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Luke Butler

@lucaspbutler.bsky.social
1.2K followers 1.6K following 63 posts

Assoc Prof at University of Maryland. Social cognition, cognitive development, development of empirical reasoning. Posts/reposts reflect my personal opinion.

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Luke Butler @lucaspbutler.bsky.social · 07/07/2026
NEW PAPER with Bethany Lassetter, @nataliehutchins.bsky.social, & @andreicimpian.bsky.social out now in Cognition! Open access link (free until late August): authors.elsevier.com/a/1nNS02Hx32... Adults often agree with their ingroup even when evidence says otherwise. Why? 🧵 🧵 🧵 below:
authors.elsevier.com
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The It's Innate! Podcast @theitsinnatepc.bsky.social · 19/03/2026
New ep! 🚨 We chat with Dr. Richard Prather (pratherlab.bsky.social) about his path into cognitive science, numerical development, & computational modeling—plus a deep dive into why the field needs a more 𝘤𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘭 approach & what that actually means for researchers today. itsinnate.fireside.fm/35
itsinnate.fireside.fm
A 𝗰𝗿𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹 take on the cognitive sciences (with Richard Prather)
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The 51st @51st.news · 11/02/2026
🧵 1/ It’s hard to find hope amidst so much collapse. But in the wreckage of today’s crises, people are also powering solutions — and The 51st, backed by the community of D.C., is one of them. Will you help us build a local newsroom that a billionaire can’t break?
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Russ The Tedious Ghost @russ41.bsky.social · 13/02/2026
You can help build billionaire-free local news. Repost this -> I give $1 Follow @51st.news -> I give $1 Follow me -> I give $1 Donate -> I match your gift Let's fight misinformation, help good journalists to make a decent living, and stick a big ol' finger in Jeff Bezos' eye.
51st.news
The 51st is expanding
D.C. needs more local journalists. You can help us hire them.
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Theo Sanderson @theo.io · 08/02/2026
I made a map of 3.4 million Bluesky users - see if you can find yourself! bluesky-map.theo.io I've seen some similar projects, but IMO this seems to better capture some of the fine-grained detail
bluesky-map.theo.io
Bluesky Map
Interactive map of 3.4 million Bluesky users, visualised by their follower pattern.
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Andrei Cimpian @andreicimpian.bsky.social · 06/01/2026
🧵New preprint: Adults often agree with their ingroup even when evidence says otherwise. Why? To find out, we studied kids, who show the same tendency but *before* political identities take hold. With developmental data, we can see the basic psychological ingredients. doi.org/10.31234/osf... 1/11
doi.org
OSF
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Melissa Kline Struhl @mekline.bsky.social · 30/12/2025
Two days left to donate to Children Helping Science with 1-to-1 matches from an anonymous donor up to $100K! giving.mit.edu/search/node/... For fun: 1 repost = 1 citation to a paper with data from Children Helping Science/Lookit!
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Dr. Allison Master @allisonmaster.bsky.social · 09/12/2025
🚨New OPEN-ACCESS publication alert! 🚨 "The Role of Stereotypes in Gender Development and Disparities" in Annual Review of Developmental Psychology with @poojaroy0514.bsky.social @lucaspbutler.bsky.social @patelkhushboo.bsky.social and Sydney Baker. www.annualreviews.org/content/jour... (1/5)
annualreviews.org
The Role of Stereotypes in Gender Development and Disparities
Learning about the social world, including gender, is a key developmental task of childhood. Children learn about gender stereotypes from their second year of life, and those stereotypes can shape the...
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Melissa Kline Struhl @mekline.bsky.social · 08/12/2025
This is a fundraising post! An anonymous donor is matching contributions to Children Helping Science up to 100K through the end of the year - if it's in your giving budget, please consider supporting open science infrastructure! giving.mit.edu/search/node/... Details below...
giving.mit.edu
Fund Search Results | Giving to MIT
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Jeremy Yoder says no war @jbyoder.org · 14/11/2025
This has gotten surprisingly little attention — it's not even on the front page of @science.org right now — but it's really hard to describe what the SAFE Research Act would do to US science and scientists without sounding insane www.science.org/content/arti...
