Laura Whipple
@laurivora.bsky.social
Wildlife research scientist in Wisconsin
Furbearers 🦊 & large carnivores 🐻
Aspiring nature photographer
Furbearers 🦊 & large carnivores 🐻
Aspiring nature photographer
Reposted by Laura Whipple
The US government is aiming to get rid of a quarter million people involved in science research and education by 2026.
July 2, 2025 at 3:26 PM
The US government is aiming to get rid of a quarter million people involved in science research and education by 2026.
Reposted by Laura Whipple
BREAKING: NSF has frozen all grant funding, as of yesterday. It's unclear when they will resume funding awards, or why the pause has been put in place. www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Exclusive: NSF stops awarding new grants and funding existing ones
US science funder also plans to screen grant applications for compliance with ‘agency priorities’.
www.nature.com
May 1, 2025 at 10:58 PM
BREAKING: NSF has frozen all grant funding, as of yesterday. It's unclear when they will resume funding awards, or why the pause has been put in place. www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Reposted by Laura Whipple
A good politician would make policies that reduce harm.
The Trump administration wants to change what legally counts as harm so they can, through creative accounting, say that less harm is happening.
This is Orwellian pseudoscientific bullshit and we should oppose it.
The Trump administration wants to change what legally counts as harm so they can, through creative accounting, say that less harm is happening.
This is Orwellian pseudoscientific bullshit and we should oppose it.
Rescinding the Definition of “Harm” Under the Endangered Species Act
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) and the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) (collectively referred to as the Services or we) are proposing to rescind the regulatory definition of "harm" ...
www.federalregister.gov
April 23, 2025 at 1:59 PM
A good politician would make policies that reduce harm.
The Trump administration wants to change what legally counts as harm so they can, through creative accounting, say that less harm is happening.
This is Orwellian pseudoscientific bullshit and we should oppose it.
The Trump administration wants to change what legally counts as harm so they can, through creative accounting, say that less harm is happening.
This is Orwellian pseudoscientific bullshit and we should oppose it.
Reposted by Laura Whipple
My friend's student asks me to share:
The administration is trying to destroy the Endangered Species Act from within. Public commenting is basically the only way to thwart this rule before getting to court. If you have a few minutes to comment:
www.regulations.gov/commenton/FW...
The administration is trying to destroy the Endangered Species Act from within. Public commenting is basically the only way to thwart this rule before getting to court. If you have a few minutes to comment:
www.regulations.gov/commenton/FW...
Regulations.gov
www.regulations.gov
April 21, 2025 at 6:01 PM
My friend's student asks me to share:
The administration is trying to destroy the Endangered Species Act from within. Public commenting is basically the only way to thwart this rule before getting to court. If you have a few minutes to comment:
www.regulations.gov/commenton/FW...
The administration is trying to destroy the Endangered Species Act from within. Public commenting is basically the only way to thwart this rule before getting to court. If you have a few minutes to comment:
www.regulations.gov/commenton/FW...
Reposted by Laura Whipple
now was that so hard?
"Let's not take the soul-sucking path of sacrificing the most persecuted for that which we deem to be most popular. I know that there are transgender children right now looking out at this world and wondering if anyone is going to stand up for them and for their simple right to exist. Well, I am."
March 25, 2025 at 2:32 AM
now was that so hard?
Reposted by Laura Whipple
It’s probably a good day to explain to your non-scientist socials that graduate students are not merely the next generation of academic science, they are an important component of the current scientific labor force. Feel free to mention that this is cut rate labor as well.
February 22, 2025 at 4:44 PM
It’s probably a good day to explain to your non-scientist socials that graduate students are not merely the next generation of academic science, they are an important component of the current scientific labor force. Feel free to mention that this is cut rate labor as well.
Reposted by Laura Whipple
What's incredible is how there are thousands - tens of thousands - of stories like this, a genuine national crisis akin to a foreign invasion, and our elite press is so bubbled, so insular, that they can only cover it by writing "Strong leaders flex governing muscles" 700 times over. Pathetic.
“The thing that I can’t get over is that the actual richest man in the world directed my fucking firing. I make $50k a year and work to keep drinking water safe. The richest man in the world decided that was an expense too great for the American taxpayer.”
Yesterday many thousands of federal employees were terminated. This is a Reddit thread for federal employees that got laid off.
February 16, 2025 at 2:29 AM
What's incredible is how there are thousands - tens of thousands - of stories like this, a genuine national crisis akin to a foreign invasion, and our elite press is so bubbled, so insular, that they can only cover it by writing "Strong leaders flex governing muscles" 700 times over. Pathetic.
Reposted by Laura Whipple
On this celebratory day of women and girls in science, let’s reflect that the US National Science Foundation has put the words “women” and “female” (but not “men” and “male”) on the list of forbidden words that will get your grant slated for the reject bin.
