iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by Research Group of J. Cabana

Jenny Chase @solarchase.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

8. The consensus answer to intermittency is now capitalism and batteries. However, batteries reduce peak evening prices much faster than they increase sun-hour prices, so they cannibalize their returns before they increase solar returns. As we already see in Australia. www.bnef.com/insights/40165

bnef.com

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Dan Garisto @dangaristo.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Good end-of-FY coverage by the Times. The amount of unspent funds has wiggled but it was pretty clear for some time now that NSF was simply not going to spend a substantial portion of its congressional appropriation this year.

nytimes.com

National Science Foundation Diverted $1.4 Billion in Science Funds Mandated by Congress

The move, affecting about one-fifth of the National Science Foundation’s primary research budget, is the latest sign of how the White House is asserting more control over grants.

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Research Group of J. Cabana @cabanachemistry.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

“What we professors do is quite simple. We stand in a classroom and teach. Being a student is quite simple. You go to class, read books, maybe do experiments, and get together to talk about what you’ve learned.” globecollegetown.substack.com/p/higher-ed-...

globecollegetown.substack.com

College campuses need to be liberated from their administrators

Higher ed is being strangled by absurd and costly rules. What message is that sending to students?

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Research Group of J. Cabana @cabanachemistry.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

“Pertl reran her original Co-Scientist prompt, this time imposing tighter constraints on the length and cost […] No viable hypotheses were proposed. The system might have initially found an idea […], but not within the timeframe and budget of a PhD project.” www.nature.com/articles/d41...

nature.com

AI co-scientists are revolutionizing how research is done

Artificial-intelligence systems can generate hypotheses, design experiments and analyse data — but humans still need to decide what makes sense.

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Research Group of J. Cabana @cabanachemistry.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

AI agents have lowered the bar of access to simulations so much that even experimentalists who didn’t touch them since the 90s can do it. And the scaled simulations may not even be scientifically correct, even if they technically are. Agents confess mistakes all the time!

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Research Group of J. Cabana @cabanachemistry.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Don’t go near a strong magnetic field with a pacemaker, though

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Research Group of J. Cabana @cabanachemistry.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

A feeling shared by many. And the damage will remain even if the uncertainty disappears tomorrow. The corrosive loss of trust in the “system” will last long afterwards

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Research Group of J. Cabana @cabanachemistry.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

Of the MANY interesting materials problems they could pick, they chose the one where we are stuck at hundreds of GPa…

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Research Group of J. Cabana @cabanachemistry.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

Don’t think so, either. The tradeoffs of public scrutiny are seldom acknowledged or analytically considered in these kinds of discussions

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Research Group of J. Cabana @cabanachemistry.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

Bottomline, Public scrutiny =\= government scrutiny

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Research Group of J. Cabana @cabanachemistry.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

Fair, to some extent. Splitting hairs (academics, after all!), but “Is this research protocol ethical?” Is not the same Q as “Is conducting research on this topic ethical?” Different points of the logic stream. A research protocol cannot be unethical if it is never implemented.

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Research Group of J. Cabana @cabanachemistry.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

Let’s also explicitly note that the safest or most ethical activity is the one that doesn’t happen, just to delineate both bounds of this line of argument

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Research Group of J. Cabana @cabanachemistry.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

That’s the tradeoff that is implicitly set aside in frameworks that treat public scrutiny as an infinite good. Public scrutiny will also lead to “we get nothing for all this tax money” when large fractions of it has to be spent… addressing public scrutiny.

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Research Group of J. Cabana @cabanachemistry.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

Isn’t that called a “congressional hearing”?

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Research Group of J. Cabana @cabanachemistry.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

Isn’t this an argument in favor of a trajectory toward expanded use of things like Other Transactions Authority?

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Research Group of J. Cabana @cabanachemistry.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

This is the most insidious part: “This way, even if the agency spends the same overall amount, less goes to new awards.” A change like this is not unprecedented in the federal R&D, but it throttles the system at a time of very high uncertainty

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Dan Garisto @dangaristo.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

Scoop: For nearly a year, NSF has struggled to make new grants. Now we know that it will not catch up. In fact, NSF will award just 6,100 new grants—a 30% y/o/y decline, itself down from a previous avg. of 11,000+. In fact, the last time NSF awarded so few grants was in the early '80s.

nature.com

Exclusive: NSF set to issue lowest number of new grants in four decades

The US science-funding agency is withholding $1 billion of its budget so that the money can go to a special White House project.

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Research Group of J. Cabana @cabanachemistry.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

Saying that budgets have been cut would be an error of commission when it is the number of new grants that was reduced. To researchers, the pain is the same, but the difference ultimately matters, especially when forward funding is not an invention of this administration

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Research Group of J. Cabana @cabanachemistry.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

As a group seriously affected by the current turmoil, it is also tiresome to see the current admin named in every piece about the R&D enterprise. We already know the damage is very real! Dreaming new systems should be possible in parallel to waking up from the current nightmare. We need both!

