Eric Lau

Behold: another infectious disease. Another curve breaking away from its historical baseline.

NIH grants have been under political scrutiny since 2025. But what does the screening process actually look like? For @nature, I spent a month digging into leaked docs. We've published a list of 235 words being flagged by an internal AI tool. And so much more. 🧵

Mike Johnson: “If we lose the midterms, the Democrats will go after the president’s family, the cabinet, his donors, friends, and the rest of you who have committed crimes.”

Reporter: Are you concerned, Mr. President, about the latest inflation number which came out this morning? Trump: No, I love it. I love the inflation.

JD Vance: "If you want to rebuilt the American dream for the next generation, vote against the crazy leadership in Washington DC"

Sure, Donald.

Scientists are being asked to plan careers, build collaborations, and prepare proposals around forecasted funding opportunities that are just never actually being released. This is in contrast to what we are being told - that funding is on track. 49 forecasts related to 13 different congressionally directed programs are all stuck in the queue. Of those, 36 are past the date NIH itself set for their publication - the longest being 282 days overdue. Area of research include pediatric cancer, Alzheimer’s and autism. H/t to Elizabeth Ginexi - find her excellent analysis linked below.

We live in the fakest and gayest timeline ever… 🙄

Robert Kennedy, RFK leaving his wife's behind not protecting her or even remembering her.

Not enough people are talking about this. Hungary’s incoming PM has said that Viktor Orbán used Hungarian government funds to help finance CPAC, the flagship networking event for GOP candidates, members of Congress, and conservative media in this country. Under U.S. law, that is not just a Hungarian problem. Foreign governments are barred from spending money in American elections, and Americans are forbidden from soliciting or accepting it. If these allegations are true, this is a direct attack on the integrity of American democracy. We need a full investigation by Congress, the FEC, and the DOJ. The American people deserve to know exactly what flowed from Orbán’s government into this country’s political ecosystem, who was on the receiving end, and what it bought. ms.now/opinion/new-hu…

American science is shrinking. 
A Post analysis found that, halfway through this fiscal year, the number of competitive grants awarded by the National Institutes of Health is down by more than half compared with the same period last year. wapo.st/3OgoHKV

Frightening article. Trump is in so far over his head. Even our military has excluded him because he is so erratic and impatient: “Trump demanded that the military go get them immediately….his aides kept the president out of the room as they got minute-by-minute updates because they believed his impatience wouldn’t be helpful, instead updating him at meaningful moments.” I gifted this so you can read it. wsj.com/politics/natio…

The hill I will die on - we have to rethink graduate training. “Scientists are trained for a world where data speaks for itself. Where misinformation moves slowly. Where scientific expertise naturally rises above noise. That world is gone.” sciencepolitics.org/2026/03/18/wer…

@DrCatharineY This is exactly why I’ve ramped up training our trainees in strategic and compelling engagement with non-scientists. If we don’t start pushing back against the misinformation machine & swaying the hearts and minds of the general public, all will be lost.

NEWS: Massive budget cuts for US science proposed again by Trump administration "It's an extinction-level event for science". The US government is proposing massive cuts to almost every branch of science, from NASA to the National Institutes of Health. NSF would completely eliminate the social, economic and behavioral sciences directorate. This would decimate the world's leading scientific system. nature.com/articles/d4158…

BREAKING: Trump's illegal tariffs are about to cause a huge mess in the US Economy. Why? "A coalition of 800 small businesses across the country who weren't happy about the tariffs saying they were the ones paying the brunt of these costs. They just put out a statement saying they are sending immediate letters to the white house and congress demanding full, fast and automatic tariff refunds. We talk about how the refunds work for the tariffs, how messy you envision this getting?" Businesses will now request refunds, and there will likely be huge class action lawsuits against the US government. Additionally, the budget is about to have major issues.

Who wants to tell him? whitehouse.gov/presidential-a…

Trump just declared, "glyphosate-based herbicides are a cornerstone of this Nation’s agricultural productivity and rural economy." And he's declaring glyphosate weedkiller to be a federally-protected critical resources. This is insanity. He is now pushing the mass poisoning of American food crops and groceries with cancer-causing deadly weedkiller chemicals that will be sprayed all over the food crops. Trump just declared chemical warfare on the American people. It's all here in black and white: whitehouse.gov/presidential-a…

Okay, this may have been the best thing yesterday: Thom Tillis' response to Trump. #DemsUnited