Ingfei Chen
ingfeichen.bsky.social
Ingfei Chen
@ingfeichen.bsky.social
Freelance scribe of science stories for http://newyorker.com & others. NYC native who defected to California
Pinned
A new story I've published: Some inconvenient truths about what it will take for residential communities to survive #wildfire. From the perspective of #NIST fire protection engineer Alex Maranghides #CalFire #Firewise #FirePrevention #LAFires #Firesafe #HomeHardening
A New Paradigm for Protecting Homes from Disastrous Fires
Scientists have identified more than fifty ways that houses can ignite. It’s possible to defend against all of them—but it’s arduous, and homeowners can’t do it alone.
www.newyorker.com
Reposted by Ingfei Chen
Excellent reporting on the challenge of implementing the state's Zone Zero law by @nohaggerty.bsky.social. A exceptionally thorny political knot, complicated by well irrigated hedges appearing to help buffer homes from fire in some cases.

www.latimes.com/environment/...
How Zone Zero, designed to protect California homes from wildfire, became plagued with controversy and delays
California needs new rules to help future wildfires from destroying homes and businesses. But Zone Zero regulations, a key tenet of the state's plans, have roiled homeowners.
www.latimes.com
November 3, 2025 at 9:36 PM
ICYMI... Days before Palisades inferno, firefighters were ordered to leave smoldering burn site www.latimes.com/california/s...
Days before Palisades inferno, firefighters were ordered to leave smoldering burn site
Texts between three firefighters and a third party reveal previously undisclosed details about the Los Angeles Fire Department's handling of a Pacific Palisades burn site.
www.latimes.com
November 2, 2025 at 5:37 PM
Reposted by Ingfei Chen
The Trump administration has repeatedly blamed offshore wind farms for whale deaths, contrary to scientific evidence.

Now the administration is quietly abandoning key research programs meant to protect marine mammals living in an increasingly busy ocean.
Trump claimed ​wind farms kill whales—and then quietly axed research into the issue
Programs that tracked the beloved marine mammals near offshore wind sites are now like "a body without a pulse."
www.motherjones.com
October 24, 2025 at 5:00 PM
"How to prevent devastating fires differs. The forest thinning and careful reintroduction of intentional “good” fire in the Sierra don’t exactly translate to the Santa Monica Mountains." SoCal's coastal chaparral requires a different approach
The state's wildfire policy long overlooked SoCal. Now it's course correcting
State leaders have long understood Northern California's wildfire crisis and are investing resources to solve it. But in Southern California, the problem is more confounding.
www.latimes.com
October 23, 2025 at 5:47 PM
A new story I've published: Some inconvenient truths about what it will take for residential communities to survive #wildfire. From the perspective of #NIST fire protection engineer Alex Maranghides #CalFire #Firewise #FirePrevention #LAFires #Firesafe #HomeHardening
A New Paradigm for Protecting Homes from Disastrous Fires
Scientists have identified more than fifty ways that houses can ignite. It’s possible to defend against all of them—but it’s arduous, and homeowners can’t do it alone.
www.newyorker.com
October 23, 2025 at 5:23 PM
Reposted by Ingfei Chen
Happy Mole Day to all who celebrate.