science.org
U.S. Congress considers sweeping ban on Chinese collaborations
Researchers speak out against proposal that would bar funding for U.S. scientists working with Chinese partners or training Chinese students
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Roland Hatzenpichler @environmicrobio.bsky.social · 14/11/2025
“The prohibited activities would include joint research, co-authorship on papers, and advising a foreign graduate student or postdoctoral fellow. The language is retroactive, meaning any interactions during the previous 5 years could make a scientist ineligible for future federal funding.”
science.org
U.S. Congress considers sweeping ban on Chinese collaborations
Researchers speak out against proposal that would bar funding for U.S. scientists working with Chinese partners or training Chinese students
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Brendan Nyhan @brendannyhan.bsky.social · 12/11/2025
Experimental participants to us
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Molly Knight @mollyknight.bsky.social · 12/11/2025
Shout out to everyone completely demoralized about the state of the world who still manages to get out of bed each morning. And shout out to you, too if you’re still in bed. This shit is hard. Talk to your friends and neighbors. They’re going though it too, which is both terrifying and comforting.
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Tomer Ullman @tomerullman.bsky.social · 06/11/2025
PART 1: THE RESEARCH STATEMENT This is about 'WHAT is it that you want to do, why this PLACE/PI specifically, why are YOU the relevant person to be doing THIS'. Standard structure: There is no one right way to do this, but here is a good breakdown:
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Stephen Aguilar @stephenaguilar.com · 11/09/2025
Aw man I wish academics had headlines like this. “Stephen Aguilar (existential dread) is not expected to write today, per @mpolikoff.bsky.social”
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Bethann Garramon Merkle (@commnatural elsewhere) @bgmerkle.bsky.social · 09/09/2025
I keep having this conversation with colleagues. We need to make it obvious to students that revision means success, not failure, as a writer. 1/
schoolofgoodtrouble.substack.com
Dozens of eyeballs, dozens of drafts
We need to make it obvious to students that revision means success, not failure, as a writer.
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Luke Butler @lucaspbutler.bsky.social · 23/08/2025
If I’m doing the numbers right the programs they are consolidating here (including DRK12 and ECR) had over $100M in combined funding allocated. This anticipates $30M. This isn’t death by a thousand cuts. This is one enormous cut.
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Dr. David Miller 🏳️‍🌈 @davidimiller.bsky.social · 22/08/2025
🚨 Major shake-up in NSF funding for K-12 STEM ed: Caps proposals at $750K max for 3 years. Prior cap used to be $5M up to 5 years for some programs. Archives several existing programs (DRK-12, AISL, CSforAll, TD, parts of ECR:Core). Combines into broad program with much lower expected # of awards.
nsf.gov
NSF STEM K-12 (STEM K-12)
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Dr. David Miller 🏳️‍🌈 @davidimiller.bsky.social · 20/08/2025
🧪 New study: Learning about economic impact of NIH funding motivates action to oppose funding cuts. Evidence from two preregistered, randomized experiments with >5,000 U.S. adults. Similar change for liberals and conservatives. Preprint from @asinclair.bsky.social et al: osf.io/preprints/ps...
Study 2 Intervention Materials
Base Intervention Text
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) provide funding for scientific research that
leads to major breakthroughs for cancer, diabetes, dementia, heart disease, infectious
diseases, stroke, mental illness, and more.
NIH funding is also an excellent financial investment. For every dollar NIH invests in
research, an average of $2.56 of economic activity is returned–a gain of over 250%.
The White House recently ordered major changes to NIH funding, which would take
back funds already promised to the states. States have sued to challenge the order,
arguing that the changes are unlawful.
[page break]
There are two major sources of cuts to NIH funding, which will result in current and
future losses.
First, many NIH grants for health research have already been cancelled, interrupting
ongoing studies and clinical trials. These cancelled grants are projected to result in
economic losses of $4.9 Billion and over 21,000 jobs.
Second, another change would greatly reduce NIH funding that covers “indirect
costs” of research. These funds help pay for essential facilities, equipment, skilled staff,
and safety checks needed across many research projects. Medical research would not be
possible without funding to cover indirect costs. In the future, this proposed change to
funding for indirect costs of research would reduce the U.S. economy by about $16
Billion and over 68,000 jobs every year.
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Luke Butler @lucaspbutler.bsky.social · 04/08/2025
So excited to see this work with @jennaalton.bsky.social and @andreicimpian.bsky.social in press!
