In the dozen years after solving DNA’s structure, all but one of the 18 scientists who received a Nobel Prize in molecular biology were supported by Rockefeller Foundation funds. Learn more about their funding principles and history in our latest essay: newscience.substack.com/p/rockefeller-…

To improve academic science, let's study the law. New essay by Niko McCarty. explains how Consequences, Evidence, and Adversaries could all bolster reproducibility. #AcademicTwitter newscience.substack.com/p/laws-of-scie…

We funded five young scientists this summer. Each joined a lab in Boston or Berkeley. Their high-risk biology projects explored the potential for free-living mitochondria, universal immunotherapies, and more. This week, we're sharing their projects with you. 🎉

Studying organisms in isolation — as in cell culture — destroys the myriad signals, from neighbors and surroundings, that maintain a cell's identity.🧫 Our historical focus on individual cells has led to amazing discoveries, but we can do better. newscience.substack.com/p/a-call-for-c…

Pathogens constantly evolve. We funded a fellow to design small peptides that target various sites on SARS-CoV-2 & fuse them to nanobodies. The goal is to build a "universal immunotherapy" that retains efficacy against new viral strains. Our second essay: newscience.substack.com/p/universal-im…

Can we tear chloroplasts from their eukaryotic hosts and enable them to flourish, on their own, once again? This summer, a Fellow explored tools to transfer DNA into the organelle's genome, thus making progress toward a "free-living chloroplast." newscience.substack.com/p/free-living-…

Our updates for September 2022, including new grants. 👀 newscience.substack.com/p/september-20…

I think if you're a v busy founder trying to learn technical topics, it's sooo silly not to use Anki - i.e. you have 10 hrs/week to learn stuff, and they're off hours (nights + partial recovery wknds) (would love counterexamples / other suggestions!)

Some thoughts on the recent SF election and the importance of coordination

Are you a recent college grad or early career researcher who is looking to get more mol bio/biochemistry experience in the lab? New role open for a Research Associate Arcadia Science, please share 🙏 jobs.lever.co/arcadiascience…

OK one of my favorite interview questions, which trips up 95% of top undergrads from top schools that I interview, has fallen to Claude

"Peer review...for centuries the standard tool to determine an academic paper’s suitability for publication". nature.com/articles/d4158… No. The term is only a few decades old and Nature itself didn't it routinely until the 1970s. 1/3

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A 2024 update from New Science! New fellows, new writings, and updates from previous fellows and grantees... open.substack.com/pub/newscience…

.Jacob Trefethen runs the science program at Open Philanthropy, directing about $100m/year in philanthropic funding. For New Science, we ended up talking about academia, peer review, grant-making; and also about love, the meaning of life, and our personal histories. Enjoy!