iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Douglas Natelson @nanoscaleviews.bsky.social · 1h

🧪 Outright lying, all the time, even about facts that are trivial to check. If it wasn’t destroying the country, I would almost have to admire the commitment to the bit.

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NY Times Pitchbot @nytpitchbot.bsky.social · 15h

Under Secretary Hegseth’s new plan, servicemen with low blood alcohol levels will be required to undergo vodka replacement therapy.

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Douglas Natelson @nanoscaleviews.bsky.social · 12h

As @colesci.bsky.social says, there are sincere, serious people in meta science, but I worry that there is an undercurrent akin to “don’t trust anything, do your own research” lurking there. Real metascience about funding methods is very hard and not just “try something different right now !!”

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Dan Garisto @dangaristo.bsky.social · 23h

OMB's focus on NIH and NSF, which has confused a lot of folks, pretty much boils down to stopping money going to universities.

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Team Talarico @teamtalaricohq.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

NEW AD: Today on House Hunters, Ken Paxton is shopping for a new house. Will he buy the three-story luxury lodge in Oklahoma? The condos at a wellness resort in Utah? The ocean-view property in Hawaii? (Spoiler alert: He won’t take one — he’ll take 15.)

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Douglas Natelson @nanoscaleviews.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

So, are DOE and NSF going to shift into overdrive now to edit “AI” out of all their funding calls and insert “SI”?

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Douglas Natelson @nanoscaleviews.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

🧪⚛️ Annual Nobel prize speculation thread! (Though as US science is under siege in many ways, it feels even more self-indulgent than big prizes usually seem.) nanoscale.blogspot.com/2026/09/annu...

nanoscale.blogspot.com

Annual Nobel speculation thread

It's that time of year yet again. The physics Nobel will be announced next Tuesday, and the chemistry prize on Wednesday. Who will it ...

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Douglas Natelson @nanoscaleviews.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

🧪⚛️ Highlights of some science items from the last month! nanoscale.blogspot.com/2026/09/brie...

nanoscale.blogspot.com

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Douglas Natelson @nanoscaleviews.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

🧪⚛️ Dam Son at U Chicago, shepherding a clean physics result from Claude (interesting style of presenting this as authored by the AI tool). This is a great example of something AI tools are presently good for: tracking down pernicious calculational details. home.uchicago.edu/dtson/papers...

home.uchicago.edu

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Douglas Natelson @nanoscaleviews.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

100% this. Talarico should be loudly declaring, "Ken Paxton is a coward, too scared to debate the issues." Moreover, Gina Hinojosa should be loudly declaring, "Greg Abbott is a coward, too scared to debate the issues".

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Tom Gauld @tomgauld.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

My latest @newscientist.com cartoon. many more here: www.newscientist.com/author/tom-gauld/

Image: A graph with lots of red dots clustered together in a curve. The are all looking upwards at a single red dot wearing sunglasses.

Caption: Mike was an outlier and would probably be excluded from the study, but all the other data points secretly thought he was really cool.

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Douglas Natelson @nanoscaleviews.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

No one has 4 publication-worthy ideas a week let alone monthly book-worthy ideas. This is farcical.

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Cole Donovan @colesci.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Not going to get off this. Every conversation on research security with non-academics usually involved someone saying “well the Chinese jet looks a lot like the F-35” A) I don’t know that many universities building classified fighters B) Maybe don’t send them them F-35 parts?!?

apnews.com

Pentagon investigates after China obtains parts from F-35 stealth fighter jet

The Pentagon is investigating how parts of the nation’s most advanced fighter jet ended up in Hong Kong.

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Douglas Natelson @nanoscaleviews.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

🧪 If all federally funded researchers agreed to wear Trump-branded gold-accented lab coats, would that unlock grant spending? Asking for a friend.

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NY Times Pitchbot @nytpitchbot.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Dartmouth’s conservative Provost’s history of submitting AI generated papers to journals raises new questions about the left’s commitment to academic rigor

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Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

This seems like a pretty big deal: donors made illegal contributions to Susan Collins and then were awarded lucrative contracts after her office intervened with the Navy. An FBI investigation was dropped under Trump. www.propublica.org/article/fbi-...

To skirt campaign finance laws and conceal the source of the funds, Navatek planned to funnel the donation through a shell company. The CEO wanted assurance that Collins would know where
the money came from. Reed confirmed that she would, the executive said - and that Navatek would get its government contracts.
After the Corner Bakery meeting, Navatek's CEO, Martin Kao, sent an initial $150,000 to the Collins super PAC using the shell company. Two months later, he told Navatek executives that Collins committed to getting the company $32 million in naval contracts, according to an internal company email reviewed by ProPublica.

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Douglas Natelson @nanoscaleviews.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

🧪 OMB seems to be running NSF spending, and NSF is underspending its budget appropriation by 18%. OMB wants big NIH cuts. What do we think will happen here?

