’s being ripped away for reasons having nothing to do with efficiency or merit.

submitted 1 day ago • 3 comments

I teach a 'professional skills for research scientists' course for our PhD students. The main changes I've made in recent years involve explicitly addressing matters of equity and discrimination in science and academia. I thought I was finally done revising that aspect of the course. Silly me.

submitted 2 days ago • 1 comment

Maine is a hard place that grows some hard people. Trump is picking a fight with their governor?

submitted 3 days ago • 3 comments

The presidents of all universities should hold a press conference together at the National Press Club in Washington DC condemning the attacks on science and universities and outline the stakes for all Americans. 1/

submitted 3 days ago • 12 comments

This article explains the current freeze on NIH review, which has impacted my R01 renewal: www.nytimes.com/2025/02/21/s...

submitted 3 days ago • 0 comments

Deep and thoughtful reporting on the crises of the NIH funding and review blocks. Share locally, share widely. And make sure your reps know! www.washingtonpost.com/science/2025...

submitted 3 days ago • 1 comment

Very excited for our new review paper (with Tony Russell) on gecko adhesion, locomotion, and ecomechanics. This stemmed from the JEB symposium last year. @jexpbiol.bsky.social @ucriverside.bsky.social #gecko #ecomechanics #adhesion journals.biologists.com/jeb/article/...

submitted 5 days ago • 3 comments

PLOS has issued a statement on recent US Executive Orders and scientific integrity. We are determined to stand firmly behind our mission, our values and our principles, and against any attempt at censorship or undermining of the core principles of scientific inquiry. plos.io/3D4O8cH

submitted 5 days ago • 27 comments

@jexpbiol.bsky.social Special Issue is now out... Integrating Biomechanics, Energetics and Ecology in Locomotion Was fun to be part of this paper led by Glen Lichtwark "Integrating muscle energetics into biomechanical models to understand variance in the cost of movement" tinyurl.com/2xvkwbra

submitted 4 days ago • 0 comments

I want to give this multiple hearts for your shout-out to NIH staff! ❤️❤️❤️ But also, science breakthroughs only happen after seemingly useless exploration. That's science. If we already knew the answer and how to get it, we wouldn't need all these studies... Exploration IS progress!

submitted 4 days ago • 1 comment

I got mad and wrote an article.

submitted 4 days ago • 1 comment

Just talked to a friend who works for the DoE and had 2 papers censored for violating an EO. One because it uses “toxicity” (about chemical leakage into drinking wells) & the other for “diversity” (as in “microbial diversity”). We are at Soviet-level stupidity censorship.

submitted 5 days ago • 7 comments

We are inviting submissions to our upcoming Special Issue: The Integrative Biology of Exercise. 🧵1/3 journals.biologists.com/jeb/pages/ex...

submitted 6 days ago • 1 comment

Why I Study Cancer The cancers that are fatal today don't have to be tomorrow. Support for biomedical research enables generational shifts in how we treat cancer. What a privilege to work at @cancercenteril. Work funded by National Institutes of Health www.instagram.com/reel/DGTUxwD...

submitted 5 days ago • 0 comments

Our paper on sparse sensorsets was published: www.frontiersin.org/journals/bio...! Happy to get it out after many private and professional challenges. We show that as long as there are IMUs on the feet and the thighs/pelvis, simulations are similarly accurate as with a full lower leg IMU setup.

submitted 5 days ago • 0 comments

Upon learning that yesterday would be my last day as a program officer at the National Science Foundation, I shared this parting message with my colleagues. The next few months will be frenetic and stressful for them. Here are some things that you can do to help them with the mission ahead. (1)

submitted 6 days ago • 68 comments

Judge Reyes just became my favorite person.

submitted 6 days ago • 12 comments

"I don't know what NSF is going to be now, but it's not more efficient. It's just a mess." My story on today's firings and their impact. www.npr.org/2025/02/18/n...

submitted 7 days ago • 5 comments

Hello, early career researchers. The deadline for applications for the Promising Young Scientist and Jacquelin Perry Emerging Female Scientist Award are coming up on Feb 28. I HIGHLY encourage you to submit an application. See details here isb2025.com/submission/a...

submitted 15 days ago • 0 comments

Depressing but not unexpected update from an NIH study section chairperson. Thanks for your leadership ‪@katherineaboyer.bsky.social The amount of effort, time, and money wasted by our national leaders for no reason is staggering. And this is just one small piece of the carnage.

submitted 6 days ago • 0 comments

As the Trump administration & many state governments appear poised to accelerate attacks on higher education as a public good, the AAUP urges colleges & universities to resist the coming onslaught of political interference & defend the core values of higher education. 🧵 www.aaup.org/news/against...

