Nancy Parmalee
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nparmalee.bsky.social
Nancy Parmalee
@nparmalee.bsky.social
Human geneticist turned data scientist in Seattle. Supporting clinicians at a large hospital. Human first. Kindness, standing up for people, sailing, climbing mountains, making a ruckus when necessary. Enduring optimist often tested to the limit.
Amen.
Journalist challenge: Use “Machine Learning” when you mean machine learning and “LLM” when you mean LLM. Ditch “AI” as a catch-all term, it’s not useful for readers and it helps companies trying to confuse the public by obscuring the roles played by different technologies. 🧪
November 23, 2025 at 2:22 AM
Reposted by Nancy Parmalee
Republican Health Care Lingo Every Voter Should Know.

Do YOU know what your Republican Member of Congress means when they say things like "high-risk pools?"

It means they want to go back to when people with pre-existing conditions like cancer could be denied coverage.
November 22, 2025 at 9:04 PM
Reposted by Nancy Parmalee
i know we've all laughed about the worm and the affair but this is a profoundly dangerous person who should be expelled from the government.
Breaking News: Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said he personally instructed the CDC to abandon its position that vaccines do not cause autism. The move underscores his determination to challenge scientific orthodoxy — in this case, that vaccines save lives — and bend the health department to his will.
RFK Jr. Says He Instructed CDC to Change Vaccines and Autism Language on Website
In an interview, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. cited gaps in vaccine safety research. His critics say he is ignoring a larger point: Vaccines save lives.
nyti.ms
November 21, 2025 at 7:43 PM
Reposted by Nancy Parmalee
Me, watching changes at the NIH, CDC, etc...
a close up of a man 's face with a beard and long hair
ALT: a close up of a man 's face with a beard and long hair
media.tenor.com
November 21, 2025 at 8:09 PM
Reposted by Nancy Parmalee
Rising junior and senior undergrads: this is a terrific opportunity for a 9 weeks summer internship as a Cech Fellow in an HHMI lab: deadline for applications is December 22!
Calling all rising juniors & seniors: Interested in biological or biomedical research? Applications for our ’26 Summer Undergraduate Research Experience Program are now open! Nine weeks, hands-on research, & mentorship from some of the nation’s top scientists — learn more: bit.ly/CechFellows
Summer Undergraduate Research Experience | HHMI
The Cech Fellows Program is a paid, nine-week summer research experience empowering the next generation of scientific leaders.
bit.ly
November 21, 2025 at 7:18 PM
Reposted by Nancy Parmalee
This week in NIH fun:
1. Fill the many IC vacancies with political appointees.
2. New awards approved by the IC directors and/or council based on factors other than peer reveiw
3. Unilateral termination of grants with no legal recourse
November 21, 2025 at 8:34 PM
Reposted by Nancy Parmalee
New from me: I talked to CDC staffers about the new vaccines and autism page. They said things like:

“The best way I can put it is it feels like we’re on a hijacked airplane.”

“I think people are starting to see that we can’t fulfill our mission here.”
“Embarrassing” and “horrifying”: CDC workers describe the new vaccines and autism page
"The best way I can put it is it feels like we're on a hijacked airplane."
www.motherjones.com
November 21, 2025 at 5:41 PM
Reposted by Nancy Parmalee
The President of the United States just called for my arrest and execution.

In these moments, fear is contagious, but so is courage:
November 20, 2025 at 7:15 PM
Reposted by Nancy Parmalee
“The U.S. Coast Guard will no longer classify the swastika — an emblem of fascism and white supremacy inextricably linked to the murder of millions of Jews and the deaths of more than 400,000 U.S. troops who died fighting in World War II — as a hate symbol”

www.washingtonpost.com/national-sec...
U.S. Coast Guard will no longer classify swastikas, nooses as hate symbols
The military service, which falls under the Department of Homeland Security, has drafted a new policy that classifies such items “potentially divisive.”
www.washingtonpost.com
November 20, 2025 at 7:50 PM
Reposted by Nancy Parmalee
I really hate it when scientists keep saying that “we need to rebuild trust in science,” because it implies that scientists are to blame for the mistrust rather than the millions of dollars of dark money that have funded political attacks on science in order to advance a far right agenda.
November 19, 2025 at 9:48 PM
Reposted by Nancy Parmalee
#BREAKING: Former Harvard President Lawrence H. Summers will immediately leave his role as an instructor at Harvard while the University investigates his ties to child sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.

