Our first full day at @nationalacademies.org Science Communication Excellence Award workshop is off to a strong start! I’m learning to humanize my #scicomm, strategic ways to battle misinformation, & the funding landscape for science journalism.

I’m excited to announce that I’ve been selected as a winner of the National Academies Eric and Wendy Schmidt Awards for Excellence in Science Communications @scicommexcellence.nationalacademies.org!!

Learn more: www.nationalacademies.org/news/2025/10... #scicomm

Ever considered getting Botox? Let’s break down exactly how it affects your nerves in my latest Substack article: neuromelody.substack.com/p/the-neuros... #scicomm #botox

Davenport and his colleagues learned this…but they looked at the data & ignored it. Meanwhile eugenics got stronger & more impactful. It was decided that Americans should let in less immigrants leading to the Immigration Act of 1924.

Eventually, these ideas caught hold & politicians began to listen! Teddy Roosevelt himself said that “I agree that society has no business permitting degenerates to continue their kind.” New laws limitted reproduction & 60k people were forcibly sterilized in US!

With funding from wealthy donors, Davenport started a new research institution: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. His team at the Eugenics Record Office published studies “proving” that traits like morality, intelligence, & even success were passed down through genes just like height and eye color.

They conducted family history data & found many of the ppl in the institutions had family with criminal records, poverty, addiction issues etc. They (falsely) concluded that certain racial groups were genetically superior & these “traits” MUST be genetic & these ppl MUST be stopped from reproducing.

Davenport went on a mission to gather data, visiting instutitions for the “feebleminded”- ppl with physical & mental disabilites, & developed an intelligence test for them. This test ranked them into categories like moron, idiot, imbecile, bright, genius, etc. Yes these were actual scientific names!

Punnet squares were developed to explain the odds of offspring inheriting a trait from their parent. Scientists like Charles Davenport thought that traits like height & eye color could be inherited just as easily as intelligence, poverty, & crime. The goal: track these “bad traits” & eliminate them.

What if I told you that science once claimed it could engineer the ideal human? The goal was to improve the quality of the human race using genetics. This idea was so powerful, it reshaped entire societies and even inspired H*tler. And it all starts with this punnet square.🧵

Big news in the world of #pain management- the FDA just approved a new pain pill that could decrease our reliance on opioids while still providing effective pain relief. Read more in my latest Substack article: open.substack.com/pub/neuromel... #scicomm

The world's deadliest virus, rabies, is being used to understand the mysteries of the brain. Learn more about how we harness this vindictive virus in my new Substack article:
open.substack.com/pub/neuromel... #scicomm #neuroskyence

Great news! Successful RNAScope run on my first try😍🤩 #neuroskyence