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

Fuck it. Make Laura Loomer the head of the Smithsonian. Make Kid Rock in charge of the National Archives. Have Hulk Hogan be the UN Ambassador and Joe Rogan as Deputy US Undersecretary of State for Culture. BURN IT TO THE FUCKING GROUND.

submitted 3 hours ago • 6 comments

I posted this yesterday: The Democrats as a party are not rising to the challenge of the moment. It's hard to fathom. One reason they fared poorly in November is that they are not generally seen as fighters. Now they have a chance and they are failing. Read my piece for more.

submitted 14 hours ago • 81 comments

"Multiple kidneys had to be thrown out because of transport delays — couriers not picking them up in time or airlines misplacing them. One was accidentally left on an airport luggage trolley." www.propublica.org/article/trum...

submitted 7 hours ago • 87 comments

BREAKING: Mexican President Sheinbaum argues that if cartels are deemed terrorist orgs, then the suppliers of weapons—over 74% of which come FROM the U.S.—should ALSO face accountability for enabling terrorism. As a result, Mexico is expanding its lawsuit targeting U.S gun manufacturers. 🇲🇽

submitted 19 hours ago • 373 comments

This is really smart by @sanders.senate.gov Go to republican districts and push voters to pressure their republican reps. www.commondreams.org/news/bernie-...

submitted 13 hours ago • 2403 comments

I went to a #TeslaTakedown protest near Philly yesterday to report on a grassroots revolution: thousands of Americans mad as hell at an unelected billionaire oligarchy - and unwilling to take it anymore How taking down Tesla can save our democracy. My new column www.inquirer.com/opinion/comm...

submitted 12 hours ago • 37 comments

Guardian story about Federal Register issue is up. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

submitted 15 hours ago • 7 comments

The European federation of Academies of Sciences has posted a statement of concern about the developments in the US. They now have added the option to endorse this statement as an organisation. Would be great if this could go viral. allea.org/portfolio-it...

submitted 12 hours ago • 0 comments

Brilliant but devastating editorial in the Financial Times. “In the past 10 days, he [Trump] has all but incinerated 80 years of postwar American leadership. If you are not at the table, you are on the menu. America has turned.”

submitted 16 hours ago • 81 comments

Your silence about the persecution of some people won’t keep you safe. It will power the wheel of destruction, grinding forward and crushing us all beneath the weight of its cruelty. Standing on the right side of history is neither comfortable or convenient. But it is the only thing worth doing.

submitted 15 hours ago • 0 comments

Love national parks? I'm lucky enough to live in one of the best parks in the world, and on Saturday we held a demonstration to protest the mass & indiscriminate firing of our friends and coworkers. #nationalparks #rangers #publicland #Yosemite #Firefall #fedworkers #massfiring #NPS #ProtectourParks

submitted 6 days ago • 2 comments

U.S. early-career researchers struggling amid chaos Uncertain funding, government firings, and distressed universities hit vulnerable groups especially hard www.science.org/content/arti...

submitted 1 day ago • 10 comments

Jeffries: hey the GOP controls the government, absolutely nothing i can do, gonna work on my personal book tour Sanders: brb i am going to personally barnstorm strategic GOP house districts and try to peel off 2 votes so we can block Trump's cuts to Medicaid www.commondreams.org/news/bernie-...

submitted 1 day ago • 124 comments

It’s the end game now

submitted 15 hours 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 1 day ago • 1 comment

This is excellent

submitted 1 day ago • 7 comments

Every Friday, I write a debrief about what’s happening in science & higher ed. It goes out late, and is written for all the friends & colleagues I wish I could sit down and talk it through with over drinks. buttondown.com/liminalcreat...

submitted 1 day ago • 2 comments

I want to see every scientific society going into emergency mode. This is a good example of how an organization can flex its specific power in a time of great need. What else is possible?

submitted 1 day ago • 6 comments

Brilliant protest. Yosemite National Park workers hung an upside-down American flag — traditionally a symbol of distress or a national threat — thousands of feet off the ground on the side of El Capitan.

submitted 1 day ago • 105 comments

I appreciate this response from Ed Yong on why he requests that people mask at his events. www.nytimes.com/2025/02/22/m...

submitted 1 day ago • 36 comments

If you need help coming up with a 'hypotheses' you shouldn't be a scientist. Every scientist I know has 100 project ideas and lack time to get to them. No on is sitting around twiddling thumbs without an interesting question to ask. We are in the dumbest timeline.

submitted 4 days ago • 37 comments

Trump Chaos and dysfunction affecting the NIH www.npr.org/sections/sho...

submitted 1 day ago • 4 comments

I think the implications here are painfully and terrifyingly obvious.

submitted 1 day ago • 24 comments

Everything happening around us isn’t normal in any democracy. It’s alarming and it’s only been a month. ☹️

submitted 1 day ago • 0 comments

1/ Town halls continue to go badly for GOP congresspeople, an ongoing thread: www.tiktok.com/t/ZT2Pc7F6y/

submitted 1 day ago • 117 comments

submitted 1 day ago • 1 comment

Five things I did last week #1

submitted 1 day ago • 5 comments

Everyone who ever got funding through NIAID should be aware of this bill and start sending messages to their US legislators. The bill intends to dissolve NIAID. This is Project 2025 www.congress.gov/bill/119th-c...