www.compoundchem.com/2014/10/23/m... 🧪
October 23, 2025 at 1:02 PM
Reposted by Ingfei Chen
Update: On Saturday Governor Newsom issued a notification that he was vetoing SB 326 by Senator Josh Becker (D Menlo Park). In his veto message he said the required planning would cost too much money.
October 13, 2025 at 4:17 PM
More details from @kffhealthnews.org on the #ACIP's discussion of #hepB birth dose vaccination policy at its 9/19 meeting kffhealthnews.org/news/article...
September 21, 2025 at 5:12 PM
Reposted by Ingfei Chen
Happy sea otter awareness week, to those who celebrate. 🦦https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1wEIBgyO-XM #ラッコ #seaotters
Sea Otters Don't Give a Shell | Sea Otter Awareness Week 2025
YouTube video by Monterey Bay Aquarium
www.youtube.com
September 19, 2025 at 4:02 PM
"Over 71,000 people are expected to die annually in the [U.S.] by 2050 due to wildfire smoke on current warming trends. California, scene of many huge fires including current blazes that threaten the state’s storied sequoia trees, will bear the brunt" www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
Wildfire smoke will kill nearly 1.4m each year by end of century if emissions not curbed – study
Separate research found that at the current rate of global heating, more than 70,000 people will die in the US by 2050
www.theguardian.com
September 19, 2025 at 4:11 PM
Dying from any preventable infectious disease is a tragedy. But death by chronic #hepatitisB infection is its own special category--it can silently foment liver cancer decades later. Without the universal birth dose #HBV vaccine, the virus is easily transmitted from infected mother to baby at birth
September 19, 2025 at 3:55 PM
"Although some on the committee seemed enthusiastic about pushing the first dose recommendation for #hepatitisB later in life, after some discussion, there was a revolt against tackling the issue at all."
www.npr.org/sections/sho...
'We are rookies': Day 2 of CDC vaccine meeting opens with a reversal and a surprise
RFK Jr.'s reshaped ACIP vaccine panel re-did a vote from yesterday on the MMRV vaccine and scrapped plans for another vote on the hepatitis B birth dose.
www.npr.org
September 19, 2025 at 3:41 PM
Right now, feels like we have little time to consider the AI transformation about to engulf us. "But if we don’t attend to it, the people creating the technology will be single-handedly in charge of how it changes our lives"
www.newyorker.com/culture/open-questions/are-we-taking-ai-seriously-enough
Are We Taking A.I. Seriously Enough?
There’s no longer any scenario in which A.I. fades into irrelevance. We urgently need voices from outside the industry to help shape its future.
www.newyorker.com
April 1, 2025 at 4:19 PM
"Dozens of other programs throughout the CDC’s ... centers for Chronic Disease Prevention & Health Promotion; HIV, Viral Hepatitis, STD, & Tuberculosis Prevention; Environmental Health; Immunization & Respiratory Diseases; & the Global Health center were also impacted"
www.wired.com/story/cdc-gu...
The CDC Has Been Gutted
Thousands of CDC employees who worked on things like preventing HIV and lead poisoning have been told they were subject to a reduction in force. Experts say people will die.
www.wired.com
April 1, 2025 at 3:56 PM
Reposted by Ingfei Chen
Today is a very dark day. More destruction of the backbone of our country's health.
#StandUpforScience
New — Here is a running list of Dept. of Health and Human Services (HHS) offices that have either been fully eliminated or gutted into non-functionality as a result of today's mass firings (provided to me directly by a CDC staffer):
April 1, 2025 at 3:47 PM
Reposted by Ingfei Chen
Delighted to have been able to contribute some comments to this wonderful tribute to Rob Irion, director emeritus @ucscscicomm.bsky.social
magazine.ucsc.edu/2025/02/wrap...
Wrapping up with a Big Bang
Rob Irion, longtime UC Santa Cruz senior lecturer and former Science Communication Program director, wrapped up 25 years of teaching this past fall, capping a career that helped create the leading …
magazine.ucsc.edu
February 27, 2025 at 5:49 PM
Reposted by Ingfei Chen
Thrilled to announce the creation of the @elisabethbik.bsky.social Science Integrity Fund to provide "funding for training programs, grants, or awards for science integrity advocates."

Thanks to @science.org for covering this.

