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Family carnival business struggling with inflation and labor shortage
Blake Huston runs a third-generation traveling carnival, but soaring fuel, labor, and insurance costs are threatening the family business. Half of U.S. carnivals have closed in nine years. NBC News' Christine Romans reports.
Vandalia Health, osteopathic school to reopen labor, delivery services at Greenbrier Medical Center
Greenbrier County families will again have access to labor and delivery services through an agreement between Vandalia Health and the West Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine.
UL Solutions Collaborates on Cross-Industry Initiative to Modernize Life Science Regulated Training
NORTHBROOK, Ill.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov 5, 2026--
Influence Media Partners completes acquisition of Anthem Entertainment’s catalogs in deal valued at over $600M
The deal was struck in collaboration with funds and accounts managed by BlackRock, as confirmed by an announcement today (November 5)…
Harbor District Receives Concept Ideas for the Pillar Point Ocean Science Center While Looking Towards Public-Private Partnerships for Collaboration and Funding
Harbor District Receives Concept Ideas for the Pillar Point Ocean Science Center While Looking Towards Public-Private Partnerships for Collaboration a
SETI and Fermi Paradox Are Nextdoor Neighbors of ID
What do SETI researchers, usually atheists or agnostics (cf. Jill Tarter as an example of the former, Carl Sagan of the latter), want to find? Evidence of MIND.
ASCAP Partners With Project Healthy Minds To Expand Mental Health Services
ASCAP has expanded its Wellness Program with a new mental health member benefit in collaboration [...]
Danish comedian unwittingly stars in elaborate TV prank
Danish comedian Rasmus Wallbridge spent four months thinking he was making a feature film with his creative partner.
Danish comedian unwittingly stars in elaborate TV prank
Danish comedian Rasmus Wallbridge spent four months thinking he was making a feature film with his creative partner. It turned out to be an elaborate TV prank filmed with hidden
TwinkleTwinkleStar announces strategic collaboration with U.K.-based Ventola Projects to transform party room entertainment
TwinkleTwinkleStar announces a strategic collaboration with Ventola Projects Ltd., a United Kingdom-based specialist in LED lighting, immersive technology, audiovisual solutions, and entertainment …
Oak Ridge National Laboratory, IBM And AMD Launch New Co-Design Platform for Quantum Error Correction
IBM, Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Quantum Science Center and AMD unveiled a joint platform integrating quantum and HPC.
Las Vegas tattoo artist builds business by prioritizing art over price
The longtime Las Vegas tattoo artist says customer service, collaboration and a focus on artistic quality help his downtown shop compete with bargain-priced rivals.
How Ron Nirenberg prepared to become Bexar County Judge
While Ron Nirenberg's job may be different, his approach will be the same. The former mayor will lean on collaboration in his new role.
When papers become currency: a Chinese debate about trust in science
Last Saturday, 31 October, I went to the University of Hong Kong’s Beijing Centre for its Talent Forum. It was the fourth stop in the series this year, following events in Shanghai’s Zhangjiang, Shenzhen’s Qianhai, and on HKU’s main campus. The programme covered a remarkable distance in one afternoon. HKU’s Xiao-Jing Wang discussed computational neuroscience, intelligence, and the prefrontal cortex—before even delivering his inaugural public lecture to students back in Hong Kong. His colleague Bing Zhang took us from the Big Bang to artificial intelligence. Tsinghua’s Xue Lan asked how AI might reshape the institutional infrastructure underpinning higher education. There were lively panels featuring industry leaders from JD.com, Xiaomi, Haier—and Kaiser Y Kuo on the closing panel discussing innovation and international connections. I cannot pretend to have followed every detail of the brain models or the astrophysics. The talk that stayed with me was closer to something we have covered before: Zhou Zhonghe 周忠和 on papers, evaluation, and scientific trust. Zhou is a palaeontologist, an Academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and an international member of the US National Academy of Sciences. He is also editor-in-chief of The Intellectual (知识分子), China’s leading science commentary platform. His subject was uncomfortable enough for a room full of successful academics: what happens when the system for recognising good science starts rewarding something else? Part of my interest came from our sister newsletter, The East is Read, which covered the controversy around “Geng Tongxue” in May. A PhD dropout from Beihang University, Geng has publicly challenged papers by prominent researchers through detailed online allegations of manipulated images and fabricated data. At Tongji University, an investigation into a challenged Nature paper found academic misconduct, and the dean