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Jenna Alton @jennaalton.bsky.social · 04/08/2025
In a second, we form expectations about the likely traits and behaviors of people we meet. How does this ability develop? How do others’ perceived gender factor into it? I’m thrilled to share a new paper now in press at Cognition with @andreicimpian.bsky.social and‪ @lucaspbutler.bsky.social. 1/6
drive.google.com
AltonCimpianButler_Cognition.pdf
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Daniel Laurison @daniellaurison.bsky.social · 26/06/2025
On why Harvard shouldn't "negotiate" with Trump (by @ryanenos.bsky.social & Levitsky) - www.thecrimson.com/article/2025...
thecrimson.com
This Isn’t Negotiation. It’s Authoritarian Extortion. | Opinion | The Harvard Crimson
Defending democracy requires sacrifice. There are moments when we must pay a price to ensure the long-term survival of our basic freedoms. This is one of those moments.
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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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Michael Ralph @michaelcralph.bsky.social · 17/06/2025
What is common knowledge in your field, but shocks outsiders? Learning styles are not a thing.
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Luke Butler @lucaspbutler.bsky.social · 08/06/2025
👀
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🎃Darin S Pumpkins🎃 @darinself.com · 04/06/2025
All universities need to fight together or someday this could happen to them.
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AERA @aeraedresearch.bsky.social · 30/05/2025
AERA and other scientific societies sent a letter to Congress today expressing concern about imminent threats to NSF’s structure and operations. The letter urges Congress to use its oversight authority to ensure the NSF can carry out its statutory mission. aas.org/sites/defaul...
NSF logo
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Anna Merlan @annamerlan.bsky.social · 29/05/2025
I spent five weeks talking to federal workers about knowledge loss and brain drain across the federal government, and its implications, both right now and for decades to come. Their stories are frightening, but I think it's important to know what we're facing: www.motherjones.com/politics/202...
motherjones.com
When it comes to Trump's brain drain, “the damage is already done”
How the DOGE-triggered attack on government research left America in the dark.
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Luke Butler @lucaspbutler.bsky.social · 29/05/2025
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
theguardian.com
Trump’s new ‘gold standard’ rule will destroy American science as we know it | Colette Delawalla
The new executive order allows political appointees to undermine research they oppose, paving the way to state-controlled science
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Luke Butler @lucaspbutler.bsky.social · 27/05/2025
A must read: It's not just higher education, it really is an attack on the predominant ways of learning, knowing, and decision-making that of the last 75+ years.
theatlantic.com
The New Dark Age
The Trump administration has launched an attack on knowledge itself.
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Kyle Cheney @kyledcheney.bsky.social · 23/05/2025
BREAKING: Judge Burroughs has granted Harvard's restraining order, barring the administration from terminating its foreign student population. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
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Luke Butler @lucaspbutler.bsky.social · 23/05/2025
🤬
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Luke Butler @lucaspbutler.bsky.social · 23/05/2025
Absolute madness. And yes, the destruction and cruelty are the point. Watch this one closely. If this actually holds (which I keep hoping it couldn’t possibly) it’ll be a model for bringing all of US higher education to its knees.
pbs.org
Trump administration bars Harvard from enrolling foreign students, including current ones
The Trump administration revoked Harvard University's ability to enroll international students in its escalating battle with the Ivy League school, saying thousands of current students must transfer t...
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Social Media Lab @socialmedialab.ca · 23/05/2025
Here's a useful term to capture today’s global atmosphere: hypernormalization, a Soviet-era concept that describes a reality where everything feels broken yet oddly normal. www.theguardian.com/wellness/ng-...
theguardian.com
Systems are crumbling - but daily life continues. The dissonance is real
If everything feels broken but strangely normal, the Soviet-era concept of hypernormalization can help
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Carl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · 22/05/2025
Harvard today, your institution tomorrow. It's all part of the Project 2025 plan to destroy high education in America. All leading US universities depend on federal funding and tuition dollars from international students. They severely curtailed the former. Now they're eliminating the latter.
The Trump administration on Thursday halted Harvard University’s ability to enroll international students, taking aim at a crucial funding source for the nation’s oldest and wealthiest college in a major escalation in the administration’s efforts to pressure the elite school to fall in line with the president’s agenda.
