Larry W. Hunter | Lightnews

Larry Hunter @proflhunter.bsky.social · 6h

Hawaii governor Josh Green takes on RFKJr over vaccines. "Green said the Trump administration has laid a foundation of distrust, and 'now you’re seeing the terrible outcomes.'"
www.westhawaiitoday.com/2026/01/22/h...

Gov. Green blasts federal misinformation as measles cases surge in U.S. - West Hawaii Today

Gov. Green blasts federal misinformation as measles cases surge in U.S. – Hawaii News | West Hawaii Today

www.westhawaiitoday.com

I-270, Exit 1 @i270exit1.bsky.social · 1d

Tell your Rep to support @degette.house.gov who wants to:
Cap the number of political appointees at NIH,
Prohibit political appointees from NIH grant review processes, and
Prohibit NIH from terminating grants without scientific cause.
degette.house.gov/media-center...

DeGette Introduces Bill to Protect NIH From Political Interference

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Congresswoman Diana DeGette (CO-01), Ranking Member of the Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health, introduced the Follow the Science Act to shield the National Institutes...

degette.house.gov

Rima I Anabtawi @rimaanabtawi.bsky.social · 1d

Just as this news was announced:

mRNA cancer vaccine shows protection at 5-year follow-up, Moderna and Merck say
The vaccines are tailor-made to target each patient’s unique cancer.

www.washingtonpost.com/health/2026/...

Larry Hunter @proflhunter.bsky.social · 2d

Very cool work!

Lisa Spiering @lspiering.bsky.social · 2d

🎉 My PhD work has just been published in @natcomms.nature.com!

How do we learn who caused what - and how much control we had - when outcomes depend on multiple people? We studied how humans do so using a new social learning task, computational modelling and fMRI.

www.nature.com/articles/s41...
🧵👇

Lisa Spiering @lspiering.bsky.social · 2d

🎉 My PhD work has just been published in @natcomms.nature.com!

How do we learn who caused what - and how much control we had - when outcomes depend on multiple people? We studied how humans do so using a new social learning task, computational modelling and fMRI.

www.nature.com/articles/s41...
🧵👇

Science Friday @scifri.bsky.social · 3d

Two conversations, one question: What happens when science and lawmaking collide?🔬

Anti-science bills are on the rise across the U.S. Plus, a Louisiana law limits whether regulators can use environmental data collected by communities.

States Expected To See More ‘Anti-Science’ Bills This Year

In 2025, more than 420 bills were introduced to weaken public health measures for vaccines, milk safety, and fluoride. What will we see in 2026?

buff.ly

James Petruzzi @hawaiianimages.bsky.social · 3d

So it's #FeedingTime for the #BirdOfTheDay theme: through timing, luck and a very fast shutter got this 'auku'u (Black-crowned night heron) in mid-strike. :) 📷🦉🌿 #birds

A black crowned night heron lunging forward for a fish. One back foot can be seen rapidly moving forward trailing across the surface, the other is planted behind. The neck is just starting to dart forward, the beak is open and the lower bill just penetrated the water....without a single ripple. There is a thorny snag in front and above, and the water looks white in the pre-dawn with gentle ripples

Lindsay Beyerstein @beyerstein.bsky.social · 3d

Last time the US bought land from Denmark, Epstein’s island was purchased

The 70-acre island was bought by Epstein in 1998 and became his primary residence, playing host to many of his underage sex parties.

nypost.com

Katharine Hayhoe @katharinehayhoe.com · 3d

Must-read reporting by @virginiagewin.bsky.social on how US federal actions are affecting science.

By pairing the scale of the damage with the very human, personal stories behind the numbers, she paints a powerful and comprehensive picture of just how thoroughly US science is being hollowed out.

‘Shattered’: US scientists speak out about how Trump policies disrupted their careers

Researchers lay bare the human toll of lay-offs, funding cuts and attacks on science one year after the president’s return to the White House.

www.nature.com

Jeremy Berg @jeremymberg.bsky.social · 3d

Now for the money...

Overall, the budget is essentially flat.

The biggest winner is NINDS with a 5.9% increase. The biggest losers are NIEHS and NIDDK.

4/5

A table of funding for fiscal year 2025 and proposed for fiscal year 2026 by institute and center.