submitted 1 day ago • 3 comments

Now the NIH postbac research program is paused??? What a huge loss for the scientific community. This has been a great program that has provided critical training for so many young scientists.

submitted 1 day ago • 0 comments

Legitmately thrilled to share our latest work, in which @fernpizza.bsky.social solved an experimental challenge in plasmid biology as old as the field: measuring how plasmids compete and evolve within individual cells!

submitted 2 days ago • 3 comments

I'm so happy that I can finally share the results of my first postdoc paper with @baym.lol!!! Turns out plasmids are an amazing system to study multi-scale evolution and we can track within-cell and between-cell dynamics! (1/n) www.biorxiv.org/content/earl...

submitted 2 days ago • 8 comments

I have been trying to find the time to move away from the polical hellscape we find ourselves in to finish and share a bluetorial about science. This helps me remember what this is all about. Ironically, it is about the treatment of pain.

submitted 1 day ago • 10 comments

“Many grad programs are pausing and reducing admissions in response to NIH funding pauses and pending EO’s on indirect cost reductions. These workforce reductions have the potential to imminently and irreversibly harm research labs & grad programs”

submitted 1 day ago • 0 comments

New in Nat Comm PROBIOTIC 🦠 DRUG 💊 DELIVERY 🚚 Type zero secretion system (T0SS) enables E. coli Nissle to package and deliver enzymes into the bloodstream via OMVs Demonstrated in hyperuricemic mice, this approach outperforms direct secretion for uricase therapy www.nature.com/articles/s41...

submitted 1 day ago • 2 comments

Fascinating paper about the potential of phage for local drug delivery by Brian Hsu (Va Tech) and colleagues. (also nice acknowledgment for SeqCoast Genomics @seqcoast.bsky.social!) www.nature.com/articles/s41...

submitted 2 days ago • 0 comments

things you can do right now instead of doomscrolling: -eat some food -call an elected representative -donate money to a food bank, local charity or mutual aid org -volunteer -clean your home -take a shower -go for a walk -read a book -write in a journal -plan a trip -play with a pet -meditate

submitted 3 days ago • 8 comments

No, but if you’re looking for one, I am aware of a guy you work with that was indicted four times and convicted of thirty-four felonies.

submitted 3 days ago • 5084 comments

Bravo @plos.org! US exec orders "stand in direct conflict with our core values, our mission, edit policies" "PLOS will not compromise on issues of scientific rigor & editorial integrity... we seek diversity because more expert voices make for better science" theplosblog.plos.org/2025/02/plos...

submitted 2 days ago • 2 comments

It’s ok everyone, the NIH lawyer is arguing that changing indirect rates immediately won’t cause irreparable harm

submitted 2 days ago • 2 comments

For decades, the US government has painstakingly kept American science #1 globally—and every facet of American life has improved because of it. The internet? Flu shot? Ozempic? All grew out of federally-funded research. Now all that's being dismantled. 1/ www.technologyreview.com/2025/02/21/1...

submitted 2 days ago • 83 comments

Hearing on NIH indirect cost cuts today (2/21) at 10am (EST). Judge Angel Kelley of U.S. District Court in Boston — Courtroom 8. Register for hearing audio here👇🏻 forms.mad.uscourts.gov/courtlist.html

submitted 2 days ago • 0 comments

Scientists are now organizing events, called Stand Up for Science, on 7 March in Washington, D.C., and state capitals. So far, they have attracted more than 100 volunteers from some 30 states who are hoping to rally support for research as a public good. scim.ag/4328LAD

submitted 4 days ago • 2 comments

sometimes I think about printing this out and taping it to a box to put my phone inside

submitted 2 days ago • 0 comments

More than half of the Gm-negative infections in soldiers in the Ukraine conflict are resistant to carbapenems - fascinating presentation on #AMR in conflict settings from @catanita.bsky.social #antimicrobials2025 #ASA2025 #globalpublichealth #MDRI

submitted 4 days ago • 0 comments

Lovely paper. The bug we work on, Neisseria gonorrhoeae, has hundreds of genes that can phase-vary (stochastically switch on and off), to allow immune evasion and adaptation to different niches within and between hosts. 1/

submitted 2 days ago • 4 comments

The breadth and scope of cowardice amongst our scientific leadership is staggering.

submitted 2 days ago • 28 comments

Two (!) perspective pieces published today involving people from our lab! @adelpanta.bsky.social on spatial patterning in microbial communities www.nature.com/articles/s41... and @salazarafra.bsky.social on microbial communities as evolutionary individuals www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

submitted 3 days ago • 1 comment

Experimental evolution of evolvability | Science www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

submitted 3 days ago • 0 comments

…. helpless and hopelessness we all feel in this moment.

submitted 2 days ago • 1 comment