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Chanda Prescod-Weinstein 🌌 @chanda.blacksky.app · 22/05/2025
NSF Physics was cut by 85%, basically wiping out most of its capacity for supporting research. NSF Astronomy was cut by 53% Undergrad education was cut by 71% and research on learning by 79% Graduate education was cut by 100% to ZERO. #GiftLink ⚛️🔭 www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
nytimes.com
Trump Has Cut Science Funding to Its Lowest Level in Decades (Gift Article)
The lag in funding extends far beyond D.E.I. initiatives, affecting almost every area of science: chemistry, computing, engineering, materials and more.
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Luke Butler @lucaspbutler.bsky.social · 17/05/2025
Does anyone know if universities are filing lawsuits contesting NSF/NIH grant *terminations* in addition to the indirect cost cuts? The only information I can find is about the latter, but I would think there ought to be at least some standing to challenge terminations of already-awarded grants, no?
reuters.com
Major universities sue to block Trump cuts to NSF research funding
Major U.S. universities have filed a lawsuit seeking to block President Donald Trump's administration from carrying out steep cuts to federal research funding provided to academic institutions by the National Science Foundation.
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Luke Butler @lucaspbutler.bsky.social · 13/05/2025
Money quote: "To watch these changes unfold without naming them for what they are is to participate in a collective amnesia about how knowledge infrastructures shape power relations." time.com/7285045/resi...
time.com
Why I’m Resigning from the NSF and Library of Congress
I cannot participate in systems that require dishonesty as the price of belonging.
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Luke Butler @lucaspbutler.bsky.social · 12/05/2025
So happy to see the official announcement of this generous gift to support the important work of our Maryland Democracy Initiative @umaryland.edu! Thrilled to continue my small part of this collaborative endeavor! today.umd.edu/a-vote-for-c...
today.umd.edu
A Vote for Civic Education
Gift to Maryland Democracy Initiative Supports Political Engagement, Literacy Efforts
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Luke Butler @lucaspbutler.bsky.social · 10/05/2025
This is just all kinds of awful www.science.org/content/arti...
science.org
Exclusive: NSF faces radical shake-up as officials abolish its 37 divisions
Changes seen as a response to presidential directives on what research to fund
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Congressman Bill Foster @repbillfoster.bsky.social · 09/05/2025
NEWS: I just led 112 of my colleagues in demanding answers from the Trump Administration on their funding freeze of the National Science Foundation. Cutting off NSF funding threatens vital research, stalls innovation, and risks ceding global scientific leadership to China.
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Monica Marks @monicamarks.bsky.social · 09/05/2025
Finally. My fellow Fulbright Scholar Rumeysa Ozturk has been freed. My country jailed her for over a month as—let’s be perfectly frank—a political prisoner. Why? Because she wrote a mild oped that criticised Israel in her student newspaper. I've thought of her every day.
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Eric Columbus @ericcolumbus.bsky.social · 06/05/2025
🚨🚨 Deranged letter from Education Secretary Linda McMahon to Harvard’s president, cutting off federal funding for any new grants. Worth reading in full. It is NUTS.
THE SECRETARY OF EDUCATION
WASHINGTON, DC 20202
May 5, 2025
Dr. Alan Garber
Office of the President
Harvard University
Massachusetts Hall
Cambridge, MA 02138
Dr. Garber,
The Federal Government has a sacred responsibility to be a wise and important steward of American taxpayer dollars. Harvard University, despite amassing a largely tax-free $53.2 billion dollar endowment (larger than the GDP of 100 countries), receives billions of dollars of taxpayer largess each year. Receiving such taxpayer funds is a privilege, not a right. Yet instead of using these funds to advance the education of its students, Harvard is engaging in a systemic pattern of violating federal law. Where do many of these "students" come from, who are they, how do they get into Harvard, or even into our country—and why is there so much HATE? These are questions that must be answered, among many more, but the biggest question of all is, why will Harvard not give straightforward answers to the American public?
Harvard University has made a mockery of this country's higher education system. It has invited foreign students, who engage in violent behavior and show contempt for the United States of America, to its campus. In every way, Harvard has failed to abide by its legal obligations, its ethical and fiduciary duties, its transparency responsibilities, and any semblance of academic rigor. It had scrapped standardized testing requirements and a normalized grading system. This year Harvard was forced to adopt an embarrassing "remedial math" program for undergraduates.
Why is it, we ask, that Harvard has to teach simple and basic mathematics, when it is supposedly so hard to get into this "acclaimed university"? Who is getting in under such a low standard when others, with fabulous grades and a great understanding of the highest levels of mathematics, are being rejected?
