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matthewdhealy.bsky.social
Matt Healy
@matthewdhealy.bsky.social
380 followers 610 following 1.5K posts
Techbio, Virology, Drug Discovery, Data, Midwest, Engineering, NLP, science, theology, history of science

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6439-5038
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matthewdhealy.bsky.social
Chart from Wall Street Journal of how often various people are mentioned in Epstein’s emails. Trump’s in more than half of them l.
November 15, 2025 at 9:32 PM
matthewdhealy.bsky.social
I don't know much about the two from long ago, but I strongly agree about Carter and Biden.
ChatGPT 5.1 You said: Uploaded image Alt text please ChatGPT said: Alt text: A mobile screenshot of a webpage from electoral-vote.com listing a ranked set of one-term U.S. presidents (#4 to #1). Each entry shows the president’s name in bold red text followed by a short commentary in black font. • #4 John Adams: The text discusses the difficulty of following George Washington, Adams’ mistakes such as the Alien and Sedition Acts, his peaceful transfer of power to an opposing party, and his strong domestic record but weak foreign affairs. • #3 Jimmy Carter: The entry argues Carter has been unfairly maligned due to Reagan-era narratives and a bad inherited economy. It highlights improvements he made, the Camp David Accords, his diversification of the federal judiciary, and his personal decency. • #2 Joe Biden: The text predicts future historians will wonder why voters didn’t appreciate Biden’s accomplishments despite a razor-thin congressional margin. It mentions principled decisions such as ending drone attacks in Syria and withdrawing from Afghanistan. • #1 James K. Polk: Described as the “gold standard” for one-term presidents, he fulfilled his territorial expansion promises—California, Oregon settlement, Texas statehood—took almost no vacations, and retired immediately afterward.
November 15, 2025 at 8:43 PM
matthewdhealy.bsky.social
electoral-vote.com/evp2025/Senate/Maps/Nov15.html I understand that many people who supported the Democrats are very angry right now. But I just don't have much use for any analysis that does not acknowledge that all of the options available to the Democrats had downsides. Even if a person comes to different conclusions than I did in my two items on the subject, they are being intellectually dishonest if they pretend that continuing the shutdown was the "easy" choice. Indeed, ask yourself this question: What, exactly, was the Democrats' motivation in ending the shutdown? (And note that it wasn't all Democrats, it was just some of the Democrats in the Senate, albeit probably more than the 7 who voted for the CR). If you assume that all the Democratic members care about is their own careers and getting reelected, then the "easy" thing for them to do would have been to keep the shutdown going, since they were winning the battle of public opinion, and since Donald Trump in particular was flopping around like a beached whale.
November 15, 2025 at 7:35 PM
matthewdhealy.bsky.social
HR complains about applicants using AI for résumés, but recruiters already rely on AI to filter candidates. As Laney Hills-Mullen notes, it’s hypocrisy: “AI for me, not for thee.” Applicants are just playing by the same machine-driven rules.
Screenshot of a LinkedIn post. At top, Matt Healy comments: “Asymmetric standards: AI for me, not for thee.” Below, Laney Hills-Mullen writes about HR professionals upset that applicants use AI for résumés and cover letters. She calls this ironic because HR has long used AI to screen and reject applicants, often unfairly excluding qualified people, especially older ones. She argues that candidates are simply adapting, using the same tools employers use. AI helps them create professional materials and compete on the same field. She concludes that AI is just a tool and hiring still needs people to meet people; companies shouldn’t be angry that applicants have learned to use the same technology.
November 14, 2025 at 7:42 PM
matthewdhealy.bsky.social
Dunno who made this one!
Parody of Michelangelo’s Creation of Adam from the Sistine Chapel ceiling. God and Adam reach toward each other, but between their almost-touching hands is a molecular diagram showing two cysteine amino acids forming a disulfide bond. The caption at the bottom reads “THE CYSTEINE CHAPEL,” punning on “Sistine Chapel.”
November 14, 2025 at 7:21 PM
matthewdhealy.bsky.social
Immunity and politics.
Lots of supplements claim to “boost immunity” or fight inflammation. Fortunately, most “immune boosters” are harmless placebos, and most “anti-inflammatories” work about as well as the mainstream medical advice we’ve had for decades: eat plenty of fruits, vegetables, and fiber, and not too much fat. The real need—addressed only by targeted drugs—is to make the immune system smarter. In my own case, I’ve experienced both extremes: an autoimmune disease where my immune system attacked cells it shouldn’t, and cancer where it failed to attack cells it should have. Policy works the same way. Many loud debates about “more X” versus “less X” miss the real need for smarter policy. For example, Reuters found that Trump’s focus on deportations coincided with the lowest drug arrests in over a decade. I’ve often written about how bad health policy has already cost hundreds of thousands of lives. A common thread in so many Trump-era failures is the rejection of expert advice—with disastrous results. And here’s a thought: maybe the same tendency, in milder form, explains one of the biggest overlooked facts in U.S. history—that nearly every major economic indicator has done much better under Democratic presidents for nearly a century. Don’t take my word for it; check your favorite source of economic data. Maybe Democrats just listen to experts a bit more.
