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nigelgoldenfeld.bsky.social
Chancellor's Distinguished Professor of Physics, UCSD. Interested in everything. Theoretical physicist researching condensed & living matter, fluid mechanics, statistical mechanics. Bad at staying in my lane. https://guava.physics.ucsd.edu/~nigel/
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I talked to NIH officials, current and former, about what's been happening inside the agency since the Trump administration shut down their grantmaking pipeline in January. Their stories showed just how willing our new leaders are to break the law: www.theatlantic.com/health/archi...

LET’S DO THIS UCSD #standupforscienceUCSD

@standupforscience.bsky.social 🧪 Is there a #standupforscience2025 in Los Angeles? There was such an event mentioned on the website a few days ago (along with San Francisco) but it seems to have vanished. I was wondering if these CA events didn't get a permit. Thanks for your important work!

We need some accountability here. Who are the administrators within the NSF who did this and under what instructions? I believe federal FOIA regulations would applied to general communications leading up to this action if not to individual personnel decisions.

Happy 37th birthday to the LTEE! the-ltee.org/history/

📣 Excited to receive the 💥 NSF CAREER 💥 Award. Our group is looking for PhD students and postdocs interested in the Nonlinear Dynamics and the Physics of Living Systems, with support from NSF, HFSP, and other sources. We’d appreciate your help in spreading the word! @ucsdphysci.bsky.social

🧪 Dear CA Representatives & Senators: Thanks for your support of science @levin.house.gov @repscottpeters.bsky.social @schiff.senate.gov @padilla.senate.gov It would be awesome if you were to join #standupforscience on March 7 in Sacramento or Los Angeles @standupforscience.bsky.social

Thank you, @levin.house.gov! This is absolutely critical for our nation’s health. San Diego’s economy thrives because of @ucsdhealthsci.bsky.social, @salkinstitute.bsky.social, @scripps.edu, and other leading biomedical institutes!

The Trump admin’s proposed cuts would devastate UCSD, harm San Diego’s economy, stall scientific progress, and weaken America’s leadership in research and innovation.

Need some inspiration?

🧪 Thank you for your service!

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)

🧪⚛️ Resurfacing this important and sobering opinion piece by @philipcball.bsky.social especially after reading today's astonishing Q & A with @apsphysics.bsky.social President: www.aps.org/apsnews/2025...

Awesome protest attendance in San Diego!!!

The flying public needs answers. How many FAA personnel were just fired? What positions? And why?

Musk is literally harming science in the US and his rhetoric across social media has literally harmed trust in science from vaccine, to climate change, to disability and LGBTQ+ rights. True objectivity is not staying out of politics. It’s about having facts informing your choices.

More sabotage of USA by Team Trump, after 7 plane crashes. Who do you think is benefitting from weakening American economy, science, health, law, infrastructure, education, world standing? Trump administration begins firings of FAA air traffic control staff www.theguardian.com/us-news/live...

🧪 "Trump administration has frozen research funds, halted health communications and publications, vanished decades of health and behavior data from its websites, terminated federally funded studies ... " & fired critical medical professionals and scientists. www.theatlantic.com/health/archi...

🧪 "The only resistance against the administration’s anti-science agenda is coming from the courts ... at least seven [lawsuits] concern ... the deletion of web pages at the CDC & the funding cuts at NIH...The scientific community will have to play a momentous role" www.latimes.com/business/sto...

🧪 More information about the #Standupforscience event in this interview with the lead organizer @cdelawalla.bsky.social and the reasons why the rally is taking place (March 7, DC and near you). youtu.be/tfNtuhNAxlw?...

This is important! Satellite rallies too! Going sends a message. Not going also sends a message. It's not self-serving for scientists to protest the war on science. Millions of people depend on us. A huge thank you to the early career scientists who are leading this! 🧪 #standupforscience

This isn't about politics. It's about people.

🧪 #standupforscience Another "March for Science", because it's needed again. We're not marching for our own self-interest but for the people who depend upon our work. If we don't do this, who will? 👇👇👇👇👇👇👇

Petty but satisfying. We take what crumbs we can get.

Every once in a while, I'm telling people that there is no black hole information paradox anymore. Nobody appears to be listening. This time I'm saying it by specifically pointing out what mistake Hawking made in his paper. arxiv.org/abs/2502.05642

FOIA Musk? Nope! "White House... designated Mr. Musk’s office, United States DOGE Service, as an entity insulated from public records requests or most judicial intervention until at least 2034, by declaring the documents it produces & receives presidential records." www.nytimes.com/2025/02/10/u...

🧪California and 21 other States sue over the NIH funding cuts. "We are suing President Trump & his administration because they are ... violating the law ... to eviscerate funding for medical research that helps develop new cures & treatments for diseases like cancer ...” oag.ca.gov/news/press-r...

🧪 #evosky ⚛️ Today I gave a public lecture at Michigan State University on theoretical physics & the evolution of early life. It is mostly about the evolution of the genetic code and a bit on #astrobiology. Thanks to the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams for hosting me. youtu.be/NidmUOPcoJQ?...

Here's a lesson for all of us that the universities are relearning today: Staying silent in the face of fascism will not protect you.

🧪Absolutely devastating to universities. (This was in Project 2025, page 355.)

🧪 From American Institute of Physics, summary of proposed spending cuts in science as understood today. Unconfirmed report that NSF could go from $9B to $3B. Even if only directionally correct they amount to major sabotage of US world leading science. us17.campaign-archive.com?e=73d6a7d075...

🧪 PSA The Committee on Human Rights of the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine does valuable work on behalf of scientists under persecution worldwide, and have this resource for scientists in the US targeted because of their work. www.nationalacademies.org/chr/resource...

"A president can’t just create a new federal agency via executive order — that can only happen through an act of Congress. Then what is DOGE?" www.democracydocket.com/analysis/the...

For those following the coup on their Project 2025 bingo score card you can cross off Christian Nationalism now. “This taskforce is not a response to Christian persecution; it’s an attempt to make America into an ultra-conservative Christian Nationalist nation.” www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

NIGMS council meeting has been postponed. This will reverberate. America's scientific leadership and its innovation economy is under threat. www.nigms.nih.gov/about/counci...

This is a great idea. Do you know anyone in Congress you can talk to?

Take the time to read this important analysis. We are in exactly the situation that laws, Constitutin and basic common sense should prevent. And yet. www.techdirt.com/2025/02/05/t...

If you want to understand the turbulent time we are living through right now, your guide is Timothy Snyder, Professor of History at Yale University, author of "On Tyrany: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century".

We are alarmed by the Administration’s actions to freeze science funding and eliminate DEI efforts and climate change initiatives, which go against AGU’s mission and harms our members. We must unite to address these changes, beginning by hearing from you. Read more: https://buff.ly/4hm8r4e

This is how you do it. Thank you @sicbjournals.bsky.social Read their whole email to membership here mailchi.mp/sicb.org/sic...

wapo.st/4aMAdEz 🧪 Gift link. Does this mean that if we remove the words that are triggering NSF we can still do the congressionally mandated activities that we want to do?