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Dr. SkySkull @drskyskull.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

New explanation for the Fermi paradox just dropped. Every civilization ended up with one of these:

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Douglas Natelson @nanoscaleviews.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

🧪 When I get the "How is NSF making an impact this week?" email, is it bad that I get a mental image of the agency having been thrown from a great height?

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Zahra Fakhraai @zahrafakhraai.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

That's 300, 3-yr NSF grants per day, 4 full years or funding total, or 3 years worth of snap funding, or 2 years of US AID funding. It was spent in 5 months for no good reason at all. We could've had nice things instead of killing humans.

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Douglas Natelson @nanoscaleviews.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

🧪⚛️ This memo, if enacted as policy, is a drastic and in my view highly deleterious restructuring of the NSF. It’s bad, and I will blog about it, but ironically I literally just got back from a NSF-related program review tonight. I’ll write about that, too.

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Adam Forte @topoismyforte.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

The title doesn't really capture the angst most of us feel, but the first line of the article captures the current zeitgeist of the US scientific community pretty well, "For many U.S. scientists funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), the agency they know and loved died on 10 September."

science.org

NSF memo implementing Trump’s ‘golden age’ of science unsettles researchers

New document emphasizes support for White House priorities over curiosity-driven ideas

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Douglas Natelson @nanoscaleviews.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

Good for now. Have to hope the rule eventually gets vacated, and that the inevitable appeals affirm that decision.

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Radley Balko @radleybalko.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

It isn't just that this creep is leading the polls for Texas Railroad Commissioner (which apparently has nothing to do with railroads!). He's also the GOP party chair for Tarrant County -- Fort Worth, one of the largest cities controlled by Republicans. He isn't fringe. He's the party now.

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Christopher Whitaker @civicwhitaker.com · 13/09/2026

If the Speaker feels they don’t have enough expertise there’s a way to bring it back - The Office of Technology Assessment! www.liberalcurrents.com/congress-nee...

liberalcurrents.com

Congress Needs Its Tech Experts Back

If Congress is to tackle issues from DOGE sabotage to AI to social media, it needs to resurrect its Office of Technology Assessment.

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Douglas Natelson @nanoscaleviews.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

I assume there will be a number of huge lawsuits about this. Sometimes I wonder if there is some grift at work where all these actions are secretly a ploy to allow lawyers to make money, while also screwing international students.

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Dan Vergano @danvergano.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

Science Agencies Pull ‘Political Interference’ Protections From Scientific Integrity Policies www.aip.org/fyi/science-... NSF and the Department of Commerce have scrubbed references to the dangers of political interference in science from official agency policy documents.

aip.org

Science Agencies Pull ‘Political Interference’ Protections From Scientific Integrity Policies

NSF and the Department of Commerce have scrubbed references to the dangers of political interference in science from official agency policy documents.

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Dan Garisto @dangaristo.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

Yesterday NSF announced a series of major changes to its grantmaking, best encapsulated by a shift from bottom-up 'investigator-driven inquiry' to more top-down 'NSF-directed opportunities'. These include 4 Frontier Initiatives (previously described as 'Grand Research Challenges'). My reporting:

nature.com

NSF moves to overhaul funding approach in line with White House priorities

The major funder of basic science has not said how its new initiatives will be funded — but staff worry streamlined approach will further squeeze cash for core sciences.

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Douglas Natelson @nanoscaleviews.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

🧪⚛️ Much to digest in the letter, which is here in pdf form: nsf-gov-resources.nsf.gov/files/Statem...

nsf-gov-resources.nsf.gov

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Dan Garisto @dangaristo.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

Penultimate? FY26 NSF grantmaking update One month ago (8/4) New grants: 4310/7761 — 55.5% of avg. Obligations: 4.10/5.08 billion — 80.7% of avg. Now (9/7) New grants: 6,144/10,857 — 67% of avg.* Obligations: 5.97/7.49 billion — 80% of avg. *avg. from 21–24 grantwitness.org/nsf/analyses...

grantwitness.org

Agency Pulse: Grantmaking at NSF

An independent, up-to-date, grant-level record of federal science funding disruptions in the United States.

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Douglas Natelson @nanoscaleviews.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

🧪⚛️ What is thermal expansion, what is negative thermal expansion, and a new record material for negative thermal expansion. nanoscale.blogspot.com/2026/09/nega...

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Douglas Natelson @nanoscaleviews.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

“So, start with an SS uniform, then add in some Galactic Empire aesthetic….”

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Douglas Natelson @nanoscaleviews.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

🧪⚛️ NSF, NIH - when agencies spend (or do not spend) money in ways that seemingly defy congressional appropriations. Article I only means something if the majority in Congress wants it to mean something. nanoscale.blogspot.com/2026/09/nsf-...

nanoscale.blogspot.com

NSF, spending, and the end of the fiscal year

We are less than one month away from the end of the federal fiscal year, and traditionally there are internal deadlines for agencies to allo...