Help us grow the fund with a tax-deductible donation.
Renowned scientific integrity investigator endows fund to support fellow sleuths
Microbiologist Elisabeth Bik donates $200,000 to support training, travel
www.science.org
February 13, 2025 at 5:18 PM
Reposted by Ingfei Chen
Top USAID officials are trying to create a false narrative that life-saving aid has continued despite Trump’s blanket halt to foreign aid. Our @nytimes.com reporting shows the exact opposite. USAID even issued an internal email to stop applications for waivers: www.nytimes.com/2025/02/12/u...
USAID Lifesaving Aid Remains Halted Despite Rubio’s Promise
A new directive puts further exemptions on hold. Aid workers also say the U.S. government has made it impossible to pay partners around the world.
www.nytimes.com
February 14, 2025 at 3:22 PM
Reposted by Ingfei Chen
And while politicians are decimating our nation’s public health infrastructure, meanwhile: “The ongoing measles outbreak in West Texas has doubled in size to 48 cases, mostly in children and teens, making it the state’s worst in nearly 30 years… Thirteen people have been hospitalized.”
Texas measles outbreak rises to 48 cases. It's the state's worst in nearly 30 years
The ongoing measles outbreak in West Texas has doubled in size to 48 cases, mostly in children and teens, making it the state's worst in nearly 30 years.
www.statnews.com
February 15, 2025 at 1:58 AM
Reposted by Ingfei Chen
New Weather West post out: Major storm to bring high risk of debris flows in SoCal wildfire zones, with some flood risk elsewhere. This will be "textbook" mid-latitude storm, complete w/rapidly deepening low pressure center & warm atmospheric river. #CAwx weatherwest.com/arch...
Major storm to bring high risk of debris flows in SoCal wildfire zones, with some flood risk elsewhere - Weather West
California's extraordinary precipitation dipole has persisted into mid-Feb with only slight attenuation Well, it has finally rained in Southern California this winter. But nearly the entire region remains woefully behind average. And the much-discussed north-south precipitation dipole has persisted all the way through mid-February, with NorCal remaining exceptionally wet (with some locations in the northeast
weatherwest.com
February 12, 2025 at 6:39 PM
Slashing NIH's funding for "indirect" research costs "doesn’t make even cynical political sense. It’s a decision that would endanger Americans’ health... and could torch one of the nation’s most astounding, productive and envied industries."
www.nytimes.com/2025/02/11/o...
Opinion | The Pharmaceutical Industry Heads Into Elon Musk’s Wood Chipper
Who needs N.I.H. grants? A lot of red-state universities, for one.
www.nytimes.com
February 11, 2025 at 3:37 PM
Reposted by Ingfei Chen
I'll have a livestream on Tuesday, Feb 11 at 4pm PT to discuss the major storm inbound to Southern California, which will likely bring a period of very heavy rain capable of producing significant/dangerous debris flows in/near recent wildfire areas. #CAwx youtube.com/live/RPe...
Weather and climate office hour 02/11/2025: Upcoming heavy SoCal rain & post-fire debris flow risk - YouTube
The latest in a recurring series of live, virtual, & interactive "office hours" hosted by Dr. Daniel Swain on various topics related to extreme weather and c...
youtube.com
February 11, 2025 at 4:16 AM
Reposted by Ingfei Chen
“Racism has ended! Have you heard? Or maybe ending racism has ended,” @louisathomas.bsky.social writes in her Sporting Scene column this week. www.newyorker.com/sports/sport...
The End of “END RACISM” in the End Zone
In the same week it was revealed that the slogan would be missing from the field at the Super Bowl, the N.F.L. commissioner defended the league’s diversity efforts.
www.newyorker.com
February 9, 2025 at 4:18 PM
With each day bringing worse news for #NIH & the scientific enterprise, I'm wondering when researchers will galvanize in mass protest. "Is there a bridge too far, a point where it is no longer appropriate for medicine & public health to accede?" asks Steven H. Woolf
jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...
How Should Health Care and Public Health Respond to the New US Administration?
This Viewpoint discusses scientific, medical, and public health actions, including withdrawing from the World Health Organization, taken so far during the first week of the Trump administration.
jamanetwork.com
February 9, 2025 at 7:32 PM
ICYMI: "The same ingredients that were in the pressure cooker that led to the historic March for Science are present. But at the moment, there seem to be no cooks in the kitchen. There are no plans for another march." www.statnews.com/2025/01/31/t...
Trump's first term birthed the March for Science. Where are the science activists now?
Eight years after the first March for Science, there are no plans for another march at the dawn of a second Trump administration
www.statnews.com
February 9, 2025 at 7:24 PM