November 14, 2025 at 6:49 PM
matthewdhealy.bsky.social
Drug arrests are down as Trump redirects law enforcement resources to his immigration crackdown.
WASHINGTON, Sept 29 (Reuters) - The number of people charged with breaking federal drug laws dropped to the lowest level in decades this year after the Trump administration ordered enforcement agencies to focus on deporting immigrants, a Reuters review of nearly 2 million federal court records found.
November 14, 2025 at 2:27 PM
matthewdhealy.bsky.social
It was delusional for anybody ever to have thought Trump cared about ordinary Americans; his political genius has been skill at channeling rage at those whom his base wrongly blames for their problems. Will the lies finally stop working?
Screenshot of a New York Times webpage dated Friday, November 14, 2025. The headline reads, “America First? Some Trump Supporters Worry That’s No Longer the Case.” Subheadline: “President Trump has been dining with billionaires and taken an interest in crises abroad, leading to fears that he is drifting from his more populist stances.”
November 14, 2025 at 2:16 PM
matthewdhealy.bsky.social
As John Scalzi often says, the failure mode of 'clever' is 'a**hole' and a lot of clever people in Epstein’s orbit showed that in their private emails.
Screenshot of an article on *The Atlantic’s* website. The text reads: “That reading these emails feels surreal makes sense—they shatter the myth of genius and merit that the ruling class tries carefully and spends exorbitantly to cultivate, and they affirm the worst suspicions of the conspiracy-minded. As more revelations are made public, it may feel like the conspiracy theorists have won. But they’ve been wrong as well. *Cabal* is too flattering a word for this crowd of cosplaying, hunt-and-peck email addicts. Conspiracy theories are a flawed tool meant to help make sense of a nonsensical world. The truth is darker: You don’t need an elaborate master plan to dodge accountability when everyone’s all too willing to simply look the other way.”
November 14, 2025 at 1:36 PM
matthewdhealy.bsky.social
So far this Fall, wastewater counts for the virus that causes COVID are running below last year's level both nationally and in my town. Possibly this is partly because much of the US has had a warmer and sunnier Fall than usual, though nobody really knows.
Graph of SARS-CoV-2 wastewater counts for the USA national average and for the Coralville Wastewater Treatment Plant.
November 13, 2025 at 10:42 PM
matthewdhealy.bsky.social
Much discussion about the land between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean (I’m avoiding names to sidestep taking sides) centers on claiming the moral high ground. Both Jews and Palestinians have suffered grievous wrongs, and some from each community have committed horrific acts. Competing over who has suffered more won’t bring peace. Depending on where one starts history and whose narrative one trusts, a moral case can be made for either side. Whenever I post about Gaza, I get angry responses from friends I deeply value—Jewish, Arab, and Palestinian Christian alike—who see any nuance as betrayal. But energy spent proving moral superiority is energy not spent on what matters most: ensuring every child, no matter who their parents are, has safety and a chance at a decent future. Anyone who denies that to any child loses my respect.
November 13, 2025 at 6:26 PM
matthewdhealy.bsky.social
From Judge Kaplan's response to a filing by Trump's lawyers in the Carroll case: “The finding that Ms. Carroll failed to prove that she was ‘raped’ within the meaning of the New York Penal Law does not mean that she failed to prove that Mr. Trump ‘raped’ her as many people commonly understand the word ‘rape’ ... Indeed, as the evidence at trial recounted below makes clear, the jury found that Mr. Trump in fact did exactly that.” The legal technicality was that Carroll testified that Trump only penetrated "about halfway" and NY's legal definition of rape means all the way.
November 12, 2025 at 7:08 PM
matthewdhealy.bsky.social
If convincing evidence showed Trump knew about Epstein’s crimes, it could finally puncture the MAGA bubble. Many followers see him as the hero battling a supposed elite pedophile ring—despite courts already ruling him a rapist.
If convincing evidence showed Trump knew about Epstein’s crimes, it could finally puncture the MAGA bubble. Many followers see him as the hero battling a supposed elite pedophile ring—despite courts already ruling him a rapist. Proof he protected Epstein wouldn’t sway all of them, but losing even a quarter of his base might make the GOP’s Congressional jellyfish grow backbones again (scientific term: evolve from cnidarians to chordates).