Dan Garisto @dangaristo.bsky.social · 3d

A year ago, under a flurry of executive orders, it became clear that the second Trump administration was going to make dramatic changes on US science. Here's our 10,000 foot look at the damage.

with @maxkozlov.bsky.social, Jeff Tollefson, and Rich Monastersky

US science after a year of Trump: what has been lost and what remains

A series of graphics reveals how the Trump administration has sought historic cuts to science and the research workforce.

www.nature.com

Ian L Morgan @ianlmorgan.bsky.social · 3d

The final LHHS bill with funding for Health and Human Services is out this morning! At first glance, it looks similar to the Senate bill with a roughly 1% increase in total funding for the NIH. While it doesn't match inflation, it avoids many of the problems in the presidential budget request. 1/n

Reto Fiolka @retof.bsky.social · 4d

RIP Gladys West, mathematician who measured the world to unheard precision (radius to tens of centimeters!), paving the way to GPS.

Larry Hunter @proflhunter.bsky.social · 6d

Tooze on China and climate change: “My deep conviction is that the west needs to accept the end of its era of global domination. ... Ours is a bit part and not the starring role. We’re not the love interest. This song is not about us.” Worth the read!

Yuliya Komska @ykomska.bsky.social · 6d

“Many of the same countries that chose 80 years ago to ally with the Soviet Union to fight Germany will have to decide whether and on what terms they want to work with an economically dominant China on the climate problem.” Wow what a profile www.theguardian.com/business/202...

The crisis whisperer: how Adam Tooze makes sense of our bewildering age

The long read: Whether it’s the financial crash, the climate emergency or the breakdown of the international order, historian Adam Tooze has become the go-to guide to the radical new world we’ve enter...

www.theguardian.com

Steve Joffe @stevejoffe.bsky.social · 6d

"If this change happens, over 100,000 children who are diagnosed with autism each year could claim compensation from the VICP...The expected groundswell of compensation claims and lawsuits will easily bankrupt the vaccine compensation pool..."

From @zekeemanuel.bsky.social.

wapo.st/3NyZ9Yt

Opinion | How RFK Jr. plans to bankrupt vaccine manufacturers

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. wants to flood the vaccine injury compensation program to hurt vaccine access in the U.S.

wapo.st

Yuliya Komska @ykomska.bsky.social · 6d

“Many of the same countries that chose 80 years ago to ally with the Soviet Union to fight Germany will have to decide whether and on what terms they want to work with an economically dominant China on the climate problem.” Wow what a profile www.theguardian.com/business/202...

The crisis whisperer: how Adam Tooze makes sense of our bewildering age

The long read: Whether it’s the financial crash, the climate emergency or the breakdown of the international order, historian Adam Tooze has become the go-to guide to the radical new world we’ve enter...

www.theguardian.com

Steven Salzberg @stevensalzberg.bsky.social · 7d

very sad news. Peer Bork was one of the leaders of our field, a wonderful scientist, and he's much too young to be gone. www.embl.org/news/embl-an...

In remembrance of Peer Bork | EMBL

EMBL and its community are deeply saddened by the death of Peer Bork, the organisation’s Interim Director General.

www.embl.org

Larry Hunter @proflhunter.bsky.social · 7d

Interesting perspective on the rise of Chinese tech, from @bruces.bsky.social

If you say, "what does a Chinese flying car look like," that sounds
corny and goofy. If you ask "what does a Xiaomi-Huawei pilotless
taxi-drone look like when it's a new-energy-vehicle," then the Saudi
investors would fret about that.

"Room temperature superconductors" are also an old idea, but if ten
thousand Chinese lab engineers ground-it-out force-of-numbers style,
and some Chinese heavy-industry managed to mass-build those, the
world would be set on its ear. Of course the world would still be
stricken with the ongoing climate crisis, but everybody would kowtow
to them because it would transform the grid worldwide.

The Xi Jinping "Chinese Dream" is about the kowtows. It's about
historically overcoming the "century of humiliation" and having the
world bow the knee in awed respect of a rejuvenated hegemonic
techno-superpower. I get it why that would be a Chinese
ethnonationalist aspiration, but if everybody else is
auto-humiliating themselves by comparison, that makes them look even
more impressive. I'm not all that "impressed" by them, but I'm sure
I'll be paying more attention to them. If they're setting the pace,
it behooves you to look.

