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Mary O'Riordan

@drbadbug.bsky.social
569 followers 1.7K following 9 posts

Professor of Microbiology & Immunology at the University of Michigan | views my own

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Reposted by Mary O'Riordan
Melanie Mitchell @melaniemitchell.bsky.social · 21/05/2026
"Science is not simply a sequence of tasks that can be optimized....The scientific system thrives on inefficiency: redundant efforts, failed attempts, and divergent paths. These are not costs to be eliminated but sources of discovery." Excellent essay! ⬇️ www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
science.org
Progression without progress
Progress in the use of artificial intelligence (AI) to advance scientific discovery has made it increasingly realistic to envision automated “end-to-end science” (ETES) systems: integrated pipelines t...
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Scott Horton @robertscotthorton.bsky.social · 08/04/2026
In March, renewables produced more than a third of US electricity for the first time ever, even overtaking gas generation! Wind and solar combined reached over a quarter (26%) for the first time.
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Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 07/04/2026
I feel sick to my stomach waiting around to see what atrocity Trump has in mind for the people of Iran this evening. It's hard to fathom our other elected leaders aren't able to check him in any meaningful way. It's an indictment not just of voters but of our whole system. We're ruled by a mad king.
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Carl Quintanilla @carlquintanilla.bsky.social · 21/01/2026
Sadly, this failed to make it into the President’s speech today. @forbes.com www.forbes.com/sites/judyst...
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Denis Wirtz @deniswirtz.bsky.social · 21/01/2026
The self sabotage of American science in full display. Thousands of grants supporting clinical trials of new treatments, basic science and clinical translation have been terminated over the last 12 months. www.nature.com/immersive/d4...
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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 27/10/2025
the democratic party’s basic problem is it has almost no control over how its message reaches the ears of voters, especially outside of presidential election years. but rather than devote serious time, attention and cash to that problem its consultants and pundits want to fight factional battles
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Jeremy Berg @jeremymberg.bsky.social · 26/09/2025
This paper does a great job with a "It's a Wonderful Life" scenario about NIH, supposing the consequences of the bottom 40% of the funding NIH grants never existed. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... tl:dr The world would lose a lot, but directly and indirectly
science.org
What if NIH had been 40% smaller?
Replaying history with less NIH funding shows widespread impacts on drug-linked research
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Sarah McAnulty, Ph.D. @sarahmackattack.bsky.social · 19/09/2025
I wanted to get a video of this ghost crab but every time I got close to their hole they scuttled back in, so I tried getting clever with it. I made a little sandcastle and shoved my phone into it, hit record, and walked away. Crab was VERY suspicious of this addition to their environment.
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Brent Toderian @brenttoderian.bsky.social · 18/09/2025
So Flint, Michigan gave $1,500 to all pregnant people, plus $500 each month for the first year of the child’s young life. It saved Flint $6.2 million dollars a year, due to lower rates of rates of prematurity and low birth weight, with fewer corresponding admissions. The right thing, AND cheaper.
theguardian.com
The US town that pays every pregnant woman $1,500: ‘We’re not OK with our babies being born into poverty’
Infants in Rx Kids in Flint, Michigan, saw lower rates of prematurity and other issues, saving millions in NICU visits
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Christian Frezza @frezzalab.bsky.social · 17/09/2025
Peroxisomal metabolism of branched fatty acids regulates energy homeostasis www.nature.com/articles/s41...
nature.com
Peroxisomal metabolism of branched fatty acids regulates energy homeostasis - Nature
A UCP1-independent mechanism of thermogenesis involving ATP-consuming metabolism of monomethyl branched-chain fatty acids in peroxisomes is described and a previously unrecognized role for peroxisomes...