of its life sciences school was removed. The affair brought doubts about academic integrity well beyond laboratories and university committees. How could someone outside the established hierarchy spot problems in papers that had passed through prestigious journals and institutions? And what, exactly, had all that prestige guaranteed? Zhou approached these questions through two essays published in July by The Intellectual: one by Wang Xiaodong, director of the National Institute of Biological Sciences, Beijing, and a response by Wang Liming, of Shanghai’s Shangsi Institute of Natural Sciences. Both began with the controversy over Geng. Their arguments deserve a wider audience, so I want to put parts of them alongside what Zhou said on Saturday. Wang Xiaodong’s starting point is evolution. A research system selects for the behaviour it rewards. Grants, jobs, journals, talent programmes, and prizes collectively determine which scientists prosper and which practices get passed down from advisors to students. “Whatever the system rewards is what it will evolve to produce,” he writes, citing the ancient Chinese saying: The King of Chu loved slender waists, and many in the palace starved to death. That is a more demanding diagnosis than saying there are dishonest people in science. Punishing a fraudster does not change the selective environment that made a particular kind of research profitable. His account also gives scientific success an awkward role in the story. As Zhou put it on Saturday, science became a victim of its own success. Once research became central to industry, national power, and economic growth, universities and laboratories expanded, and public money followed. That created an administrative need for rapid decisions: who should get the next grant, the next laboratory, the next appointment? The difficulty is that the true value of a discovery may take years or decades of testing and building to become clear. Resource allocation cannot wait that long. Publication counts, journal prestige, impact factors, and citations therefore become convenient ways to make an instant judgement. “The real problem is not that these indicators have no value,” Wang Xiaodong writes, “but that they are trying to answer a question that only time can answer.” Telling administrators simply to stop counting papers will never be enough. They still have budgets to distribute and appointments to make. Something has to replace the shortcut. Zhou described the consequences inside publishing. Papers acquire ever more requirements: a complete story, polished presentation, extensive datasets, and accessibility to readers beyond the immediate field. Individually, those demands sound reasonable. Together, he warned, they produce formulaic “eight-legged” papers 八股文 and rigid reviewing, while genuinely original or non-consensus work struggles to get past journal editors—some of whom wield immense gatekeeping power despite having limited laboratory experience themselves. Meanwhile, the demands for sprawling, “complete” narratives have fuelled a wider replication crisis. Wang Xiaodong uses a mahjong metaphor to describe the result: put the complex papers published by the exact same lab over several years side by side, and they often look like “Thirteen Orphans” (十三不靠)—every tile completely unrelated to the next, and none of them reproducible by outsiders. Zhou also spoke frankly as an editor who has trouble finding reviewers. Everyone wants someone else to review their work; qualified senior researchers have little time to return the favour. The labour is anonymous, unpaid, and brings almost no institutional recognition, so it increasingly gets passed down to postdocs and graduate students. And while anonymity protects reviewers from rank and personal favours, hyper-specialisation means an author’s most qualified reviewer is often a direct competitor, shielded from accountability. The protection and the problem coexist. Wang Liming takes the argument a step further. The decisive change, in his essay, is the instant conversion of academic honour into material resources. Once a paper can be cashed in for funding, a job, students, commercial investment, or even a company valuation, scientists are alienated from their work: they must keep minting this “research currency” to keep their teams alive. He is careful not to romanticise the past. The old world of gentleman scientists—financially independent figures like Boyle and Darwin who needed nothing from external funders—was also a closed club that excluded people without inherited wealth, women, and much of humanity outside the West. Professional science allowed ordinary people, himself included, to become researchers. Nobody should want to undo that. The problem, in his account, is an exchange system that becomes too uniform and too difficult to correct. His most pointed Chinese example is the “hat” (帽子): the prestigious talent designation that brings continuing access to money, laboratory space, students, and institutional influence. “If papers are the circulating currency of the research system, then a ‘hat’ is a bond that pays interest over the long