Just want people to get a feel for me and my little family. It's hard these days in the USA as a double transgender parent family, with two little girls.
So on a positive, here's is my wife and youngest enjoying the interactive science night at our local college. We love science, and they had fossils so I was thrilled (dinosaurs and fossils are my #1 special interest!)
#sciencematters #transfamilies #translivesmatter
Called “Gwada negative,” it marks the discovery of the 48th known blood group system in humans. So glad someone's still doing science...
Doctors Detected a Mysterious Antibody in a French Woman’s Body. It Turned Out to Be a Brand New Blood Type
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/doctors-detected-a-mysterious-antibody-in-a-french-womans-body-it-turned-out-to-be-a-brand-new-blood-type-180986866/
“everyone in a position of responsibility in world science needs to gather evidence to rebut authoritarian, anti-science narratives, and speak out.”
#Science #ScienceMatters #HigherEd #Authoritarianism
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-01966-4
With the current US research cuts and the UK’s higher-ed chaos, others are stepping up. Real shifts will become apparent in the next five years, particularly with China’s surge in research funding & output.
#USPol #UKPol #ResearchShift #OpenScience #ScienceMatters #ResearchSky #AcademicSky
In science’s new era, open and...
As a professional researcher for policy design and analysis, I'm not a proponent of policies supporting "I do my own research" actions — but it's 2025, Voldemort is POTUS and RFK Jr. is the bad wizard of health. Here we are. 
As RFK Jr. ends COVID vaccine recommendations, what do facts say about risks?
TLDNR — Get vaccinated. RFK Jr. is a vaccine skeptic — or worse.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/5/30/rfk-jr-ends-covid-vaccine-recommendation-what-do-facts-say-about-risks v @AlJazeera
#vaccinate #vaccines #PublicHealth #ChildhoodVaccines ##COVIDvaccine #ScienceMatters
3/ Psychiatrist Robert L. Findling, listed as an author of this report, says he NEVER wrote it, and there's no record of it in medical databases. Not to mention, a second "author" may not even exist! No digital footprint. 
#FakeStudies #ScienceMatters #MedicalEthics #Accountability
FACT : 100 years ago a Tennessee grand jury indicted science teacher John Scopes for violating the state’s law making it a crime “to teach any theory that denies the story of the Divine Creation of man as taught in the Bible, and to teach instead that man has descended from a lower order of animals."
History repeats itself.
Scientists are calling out Trump’s $175B “Golden Dome” missile shield as pure fantasy 
. Despite decades of effort, experts say no tech can guarantee 100% protection from nukes. Read why this dream is impossible: https://www.404media.co/scientists-explain-why-trumps-175-billion-golden-dome-is-a-fantasy/ #MissileDefense #ScienceMatters #GoldenDome #newz
Pumpkin Palpatine has gutted the sciences. This will hurt the diehard magas with the rest of us, but they are too nihilistic to care.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2025/05/22/upshot/nsf-grants-trump-cuts.html?smid=tw-share
“I urge you to ask this simple but critical question: What is my professional society actively doing to protect science right now?
Because silence isn't neutrality. It’s complicity. And science deserves better.”
#Science #Scicomm #Autocracy #Activism #ScienceMatters
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/trump-cuts-should-trigger-loud-protests-from-scientific-societies/
“While RFK Jr. is giving “infectious diseases a break for a while,” his policies will only allow these infections to flourish. If viruses and bacteria had a lobby in Congress, they could find no bigger advocate than RFK Jr.”
#VaccinesWork #ScienceMatters
https://pauloffit.substack.com/p/giving-infectious-diseases-a-break
Europe aims to woo US scientists and protect academic freedom —
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-01002-5
#ScienceMatters
U.S. scientists pen letter calling for end to 'assault on U.S. science' — signed by 2K colleagues, all members of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
https://www.cbc.ca/radio/asithappens/open-letter-science-1.7499334
h/t @adub @dmacphee
https://kolektiva.social/@adub/114268652651005313
#ScienceMatters #antiscience #dystopia #USpol #USpolitics
An incredible person has started a movement to tell the stories of #US #scientists and #science experts who have been dismissed because of the #trump #madness over there at the moment
If you know scientists who have lost funding or jobs because of *certain decisions*, you should contact them! They are also looking for #volunteers 
We need scientists and we need scientist-activists —
https://kityates.substack.com/p/science-is-political v @kityates
The alternative are successful attacks on science —
https://christinapagel.substack.com/p/a-dystopian-but-possible-future-the
h/t @chrischirp
https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:rw2kfkoa7dvxmip5rm4nay7x/post/3lji4gc3tns2i
#science #ScienceMatters
Because even if climate change was real — which it's not — the great and might emperor would be able to keep it out with walls and tariffs. What a disaster.
https://www.axios.com/2025/02/20/us-delegation-pulled-climate-science-meeting
#ClimateCrisis #ClimateChange #ScienceMatters #antiscience
What Science Tells Us About Trans Athletes (Originally posted on FB by Mama Bears:):
Recent research continues to shed light on the participation of transgender athletes in sports.
A comprehensive 2023 review by Assistant Professor D.J. Oberlin at Lehman College examined the impact of gender-affirming hormone therapy on athletic performance.
Oberlin concluded that “an individual’s sex does not determine their success or failure at any athletic event despite the high level of competition.”
The study also noted there are great variations among cisgender athletes, such as differences in height, weight, training, and more. That means in the general population there are bound to be people that are better at some sport than others, but no one seems to worry about those. "It is expected that about 2.3% of a normally distributed population is likely to fall above two standard deviations from a population mean,” Oberlin explained. “These exceptional individuals may be those who are gifted and excel at some sport or athletic performance.”
In 2024, the idea that trans women athletes have an inherent advantage over cis athletes was once again undercut by a study funded by the International Olympic Committee and conducted at the University of Brighton in England. It was published in April in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.
That study found:
Transgender women performed worse than cisgender women in tests measuring lower-body strength.
Transgender women performed worse than cisgender women in tests measuring lung function.
Transgender women had a higher percentage of fat mass, lower fat-free mass, and weaker handgrip strength compared to cisgender men.
Transgender women’s bone density was found to be equivalent to that of cisgender women, which is linked to muscle strength.
Another common myth is the idea that boys or men might falsely claim a female identity just to compete in women’s sports. However, there is no evidence to support this claim. Transitioning is a deeply personal and often difficult process—not something athletes would do just to win a competition.
The reality is that trans athletes, like all athletes, just want a fair chance to compete in the sports they love.
Therefore, science tells us:
After hormone therapy, trans women’s athletic performance aligns more closely with cisgender women.
Competitive advantage is complex and influenced by many factors, including training, skill, and individual physiology—not just gender identity.
Transgender women are likely to be at a physical disadvantage compared to cisgender athletes.
Let’s stand for inclusion, celebrate diversity in sports, and ensure that all athletes are treated with fairness and respect.
How did we as a nation get to be so ignorant? #ScienceMatters
Galactic Stone