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Infectious Diseases @infectiousdz.bsky.social · 30/08/2025
There have been 22 cases of Vibrio vulnificus reported across the U.S. South, including 2 recent deaths in Louisiana. That brings the state’s 2025 toll to 6 fatalities. It’s a bit of a “perfect storm,” as shifting ocean conditions and loss of CDC capacity collide.
nola.com
Flesh-eating bacteria cases climb to 22 in Louisiana; 2 deaths tied to Louisiana oysters
Louisiana has reported 22 cases of flesh-eating Vibrio vulnificus this year, with four deaths. Health officials warn of risks from warm Gulf waters.
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Dr. Rabbithole @drrabbithole.bsky.social · 25/08/2025
Welcome FEMA to the letter resistance!! The Katrina Declaration was released today out of concern that we are going back to a time when our response was its own man-made disaster. Say Never Again and sign in support!!! @rebelfema.altgov.info act.standupforscience.net/forms/sign-o...
Civil servants standing in solidarity. From NIH, NSF, EPA, CDC, NASA and now FEMA! Text reads Courage is Contagious
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Nature Portfolio @natureportfolio.nature.com · 21/08/2025
A study published in Scientific Reports reveals that an online game can enhance individuals' ability to identify vaccine misinformation. The game uses inoculation theory to expose players to manipulation techniques that are commonly used by anti-vaccine groups. go.nature.com/3JiHq5L 🧪
This image is figure 2 which shows the user interface of the Bad Vaxx game used for the experiments.
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Jeremy Berg @jeremymberg.bsky.social · 15/08/2025
New report from AAMC about clinical trials, other grants, and training www.aamc.org/about-us/mis...
aamc.org
Clinical trials and research training stalled as billions in NIH funds sit idle
Billions in NIH research funds remain unspent, stalling clinical trials, halting grants, and disrupting training for future scientists.
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Nick Sousanis @nsousanis.bsky.social · 12/08/2025
my statement on Ai from the mini-comic I'm making as syllabus for a new class I'm teaching this fall. It's simple, but I pretty much said all I have to say on it - it robs you of decisions and struggle - and the joy of being surprised. It robs you of learning...
a snippet of a mini-comic, at top - straight line stretches from point A to B. Immediately below, same dot at A, then becomes a curving, meandering line that winds through the page and ends at a point with rays and a question mark emanating from it. Text reads: "Nothing can do this for you - that robs you of experience and conflates answers with learning. Rather, it's all the decisions you make along the way, the mistakes, struggles, and surprises! These pathways you create - this is learning.
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Leslie Rissler @ljrissler.bsky.social · 08/08/2025
“This Executive Order is nothing short of obscene," said Ranking Member Zoe Lofgren (D-CA). "In what world does Donald Trump think that Americans want political appointees – who, need I remind the President, are unelected bureaucrats – making decisions on what science gets funded?”
democrats-science.house.gov
Ranking Member Lofgren Calls Trump Out for Corrupt Executive Order Requiring Political Appointees to Approve Federal Grants | House Committee on Science, Space and Technology
The House Committee on Science, Space and Technology
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Mallory McMorrow @mallorymcmorrow.bsky.social · 07/08/2025
We outraised every single candidate in this race without a DIME from corporate PACs. How? YOU. Every dot on this map is someone who believes in what we’re building — and the latest polling shows I’m the *strongest* Democrat to beat Rogers. Let’s do this, Michigan 💪
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Alex Merz 🇺🇸🇨🇦🇺🇦 @merz.bsky.social · 07/08/2025
A remarkable paper. Davisson and colleagues describe an in vitro reaction running under plausible prebiotic conditions that efficiently and stereoselectively aminoacylates a model tRNA. This suggests a path through which nature may have chosen L vs. D amino acids! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
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Ferric Fang, MD @fangferric.bsky.social · 04/08/2025
Public health officials have linked 21 Campylobacter and Shiga toxin-producing E. coli infections to raw milk from a Florida farm. Six of the infections were in children younger than 10. In Florida, sale of raw milk is permitted for animal consumption only. www.tampabay.com/news/health/...
tampabay.com
State health officials warn about infected raw milk
More than 20 cases of infections linked to consumption of raw milk from single farm.