term,” he writes. A paper at least requires another round of peer review. A title in the Chinese context can lock in a judgement made years ago and turn it into permanent status rent, regardless of whether its holder is still doing good science. Here, official institutions hire, organise, and evaluate scientists. Unlike honours awarded by autonomous academic communities in the West, a Chinese “hat” blends non-scientist administrative power with state authority. Once granted, it turns a past judgement into permanent status rent that is nearly impossible to revoke—because taking a hat off would imply that official authority erred in putting it on. Both Wangs see China as experiencing, at compressed speed, pressures present across global science. Research expansion, rising investment, publication growth, and elaborate evaluation metrics arrived in China within two or three decades rather than two or three centuries. Zhou agreed with that international framing—noting that recent US White House science policy documents and the new president of the US National Academy of Sciences, a fellow palaeontologist who recently visited Zhou’s institute in Beijing, have raised strikingly similar warnings about consensus-bound peer review, short-term project grants, and the replication crisis. Still, Zhou emphasised that China’s traditional hierarchy, personal networks (guanxi), and the ethos that “a good scholar becomes an official” (学而优则仕) amplify those pressures at home. So what would change things? Here Zhou’s tone differed from the call for a revolution in scientific trust in Wang Xiaodong’s essay. As an evolutionary biologist, Zhou favoured patchwork repair (修修补补). Living systems survive through accumulated adjustments; dramatic mutations are usually fatal. Science cannot return to a small, slow-moving pastoral era, especially after the successive accelerations of professionalisation after the Second World War, the internet, and now artificial intelligence. But it can alter the local environment in which researchers work. He pointed to domestic experiments designed to support unconventional research and diversify funding, including Tencent’s New Cornerstone Investigator Program, the Xplorer Prize, and the Future Science Prize. He also mentioned participating in reviews for “major non-consensus projects” under the National Natural Science Foundation of China. One guiding principle he recalled was wonderfully direct: “Failure is allowed; corruption is not” (允许失败，不允许腐败). That distinction would mean quite a lot if taken seriously. An honest attempt that fails should not have to disguise itself as a success to survive an assessment. Wang Liming’s essay adds a sharp caveat to the optimism about new domestic funders. Multiple organisations do not automatically produce multiple ways of judging science. If the same pool of senior domestic scientists makes the decisions through the same two-round review procedures, it is still “fake diversity.” He argues for three distinct kinds of money: broad baseline funding governed by fair procedures; patient funding for questions that take ten years; and non-consensus funding based on individual taste, deliberately empowering a few genuine experts to make biased, contrarian bets on eccentric ideas that would inevitably be averaged out by a committee. Replacing one monopoly with another achieves little; a healthy ecosystem needs variance. Zhou’s proposals for publishing were similarly concrete: strip papers of their resource-allocation burden and return them to recording discoveries and establishing priority; separate dissemination from evaluation, as eLife and Peer Community In do; adopt more modular “micro-publications” and real-name endorsements; recognize the labour of editors and reviewers; and give replication work proper credit rather than treating it as an unpublishable dead end. AI makes every part of this debate more urgent—and Zhou wove it throughout his talk. In his own preparation, he used AI to survey the declining influence of academic monographs, noting how tools are already changing how scholars gather information. More fundamentally, he placed AI as the latest great acceleration in scientific history: just as the internet sped up the pace of research and tightened external resource pressures, AI is compressing the cycle again. In the essays Zhou cited, AI cuts both ways. Wang Xiaodong expects large language models to erase much of the English-writing disadvantage long faced by Chinese scientists, further swelling the flood of papers coming out of Chinese labs. Wang Liming sees AI accelerating both ends of the trust crisis: it lowers the cost of paper mills and fabricated images just as quickly as it lowers the cost of automated image forensics, data auditing, and code reproduction. “Whoever builds the verification layer wins,” Wang Liming writes. His proposed alternative to the static, packaged “story paper” is a continuously versioned “unit of discovery” containing a falsifiable claim, raw data, analysis code, experimental parameters, and an ongoing log of independent checks—where negative results and failed replications are recorded