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William Brazelton

@wbrazelton.bsky.social
129 followers 137 following 45 posts

Associate Research Professor, School of Biological Sciences, University of Utah Research Scientist, Blue Marble Space Institute of Science

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Reposted by William Brazelton
Dan Garisto @dangaristo.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
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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Blue Marble Space @bluemarblespace.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Astrobiologists Srishti Kashyap and Alta Howells are co-authors on Searching for extraterrestrial life advances terrestrial sustainability, a perspectives piece in Nature Communications that came out this past year. www.colorado.edu/today/2026/0...
colorado.edu
Astrobiologists search for alien life and help life on Earth in the process
A team of early-career researchers say exploring how life may have evolved on far-away worlds could lead to advancements on Earth—from new sources of
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Blue Marble Space @bluemarblespace.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Save the date for Life and Space 2026 Tomasz Zajkowski and the Polish Astrobiology Society invite schoalrs globally to consider joining Life and Space 2026 (LAS26), the Society's international online astrobiology conference, taking place December 4–6, 2026. Full details at astrobio.pl/LAS26.
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Blue Marble Space @bluemarblespace.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
Former YSP Research Associate Gabby Rizzo (2023 cohort), now a Ph.D. student at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, has put together Exploring Astrobiology in High School. docs.google.com/document/d/1...
docs.google.com
Astrobiology_Opportunities_for_High_School_Students_2027.docx
STUDENT OPPORTUNITY GUIDE | VERSION 1.0 Exploring Astrobiology in High School Summer programs, research experiences, online courses, and citizen-science projects for 2027 planning PREPARED…
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Roland Hatzenpichler @environmicrobio.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
It should go without saying that this is against the congressional mandate.
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Holly Bik @hollybik.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
Never thought I’d wake up and see @echinoblog.bsky.social @noaa.gov on the front page of the celebrity gossip subreddit. But I guess we have two new #deepsea celebrities! www.reddit.com/r/popculture...
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Dan Garisto @dangaristo.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
Scoop: This afternoon NSF will formally announce its four 'Frontier Initiatives', and a suite of other changes in a public letter. These Frontier Initiatives (left) are identical to OSTP's 'Grand Research Challenges' that we have been reporting on (right). www.nature.com/articles/d41...
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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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Sarah Taber @sarahtaber.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
Soooooo there was a big push to get people to sign up as poll workers over the last ~10 days or so and uhhhh We are now at 27,000 new poll workers. 💪💪💪 This is not a joke, that's twenty-seven THOUSAND people.
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Michael Hobbes @michaelhobbes.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
A 76-year-old green card holder with stage 4 cancer was arrested at his citizenship application interview and has been held by ICE for two months. www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news...
Loreto Javar, a green card holder who’s lived in the United States for over three decades and is being treated for Stage 4 prostate cancer, has been held at the Northwest ICE Processing Center in Tacoma for more than two months. 