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Garrett M. Graff @vermontgmg.bsky.social · 05/08/2025
We are losing the last of the generation who understand just how evil actual fascism is, how hard it is to rid the world of authoritarian governments once they’re established, and how hard it is to build a successful alternative. www.doomsdayscenario.co/p/what-we-lo...
doomsdayscenario.co
What We Lost When We Lost the Greatest Generation
It's no coincidence that democracy is backsliding in the US exactly eighty years after the end of World War II.
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Max Kozlov @maxkozlov.bsky.social · 05/08/2025
BREAKING: Watchdog government agency finds the NIH and the Trump administration have illegally withheld funds in violation of the Impoundment Control Act, and rips into HHS for failing to justify its slow-walking of funds. www.gao.gov/products/b-3...
gao.gov
Department of Health and Human Services—National Institutes of Health—Application of Impoundment Control Act to Availability of Funds for Grants
Congress appropriated amounts to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to carry out various research objectives for fiscal year 2025. In accordance...
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Rick Hasen @rickhasen.bsky.social · 04/08/2025
My New One at @slate.com on the Supreme Court Potentially Killing the Remaining Pillar of the Voting Rights Act: “The Supreme Court Just Signaled Something Deeply Disturbing About the Next Term” slate.com/news-and-pol...
slate.com
The Supreme Court Just Signaled Something Deeply Disturbing About the Next Term
A court fundamentally hostile to the rights of voters places the court increasingly at odds with democracy itself.
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Josh Mattila @joshmattila.bsky.social · 29/07/2025
"While members of Congress asked the CBO to model cuts on the scale of Trump’s fiscal year 2026 budget proposal, the reductions are so large that they broke the models." www.statnews.com/2025/07/28/n...
statnews.com
New analysis predicts sprawling effects of proposed NIH budget cuts
Initial analyses of the Trump administration’s proposed NIH cuts neglect key aspects of their long-term economic and health impact, study says.
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Reposted by Mary O'Riordan
Xu Zhou lab @ BCH & HMS @xuzhoulab.bsky.social · 22/07/2025
Beyond excited to share our #NewPaper in @cellcellpress.bsky.social! Inflamed environments acidify intracellular #pH. BRD4 senses this via transcriptional condensates, tuning #macrophage responses to match demand and consequences of #inflammation authors.elsevier.com/sd/article/S...
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Ailani 🌺 Brown Eye Girl @browneyegirlhi.bsky.social · 17/07/2025
I'm done adulting! Let's just be mermaids. 🧜‍♀️ 🧜‍♂️ 🧜‍♀️ 🧜‍♂️ How about you?
Girl with red & white top, giving the middle finger. 

I'm a Ray of F*CKING Sunshine.
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Jeremy Berg @jeremymberg.bsky.social · 17/07/2025
My quote of the day A Video Quote Medical miracles don't happen overnight. You have to invest in them. Our investments are in trouble. (From Francis Collins on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, July 16, 2025)
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Schooley @schooley.bsky.social · 18/07/2025
Colbert should just run for President. I mean, it worked for Trump when his show was cancelled.
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Mary O'Riordan @drbadbug.bsky.social · 17/07/2025
Great time to support your NPR and your local PBS stations
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Brian Stelter @brianstelter.bsky.social · 17/07/2025
The rescission bill has passed the Senate. Once it passes the House, as expected, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting's budget will be zeroed out for the first time since 1967, back when TV stations still broadcast in black and white.
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John Tuthill @tuthill.bsky.social · 14/07/2025
i wrote an essay for @thetransmitter.bsky.social about what it feels like to serve on an NIH grant review panel (study section) right now www.thetransmitter.org/craft-and-ca...
thetransmitter.org
Fear and loathing on study section: Reviewing grant proposals while the system is burning
As grants are canceled, delayed and subject to general uncertainty, participating in study sections can feel futile. But it’s more important than ever.