rather than buried. Zhou ended his keynote by bringing AI back to the question of scientific honour and credit. Citing a recent Intellectual discussion on “What AI Means for Mathematics” featuring Fields Medalist Deng Yu 邓煜—at a moment when AI is already batch-solving mathematical conjectures, as HKU Vice-President Lin Chen noted in his opening remarks—Zhou agreed that human researchers must remain the principal agents: AI is a tool that frees scientists from tedious calculation to think about deeper, messier real-world problems. Yet that partnership creates a thorny new evaluation problem. When a breakthrough is made with AI, what is the human contribution and what is the machine’s? And since AI models distil centuries of accumulated human scholarship, is it right that the credit and value flow so heavily to the private AI companies building the tools? The old struggle over how to assign scientific honour is acquiring a whole new layer. What I took away was a serious discussion of how science can remain trustworthy as its scale, incentives, and tools change. These were scientists with real standing inside China’s system questioning how that standing is produced, and proposing changes that would affect their own institutions and peers. That made the afternoon at HKU’s Beijing Centre worthwhile. At the close, Wang Feng, Director of Communications and Public Affairs at HKU, said the value of the forum series—which heads to Hangzhou in December and cities like Chengdu early next year—would lie in the real cooperation it helped bring about. The university has plenty to celebrate: this week it topped the QS Asia rankings for a second consecutive year, alongside its 11th-place position in the QS World University Rankings 2027. For me, bringing this debate to an audience beyond the people who review papers and allocate grants was a useful contribution. Share [ The East is Read PhD dropout’s exposé forces an academic fraud reckoning in China A former doctoral student turned blogger has shaken China’s academic establishment by publicly accusing prominent university scholars of fabricating data and manipulating papers, triggering investigations at several leading institutions and drawing rare attention from state media… Read more 5 months ago · 43 likes · 8 comments · Yuxuan JIA ](https://www.eastisread.com/p/phd-dropouts-expose-forces-an-academic?utm_source=substack&utm_campaign=post_embed&utm_medium=web&embedding_publication_id=47580)
Benson vows cost relief as businesses brace for new era of Democratic ‘trifecta’ control
Jocelyn Benson’s decisive victory is an opportunity to pursue tax, labor and environmental policies that have long been opposed by business groups. How far she intends to go and which proposals she will embrace remain unclear.
Outback franchisee files for bankruptcy, citing California labor costs
San Diego-based Cerca Trova Restaurant Group, which once operated nearly 100 Outback Steakhouse restaurants, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Monday.
Dragon's Dogma 2 gets a timed collaboration with beloved anime and manga series Delicious in Dungeon, and it's out right now on PC, PlayStation and Xbox
The Dragon's Dogma 2: Dark Arisen collaboration brings in new allies and equipment for a limited time.
AFGHS co-signatory countries ask health care users to help fill the financing gap
Hundreds of thousands of Ugandans living with HIV on antiretrovirals could be targeted for user fees or community health insurance schemes requiring modest premium payments, according to the April 2026 version of the country’s America First Global Health Strategy implementation narrative.1 As part of the “sustainable financing for the private not for profit sector” strategy, 491 facilities will be targeted for a phased introduction of user fees and scale up of community health insurance programs.2 In the Ugandan context, PNFP facilities include faith-based hospitals and other health facilities, US missionary organizations and centers of excellence—services that are often co-located at government facilities but run with additional financial and technical resources. 402,000 people—or about 28 percent of the total Ugandan adult PLHIV population on treatment—get ART from the private not for profit sector. The selected facilities provide the majority of ART and prevention of mother to child transmission (PMTCT) services. The plan doesn’t give the total number of clients served by the 491 facilities, so it is not possible to give a precise number. But the majority of 402,000 is a figure in the hundreds of thousands—hence the estimate I’m using.3 The April draft of the Ugandan implementation plan narrative is the only one I’ve been able to review. But the government of Uganda is not alone in turning to health care users to help fill the financing gaps caused by the abrupt withdrawal of US funds. In July 2025, the Government of Liberia introduced user fees for previously free services including “registration, accommodation, patient feeding, hospitalization, and a wide range of surgical and diagnostic procedures.”4 Earlier that year, Liberia rolled out a revolving drug fund