SCIENCE HAPPENS PART 1

DESPITE THE QUEENS FELON CARING NOTHING—and contributing less than a plugged nickel—about science, it happens anyway. Here, in Parts 1 and 2 today and tomorrow, are tidbits gleaned from my backlog of AAAS Science magazine. Alas, these days even this magazine has a regular column titled “Trump Tracker.”

Museums Chopped. Science, March 28, 2025, reports, “Trump has proposed dismantling the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) because he believes it “unnecessary.”

An interactive exhibit at the Museum of Science in Boston. Image by Matthew Modoono/Museum of Science, Boston, via Science.  

Science notes, “Some $55 million of the institute’s $295 million annual budget goes for competitive awards to museums. These can be a lifeline for small museums such as The Science Zone, based in Casper, Wyoming, which used a $50,000 grant to offer an exhibit.” 

Vaccine-Autism Study. Science, March 27, 2025, notes, “Earlier this week, The Washington Post first reported that a new Department of Health and Human Services employee named David Geier would spearhead a controversial new look at whether vaccines cause autism. The revelation shocked many scientists because Geier and his father have long promoted that very idea—and made money off it.”

Science cites the Retraction Watch article on these two so-ill-equipped “experts.” As its name suggests, this website tracks “retractions as a window into the scientific process.” Of the Geiers, Retraction Watch recounts, “Geier has a long history of promoting the debunked claim of a link between vaccines and autism, STAT and others report. He has published on the topic as recently as 2020. A December 2020 paper lists his affiliation as the Institute of Chronic Illnesses, an organization he founded with his father Mark Geier, court documents say. In 2011, the Maryland State Board of Physicians disciplined Geier for practicing medicine without a license. He’s currently listed in the HHS employee directory as a senior data analyst, the Post reports.”

Indeed, that there’s any controversy in this long-debunked matter surprises me. See, for example, the NIH National Library of Medicine (provided it hasn’t been scrubbed yet), Andrew Wakefield, and “Vaccines and Autism.”

NIH to Ax Grants on Vaccine Hesitancy. Why do people avoid the protection of proven vaccines? Because of religious beliefs? Theoretical worries of messenger DNA? Fears of autism or other disinformation? Or just elemental ignorance? We may never know for sure.  

Sara Reardon reports in Science, March 10, 2025, “The terminations appear to be part of the agency’s efforts to defund research that does not align with policies backed by President Donald Trump and Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.—a noted vaccine skeptic.” 

Why am I reminded of bleach for COVID, a whale’s head on a car’s roof rack, and a bear carcass in Central Park? 

Reardon recounts, “The letter, which Science has seen, will inform investigators that their award ‘no longer effectuates agency priorities.’ Fourteen of the awards are funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and involve vaccines for diseases such as mpox, human papillomavirus, chickenpox, and COVID-19.” 

Fauci Image Removed. The “Trump Tracker,” March 17, 2025, asks “Where are Fauci’s pictures at NIH?” It recounts, “For example, one National Institutes of Health insider who wanted to remain anonymous [how often in these days of retribution have we read that phrase?] said a Fauci image had been scraped off a wall in the NIH Clinical Center.” 

Above, the original mural. Below, its artful reassessment. Images from The Washington Post.

Geez. What a bunch of doofi. It reminds me of the Soviet days when Tupolev aircraft ids were fudged or Patriarch Krill’s Breguet vanished off his wrist.   

Driving Habits? Police Bias? An Editor’s summary in Science, March 7, 2025, recounts, “U.S. police detain racial or ethnic minority drivers (Asian and Pacific Islander, Black, and Hispanic) more than white drivers. However, a longstanding debate remains unsettled: Does this necessarily reflect police bias? Hypothetically, if minorities were more prone to disobey speed limits and traffic laws, then their traffic stops may be warranted. To put this debate to rest, “High-frequency Location Data Show That Race Affects Citations and Fines for Speeding,” by Pradhi Aggarwal et al. examined rideshare data from Lyft in the state of Florida to compare minority drivers with their white counterparts.”

The summary concludes, “White and minority drivers showed no discernible differences in speeding behaviors or traffic violations. However, when both drove at identical speeds, police were still 33% more likely to issue speeding citations to minority drivers and charged 34% more expensive fines, unequivocally revealing bias.”

Tomorrow in Part 2, we explore the bizarre world of quantum computing in which scientists recognize that the word “data” is a plural (of “datum”). ds 

© Dennis Simanaitis, SimanaitisSays.com, 2025