February 11, 2025 at 5:21 PM
On this celebratory day of women and girls in science, let’s reflect that the US National Science Foundation has put the words “women” and “female” (but not “men” and “male”) on the list of forbidden words that will get your grant slated for the reject bin.
Reposted by Laura Whipple
Happy International Day of Women in Science. The National Science Foundation’s list of flagged words includes both “Women” and “Female.”
February 11, 2025 at 2:26 PM
Happy International Day of Women in Science. The National Science Foundation’s list of flagged words includes both “Women” and “Female.”
Reposted by Laura Whipple
This is the most relevant article to NIH and research cuts I’ve seen.
Imagine if this was today , how many people would be saying “Why are we studying Gila Monsters and their impact on diabetes ? That’s wasted money !”
globalnews.ca/news/9793403...
Imagine if this was today , how many people would be saying “Why are we studying Gila Monsters and their impact on diabetes ? That’s wasted money !”
globalnews.ca/news/9793403...
How a Canadian scientist and a venomous lizard helped pave the way for Ozempic - National | Globalnews.ca
In 1984, Dr. Daniel Drucker, an endocrinologist from the University of Toronto, discovered a hormone that helped pave the way for popular diabetes drugs such as Ozempic.
globalnews.ca
February 9, 2025 at 9:58 PM
This is the most relevant article to NIH and research cuts I’ve seen.
Imagine if this was today , how many people would be saying “Why are we studying Gila Monsters and their impact on diabetes ? That’s wasted money !”
globalnews.ca/news/9793403...
Imagine if this was today , how many people would be saying “Why are we studying Gila Monsters and their impact on diabetes ? That’s wasted money !”
globalnews.ca/news/9793403...
Reposted by Laura Whipple
We’re destroying knowledge that has required decades of careful effort to cultivate. Once it’s gone, it can’t be recovered. We’re driving brilliant folks out of science who won’t be coming back. The waste—of knowledge, training, effort, care, love—is sickening. Our loss here is incalculable.
February 5, 2025 at 3:59 AM
We’re destroying knowledge that has required decades of careful effort to cultivate. Once it’s gone, it can’t be recovered. We’re driving brilliant folks out of science who won’t be coming back. The waste—of knowledge, training, effort, care, love—is sickening. Our loss here is incalculable.
Reposted by Laura Whipple
🚨BREAKING. From a program officer at the National Science Foundation, a list of keywords that can cause a grant to be pulled. I will be sharing screenshots of these keywords along with a decision tree. Please share widely. This is a crisis for academic freedom & science.
February 4, 2025 at 1:26 AM
🚨BREAKING. From a program officer at the National Science Foundation, a list of keywords that can cause a grant to be pulled. I will be sharing screenshots of these keywords along with a decision tree. Please share widely. This is a crisis for academic freedom & science.
Reposted by Laura Whipple
To the students doing research on environmental justice and just energy transitions: your scholarship is important and your scholarship matters
February 4, 2025 at 4:56 AM
To the students doing research on environmental justice and just energy transitions: your scholarship is important and your scholarship matters
Reposted by Laura Whipple
I honestly believe our most powerful position in a toxic time that feeds on cynicism, apathy,& despair is to genuinely care and act for a better world.
Cynicism is our enemy. We should check it, incl. on the left. It’s not intellectually superior. It’s the virus they’re trying to infect us with. NO
Cynicism is our enemy. We should check it, incl. on the left. It’s not intellectually superior. It’s the virus they’re trying to infect us with. NO
January 31, 2025 at 7:04 PM
I honestly believe our most powerful position in a toxic time that feeds on cynicism, apathy,& despair is to genuinely care and act for a better world.
Cynicism is our enemy. We should check it, incl. on the left. It’s not intellectually superior. It’s the virus they’re trying to infect us with. NO
Cynicism is our enemy. We should check it, incl. on the left. It’s not intellectually superior. It’s the virus they’re trying to infect us with. NO
Reposted by Laura Whipple
“If the freeze is not stopped, I might lose my house."
Some NSF-funded postdocs are having trouble paying rent and credit card bills because their salaries were paused this week, even though the federal funding freeze memo was rescinded.
www.statnews.com/2025/01/30/t...
Some NSF-funded postdocs are having trouble paying rent and credit card bills because their salaries were paused this week, even though the federal funding freeze memo was rescinded.
www.statnews.com/2025/01/30/t...
National Science Foundation suspends salary payments, leaving researchers unable to pay their bills
An NSF online payment system remained down after the federal funding freeze was lifted, leaving early-career scientists scrambling to pay bills
www.statnews.com
January 30, 2025 at 11:07 PM
“If the freeze is not stopped, I might lose my house."
Some NSF-funded postdocs are having trouble paying rent and credit card bills because their salaries were paused this week, even though the federal funding freeze memo was rescinded.
www.statnews.com/2025/01/30/t...
Some NSF-funded postdocs are having trouble paying rent and credit card bills because their salaries were paused this week, even though the federal funding freeze memo was rescinded.
www.statnews.com/2025/01/30/t...