A 76-year-old retired hotel worker who lives in Fife with his wife and daughter, Javar was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials June 23 during an interview for his U.S. citizenship application in Tukwila. He was receiving ongoing cancer treatment when he was taken into ICE custody, his family said, and has missed several medical appointments since his arrest.
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William Brazelton @wbrazelton.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
"Never make fun of someone if they mispronounce a word. It means they learned it by reading"
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Mark Copelovitch @mcopelov.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
The politicization & illegal cancellation of federal research funding is an existential crisis for every research university in the country, especially flagship R1 publics. Again, you would think university presidents would speak up, loudly & collectively, about this. Alas. bsky.app/profile/mcop...
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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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Sarah Taber @sarahtaber.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
Every Time We Complain About How Much Water Almonds Use, A Dairy Baron Gets His Wings
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Sarah Taber @sarahtaber.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
See NYT asked me for an op-ed on the Colorado River water issue. So that's what I told them. And the editors panicked & cancelled the piece. In case we're wondering why "nobody can figure out how to solve this difficult issue." We absolutely can, a lot of our professional talkers are just cowards.
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Michael Hobbes @michaelhobbes.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
“Silly” is a good way to put it! There were excesses in 2020 but they were mostly low-stakes efforts by well-intentioned people to address real injustices. The excesses of the right during the same era were far more harmful. The reckoning we need now is about how elites lost sight of that.
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Roland Hatzenpichler @environmicrobio.bsky.social · 09/08/2026
Version 1.0 of my Microbe expansion for Terraforming Mars is finished. All cards are scientifically correct and thematic. Updates/changes described below. You can download them on my lab website (www.environmental-microbiology.com/media.html) or BGG (boardgamegeek.com/filepage/326...). Good gaming!
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Randall Munroe @xkcd.com · 07/08/2026
Antiques Roadshow xkcd.com/3281/
Comic. [Two people with tiny star floating above display on table.] PERSON 1 with ponytail: Now, your grandmother said this was a relic low-mass population III star, from the first generation of stars. Unfortunately, the high iron content shows that it formed much later, after several rounds of supernovas. I’m afraid it’s a population I star. PERSON 2: Aw, darn. Well, it still has sentimental value. [banner for Antiques Roadshow]
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Jeff VanderMeer @jeffvandermeer.bsky.social · 16/07/2026
Great piece. These magic bullet solutions are usually flawed. Interrogate, analyze, read source material, train your brain to need and expect complex solutions not simple ones.
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The Onion @theonion.com · 14/07/2026
Geologist Reunited With Beloved Rock He Studied 20 Years Ago theonion.com/geologist-reunited-wit…
Geologist Reunited With Beloved Rock He Studied 20 Years Ago
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Holly Bik @hollybik.bsky.social · 03/07/2026
Excellent thread!
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Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 26/06/2026
This confirms what the CDC leader said before she was fired. Kennedy wanted the science to be cooked until it aligned with his politics.
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William Brazelton @wbrazelton.bsky.social · 25/06/2026
In a time of tremendous scientific, economic, and geopolitical interest in the seafloor, the US has decided that it doesn't need a scientific drill ship anymore.
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Andrew D Thaler @drandrewthaler.bsky.social · 24/06/2026
Over the course of my 20 year career, Every other nation with major ocean research programs has dramatically expanded their research fleets. The US has net lost 17 ships, mothballed 2 DSRVs plus the Sealinks, and critically underfunded NOAA.
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Terrible Maps @terriblemapshq.bsky.social · 16/06/2026
Countries in this World Cup that have won a match despite having fewer bird species than their opponents
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David Grinspoon @drfunkyspoon.bsky.social · 13/06/2026
“Killer” is too kind. Musk is a mass murderer. He’s disrupting democracies around the world. Not to mention the “mechahitler” white-supremacist misogyny machine of Grok & X. I witnessed firsthand the cruel, ignorant, wasteful destruction at NASA at the hands of DOGE. www.theverge.com/tech/949259/...
theverge.com
The world’s first trillionaire is a killer
Elon Musk’s empire of wealth is built on suffering.
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Susanne Menden-Deuer @drplankton.bsky.social · 12/06/2026
It's an important time to speak out against the proposed changes to OMB rules - see ASLO statement. And, we are ready to lend our expertise to review what needs fixing and rebuild.
aslo.org
ASLO Comments on US Office of Management and Budget’s Proposed Rule on Federal Financial Assistance - ASLO
The Association for the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography (ASLO) stands firm with the scientific community in expressing serious concerns about the US Office of Management and Budget (OMB)’s prop...
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Derek Lowe @dereklowe.bsky.social · 11/06/2026
Thread: how many other Frontiers journals (and others?) are doing this?
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Susanne Menden-Deuer @drplankton.bsky.social · 10/06/2026
Trump Administration to Remove Hundreds of Deep-Ocean Observation Instruments, Dismantling $368 Million Program eos.org/research-and...
eos.org
Trump Administration to Remove Hundreds of Deep-Ocean Observation Instruments, Dismantling $368 Million Program - Eos
The Trump administration’s National Science Foundation (NSF) has begun dismantling the infrastructure of a $368 million deep-ocean observing program critical to monitoring marine ecosystems, global cu...
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Fired but Fighting (National Public Health Coalition) @firedbutfighting.bsky.social · 09/06/2026
New World Screwworm What You Need to Know The pest has been identified in the U.S. for the first time in decades. There’s a lot of misinformation swirling around. Here are the facts. This is a long thread but worth it. 1/9 🧵
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Carl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · 06/06/2026
Let's Streisand-effect these people. Here's the editorial that somehow merited calling the cops. Read and share.
diabetesjournals.org
Misguided Brushes of a Pen Continue to Dismantle and Destroy Biomedical Research in the United States: We Can No Longer Afford Complacency and Fear. We Must All Act Now!
The opinions expressed in this editorial are the personal views of the authors (S.E. Kahn, C.A.M. Anderson, J.B. Buse, and E. Selvin) and do not represent
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Carl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · 06/06/2026
Remember the current NIH director going on about protecting researchers from government censorship? Today his people called the police in to forcibly remove my colleagues from their own society meeting for sharing an editorial published in their flagship journal that was critical of him. Gift link
nytimes.com
Police Remove Diabetes Experts From Conference for Distributing Critique of Trump Administration
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Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 05/06/2026
This is an example of a scientific association censoring its members, real scientists, for defending attacks on science. The police were called to remove the scientists for handing out hard copies of this editorial. diabetesjournals.org/care/article...
diabetesjournals.org
Misguided Brushes of a Pen Continue to Dismantle and Destroy Biomedical Research in the United States: We Can No Longer Afford Complacency and Fear. We Must All Act Now!
The opinions expressed in this editorial are the personal views of the authors (S.E. Kahn, C.A.M. Anderson, J.B. Buse, and E. Selvin) and do not represent
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Kristian G. Andersen @kgandersen.bsky.social · 04/06/2026
This is extremely chilling - virologists being targeted for what appears to be minor (if any) "offenses". We all know _why_ this is happening, so I'm not going to belabor that point - but I want to provide some context on the technical details. 🧵 www.science.org/content/arti...
science.org
NIH scientists plead not guilty to smuggling monkeypox viruses into U.S.
Defendants face prison time for criminal charges but samples may all have been inactivated and used for routine diagnostics
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Astrobiology @astrobiology.bsky.social · 03/06/2026
NASA-DARES Draft Strategy Open for Public Comment astrobiology.com/2026/06/nasa... #astrobiology #NASA
astrobiology.com
NASA-DARES Draft Strategy Open for Public Comment - Astrobiology
The opening of the public comment period for the draft Decadal Astrobiology Research and Exploration Strategy (NASA-DARES)
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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 03/06/2026
roberts and alito have concocted a jurisprudence in which constitutional amendments explicitly ratified to secure the right of black americans to vote now restrain congress from securing the right of black americans to vote.
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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 02/06/2026
another day, another story about the administration's war on knowledge itself, all in service of allow its corporate patrons free rein to rob us blind and poison our world www.nytimes.com/2026/06/01/c...
nytimes.com
Trump Administration to Dismantle Ocean Monitoring System
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William Brazelton @wbrazelton.bsky.social · 02/06/2026
Our kids and grandkids will look up stories like these and wonder "why???" www.nytimes.com/2026/06/01/c...
nytimes.com
Trump Administration to Dismantle Ocean Monitoring System
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The Onion @theonion.com · 29/05/2026
Trump Executive Order Kickstarts Deep Sea Mining Rush theonion.com/trump-executive-order-…
“It’s crazy to think that 95% of the ocean hasn’t been exploited for profits.”