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Douglas Natelson @nanoscaleviews.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

The person who had reporting obligations at UW had a past romantic relationship w the subject of the complaints and didn’t recuse herself; and UW allegedly disclosed this investigation to ASU, and ASU hired him anyway? Wow. This is like a madlibs of what not to do.

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Elle Cordova @ellecordova.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

Rough Draft vs Final Draft

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Douglas Natelson @nanoscaleviews.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

🧪 In my role as associate dean, I have to learn a bit about lab equipment across multiple disciplines. Pro tip: If you search for "vibratome" (a device made for sectioning biological tissues into very thin slices), you will get lots of more ... intimate... items showing up in the search images.

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James Talarico @jamestalarico.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

Ken Paxton got a $250,000 donation from the chair of Texas Tech’s Board of Regents. The next day, he threatened to sue the Big 12 to protect Brendan Sorsby, the Tech quarterback who was caught illegally betting on his games. Ken Paxton is the most corrupt politician in Texas.

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Douglas Natelson @nanoscaleviews.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

🧪⚛️ 1/7 We are one month away from the end of the federal fiscal year. Right now, the NSF is on track to issue about 4000 fewer (!!) awards in FY26 than it did back in FY21-FY24, and 2000 fewer than it did in the tumultuous FY25 (with its government shutdowns and mass cutbacks in agency personnel).

Graphs from grantwitness.com of NSF award and obligations vs time during the last several fiscal years, showing drastic shortfalls in FY26 relative to prior responses.

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Douglas Natelson @nanoscaleviews.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

I made a fig/feta/blue cheese tart, because I picked 16 figs from our tree in the last two days alone.

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Douglas Natelson @nanoscaleviews.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

1/2 ”Coyote vs Acme” is a genuinely good movie. Zaslav and Warner Bros (“A wholly owned subsidiary of Acme Corporation”) deserve every bit of grief for trying to bury it as a tax write-off. Funny, actually touching at points, and fits in nearly every WB cartoon character.

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Douglas Natelson @nanoscaleviews.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

”Coyote vs Acme” is a genuinely good movie. Zaslav and Warner Bros (“A wholly owned subsidiary of Acme Corporation”) deserve every bit of grief for trying to bury it as a tax write-off. Funny, actually touching at points, and fits in nearly every WB cartoon character.

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Mrs. N @btwnthesepages.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

Dimethyl mercury update from MIT. Reposted with alt text.

Building 18 - update
Aug. 29, 2026, 3:36 p.m.

Offices across campus have been responding to a reported hazardous material incident involving a single individual in a chemistry laboratory. The Institute became aware of the matter after the individual, a graduate student, self-reported to a local emergency room and claimed to have synthesized dimethyl mercury, a compound that is not authorized as part of their research program. Emerging information calls into question whether this compound was in fact synthesized. We are also able to disclose, with the student’s permission, that while the student remains under medical supervision, their initial blood test result, which was received today, shows no sign of exposure to mercury.

Building 18 remains closed at least through Sunday as specialized decontamination efforts continue out of an abundance of caution. This work will continue, and the building will remain closed until the work is complete.

Also out of an abundance of caution, high-touch surfaces in the common areas of the individual’s residence hall were professionally cleaned under the supervision of MIT Environmental Health and Safety (EHS), and decontamination of the resident’s sealed unit is ongoing, as has been shared with residents of the building. The residence remains open and in normal operation, and no restrictions have been placed on the building.

With a focus on public health, decontamination efforts have been ongoing and baseline testing was offered to individuals who were in proximity to the student and their work environment on Wednesday, August 26. As the chemistry department, industrial hygienists, MIT Health medical experts, and other resources consulted collect additional information, we continue to believe there is a very low risk of secondary or tertiary exposures. At this time testing is not recommended by MIT Health officials for any members of the community who did not enter the individual’s lab space on Wednesday.

We continue to gather …

2nd image of text recorded in first alt.

3rd pic of text (all text for the whole message is in the first alt).

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Douglas Natelson @nanoscaleviews.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

🧪⚛️ Two terrible lab safety incidents at universities this week (HF at Hokkaido, dimethylmercury at MIT). Please be careful out there! nanoscale.blogspot.com/2026/08/lab-...

nanoscale.blogspot.com

Lab safety - seriously, be careful out there

This past week was a genuinely horrific reminder of the importance of lab safety, especially in the realm of hazardous chemicals. First, a...

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Bradley P. Moss @bradmossesq.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

These people had protected status. They lived here legally. They worked, they paid taxes. They made lives. Raised families. Now we’ve dehumanized them. Ripped away that protection and told them to get out. This is a stain on the soul of this Nation.

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lastpositivist.bsky.social @lastpositivist.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

It's being treated as a policy victory that we have less of the world's smart young people coming to learn from us, participate in our society and economy. This is just so depressing to me, it feels like a complete victory for know-nothing ignorant bigotry over enlightened sensibilities.

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