“To fall in love with the world isn’t to ignore or overlook suffering, both human and otherwise. For me anyway, to fall in love with the world is to look up at the night sky and feel your mind swim before the beauty and the distance of the stars. It is to hold your children while they cry, to watch as the sycamore trees leaf out in June. When my breastbone starts to hurt, and my throat tightens, and tears well in my eyes, I want to look away from the feeling. I want to deflect with irony or anything else that will keep me from feeling directly. We all know how loving ends. But I want to fall in love with the world anyway, to let it crack me open. I want to feel what there is to feel while I am here” - John Greene, from “The Anthropocene Reviewed.”

At times, the world feels unlovable. The people who are taking a wrecking ball to our institutions do not love the world, they only love themselves. But to love, even in the face of a purposely cruel and violent world, is revolutionary and an act of resistance.

As bell hooks wrote in All About Love: New Visions, “there can be no love without justice.” This week, we seek love and justice, even as the world burns.

Lets get into it.

take action

Have you recently had a grant cancelled? Please share information to one of the grant trackers and appeal (even if it seems hopeless)
Submit a public comment on a new proposed policy against federal workers. Guidance here.
Check out Spencer Foundation rapid response grants for bridge funding
NSF is being dismantled - support efforts to SaveNSF and check out our state-by-state NSF and NIH resources

weekly win

Rümeysa Öztürk freed from detention
Judge orders temporary halt to government restructuring
A soil scientist goes to Washington 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
Harvard faculty pledge 10% of their salary to defend against Trump
The House of Representatives Committee of Science, Space and Technology is not messing around

weekly wonder

Flamingos, feeding, and flow dynamics! Flamingos manipulate the microcurrents of their environment to create a “vortex” for prey!

check it out

Perseverance has its limits - Dr. Alondra Nelson wrote why she chose to resign from the National Science Board and the Library of Congress Scholars Council.
Philanthropy to save science? Maybe not. While CZI capitulates, Gates and others commit to spending down their large endowments to address critical societal challenges.
America and Its Universities Need a New Social Contract By Danielle Allen
A documented war on science

perennial reads

Meeting the Moment - Liz Neeley’s weekly breakdown of what's happening in the science and higher ed worlds (week 16 is a scorcher)
Waging Nonviolence - this week, learn how to remain engaged without being overwhelmed
Wonder matters - check out Dr. Chanda Prescod-Weinstein’s column in New Scientist

book nook

The Anthropocene Reviewed by John Greene
The Mechanic and the Luddite: A ruthless criticism of technology and capitalism by Jathan Sadowski
Wonder Struck by Helen De Cruz (exploration of wonder and awe in an uncertain world)

all ears

The parasites that control pharmaceutical prices - This Machine Kills podcast
System Crash - The AI education and jobs crisis, OpenAI’s corporate drama, and Zuck’s AI friends.
Timothy Snyder discusses his new book “On Freedom” (and how we misunderstand the concept of freedom)

we got the beat

Last Thursday, the Muppets celebrated their 70th anniversary. Enjoy Kermit singing his song, The Rainbow Connection

…by the way

The More Paradox (according to the awesome Dr. Aleeza Gerstein)

🙃 meet the unsung heroes of motherhood