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Research Group of J. Cabana @cabanachemistry.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

Correct, so the point is more nuanced than “someone cut budgets for science”, which then makes it even less relevant to a piece like yours

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Research Group of J. Cabana @cabanachemistry.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

Technically, wouldn’t the executive (the 500 lb gorilla in this thread) say that budgets were fully spent, and, thus, no cuts have been implemented?

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Research Group of J. Cabana @cabanachemistry.bsky.social · 29/07/2026

As usual, devil in the details, but looks promising! “The [UIDP I-PhD] is designed to enable students to complete their degrees within four years” “Industry partners will provide matching commitments to cover at least one year of practical experience” www.nsf.gov/news/nsf-par...

nsf.gov

NSF partners with universities and industry on pilot initiative for four-year Ph.D. programs with real-world research placements

The U.S. National Science Foundation announced a $47 million investment over ﬁve years, along with additional ﬁnancial commitments from nearly three dozen universities and private industry...

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Dan Garisto @dangaristo.bsky.social · 25/07/2026

My read is that "Science: A New Golden Age" is not P2025 (radical new vision with personnel) nor the OMB rule (using CFR to make sweeping changes). It is another in the line of 'golden' science ideas: lots of rhetoric about greatness, but an unclear connex. to specific policy changes.

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Research Group of J. Cabana @cabanachemistry.bsky.social · 24/07/2026

“[F]unding for the [Genesis] mission is low, especially compared with that being raised by private firms. For instance, Periodic Labs, a start-up company in Menlo Park that is focused on building an ‘AI scientist’ that can drive autonomous labs, is likely to raise $500 million”

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Henry Farrell @himself.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

Obviously you can't and shouldn't separate the report from the administration that produced it, but some of the arguments and ideas could usefully be taken up by a different administration towards different purposes.

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John Timmer @jtimmer.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

As promised, the results of actually reading the New Golden Age report. It is a very strange one, and it's hard to fully capture the its oddities (which is why the piece below is 2,300 words or so). But it also contains some general themes here that have been consistent throughout Trump II.

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Research Group of J. Cabana @cabanachemistry.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

How do they get to $200 billion? That’s more than NSF, National Labs and NIH together!

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Research Group of J. Cabana @cabanachemistry.bsky.social · 17/07/2026

“One analysis of the published comments, undertaken by STAT and researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, found that around 95% opposed the rule, with just 1% supporting it.” 🧪 www.aip.org/fyi/proposed...

aip.org

Proposed Grantmaking Reforms Prompt Huge, Negative Response

The response to the OMB’s proposed rule on federal financial assistance appears to be overwhelmingly negative, with strong opposition from science groups.

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Research Group of J. Cabana @cabanachemistry.bsky.social · 06/07/2026

We are hard at work in #NGenE2026! A new class is ready to go with a week of lectures, demos of capabilities and an AI twist. Will they manage to go beyond the hype? Dedicated to the memory of George Crabtree, who was a model of what we are challenging the participants to be.

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Research Group of J. Cabana @cabanachemistry.bsky.social · 24/05/2026

Stupid suggestion: a robot like the one used to defuse bombs? If it blows up, it’s just a monetary cost…

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Research Group of J. Cabana @cabanachemistry.bsky.social · 20/05/2026

Well, then… “James Zou has spent “well over US$100,000” on artificial intelligence in the past year.” Not to mention that postdocs actually do experiments. Autonomous labs won’t be cheap! Are we sure the cost of science is going to go down? www.nature.com/articles/d41...

nature.com

AI bills can be as big as a postdoc salary. Is the cost worth it?

Recent price hikes, usage limitations and unreliable outputs are causing some scientific researchers to think twice about using artificial intelligence.

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Felix Hamer • electricfelix @electricfelix.eurosky.social · 19/05/2026

"This increase in renewable energy is supported by the deployment of batteries, which will be needed to store clean electricity for times when the sun doesn’t shine & the wind doesn’t blow. BNEF increased its projection for global energy storage from 220 gigawatts in 2025 to 2,000 gigawatts by 2035"

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Research Group of J. Cabana @cabanachemistry.bsky.social · 19/05/2026

Are calls for new research institutions missing that National Labs can already achieve the same? Thankful for the opportunity to explore this question in an unusual medium. Metascience is having a moment: let’s use it to learn how to make National Labs better!🧪 www.macroscience.org/p/metascienc...

macroscience.org

Metascience Is Ignoring the National Labs

The original focused research organizations.

