FYI — when you put a blanket stop on supply purchases by science labs, years of progress can disappear overnight. There are studies, for instance those involving complex cell culture, that require months of painstaking work per experimental run, and if you run out of culture media in the middle, you lose that entire run. If your lab uses some special fly or worm or whatever and the food that thing eats runs out, your entire lab’s work dies. This is a fucking disaster for NIH.
We were right to call Republicans not just anti-mask and anti-vaccine, but anti-science.
@mcnado wait they halted supply purchases??
@iris @mcnado Word on the internet says that purchases got reclassified as "communication with the public" that therefore are "suspended immediately, pending review by a presidential appointee". Same for new hires, conferences and any travel, publication of reviews and commentaries (!) - all on hold until further notice. See e.g. this purported mail on reddit. https://www.reddit.com/r/postdoc/comments/1i8hqpg/darkness_descends_on_nih/
Also NIH study sections (ie. grant discussions) halted until further notice. https://www.statnews.com/2025/01/22/trump-administrations-cancels-scientific-meetings-abruptly/
@moritz_negwer @mcnado I heard about study sections and travel but this is, holy moly, they just shut down all NIH funded labs.
@iris @mcnado It could be that those are temporary until the government minders are installed, and sporadic thereafter when those minders disagree. Bad enough already.
But yeah, I fear that this is indicative of the level of disruption that the US scientific system will have to deal with for the foreseeable future. The system seems ill prepared for it, and I fear that a lot of research lines, scientific careers and central infrastructure are going to end up as political roadkill.
@iris that’s what CNN was reporting. We’ll see in coming days if that is intentional or a problem with another incompetently written EO
@AnnonBudgie @mcnado @iris Possibly. But he'll more likely charge the taxpayer and then not pay the subscription, so he can pocket the "trump change".
@samhainnight @mcnado @iris seriously, people need to stop believing the incompetence excuse. Tired of this thoughtless, automatic bootlicking. It's disturbing.
@SallyStrange @samhainnight @mcnado I don't agree that this line of analysis is either thoughtless or bootlicking. Incompetence is certainly not the only thing we're dealing with here, but I do think it's weaponized by people that recognize the potential, and it's worth understanding as part of a multifaceted clusterfuck. It isn't an excuse because it doesn't excuse anything, for them or for us in response.
@iris @samhainnight @mcnado If you watch how people talk about incompetence by powerful people, it seems to excuse a lot. Far too much. That's my issue.
@SallyStrange @samhainnight @mcnado Your response to Samhain was quite accusatory and I'm still not seeing your point in context. I'm not sure this is a productive discussion.
@iris @samhainnight @mcnado The discussion has already produced.
If they’re using ChatGPT to generate the text of Executive Orders - which I strongly suspect to be true - expect continued dumpster fires.
@paninid @mcnado @iris @samhainnight
It's incredibly likely that's the case.
@mcnado Given the plan to deport farm workers, the USDA better announce those same leeches are also edible and a good source of protein.
You think that wasn't the intent?
@mcnado
His Project 2025 handlers are having a grand time dismantling everything with their poorly written EOs.
Fantasy:
Dr.: Sorry mr president, but it appears you've come down with the latest strain of avian flu.
trump (coughing): what's avian?
Dr: bird flu.
trump: I thought that was fake news from the dems.
Dr: No, it's real. And unfortunately it has a very high mortality rate. That means it will probably kill you.
trump: So cure me, you jerk! You're a doctor--give me a shot or something!
Dr: I'd love to help, mr. president, but unfortunately you cut all our research funding months ago and we don't have any vaccines or other treatments for this particular strain. So far it's killing one of every two people who get infected. For people over 65, two out of three are dying.
trump: You useless piece of crap! Get me another doctor!
Dr: Sorry, I'm the last physician in the hospital. I volunteered to come see you on my way out. And you'll notice I'm wearing a biohazard suit with its own air supply. The nurses all left hours ago. From here on out, you're on your own. The good news is, your O2 levels are dropping fast so I don't think you'll suffer too long. I've gotta run but I'll turn on Fox so you have something to do while you're still conscious. Good luck--where you're going, you'll need it.
@mcnado
I wonder if they’re keeping the compressed gases and cryogenic liquids going… that could be both exciting (in the bad way) and fragrant (also in the bad way).
@sollat @mcnado At least modern MRIs and NMRs don't need to be filled more than once a year...oh wait, what's this I hear? People still have older ones running that need fills every 1-3 months? Hope you don't quench a magnet!
(though depending on the institution compressed gases and cryogenic liquids are often ordered on open/standing POs so it's quite possible these will be delivered until those expire or hit their limits, maybe July if they run on the fiscal year?)