designed to stabilize drug supplies by “allowing patients to pay a small fee for standardized, quality medications,” according to a Ministry of Health press release.5 (Both of these approaches had been proposed in the National Health Policy 2022-2031; media coverage explicitly connects the launch with the US foreign aid cuts.) The health financing strategies proposed by Uganda and established in Liberia are qualitatively different from user fees officially adopted by specific health facilities to cover funding shortfalls caused by the new US approach.6 The latter is a stopgap, adhoc change. The former is a national governmental adoption of policies that pass costs on to health care users, despite evidence that such approaches can exacerbate inequities and leave deficits unfilled. Two countries does not make a pattern, but they do point to urgent questions: Have other countries, including Liberia, included user fees or community health insurance schemes in their implementation plans? If so, do any of these narratives have what Uganda’s lacks: a fall-back plan in place in case these strategies for sustainable health systems fail to deliver—as they have before? I wonder if you think about it Subscribe Predictable pitfalls Both community-based health insurance and user fees are as old as the hills. And after decades of people climbing up these hills, duking it out, climbing back down—neither strategy has shown the results the Ugandan implementation plan is counting on. This is, in fact, a hill some folks are willing to die on. (You knew I’d get there, right?) In November 2025, an African-led team of health system experts published a paper directed at low- and middle income country governments trying to figure out how to create self-sustaining health systems. The money wasn’t coming back. It had been more than nine months since the season of freezing, waivering and wood-chippering; two months since AFGHS tumbled into the world touting co-financing requirements and reductions in future US government health aid. Governments were looking for strategies for sustainable, self-financed health systems, the authors wrote. For countries considering user fees and community health insurance to fill the financing gaps, they had a simple message: Don’t. On user fees, the paper states: “Reliance on user fees is ultimately a regressive and inequitable approach. It places a disproportionate burden on the poor and undermines health system goals of equity and financial protection. […] There is overwhelming evidence that user fees mobilise very limited resources for the public health sector, making it an inefficient mechanism for revenue mobilisation.” On community health insurance: “Attempting to shift the burden of funding previously donor-funded services, such as HIV care and management, and TB treatment, onto contributory schemes would exacerbate their fragility and fail to protect the population.”7 The WHO says that community-based health insurance “cannot be expected to provide a major source of funding or coverage,” and noted that most schemes offer only moderate benefit to individuals paying into them, and exclude the poorest segment of the population.8 And yet, the US-Ugandan implementation plan says that community health insurance is “the central pillar of this [PNFP] sustainability strategy” and that this approach that will generate “pre-paid pooled funding at facility and community level [that] improves financial risk protection for households, reduces catastrophic out-of-pocket expenditure, and generates structured, transparent revenue streams that can progressively absorb recurrent costs including health worker salaries.” Unfortunately, Uganda’s own history suggests the pillar might not be able to bear this weight. Ugandans Have Been to this Rodeo Before—and Some Want Their Money Back Uganda introduced its first community health insurance scheme in 1996 with support from international donors.9 Thirty years later, somewhere between 0.2 and 0.3 percent of the population is covered by CHI; just over 1 percent has any kind of health insurance.10 User fees were universally introduced in 1993 as a condition of a World Bank loan.11 They were abandoned in 2001, and in 2004—the year I moved to Uganda to watch the free HIV program get underway—a definitive study found that the fees did not improve health systems and outcomes.12 In 2004, most clinics and hospitals had ‘free’ and ‘fee for service’ options for getting care.13 The fee for service, or “cash and carry” programs had often been established in the years prior to PEPFAR and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. People who could afford to paid for the drugs, often at facilities in the private-not-for-profit (PNFP) sector. When free drugs arrived, some people who’d been paying kept on doing so, perhaps because of shorter wait times, greater confidentiality, convenience or other factors. But in the year that I spent visiting the same clinics around the country week after week—including a “center of excellence” that maintained separate days for cash and carry clients and those accessing free ARVs—lots of people who had been paying tried to switch to the free option. They’d paid because they had no other choice. They’d sold pieces of family land, begged family members for loans, bought pills by the week, and sometimes by the day. Or they were just cash-strapped, like most of us, and wanted the funds for other things. 