Patrick McCarren

John Oliver (on right) gestures with his hands as he speaks. On left, a ProPublica headline from December 15, 2025 reads: “Trump Officials Celebrated With Cake After Slashing Aid. Then People Died of Cholera.” An article excerpt below says: "... turning rows red, yellow or green every few seconds, never asking a single question.”

1/ On yesterday’s @lastweektonight.com about USAID, John Oliver cited several of our investigations.

First up was our reporting about how DOGE operatives had arbitrarily cut aid programs, in some cases by literally clicking through a spreadsheet: propub.li/4cCsSKP

Let's meet Micromelo undatus, also called "miniature melo", a species of "bubble shell" sea snail.

She's got a little art deco backpack!

These snails live in shallow waters at locations around the world (Hawaii, South Africa, Japan).

Bacterial histone assemblies from Bdellovibrio bacteriovorus (purple, end-on binding mode from pdb_00008fw7 and pdb_00009ezz shown in middle row, and center-binding mode from pdb_00009f0e shown in bottom row) and Leptospira perolatii (pink, pdb_00009qt1 and pdb_00009qt2).

Surprisingly, histones have also been characterized in bacteria, including a bacterium found in soil and aquatic environments and in a spiral-shaped gram-negative bacterium
More at Molecule of the Month: pdb101.rcsb.org/motm...

Once again, Susan Collins has caved to Trump and is supporting efforts to rig the rules and silence voters.

Maine has one of the highest voter participation rates nationwide –– and as Senator, I'll fight like hell to protect your right to vote from attacks on our democracy.

What it was like to be a bush at Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl performance The bushes on the field during the halftime show became a meme after the internet found out they were actually human performers.

so i talked to one of the bushes at the super bowl
www.nbcnews.com/pop-culture/...

Particularly of interest to people who want to do protein design in an academic environment w/ many colleagues in basic science (cancer biology, cell signaling, immunology, virology) & clinicians who can drive the discovery of new targets for hard-to-treat diseases & bring therapeutics to patients.

Cat wandered in front of the camera during the #aurora long exposure

Ever seen a pet cow pick up a broom and scratch herself with it? You have now A pet cow in Austria started using a broom to scratch herself — the first ever documented case of bovine tool use.

The perfect story to take your mind off other news:

Veronika, a cow in Austria, has been documented not only using a tool - a broomstick - but using it in different ways to scratch different parts of her body. 🧪 #animals #animalbehavior #intelligence

www.livescience.com/animals/land...

🧪🛟 sociology 📈 demography

A misunderstanding a federal judge in DC highlighted just last month www.politico.com/news/2025/12...

Screenshot of a post on X by philip lewis (@Phil_Lewis_) stating that PBS News says this Sunday will be “PBS News Weekend’s” last episode due to federal budget cuts. Below the text is a video still of a PBS News Weekend broadcast showing two anchors seated behind a news desk in a blue studio, with a large screen behind them reading “PBS NEWS WEEKEND.”

The GOP is destroying America bit by bit. We need to boot them out of power in November. Who’s with me?

Withdrawing the United States from International Organizations, Conventions, and Treaties that Are Contrary to the Interests of the United States MEMORANDUM FOR THE HEADS OF EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENTS AND AGENCIES By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United

This is insane. www.whitehouse.gov/presidential...

Infographic on the chemistry of poppies. The red colour of the common poppy is due to anthocyanin pigments. Other red poppies also contain anthocyanins but the yellow Iceland poppy and alpine poppy contain nudicaulin pigments. The opium poppy has been used in medicine for thousands of years, with the milky opium fluid which contains alkaloids such as morphine used as a painkiller. The common poppy contains different alkaloids, which only have very milld pain-killing properties.

Poppies are a symbol of remembrance on Armistice Day. Did you know that some poppies are also the source of powerful opioid painkillers?

Find out more in this graphic: www.compoundchem.com/2020/11/11/p...

#ChemSky 🧪

Oxygen migration into carbon–carbon single bonds by photochemical oxidation - Nature Synthesis Heteroatom insertions into chemically inert carbon–carbon single bonds are rare compared to their unsaturated analogues. Now, ligand-to-metal charge transfer offers a promising entry point for oxygen ...