November 12, 2025 at 6:57 PM
matthewdhealy.bsky.social
God how I miss having these two in the White House.
The Obamas in the 2009 Inaugural Parade
November 12, 2025 at 6:40 PM
matthewdhealy.bsky.social
I’ve said before that using AI for research feels like being a TA with a bright but immature student — clever, full of half-digested info, but missing the big picture.That’s the new job: teach, guide, and debug the “second-year undergrad” in silicon.
Just read an interesting piece on how AI is changing programming: coders are becoming *supervisors* of AI rather than authors of code.I’ve said before that using AI for research feels like being a TA with a bright but immature student — clever, full of half-digested info, but missing the big picture.That’s the new job: teach, guide, and debug the “second-year undergrad” in silicon.
November 12, 2025 at 2:47 PM
matthewdhealy.bsky.social
Voters decided to reject experts' opinions, instead believing Trump's promise to stop Inflation, despite policy ideas that were unlikely to do that.

Now, a few of those who voted for Trump appear to have changed their minds.
Quote below is from CNN's polling analyst Harry Enten. A majority of living US Nobel Laureate Economists signed an open letter before the 2024 election warning that if Trump did what he said he would do, that would be very bad for the economy. A majority of living US Nobel Laureate Scientists warned that Trump would be bad for research. Voters decided to reject experts' opinions, instead believing Trump's promise to stop Inflation, despite policy ideas that were unlikely to do that. Now, a few of those who voted for Trump appear to have changed their minds. "Well, the reason Donald Trump was elected was to fix the problem of inflation. Right back in October of 2024, who was more trusted on inflation? It was Donald Trump by 9 points over Kamala Harris. But look at where we are today-Donald Trump is underwater with the Titanic when it comes to inflation. His net approval rating is 26 points underwater. My goodness gracious."
November 12, 2025 at 1:40 PM
matthewdhealy.bsky.social
How well do you grok your statistical tools? Could you meet E. C. Pielou's standards?
The quote below is from The Interpretation of Ecological Data, A Primer on Classification and Ordination, By E. C. Pielou · 1984 I was assigned that textbook my first year of grad school (1985). I must admit I sometimes use methods that I don't fully grok. But I CAN and have done basic stuff like regression, ANOVA, and permutation tests starting from first principles as a check on my understanding. “Packaged computer programs are readily available that can perform all these analyses quickly and painlessly. Too often users of these ready-made programs do no more than enter their data, select a few options, and accept the results in the printout with no comprehension of how the results were derived. But unless one understands a technique, one cannot intelligently judge the results. Anyone who uses a ready-made program, for instance, to do a principal component analysis, should be capable of doing the identical analysis of a small, manageable, artificial data matrix entirely with a desk calculator, or if on a computer, then with programs written by oneself. Nobody can claim to understand a technique completely who is not capable of doing this.”
November 12, 2025 at 3:56 AM
matthewdhealy.bsky.social
Fall in Iowa
Fall scene with some barren trees and some still in full color, and many leaves on the ground. Fall scene with some barren trees and some still in full color, and many leaves on the ground.
November 10, 2025 at 10:47 PM
matthewdhealy.bsky.social
If I didn't have a strong belief that scientists shouldn't tell lies, I might try to get people to think nitrates are linked to autism, in the hope of getting MAGA to care (apparently strong evidence of the other harms from nitrates aren't enough to make them care).
Here in Iowa, the big environmental crisis last summer was NITRATE runoff in drinking water. I do not know of any evidence linking nitrate levels to autism, but they do harm in many other ways. If I didn't have a strong belief that scientists shouldn't tell lies, I might try to get people to think nitrates are linked to autism, in the hope of getting MAGA to care (apparently strong evidence of the other harms from nitrates aren't enough to make them care).