submitted 33 days ago • 4 comments

Nearly 1,000 people marched in the snow from the State House in Boston to City Hall, chanting “Elon Musk has got to go” and “No kings on Presidents Day!” The temperature was below freezing with wind chills in the teens.

submitted 8 days ago • 14 comments

Dear NSF scientists and staff: If you're looking to talk to a journalist about what's going on at the agency, please reach out (from a non-governmental phone/computer) via signal @jonlambert.12

submitted 8 days ago • 1 comment

This is the thing about basic science… You never know where it will lead, and you cannot presuppose what commercial product comes out of it. They don’t tend to award Nobel Prizes for translational science. They award them for basic, often exploratory science.

submitted 16 days ago • 0 comments

Sharing because I haven't seen it yet: NSF updated communication on 2/15 www.nsf.gov/executive-or... Mostly logistical stuff, but interesting to see that merit criteria staying put and panels are ongoing.

submitted 9 days ago • 1 comment

For every time I was frustrated with an NIH or NSF PO for not getting back to me, seemingly conflicting advice, etc, there were 99 times when they were super helpful, responsive, and supportive. The consummate scientific professionals. It's devastating what's happening to them and their colleagues.

submitted 9 days ago • 1 comment

N.I.H. Research Grants Lag $1 Billion Behind Last Year’s Total at This Same Date in the Year www.nytimes.com/2025/02/14/h...

submitted 9 days ago • 0 comments

The overnight snow has turned to freezing rain in #Maine today and everything is cold and bleak outside, so naturally I find myself organizing and editing my vibrant color photos. Here are some autumn colors from the flank of Mount Washington, NH #photography #PhotographersUnited #EastCoastKin

submitted 10 days ago • 3 comments

@DrJimmyBagley and I wrote this while he was fighting (and beating!) cancer. Grateful for him as my colleague and friend. “A primer on global molecular responses to exercise in skeletal muscle: Omics in focus”. Cutting edge! @JSHS_MedHealth #myoblue www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

submitted 10 days ago • 0 comments

I've been told this is a LARGE number of FDAers, with the devices side being A LOT more impacted than drugs. CDRH was already very unstaffed for their responsibilities; their role is so important to ensure consumer confidence in the safety and efficacy of devices. www.statnews.com/2025/02/15/t...

submitted 9 days ago • 1 comment

Today's San Jose Mercury News has my Letter to the Editor about the disastrous proposed cuts to NIH. The ramifications are hard to summarize in <150 words, but here's my attempt. www.mercurynews.com/2025/02/14/l... 🧪 #NeuroSky

submitted 9 days ago • 5 comments

NIH funding at @UMich supports important medical research, such as extending the life of organs waiting for transplant, advancing treatments for cerebral palsy, and sustaining experimental genetic trials for children with brain cancer.

submitted 11 days ago • 221 comments

A bright spot in an otherwise bleak week is the amazing undergrad in our lab (not on Bsky) getting multiple PhD program offers, including their top choice. Very deserving and I couldn't be happier.

submitted 11 days ago • 1 comment

While we're rightfully lamenting DEI policy changes and program elimination, be sure to embrace the positive impact we can each have in our own circles, whether large or small. No one in Washington can prevent you from personally valuing diversity, treating others respectfully, or promoting equity.

submitted 12 days ago • 2 comments

"I've spent over five decades as a scientist in academia and the federal government," Harold Varmus, the former director of the N.I.H., writes in a guest essay. "Never before have I seen my profession so politicized as it is now under the Trump administration."

submitted 11 days ago • 19 comments

If you see this and you're in the mood, quote post with a beach picture in your gallery.

submitted 12 days ago • 0 comments

We're hiring #undergrads interested in #neural #engineering for paid internships! Join our lab this summer and participate in cutting edge #research and a variety of professional development activities. Applications due March 3. More info at rnel.pitt.edu/undergraduat...

submitted 12 days ago • 0 comments

While we're rightfully lamenting DEI policy changes and program elimination, be sure to embrace the positive impact we can each have in our own circles, whether large or small. No one in Washington can prevent you from personally valuing diversity, treating others respectfully, or promoting equity.

submitted 12 days ago • 2 comments

Ted Cruz’s “woke” science list contains a lot of basic, fundamental research that got flagged for simply addressing broader impacts (as Congress requires). As absurd as the list seems, it’s making scientists uneasy. My latest: www.npr.org/2025/02/13/n...

submitted 13 days ago • 8 comments