Larry Hunter @proflhunter.bsky.social · 8d

Burrata is from Apulia, so for local authenticity I might try to find a Castel del Monte Nero di Troia Riserva. Alternatively, Masi Campofiorin (which has pretty wide distribution) is made from the same Nero di Troia grape.

It was lunch for me, so I paired it with fizzy water & grapefruit juice.

Larry Hunter @proflhunter.bsky.social · 8d

Burrata, surrounded by cavatappi in a sauce of lion's mane mushrooms, spinach, and fresh tomatoes, topped with basil and pecorino Romano.

A milky circle of cheese, surrounded by curly pasta in a dark sauce, topped with green leaves and flakes of cheese, in a yellow bowl on a brown table.

David Ho @davidho.bsky.social · 8d

Sigh. Shutting down the National Center for Atmospheric Research will make the world a more dangerous place for all of us.

Colorado senators’ bid to save NCAR funding fails as U.S. Senate passes spending bills

“In the face of unrelenting political attacks from President Trump, we are standing together to protect institutions like NCAR that are vital to our state and our economy,” Sen. John Hickenlo…

www.denverpost.com

Larry Hunter @proflhunter.bsky.social · 8d

LLMs are statistical averages that inevitably focus on the densest part of the distribution. They capture popularity. Which makes them problematic in applications that require novelty, like science.

www.nature.com/articles/d41...

AI tools boost individual scientists but could limit research as a whole

Analyses of hundreds of thousands of papers in the natural sciences reveal a paradox: scientists who use AI tools produce more research but on a more confined set of topics.

www.nature.com

STAT @statnews.com · 9d

#Breaking: SAMHSA canceled up to $1.9 billion in grants without staff consultation, accelerating the mental health agency's deterioration under President Trump. www.statnews.com/2026/01/14/s...

Trump administration cuts up to $1.9 billion from mental health and addiction treatment programs

SAMHSA canceled up to $1.9 billion in grants without staff consultation, accelerating the mental health agency's deterioration under President Trump.

www.statnews.com

Trends in Cognitive Sciences @cp-trendscognsci.bsky.social · 9d

Online Now: Moving intentions from brains to machines

Moving intentions from brains to machines

Brain–computer interface (BCI) research has achieved remarkable technical progress but remains limited in scope, typically relying on motor and visual cortex signals in limited patient populations. We propose a paradigm shift in BCI design rooted in ideomotor theory, which conceptualizes voluntary action as driven by internally represented sensory outcomes. This underused framework offers a principled basis for next-generation BCIs that align closely with the brain’s natural intentional and action-planning architecture. We suggest a more intuitive, generalizable, and scalable path by reorienting BCIs around the ‘what for’ of action—user goals and anticipated effects. This shift is timely and feasible, enabled by advances in neural recording and artificial intelligence–based decoding of sensory representations. It may help resolve challenges of usability and generalizability in BCI design.

dlvr.it

Walker Bragman @walkerbragman.bsky.social · 10d

There’s a big story everyone is missing—but this article hits on it.

We aren’t just seeing public health dismantled bc we’ve been taken over by conspiracy theorists and lunatics.

What we’re really seeing is the giant, predatory, underegulated wellness industry come to Washington.

FDA deletes warning on bogus autism therapies touted by RFK Jr.‘s allies

The agency used to warn of chelation, used by RFK Jr.'s anti-vaccine ally David Geier.

arstechnica.com

Larry Hunter @proflhunter.bsky.social · 11d

Sorry! *HIPAA*

Larry Hunter @proflhunter.bsky.social · 11d

It's University of Chicago's annual certification season! I have once again been trained in HIPPA compliance, prevention of discrimination and harassment, mandatory reporting of child abuse and neglect, human subjects research, and infection control. I hope you can all sleep better now.

Larry Hunter @proflhunter.bsky.social · 11d

So sad to see what we almost had slip out of reach...

#BruceSterling @bruces.bsky.social · 11d

*The green checks no longer exist, and the rest of it is absolutely thriving. #Trumpistan #ethics #networksociety #oligarchy #kleptocracy #conspiracy #illegality #posttruth

#BruceSterling @bruces.bsky.social · 11d

Bill Joy explaining "why the future doesn't need us". aka GRIN, circa 2000 AD

vs

Actual future 2026 AD:

G enetics -- an agro and pharma biz

R obotics -- on its feet, doing a vaudeville dance

I ntelligence -- blowing the roof and doors off

N anotechnology -- Future didn't need it after all

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