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Research Group of J. Cabana @cabanachemistry.bsky.social · 15/05/2026

FWIW, Genesis had a similar problem: the design of Phases favors teams with existing efforts and infrastructure that can meet milestones within 6 months (July-December)

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Research Group of J. Cabana @cabanachemistry.bsky.social · 15/05/2026

That’s the big ”?” The ideal institutions are also not industry unless we go back to the time of Bell Labs. But if they don’t exist and we need them to, how is a Phase I gateway going to make them happen? The derisking could come from leveraging other sources (philanthropy?) ifp.org/how-x-labs-c...

ifp.org

Using X-Labs to Unleash AI-Driven Scientific Breakthroughs | IFP

How to adapt our science funding mechanisms to the unique infrastructure needs of large-scale AI projects

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Research Group of J. Cabana @cabanachemistry.bsky.social · 12/05/2026

Her argument seems to say that academia should go even further into research access at the expense of spending most time on foundational concepts that AI can cover well. It is a flip of the weights of “what we know” vs. “what we don’t know” from the current model

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Research Group of J. Cabana @cabanachemistry.bsky.social · 02/05/2026

Just as we close applications for #NGenE 2026, out comes the product of our 2025 edition! The result of the weeklong discussions, it reflects the view of the next generation of scientists on where electrochemistry *needs to go* pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...

pubs.acs.org

NGenE 2025: Electrochemistry for Energy Abundance

This publication is free to access through this site. Learn More

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Rob Cyran @robcyran.bsky.social · 28/04/2026

You can tell how far a tech feature has come standard based on modifiers. At first you had to specify solar included storage then eventually everyone assumes it does so you have to specify it doesn’t. In the 60s you said color TV. In the 70s you said black and white TV because that was unusual.

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C&EN (Chemical & Engineering News) @cenmag.bsky.social · 18/04/2026

National Lab Research SLAM event brings chemistry to Capitol Hill The Department of Energy annually sends early-career scientists to the Capitol to share their research in just 3 min. This year, chemistry was a focus. #chemsky 🧪

cen.acs.org

National Lab Research SLAM event brings chemistry to Capitol Hill

The Department of Energy annually sends early-career scientists to the Capitol to share their research in just 3 min. This year, chemistry was a focus

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Jeremy Berg @jeremymberg.bsky.social · 08/04/2026

Everything You Always Wanted to Know about Indirect Costs (But Were Afraid to Ask) I have been working on this post for some time. Lots of data, analysis, and some policy recommendations. goodscience.substack.com/p/everything... Questions and comments welcome.

goodscience.substack.com

Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Indirect Costs (But Were Afraid to Ask)

This is a guest post from Jeremy M.

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Research Group of J. Cabana @cabanachemistry.bsky.social · 27/03/2026

The first step of oxidizing the premier Li-ion battery solvents is simply a “reverse PCET”, but complexity explodes from there. It is a network of intertwined intermediates and products. Even with one solvent/salt! Check out how in our new paper #battchat www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

sciencedirect.com

Networks of electrochemical oxidation of common lithium-ion Battery solvents revealed by NMR spectroscopy

Raising the upper cutoff voltage of lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) to increase energy density often exceeds the electrolyte’s anodic stability limit, ac…

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Research Group of J. Cabana @cabanachemistry.bsky.social · 04/03/2026

“Here’s what hadn’t changed in those 27 years: the basic model of graduate STEM training still rested on extracting maximum labor at minimum cost, justified as “training” rather than employment” sciencepolicyinsider.substack.com/p/below-mini...

sciencepolicyinsider.substack.com

Below Minimum Wage: The System We Built and the System We're Losing

How a back-of-the-envelope calculation adds up to everything we need to fix as we rebuild the scientific structures that are crumbling.

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Research Group of J. Cabana @cabanachemistry.bsky.social · 25/02/2026

That’s one Big Battery “The clean energy resources funded through the agreement include a 300 megawatt (30 gigawatt-hour) Form Energy iron-air battery system installation” #battchat newsroom.xcelenergy.com/news/xcel-en...

newsroom.xcelenergy.com

Xcel Energy to power new Google data center in Minnesota

The project will provide a significant contribution to the state’s economy, including a large buildout of new clean energy projects.

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Research Group of J. Cabana @cabanachemistry.bsky.social · 19/02/2026

Now, that is an idea: “The organizers of the [IJCAI] have sought to limit submissions by introducing a policy that requires researchers to pay US$100 for every subsequent paper after their first. These payments then get distributed between reviewers.” www.nature.com/articles/d41...

nature.com

How AI slop is causing a crisis in computer science

Preprint repositories and conference organizers are having to counter a tide of ‘AI slop’ submissions.

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Prashant Kamat @kamat.bsky.social · 13/02/2026

Is “THIS WORK ★” Really the Best? The Trouble with Figure-Driven Claims of Excellent Performance | Editorial by Phil Christopher in ACS Energy Letters pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/... Why authors should not feel that every paper must show champion performance without standardization in measurements

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