Curtis Baskin, Meat Baster
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Paul Byrne @theplanetaryguy.com · 25/05/2026
The Cycle 1 selections for NASA's new Solar System Science program have been released: lnkd.in/ekTCh5Vm Of 266 proposals, 43 were deemed "selectable"—that's a 16% selection rate. (Technically, these proposals haven't actually been selected yet; there's another somewhat political step for that.)
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Roland Hatzenpichler @environmicrobio.bsky.social · 25/05/2026
“Eddy received a letter from the [NIH], informing him that his work "had been determined to be of absolutely no value to the US taxpayer, and therefore it was being specifically terminated," he recalls. Eddy says he has given up on any dream that his funding would be restored”
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Alessandro Rigolon @alerigolon.bsky.social · 21/05/2026
Freedom is when the government mandates college students to take classes about conservative viewpoints
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Alessandro Rigolon @alerigolon.bsky.social · 16/05/2026
The U of Utah is losing great faculty like the author of this piece, and I can’t blame folks for leaving
sltrib.com
Voices: I loved teaching in Utah — until this policy made it impossible to stay
“Notwithstanding the continued efforts on the part of students and faculty to oppose these changes, under the current leadership, things are only going to get worse,” writes Maximilian Werner in an op...
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Blue Marble Space @bluemarblespace.bsky.social · 15/05/2026
Using JWST, scientists have spotted one of the earliest galaxies ever observed: a faint, chemically primitive galaxy called LAP1-B, seen as it existed just 800 million years after the Big Bang. phys.org/news/2026-05...
phys.org
Webb discovers one of the universe's first galaxies
Scientists have discovered a galaxy as it was 13 billion years ago, 800 million years after the Big Bang. It contains possible evidence of the universe's first stars and is one of the most chemically…
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Blue Marble Space @bluemarblespace.bsky.social · 16/05/2026
Researchers at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution have deployed an autonomous underwater robot called CUREE to seek out and map biodiversity hotspots on coral reefs with remarkable precision.
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Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 09/05/2026
This is basically harassment of scholars willing to question the Trump administration’s targeting of Chinese colleagues. Innes already had the FBI investigate his lab and was given the all clear. Now USDA is shutting down the Lab, which focuses on making fungus-resistant plants.
IU plant microbiologist Roger Innes says the move Thursday evening is the latest instance of retaliation for a letter he wrote last fall on behalf of Yunqing Jian, a plant scientist postdoc at the University of Michigan who had pled guilty to smuggling biological material and making false statements. The letter to Jian's attorney, intended to be used at her sentencing, argued that what the Chinese postdoc had transported was not dangerous, but she was still ultimately deported.
Her conviction triggered an investigation of Youhuang Xiang, a Chinese postdoc in Innes' lab, that led to Xiang also pleading guilty last month to smuggling loops of DNA known as plasmids. He was also deported.
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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 09/05/2026
the most anti free speech administration in this country’s history
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Adam Schwarz @adamjschwarz.bsky.social · 09/05/2026
Hungary’s parliament sings “Ode to Joy” — the anthem of Europe — after Péter Magyar is sworn in as prime minister. Hungary is once again a proud member of the European Union.
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David Roberts @volts.wtf · 03/05/2026
This completely tracks for me. The opportunity to be a hands-on, active father was the greatest thing that ever happened to me. Actively parenting young children was the happiest I've ever been in my life. I feel *terrible* for previous generations of men who denied themselves the pleasure.
homeeconomics.substack.com
Dads are doing more childcare—and they love it
The new American dad is more present and more exhausted, but also more satisfied with life.
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Andrew D Thaler @drandrewthaler.bsky.social · 01/05/2026
"The potential for just sheer discovery in the deep-sea is exactly where it was 200 years ago. We are just getting started."
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