Harvard has even been embroiled in humiliating plagiarism scandals, exposed clearly and plainly in the media, with respect to your then…running the institution in a totally chaotic way. Harvard alumnus and highly successful hedge fund manager Bill Ackman noted that, under her leadership, Harvard has become "a political advocacy organization for one party."
Ackman has called for the resignation of Pritzker, concluding that the "[t)he mismanagement here is Penny Pritzker" and noting that any serious corporation would have removed her after a litany of recent failings and the fact that, incredibly, "Harvard is not in a good financial position." According to Ackman, one of the world's foremost finance experts, Harvard's so-called S53 billion endowment is "massively overstated as far as what it's really worth," and Harvard has irresponsibly taken out $8 billion in debt.
If this is true, it is concerning evidence of Harvard's disastrous mismanagement, indicating an urgent need for massive reform-not continued taxpayer investment. If Harvard prefers not to change, then Harvard should have no problem using its overflowing endowment to fund its bloated bureaucracy.
At its best, a university should fulfill the highest ideals of our Nation, and enlighten the thousands of hopeful students who walk through its magnificent gates. But Harvard has betrayed this ideal.
Perhaps most alarmingly, Harvard has failed to abide by the United States Supreme Court's ruling demanding that it end its racial preferencing, and continues to engage in ugly racism in its undergraduate and graduate schools, and even within the Harvard Law Review itself. Our universities should be bastions of merit that reward and celebrate excellence and achievement.
They should not be incubators of discrimination that encourage resentment and instill grievance and racism into our wonderful young Americans.
The above concerns are only a fraction of the long list of Harvard's consistent violations of its own legal duties. Given these and other concerning allegations, this letter is to inform you that Harvard should no longer seek GRANTS from the fede…Federal Agencies. The Administration's priorities have not changed and today's letter marks the end of new grants for the University.
These requests will advance the best interests of Harvard University, so it can reclaim its status as a respected educational institution for the future leaders of America. Thank you for your attention to this matter!
Sincerely,
Linda E. McMahon
Secretary of Education
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Kate Marvel @drkatemarvel.bsky.social · 05/05/2025
Also literal brain drain: I’m way less productive than before and all the stupidity is killing my capacity for deep work (also my soul)
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Kylie Falcione @kyliefalcione.bsky.social · 04/05/2025
Grateful for the incredible love and support at #SRCD2025 in response to the injustices and tragedies of recent deportations. I hope more conferences continue to stand in solidarity with scholars facing such hardships across the field. #DevPsych #PsychSci #Psysci
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Luke Butler @lucaspbutler.bsky.social · 03/05/2025
Lisa Diamond giving a barnstorming call to action for developmental scientists to rise and meet the moment to support trans youth #SRCD2025
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Dr. Suzanne Le Menestrel @drsl.bsky.social · 02/05/2025
The Spencer Foundation is offering rapid response bridge funding for those who lost NSF research grants. www.spencer.org/grant_types/...
spencer.org
Rapid Response Bridge Funding Program
In the face of recent abrupt shifts in federal funding for education research, including large-scale terminations of National Science Foundation (NSF) research grant awards, we have developed a rap...
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Dr. David Miller 🏳️‍🌈 @davidimiller.bsky.social · 02/05/2025
For those with despair about today's extreme proposed funding cuts for NIH, NSF, NASA, NOAA, etc... remember: CONGRESS 👏 SETS 👏 BUDGET 👏 LEVELS Today's news is simply just the President's **request**. Tell your elected representatives to REJECT this assault on science and scientific training.
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Gabrielle Hecht 🇵🇷 • she/elle/ella/cis⚔️ • AOC 4USpresident @gabriellehecht.bsky.social · 02/05/2025
Pause for a minute to appreciate the valiant Program Officers still at NSF, who are doing their utmost to preserve what they can. They’re in the stinking rotting belly of the beast, laboring on our behalf. ❤️❤️❤️❤️ to them
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F. Ece Ozkan @feceozkan.bsky.social · 28/04/2025
Excited to be organizing this symposium with @samuelronfard.bsky.social's support! 😊 Check out our session #SRCD25, Friday, 11.30 am, and hear from Joshua Confer, @anahidmodrek.bsky.social, and @lucaspbutler.bsky.social! @janengelmann.bsky.social
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