Dhruv T. Patel and Cam N. Srivastava report.
Summers Will Not Finish Semester of Teaching as Harvard Investigates Epstein Ties | News | The Harvard Crimson
Former Harvard President Lawrence H. Summers will immediately leave his role as an instructor at Harvard while the University investigates his ties to child sex trafficker Jeffrey E. Epstein.
www.thecrimson.com
November 20, 2025 at 12:30 AM
Reposted by Nancy Parmalee
Reminder that my lab is seeking graduate students for fall 2026. As part of @oupaleobiology.bsky.social, my lab uses a combination of fossils, statistical phylogenetics, fieldwork, & computational approaches to investigate macroevolutionary dynamics in the marine biosphere. Link w/ more info below:
November 12, 2025 at 8:50 PM
Reposted by Nancy Parmalee
From a reply: for a Nature story to run in January -
Scientists (especially early career researchers): How has your career been impacted over the last year of policy changes and funding cuts? Contact me here or on Signal if you have a story to share.
November 19, 2025 at 3:35 AM
Reposted by Nancy Parmalee
You cannot talk about the loss of trans lives in this country or the continuing dangers trans people face navigating the world without talking about how most victims of transphobic violence are Black and brown.
November 20, 2025 at 3:57 PM
Reposted by Nancy Parmalee
The President of the United States just called for Democratic members of Congress to be executed. "HANG THEM", he posted.

If you're a person of influence in this country and you haven't picked a side, maybe now would be the time to pick a fucking side.
November 20, 2025 at 4:15 PM
Reposted by Nancy Parmalee
feels appropriate to introduce articles of impeachment today. i know it won't work, but enough fucking around, for fuck's sake
November 20, 2025 at 5:25 PM
We need to tell our non-scientist people that the CDC is no longer a trusted source of information.

I follow mostly scientists here and we’re all right on top of what’s going on at federal agencies but I wouldn’t take it for granted that lay people have the same awareness.
npr.org NPR @npr.org · 2d
A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention webpage that previously stated "Vaccines do not cause autism" has been changed to cast doubt on the scientific research that supports the finding. n.pr/4oiyHPO
The CDC revives debunked 'link' between childhood vaccines and autism
A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention webpage that previously stated "Vaccines do not cause autism" has been changed to cast doubt on the scientific research that supports the finding.
n.pr
November 20, 2025 at 6:27 PM
Reposted by Nancy Parmalee
Yet more reason why we cannot take medical or public health advice from USA public health institutions ⬇️
CDC has overhauled its website to assert that “the claim ‘vaccines do not cause autism’ is not an evidence-based claim”
November 20, 2025 at 5:02 PM
Reposted by Nancy Parmalee
Great opportunity in an excellent lab!
Our lab is actively looking for posdocs and there is NOW an Open Call for Postdoc contracts (3 years) here: www.aei.gob.es/en/announcem...
www.aei.gob.es
November 20, 2025 at 5:46 PM
Reposted by Nancy Parmalee
I am currently searching for a new postdoctoral researcher to study the evolution, genetics, and physiology of cold acclimation and freezing tolerance in switchgrass at Michigan State University. This work will be funded by a newly funded five-year DOE grant. careers.msu.edu/jobs/researc...
Research Associate-Fixed Term - East Lansing, Michigan, United States
Position Summary The Lowry Lab at Michigan State University is searching for a postdoctoral research associate to conduct molecular and physiological experiments to understand the causes of genetic va...
careers.msu.edu
November 20, 2025 at 2:50 PM
The death threats are coming from inside the White House.
When a President calls for the death of lawmakers protecting the oath military members take to the Constitution (NOT the President), you are watching a full-blown Constitutional Crisis. This is the ultimate test of our democracy. We cannot look away.
November 20, 2025 at 6:08 PM
Reposted by Nancy Parmalee
This is a stunning thing to even have to see Members of Congress say out loud. Absolutely chilling. And inspiring.
We want to speak directly to members of the Military and the Intelligence Community.

The American people need you to stand up for our laws and our Constitution.

Don’t give up the ship.
November 19, 2025 at 8:18 PM
Reposted by Nancy Parmalee
If exposing the child rapists who palled around with Epstein endangers National Security, our National Security is in imminent danger by having child rapists who palled around with Epstein running it. Blackmail is a helluva motivation to keep child rapists like Trump doing what blackmailers want.
November 19, 2025 at 7:59 PM
Reposted by Nancy Parmalee
ICE appears to be headed to Raleigh today.

If you suspect ICE presence, call the Siembra hotline to verify: 336-543-0353. It is important to share information, not spread panic.

If you see an arrest happening, make noise, take video, draw a crowd.

Know your rights:
November 18, 2025 at 7:57 PM
Reposted by Nancy Parmalee
It's not normal for a professor to start a class discussing how they "regret" being best buddies with a child sex trafficker and asking them for advice on how to abuse their position to coerce sex from former students.

He shouldn't be there at all. This is an institutional failure.
Larry Summers discusses his “statement of regret” for his disturbing messages to Jeffrey Epstein with Harvard students
November 19, 2025 at 1:25 PM