Category Archives: United States

Friday action item: Put your Members of Congress on speed-dial

While the current administration is in office we’re posting small, concrete things you can do to help make things better, every Friday. Got a suggestion for an Action Item? E-mail us! The new Congress is just getting started, and its … Continue reading

Posted in community, politics, United States | 4 Comments

Friday Action Item: Science

Now that we’ve posted a few of these Action Items, I want to step back and add an important caveat to this idea of small things to do in the wake of a devastating political reversal. These posts are intended … Continue reading

Posted in Action Item, community, politics, United States | 2 Comments

Friday Action Item: Have a science conversation with a non-scientist

In the wake of the recent U.S. election, we’ve started these “Friday Action Item” posts with ideas about specific things you can do to support science — from calling Congress to helping crowd-fund a cool new research project. Got a … Continue reading

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The road ahead

It’s been almost two weeks since we woke up to the reality that Donald Trump — the failed casino mogul, the virtuoso tax-dodger, the reality-show star, the self-described serial sexual assailant, the Ku Klux Klan endorsee and darling of white … Continue reading

Posted in citizen science, community, funding, NIH, NSF, politics, United States | 29 Comments

The Great Migration and African-American Genomic History

Over 45 million African-Americans share a recent common history largely shaped by “The Great Migration” (1910-1970) from out of the Southern United States. And yet, the admixture history of the African-American community, and its consequences for public health are little … Continue reading

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Raising the NIH pay-line to 20%

I bet that title got your attention. In the good ol’ days our funding record made the United States look like the land of milk and honey. As Bruce Alberts’ and colleague wrote in PNAS earlier this year: “The United … Continue reading

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House science committee is digging for dirt in NSF's confidential records of peer review

ScienceInsider reports that aides for the U.S. House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology have been spending the summer digging through records of grant the grant review process that the National Science Foundation usually keeps confidential: The Republican aides were … Continue reading

Posted in funding, NSF, politics, United States | 1 Comment

The #IcedBudgetChallenge: Tell Congress to thaw out funding for NSF and NIH!

So a friend nominated me in this viral scheme to raise funds for ALS research, about which you may have heard lately. I’m all in favor of finding a cure for ALS—my grandfather died of it—but I’m also pretty skeptical … Continue reading

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Well, at least we've got the President on our side

Follow-up about yesterday’s fretting about Congresspeople wanting to interfere with peer review at the National Science Foundation: President Obama was asked about this yesterday at an event celebrating the 150th anniversary of the National Academy of Sciences—and he looks to … Continue reading

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Congress takes a worrying interest in peer review at NSF

Science Insider reported yesterday that Lamar Smith, a Republican congressman from Texas and the chairman of the U.S. House Committee on Space, Science, and Technology, is planning to introduce legislation to change the way the National Science Foundation decides how to … Continue reading

Posted in funding, NSF, politics, United States | Tagged | 9 Comments