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Brent Toderian @brenttoderian.bsky.social · 14/07/2025
The “E-Bike Effect:” Those who bought e-bikes increased their average daily bicycle use from 2.1km (1.3 miles) to 9.2km (5.7 miles), a 340% increase. The e-bike share of all their transportation increased dramatically too; from 17% to 49%. E-bikes support fewer car trips. V @lloydalter.bsky.social
treehugger.com
E-Bikers Ride Much Farther and More Frequently Than Regular Bikers
They are not 'cheating,' but are serious transportation.
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KatajistoLab @katajistolab.bsky.social · 14/07/2025
Proudly presenting Simon’s @simonsterson.bsky.social‬ paper on asymmetric apportioning of old mitochondria biasing intestinal stem cells for the Paneth cell linage through aKG-dependent metabolism @naturemetabolism.bsky.social www.nature.com/articles/s42... @helsinki.fi @metastem.bsky.social 🧵1/8
nature.com
Old mitochondria regulate niche renewal via α-ketoglutarate metabolism in stem cells - Nature Metabolism
Andersson et al. show that intestinal stem cells enriched for old mitochondria are metabolically distinct and have enhanced ability to regenerate the epithelial niche.
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Alex Merz 🇺🇸🇨🇦🇺🇦 @merz.bsky.social · 08/07/2025
Maybe not the most beautiful experiment in biology but certainly top ten. What are your nominees? 1/
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STCmicrobeblog @stcmicrobeblog.bsky.social · 08/07/2025
RIP Franklin W. Stahl (1929–2025) here is Frank explaining semiconservative replication of DNA in the marvelous interview from 2020 together with Matt Meselson (youtu.be/7-tnuAqEp9g)
Frank Stahl, screen capture from: https://youtu.be/7-tnuAqEp9g
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Ryan Cordell @ryancordell.org · 07/07/2025
The academic’s mid-summer crisis is a mid-life crisis in miniature: You realize summer is half gone, & not only that: you see that the longest & least burdened days came early, & they are well past. You compare all you thought you’d do against the days remaining & grieve for what never will be
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Christopher Webb @cwebbonline.com · 04/07/2025
Wow! France gifted her to us, and now they’ve captured what so many Americans are feeling on Independence Day. The values the Statue of Liberty stood for are no more. 📌 A stunning mural of the Statue of Liberty covering her face was unveiled in Roubaix, France, on July 3, 2025.
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Sandieglo @sandieglo.bsky.social · 04/07/2025
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Kevin M. Kruse @kevinmkruse.bsky.social · 03/07/2025
“Congress” didn’t pass this murder budget. Republicans did it. Republicans did it without a single Democratic vote in the House, without a single Democratic vote in the Senate. Be precise and give, uh, credit where credit is due
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Clare Fieseler, PhD @fieseler.bsky.social · 03/07/2025
The retaliatory firing today of over 100 EPA employees who stood up for scientific integrity — it’s shocking. But it’s also July 3. So this won’t even get on people’s radar.
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Atul Gawande @agawande.bsky.social · 01/07/2025
STAGGERING: This new study of 133 countries is the first to estimate the impact of all USAID’s work. In 2 decades, it has saved *92M* lives. Current cuts, if not reversed, are forecast to cost up to *14M* lives thru 2030. www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...
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Adam Bonin @adambonin.bsky.social · 27/06/2025
Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, in dissent, on the Court's ruling on universal injunctions and birthright citizenship: "The Court’s decision to permit the Executive to violate the Constitution with respect to anyone who has not yet sued is an existential threat to the rule of law."
JUSTICE JACKSON, dissenting. I agree with every word of JUSTICE SOTOMAYOR’s dissent. I write separately to emphasize a key conceptual point: The Court’s decision to permit the Executive to violate the Constitution with respect to anyone who has not yet sued is an existential threat to the rule of law.