Really excited to see this in print - super work here by the wonderful team here from the @uwyoongroup.bsky.social
It was a real pleasure to watch this work evolve from a "what if" discussion to a @natsynth.nature.com paper
I truly appreciate being included #Chemsky

flyer for virtual info session on Stony Brook Chemistry's PhD Program - link to register is in the skeet

If you (or an undergraduate in your life) is thinking about graduate school in Chemistry, I want to share that Stony Brook Chemistry will be holding two virtual info sessions in about 2 weeks on our PhD program! Register: forms.gle/exxMufpr2dLv...

The UC Regents finally released the “settlement agreement” the Trump administration proposed in August. It’s a doozy.

UC alumni, faculty, staff, students, parents, donors—and all citizens of California:

Now is the time to let the UC Regents know you do not want them to sign this bad deal.

The simple machine that visualised atomic orbitals In 1931, Harvey Elliott White developed a device that traced out the shapes of electron clouds by approximating solutions to the Schrödinger equation

In the early days of quantum chemistry, before we had computers to calculate the shapes of electron orbitals, one man invented a mechanical machine that simulated their shapes. My latest column for @chemistryworld.com
www.chemistryworld.com/opinion/the-...

This is what democracy looks like. #NoKings

Skala is now available to everyone!
Why are we releasing it? Because we’re not just aiming to publish a cool paper — we’re on a mission to bring DFT to chemical accuracy using deep learning. And to make real progress, we need the community’s feedback.
#compchem

Deep cuts made to CDC's flagship MMWR publication, a cornerstone of public health CDC staff behind the agency’s flagship publication have been fired amid drastic cuts to the HHS promised by the White House due to the government shutdown, according to five people familiar with the s...

Almost the entire staff of Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, known as the “voice of the CDC,” has been laid off, former publication editor-in-chief Charlotte Kent told STAT Saturday.
www.statnews.com/2025/10/11/c...

Great news!
JSTOR now have a free account with an Independent Researcher category. You can access 100 documents per month

www.jstor.org/action/showL...

Huntington's progression slowed by experimental gene therapy An experimental gene therapy slowed Huntington’s by up to 75 percent in a small clinical trial. While not a cure, it may give patients longer lives.

In reporting this piece on the new trial for a Huntington's treatment, I was struck by one thing in particular:

The joy.

One of my sources wept for joy. He has spent his entire career studying this disease, he said it was the happiest day. www.sciencenews.org/article/hunt...

Trump Is Shutting Down the War On Cancer

Powerful new article in NYT Magazine on cancer research

[Gift Link]

www.nytimes.com/2025/09/14/m...

Establishing a Fixed Time Period of Admission and an Extension of Stay Procedure for Nonimmigrant Academic Students, Exchange Visitors, and Representatives of Foreign Information Media Unlike most nonimmigrant classifications, which are admitted for a fixed time period, aliens in the F (academic student), J (exchange visitor), and most I (representatives of foreign information media...

A proposed new rule would limit international students on F1 or J1 visas to stays in the US of no longer than 4 years. This effectively means that intl. students will no longer come to graduate school here (time to PhD is 5-6 years). You can comment here:

www.federalregister.gov/documents/20...

It’s outrageous that Sec. Kennedy is trying to fire the CDC Director — after only a few weeks on the job — for her commitment to public health & vaccines.

The Sen. HELP Committee must hold a hearing with Kennedy & the CDC Director as soon as possible.

Vaccines save lives. Period.

I’m an award-winning mathematician. Trump just cut my funding. The “Mozart of Math” tried to stay out of politics. Then it came for his research.

UCLA Fields Medalist Terence Tao: "This is not a routine policy shift—it is a deliberate dismantling of the institutions, funding, and freedoms that have sustained American science for generations." newsletter.ofthebrave.org/p/im-an-awar... 🧪

Watching this video 10 times has significantly improved my mood.

Breakthrough Prize-Winning Biochemist on the Deadly Cost of Funding Cuts | Amanpour and Company YouTube video by Amanpour and Company

David Liu @harvard.edu beautifully articulates the criticality of basic science funding for developing revolutionary therapeutics like life-saving base editors 👏

youtu.be/8YhJM6zxYDw?...