14 Twenty-two years later, this hasn’t changed. Ugandans pay out of pocket for 30-40 percent of their health care costs, leading one paper to declare that “falling ill is more than a health crisis. It is a financial emergency.”15 One recent study found that up to 48.5 percent of households dealing with tuberculosis sold something, took out a loan or dug into savings to defray the costs of TB care—which is supposed to be universally free.16 The Ugandan implementation plan does anticipate challenges. It proposes a phased approach, with 187 facilities introducing user contribution systems in Year 1, 152 in Year 2, and 153 in Year 3. Willingness to pay and feasibility studies will precede roll out; fees will be tiered by region, and a waiver system is proposed to ensure that no one has to pay who is unable to. Moreover, the plan provides for quarterly reviews of epidemiological data to “ensure that user contributions do not compromise epidemic control gains, ART continuity for the client cohort, TB case management, or PMTCT services.” Alt text: A screenshot of a table included in the implementation plan narrative that is the subject of this stack. It’s got a fetching pink bar at the top. It uses the abbreviation “CHI” which is Community Health Insurance, and FBO which is Faith Based Organizations, and it details the number of facilities that will implement user fees with waivers and community health insurance schemes over the five years of the agreement. As I said in the footnote, this is a super interesting document with a lot of other rich material. Tell me what you see—and what you would have focused on. And if you’ve seen something like this, or anything else that strikes you, in another implementation plan, tell me that too. You can use the Substack message platform or try me on Signal at @endaplague_again.25 (because @mercoonfan was, weirdly, taken). But the plan doesn’t fully explain what will happen if this approach doesn’t work out. Yes, progress will be monitored, and corrective action triggered. However, there is no specified funding replacement if premium and fee revenue prove inadequate. Instead, the authors write, “Currently, COEs serve a total client cohort of over 180,000 across 28 facilities. In the initial years, the U.S. Government (USG) will provide financial support for clients; over time, user fees generated by COEs will become the primary source of funding for sustaining their services.” Failure does not really seem to be an option. Health insurance schemes are more acceptable to the Ugandan population than user fees. Members of Parliament and civil society traveled to Ethiopia to see how that country’s scheme worked. In a follow up report, a veteran civil society group recommended allowing the “health insurance ecosystem to grow organically and [to] keep reviewing the law and regulations as this growth takes root.”17 One study found that more than three-quarters of Ugandans were willing to join a health insurance program.18 However, coverage of community-based health insurance is minimal, as is coverage of any kind of insurance—including private plans.19 A national health insurance scheme bill has been stalled for several years and presently sits with President Yoweri Museveni.20 Community-based health insurance scheme that do exist are expanding in number, but losing enrollees. Between 2022 and 2026, the number of community-based health financing schemes across the country increased by 42 percent, while the number of people enrolled decreased by nearly 11 percent.21 None of this means that community-based health insurance should not happen in Uganda—or that people do not want insurance. It doesn’t even mean that user fees and waivers won’t ever work. But there is highly relevant evidence from Uganda and the surrounding region that it is quite optimistic to describe community health insurance and user fees as central supports for sustainable financing in any sector of the health system. And now for the best-case scenario In the best-case scenario22, the Ugandan approach does exactly what it sets out to do, and so does the Liberian fee structure and revolving pharmacy fund—though I’ve not confirmed that these are in the MoU. In one best-case scenario, Uganda is an outlier, and user fees and community health insurance are not recurrent pillars of self-sustaining financing in other countries’ implementation plans. In another best-case scenario, all countries that include these strategies enjoy success beyond anyone’s evidence-informed wildest dreams: reliable funding generated by health care users fees, great health care outcomes for everyone, no exacerbation of inequities, no crippling household debt. No sold land, repurposed school tuition or high-interest loans. In the best-case scenario, not one of the hundreds of thousands of Ugandans living with HIV