My Hobby and Interest - Research

 6/30/25 Senate GOP looks to pass marathon final test on Trump’s ‘big, beautiful bill’ by Al Weaver Senate Republicans are facing a marathon session on Monday in order to pass President Trump’s ambitious tax and spending package and meet the White House’s end-of-week deadline to OK its top domestic agenda item.  Senators will convene on Monday morning for a lengthy “vote-a-rama,” during which lawmakers can offer an unlimited number of amendments that are related to the mammoth proposal.  The hours-long voting session was expected to start overnight, but GOP leaders opted to push it until 9 a.m. after a grueling weekend, which included Democrats forcing the Senate clerks to  read all 940 pages of the bill . That process took nearly 16 hours to complete, and was followed by debate on the bill itself that lasted into Monday morning before the chamber finally recessed.  “The debate and eventually voting on the ‘big, beautiful bill.’ has begun. Hallelujah. It’s taken...

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   Join us on zoom: Tuesday July 1 and Thursday July 3  8:00-8:30am https://maine.zoom.us/j/4625543963 Ready to try in-person yoga classes? Join me for classes at  Greener Postures Yoga Sundays - 75 min yin yoga, 5:00pm-6:15pm at our West Falmouth studio Mondays - 60 min Fundamentals Flow, 7-8pm at our South Portland studio

Video below taken out back at 81 Research Drive

 Nature News The economic effects of federal cuts to US science — in 24 graphs by Christine Ro The administration of US President Donald Trump is hacking away at funding for research institutions — aiming, it says, to eliminate waste and bias in government-funded research. This is disrupting science in ways that are rippling well beyond laboratories and lecture halls. Here,  Nature ’s Careers team looks into some of the figures that might indicate wider disruptions to the scientific enterprise. The number of active grants awarded by federal funding bodies has fallen strikingly, and companies that provide products to scientists — from basic vials to sophisticated cell analysers — are reporting a downturn in demand from academic and government customers. Their concerns are exacerbated by the president’s announcements of tariffs on foreign imports, which have triggered retaliatory trade restrictions in other countries. Some companies are predicting price rises fuelled by increase...

 Nature News Exclusive: NIH still screens grants in process a judge ruled illegal Directives by the Trump administration are still being applied to grant materials despite court order. by Max Kozlov The US National Institutes of Health (NIH) has not yet rescinded directives that led to the cancellation of more than  2,400 research projects  it funded, NIH staff members say, even though  a US judge last week called the directives “bereft of reasoning” and ruled them illegal . NIH employees, who had been instructed to screen thousands of grants on a rolling weekly basis to assess their compliance with “agency priorities”, have continued to do so after the court ruling on 16 June. This has left many confused and worried about the legality of their actions, according to eight NIH employees who spoke to  Nature  and were granted anonymity because they are not authorized to speak with the press. The directives were issued by the administration of US President Don...

 Science News UV-C light kills nearly everything—except this unusual organism Built-in Sun protection might be a blueprint for surviving in space by Hannah Richter If you’ve ever gotten burned at the beach or swimming pool, you’re no stranger to the Sun bombarding Earth with ultraviolet rays. But the UV light that keeps beachgoers reaching for the sunblock isn’t even the worst the Sun sends our way. Lucky for us, Earth’s ozone layer blocks the Sun’s shortest wave radiation, called UV-C, which is so damaging to cells in high doses that it’s a go-to sterilizer in hospitals. UV-C is such a killer, in fact, that scientists have questioned whether life can survive on worlds that lack an ozone layer, such as Mars or distant exoplanets. But research published this month in  Astrobiology  suggests one hardy lichen, a hybrid organism made of algae and fungi, may have  cracked the UV-C code with a built-in sunscreen , despite never experiencing these rays in its long evolution...

  Science News - Health Social media attacks on public health agencies are eroding trust Attacks on an institution’s integrity spur more anger—and engagement—than other types of criticisms, study suggests by Nazeefa Ahmed On 7 March, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)  sent a tweet  alerting its 5.4 million followers about a measles outbreak in Texas and New Mexico. The update also encouraged clinicians to be vigilant about symptoms of the disease and urged updated vaccinations for anyone traveling to those areas. Many tweets in response to CDC were in support of the advice, but some argued vaccination was unnecessary. Others went so far as to call the  organization criminal . Criticism of public health institutions is increasingly common, and a study published this week in the  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences  explored their effects in detail. They surveyed 6800 people in the United States and showed that certain crit...

Science Insider Trump cuts subscriptions to Springer Nature journals by Jeffrey Brainard The Trump administration has ended several U.S. science agencies’ subscriptions to Springer Nature journals, including the prestigious  Nature  titles. The move, which will end easy access to the journals for agency staff scientists, follows recent criticisms of academic journals by administration officials who accused them of bias. The cuts involving the for-profit, publicly traded Springer Nature—one of the world’s largest scientific publishers, producing more than 3000 journal titles— were first reported Wednesday by  Axios , without detailing specific agencies affected. Government officials have given conflicting statements about whether the cut included the company’s single biggest U.S. government subscription contract, with the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Yesterday,  Inside Higher Ed  reported  that NIH first said its Springer Nature subscriptions had not...

  June 27, 2025 Washington Week in Science will not be published next week with the July 4 holiday   Health   CDC advisory panel, selected by RFK Jr., recommends thimerosal be dropped from flu vaccines  A federal vaccine advisory panel, which health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. recently stacked with handpicked members, recommended on Thursday that Americans should not receive flu vaccines containing the preservative thimerosal. The votes — there were three related to the topic — reflected new members’ concerns about safety issues tied to the preservative, despite numerous studies conducted over the past quarter-century that have found no such issues. Read more:   STAT News   Kennedy’s vaccine panel to review childhood immunization schedule  At the first meeting of the CDC’s panel of outside vaccine advisers since Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. overhauled it with new members, the group said it will review childhood vaccines and shot...