November 10, 2025 at 8:56 PM
matthewdhealy.bsky.social
The hymnary.org website has a fascinating comparison tool, which one can use to compare the same hymn from different hymnals. Editors make changes in wording for a multitude of reasons, so hymnal edits represent a microcosm of church history. Anabaptist hymnals in particular often tone down military metaphors because Anabaptists are historic Peace Churches. https://hymnary.org/text/for_all_the_saints_who_from_their_labors/compare?selected=VT2020-672&compare=HPAG1933-429a#
November 10, 2025 at 7:45 PM
matthewdhealy.bsky.social
As usual, electoral-vote.com sees beyond the media takes on the latest news: And now, let's address a couple things the Democrats got that they cannot necessarily announce publicly. The vote on the subsidies is known, and it certainly seems like a loss, since a vote on the subsidies is not the same thing as restoring the subsidies. However, for those who would call it a loss, consider that maybe the blue team (the five new aisle-crossers, at least, and very possibly other Democratic members like Hickenlooper) are actually playing the long game. Well, not exactly long, but maybe the short-to-medium game. There are only three outcomes when it comes to the promised vote: (1) The subsidies are restored, or (2) The Republicans vote down the subsidies (again), either in the Senate or the House or (3) Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) refuses to hold the vote. In the first case, the Democrats get what they want. In the second and third cases, they get crystal-clear proof that the Republicans are the ones who don't want poor people to have health insurance, which the blue team can then wield as a club in the 2026 elections. Oh, and if things don't work out to their satisfaction, the Democrats can resume their resistance on January 30, when the government will shut down again if there is no bill. In that scenario, the blue team will have even more political cover AND they won't have to worry about people who need SNAP going hungry, or veterans going without their pensions. In short, the Democrats got some pretty good stuff from a politics perspective without actually giving all that much up. The second thing the Democrats got is pressure on Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) to reopen the House. If he does it, then Rep.-elect Adelita Grijalva (D-AZ) will have to be sworn in, and then Rep. Thomas Massie's (R-KY) Epstein files bill would have the necessary signatures to be brought to the floor of the House. If Johnson doesn't re-open, then he will open the Republicans up to…
November 10, 2025 at 2:32 PM
matthewdhealy.bsky.social
Western science owes a deep and often overlooked debt to the Islamic world.

Our language remembers this even when we don’t: most words beginning with al—algebra, alcohol, algorithm—come from Arabic.

During the West's "Dark Age," Islamic civilization preserved and extended Greek & Roman knowledge.
Western science owes a deep and often overlooked debt to the Islamic world. Our language remembers this even when we don’t: most words beginning with al—algebra, alcohol, algorithm—come from Arabic. Even sine and cosine trace back to Arabic, the result of a translator’s blunder. During Europe’s so-called Dark Ages, the Islamic world preserved and expanded Greek knowledge in mathematics, astronomy, medicine, and chemistry. Their discoveries—distillation, crystallization, surgical techniques, systematic clinical observation—laid the groundwork for modern science. The medical texts of Avicenna and Al-Rāzī remained standard in European universities for centuries. In Al-Andalus (Muslim Spain), Jewish scholars flourished. As dhimmis—second-class citizens but legally protected—they paid a special tax yet could study, teach, and practice their faith as they were too often forbidden to do in Christian Europe. That predictable, if unfair, system allowed a Golden Age of Jewish learning that enriched both Islamic and later Western civilization. The contrast in outlook is starkly illustrated by the supernova of 1054 CE—recorded by Islamic, Chinese, and Japanese astronomers, but by no one in Europe. As a character in Michener’s Space observes, “An age is called Dark not because the light fails to shine, but because people refuse to see it.” Few Americans today—on either the right or the left—know this intertwined history. Some claim science was born wholly in the Christian West; others assume “Western” and “Islamic” civilizations were always separate. In truth, modern science is a shared human creation, built through centuries of exchange across languages, faiths, and cultures.
November 10, 2025 at 12:45 AM
matthewdhealy.bsky.social
The moment in microcosm...
I'm not sharing the viral post for lack of verification, but it sums up our self-destructive politics: a woman says her family won’t help replace her lost SNAP benefits because she backed Trump. You can imagine the comment threads. Whether or not you play the microscopic violin for her, her kids don’t deserve to suffer. And I doubt Jesus would cheer the schadenfreude.
November 9, 2025 at 1:05 AM
matthewdhealy.bsky.social
Vaccines, hood ornaments, and dogs: what antigens really do.
Think of vaccines like dog training. You want to train your dog to chase BMWs, but you don’t have a Bimmer, so you have some friends drive by with fake BMW hood ornaments stuck on their cars. The dog learns the decoration, not the car. Vaccines do the same: they teach your immune system to recognize the “hood ornament” (antigen) safely—no engine, no disease, just as sticking a BMW hood ornament on my 2013 Corolla won't make it a Bimmer.
November 8, 2025 at 9:29 PM
matthewdhealy.bsky.social
The Virus Doesn’t Care How You Vote

The virus didn’t care about politics. It just killed more Republicans because fewer of them did the things that saved lives.
The Virus Doesn’t Care How You Vote In 2020, experts warned that the Sturgis Bike Rally would spread COVID-19. Soon after came Black Lives Matter marches, and critics shouted “hypocrisy” — where were the epidemiologists calling to cancel those? That missed the point. Sturgis drew travelers from across the country who spent hours indoors in crowded bars. BLM events were local, outdoors, and many marchers wore masks. Those differences mattered. Sturgis could have been safer without losing its spirit: set up large open-sided tents outside town and have the bars serve there instead. The virus didn’t care about politics. It just killed more Republicans because fewer of them did the things that saved lives.
November 8, 2025 at 6:03 PM