receiving antiretrovirals from 491 PNFP facilities misses a refill or leaves care because of user fees or community health insurance premiums. This is the best-case scenario for these people for their own health, and for their families. It is also the best-case scenario if Uganda wants to stay on the path to eliminating HIV as a public health threat. According to the country’s most recent data, 96.5 percent of people living with HIV on antiretrovirals are virologically suppressed. Epidemic control depends ensuring that 95% of people living with HIV know their status, 95 percent of those individuals are on ART, and 95% of those individuals are virologically suppressed. Uganda is still struggling with the first “95"—a frankly abysmal 85.3 percent. If HIV epidemic control and the attendant prevention of new infections, avoidable suffering and premature death matter, the country cannot afford to lose any clients who are currently in care.23 As I write this a couple hours before the polls close for the US elections in the city I live in, I say with soul-deep sincerity: I am rooting for the best-case scenario. I think it’s safe to say that we all are.24 I think it’s also safe to say that if the US and co-signatory governments have inked plans that lead to successful expansion of community health insurance and strategic use of user fees, we all would like to know, now, so that we don’t miss the opportunity to celebrate when success happens. The implementation plan narratives have to enter the public domain. They are the fullest expression of a strategy co-created by two governments. There are assumptions and details that people living in the US and co-signatory countries need to understand that are not available in the MoUs or, to date, in the Congressional Notifications. Some of these details can help other countries that are, as I write this, still working on implementation plans. Others, like a solid count of how many other countries have plans for expanding user fees or health insurance, are important for regional and global health architecture reform initiatives. No matter how this election night turns out, there will be a slew of new Congressional member orientations, briefings and talking points papers in the next few months. Release of implementation narratives should be a bullet point in every context that AFGHS is discussed. These documents can be redacted so that procurement sensitive information isn’t disclosed. There is much more historical precedent for sharing such documents than there is for relying on user fees to fill health financing gaps. Let’s look at the information together so we can hope for the best and prepare for, you know, the other thing. Alt text: A substack first: a bicep selfie! It’s my arm - peachy-white skin, black shirt (flannel, notch neck, too hot for this appallingly balmy November weather, if you’re wondering) and a sticker that says I VOTED 2026. Beige letters on red for I voted. Beige on blue for 2026. You bet I did.25 In your wildest dreams. Subscribe 1 This is a really, really rich 95 page document. There are fascinating ideas and detailed plans in it. It is all worth reading AND I have, in this post, highlighted an instance of content that could pose challenges and certainly posits success of strategies that haven’t worked before. I would love to hear what readers’ see that’s interesting and should be lifted up as something to check for in other implementation plans. I will also shortly be adding a static page to the substack site where implementation plan documents will live. I will put the url into this footnote and it will also be there on emilybass.substack.com by the end of the week. Uganda Implementation Narrative Section 4 April 22 2026 Draft 1.51MB ∙ PDF file Download Download 2 User fees are costs charged for visits, labs, medicines or other health services, usually at the time they are provided. Community health insurance, or community-based health insurance, is what the World Health Organization calls “micro insurance,” which is health insurance targeted at low-income people. 3 As usual (by which I mean always), please prove me wrong. 4 https://smartnewsliberia.com/liberias-ministry-of-health-announces-2025-hospital-service-fees-for-public-facilities/?utm 5 https://moh.gov.lr/news/2025/grand-cape-mount-leaders-residents-embrace-new-community-pharmacy-program/?utm 6 https://www.christianitytoday.com/2026/09/hiv-usaid-pepfar-africa-foreign-aid-cuts-mission-hospitals/?utm 7 https://gh.bmj.com/content/10/11/e021270 8 https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/community-based-health-insurance-CBHI 9 https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2827475/ 10 https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10861328/#b3-jpmph-23-110 11 https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC527704/ 12 Same citation as the footnote 2 - the article is called “Learning from failed health care reform in Uganda.” To which I say: If only. If. Only. 13 There is a whole taxonomy of user fees to be aware of, if not commit to memory. Out of pocket costs are everything that someone pays for themselves. In