Photo by Katie McNabb on Unsplash
Mass detainment and deportation of immigrants, often violently and with total disregard to their humanity, lawlessness, attacks on education, defunding science, NPR, PBS, libraries - in isolation, each attack is destructive, cruel, and stupid, but all these things are connected. The vision for the world that emerges when these individual events are put together is one of isolationism, stalled progress, rabid racism and sexism, a fallen democracy and country, destroyed from within. There is an acute danger of normalcy amidst fascism, of shrugging while there are people intentionally starved and bombed in faraway lands and locked up without due process on our own soil.
Its not too late, but we need to have clarity about what we are facing.
As John Lewis wrote in his last op-ed, published after his passing, “Ordinary people with extraordinary vision can redeem the soul of America by getting in what I call good trouble, necessary trouble” and on July 17th, people showed up in 1600+ rallies across the US for some good trouble.
We hope you are finding ways to get into good trouble, wherever you are.
take action
We are seeking your input: Have your departments or institutions developed guidance for taking into account the impacts of severe cuts to federal funding, rescinded grants, and outright censorship? Is there guidance for chairs and committees and universities on how to accommodate for these severe disruptions to science and research when evaluating researchers or tenure review? We are compiling guidance to share with our community. You can email us info@500womenscientists.org
Check out and share the 2026 Christine Mirzayan Science & Technology Policy Fellowship, open to early-career professionals who are in the final stages of their PhD or terminal degree.
Support NASA scientists by signing their NASA Voyager Declaration
It is more important than ever that we show up for racial justice and pledge to protect your community and resist fascism. Find an event that fits into your schedule.
Keep track of these actions and add to our growing Action Lab database.
weekly wonder
Earth is spinning faster today, creating the 2nd shortest day in history.
check it out
Israeli-run aid sites are death traps for Palestinians in Gaza.
Read our latest writing on what is happening in Gaza “The children are always ours”
SCOTUS continues to expand the scope of executive power
The threat is coming from inside the house:
NSF employees issue a letter warning that the agency is under attack from within
NASA scientists issue their NASA Voyager Declaration
The Trump administration is closing the EPA’s Office of Research & Development, laying off scientists and ending the scientific research that helps protect human and environmental health
The administration is continuing to attempt to silence dissent and make the populace dumber and easier to control (yes, these things are connected)
Columbia University has suspended or expelled 80 students involved in pro-Palestine protests
Speaking of, Columbia joins NYU and Harvard in adopting a controversial definition of antisemitism, making it easier to silence dissent and shut down criticism of Israel.
Science philanthropy is facing a new reality, “philanthropies should hold themselves to a high ethical standard in using their privileged status.”
perennial reads
A stellar piece of reporting on Standing Rock and how Greenpeace came to take the fall (Grist and Drilled collaboration).
And another great piece of reporting from ProPublica on how activists opposing a lithium mine in Nevada are being surveilled.
Rebecca Solnit’s Meditations in an Emergency blog continues to be our critically needed warning system. She is connecting the dots between individual horrors and the emerging picture of a fallen society, with many people in positions of power in stand-up mode or actively acquiescing.
book nook
We can’t wait to read Read This When Things Fall Apart (available for pre-order now). Edited by Kelly Hayes, it is a “A bundle of letters to activists and organizers on the frontlines in catastrophic times.”
all ears
An old Search Engine podcast episode grappling with the question “Should we drink airplane coffee?”
…by the way
All women have been removed from positions of military leadership
🙃 A dinner party in the middle of a war. “Guest, host, ghost. It is too easy, more than three years into this terrible war, to call to mind dinner parties, academic conferences, weddings, where memory folds and unfolds to admit a shadow, because someone who was there, and who should still be with us, has been killed.”