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Nature Portfolio @natureportfolio.nature.com · 26/06/2025
A paper in Nature describes the enzymes that regulate the production of a pheromone responsible for locust swarms. The paper also identifies several candidates capable of inhibiting the production of this pheromone. 🧪
go.nature.com
Decoding 4-vinylanisole biosynthesis and pivotal enzymes in locusts - Nature
In locusts, the aggregation pheromone 4-vinylanisole is derived from dietary phenylalanine, and its production is dependent on two 4-vinylphenol methyltransferases that are potential targets for locust pest control.
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Jeremy Berg @jeremymberg.bsky.social · 25/06/2025
NIH BREAKING NEWS NIH BREAKING NEWS Hearing from multiple sources that an email went out late yesterday afternoon Effective immediately: Please do not terminate any additional grant projects. Please pull back all grant projects that are in the cue to be terminated.
media.tenor.com
two men in suits and ties are waving their hands in a room
ALT: two men in suits and ties are waving their hands in a room
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Matt Wilkins @mattwilkins.galacticpolymath.com · 18/06/2025
These figures are from a perspective I wrote with a veteran science teacher, an education researcher, a biologist, and a leader in science outreach. "Scaling the wall: overcoming barriers to STEM knowledge mobilization" www.frontiersin.org/journals/com...
frontiersin.org
Frontiers | Scaling the wall: overcoming barriers to STEM knowledge mobilization
Improving science literacy is crucial amidst global challenges like climate change, emerging diseases, AI, and rampant disinformation. This is vital not only...
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Dan Garisto @dangaristo.bsky.social · 24/06/2025
NEW: NSF will be kicked out of their building. Announcement will be made tomorrow by HUD Sec. and Governor of VA. HUD will take over the NSF building over the next two years. NSF staffer: "There is no planning for NSF, no identified future location, appropriation for a new building or a move."
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Andrew Freedman @afreedma.bsky.social · 23/06/2025
I was surprised when working on this story about global warming's role in this heat wave to find scientists concerned that our models are underestimating future extreme heat severity, frequency and duration. (1/2)
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Gal Haimovich ☣ 🧪🔬🎗 @grnfluoresceblg.bsky.social · 20/06/2025
An inspiring talk by @leeat-keren.bsky.social from Weizmann: www.facebook.com/leeat.keren/...
facebook.com
Leeat Keren
On Thursday, we had a lab BBQ. On Saturday, my life’s work has been destroyed by an Iranian missile. Today, I received the Heidenthal award in Systems Biology. Here is what I said in my lecture: I...
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The Times of Israel @timesofisrael.com · 19/06/2025
From heart tissue to DNA samples, Weizmann scientists mourn work vaporized in Iran attack www.timesofisrael.com/from-heart-ti…
timesofisrael.com
From heart tissue to DNA samples, Weizmann scientists mourn work vaporized in Iran attack
Some 45 labs in the prestigious sciences center were damaged and might take years -- and tens of millions -- to rebuild. Multiple researchers lost their life's work
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Gbenga Ajilore @gbenga-ajilore.bsky.social · 18/06/2025
I know my colleagues already dropped this line (h/t: @brendanvduke.bsky.social ), but it bears repeating - there already exists a rural hospital fund and it is called: 🚨🚨MEDICAID🚨🚨 www.politico.com/live-updates...
politico.com
Senate leadership ponders rural hospital fund to sway megabill holdouts
The fund would help rural hospitals that could be hurt by the Senate's cut to provider taxes.
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Jeremy Berg @jeremymberg.bsky.social · 09/06/2025
Here is a link you can blast out to all of your networks to ask them to consider signing on in support of our NIH heroes. actionnetwork.org/forms/add-na... We are at 5000 folks who have signed on. But we can do better Only for people who have ever been sick or knows someone who has been.
actionnetwork.org
ADD YOUR NAME: Sign the Open Letter in Support of NIH Staff
Join the courageous and committed National Institutes of Health (NIH) public servants by adding your name now.
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