@SRLevine @mcnado
That’s one of the first things I thought of. I did the monthly nitrogen fills on an NMR, as well as helping with the periodic helium fills (of horror). That was in about 2004.
I also thought about -80C liquid nitrogen sample storage tanks. And lonely mass spectrometers waiting to get some attention by breaking expensively.
@sollat @mcnado The LN2 tanks that auto fill for the very fancy cryogenic freezers are going to go first. As long as you don't run any samples you can leave the extremely expensive mass spec running under vacuum without having inert gas to hand. The cryogenic freezers eat LN2 (seriously, we have one that's only a couple of years old and it goes through a full tank a week) and if you are bothering with LN2 storage those samples are precious...
@sollat @mcnado Depends on where you are I think (but I've only used oil for that type of vacuum I think)? But unless you're pulling solvents regularly without a cold trap the oil is good for a while.
(I've used scroll & membrane for less rigorous vacuum and once memorably in an undergrad lab class a Toepler mercury pump)
@sollat @SRLevine @mcnado Also, because:
1. it was an academic lab
2. it was the 90s
there was no containment area where the lovely asphyxiating cryogen cloud after a quench could go, venting straight outside without flooding the entire lab in a few seconds. Fortunately, there were no quenches in my time there.
@sollat @SRLevine @mcnado Oh, I can tell stories.
This lab was doing some seriously cool stuff with high pressure sample cells, allowing us to do NMR at sample pressures up to about 10 kilobar. There were, of course, two problems, beyond the obvious ones associated with high pressures:
1. No ferrous metal anywhere nearby. Pressure vessel, pressure lines, tools—couldn’t have any appreciable amount of iron or similar metal. For tools we used Berylco, and so had to be sure we didn’t handle them without gloves, because beryllium poisoning is hella not fun, and:
2. The NMR sample cell was surrounded by lots of pressurizing fluid. Way more pressure fluid than actual sample in the magnet bore. It had to contain, rigorously, no 1H. Getting 100% deuterated versions of anything containing hydrogen was anywhere from prohibitively expensive to physically impossible, so the solution was…carbon disulfide. So, we *also* had to be especially vigilant for leaks and not just think to ourselves “this will be ok to clean up afterward…”
The GOP services its wealthy donors, foreign & domestic.
The interests of the wealthy pillaging America are the only interests that matter to Republicans.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-megadonors-2024-election/
To keep their white supremacy on top, Adelson, Uihlein, Ellison, Griffin, Schwarzman, Koch, Dunn, Bezos, Zuckerberg, Musk, Thiel, and Mellon are willing to do anything, absolutely anything, including frying the planet, starting a global war, or ending democracy.
@mcnado
It’s so comforting to know 47 only has the BEST scientists advising him on all his actions! /s
@mcnado it's unthinkable that purchasing is halted! In a university setup there might be some temporary way for emergency supplies - because as you note some setups must be kept going. Otherwise
But if it's at the NIH itself
@mcnado pretty much my thoughts exactly.
@mcnado This morning I went to check the wastewater surveillance data that is SUPPOSED to update every Monday and Friday evening. The latest sample collection date I could find was 01/19/2025. The system was last updated 01/22/2025. And friends are telling me "No no the guy they quoted said a pause was normal." Nothing about this is normal!!
@mcnado
That’s the intent. That and to suck up to #RFKjr and the #antivaxxers
#fascism #war #death #swasticar
@mcnado Acquiring knowledge and understanding is anathema to the far-right. 'Ignorance is bliss' is their adage. And their downfall.
@mcnado Do NOT protest, it is too late for that. We have to start a rebellion.
#savedemocracy
@mcnado
@Gdac some folks may be able to get outside funding, but often they can’t because of grant conditions and ethics regulations/laws
@mcnado it's so depressing that apparently no one on the inside of these organizations is even trying to push back
@aburka research science is a deeply abusive, desperate business. You spend 6-8 years earning a PhD, fight for a post-doc position, then often have to move every 2-3 years for new post-doc fellowships, all while applying for a tenured position or stable industry lab slot. The PI of the lab can ruin your life and get you blackballed. You can lose a decade of work if you piss off the wrong guy at a conference. You can’t publish, you can’t work.
@mcnado oh, I know, although I left academia after the PhD
@mcnado the scientists aren't in a position to resist (nobody is, at least by themselves, that's the problem...) but I mean that the administrators and budget people are just dutifully sending out advisories to not buy anything and and shut down comms and everything
@mcnado but to be fair, if they were trying anything they wouldn't exactly be shouting it from the rooftops. So it's possible there is resistance happening
@aburka absolutely agree!