this Stack, user fees are planned and policy-supported out of pocket costs. There are also out of pocket costs that people pay to buy drugs or receive tests or health care assessments that would be free if the drugs were on the shelves, or the machines or kits were available, or the staff were on site. A user fee is usually designed to be modest, pegged to willingness to pay, and may be waiveable at the point of care for anyone who is unable to do so. The costs for things that would otherwise be free are whatever the market will bear and people either have to pay them or go without. Out of pocket costs for services and stuff that aren’t available in public facilities are different again from bribes or unofficial fees that some health workers may impose, even though most are indefatigable, tireless and tired, and devoted to their clients. 14 For the record—which really is these footnotes—I would give a whole stack of fridge magnets for a systematic analysis of the economic and social impact of the Mass Unemployment Event in AFGHS countries among the very people who used to be able to afford and cover user fees, both for themselves and vast family networks. Locally employed USAID technical staff, house cleaners, caregivers, drivers and technicians were financial anchors for cousins, friends, friends’ children, friends’ childrens’ cousins, teachers, pastors, neighbors and so many other kinds of kin. Aid recipients lost direct funding; many other people who had not been aid recipients, but parts of the elaborate care webs that function as safety nets for so many people, lost crucial support too. And that’s even before we get to the people who worked at the hotels and restaurants and bars where people employed by the US and its implementing partners used to spend disposable income. Those businesses have lost revenue; those folks have lost jobs. It will be some time coming—and someone will have to fund this work—but I do hope it happens. And I hope, as usual, to be proven wrong. 15 https://eprcug.org/blog/how-out-of-pocket-healthcare-costs-keep-driving-ugandans-into-poverty/ 16 Another straight-to-the-point journal article title. Households experiencing catastrophic costs due to tuberculosis in Uganda: magnitude and cost drivers. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32938411 17 https://www.cehurd.org/download/technical-policy-brief-on-community-health-insurance-scheme/?wpdmdl=13661&refresh=6ae9122f5d4ed1793659439 18 https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10125197/ 19 https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10861328/#b3-jpmph-23-110 20 https://ugandapost.news/uganda-to-make-health-insurance-mandatory-by-2026/ 21 https://shu.org.ug/download/235 22 With a nod, tip of the stack hat, and wag of the Mercoon tail to a deeply valued reader who told me that I have a tendency to speculate about the worst-case scenarios a little too much of the time. 23 https://news.mak.ac.ug/2026/10/uphia-2025-shows-ugandas-hiv-status-awareness-gap-despite-strong-treatment-outcomes/ As you’ll see in the next footnote, I’ve already written a subSubstack on another topic, so I will be brief with regard to the study referenced in this article. The Uganda Population-Based HIV Impact Assessment, or UPHIA, will never happen in this way again. For more than a decade, PHIAs have been supported by the US government as a way to generate accurate estimates of country progress on key HIV indicators. They are a holdover from the PEPFAR program that was laser focused on ensuring US taxpayer dollars subsidized progress in pandemic control. There may be other population-level surveys and the data may even be publicly released, as the entire set of FY2026 MER data have not. But PHIAs will never happen again. If you’re wondering whether the estimates of HIV progress at country level might get less reliable….you’re not alone. 24 Ooh baby, I hate “we” in almost all forms. But sometimes I go there, when I am looking for company, which I am. Because this Stack moves into the somewhat-uncharted territory of assessing what the implementation plan narratives may suggest about co-signatory countries’ roles and responsibilities to the people living within their borders. The MoUs, specimen and data sharing agreements were templates. Countries’ answers fit into pre-specified questions that did not include, “how are you going to fill financing gaps and stabilize your health system as this plan unfolds?” In contrast, the implementation narratives are open form—the product of co-creation between the two governments. Co-creation can mean lots of things, but nothing leads me to believe that implementation plans are ghost-written by the US government, or that contents were imposed by the US counterparts. Instead, I think the parts of the plans that read like country government initiatives are endorsed, if not initiated by, those governments. For instance, the Ugandan implementation plan narrative describes plans for revenue-generation through fees charged for equipment calibration, repair and maintenance provided through Uganda’s National Equipment Calibration Laboratory, and laboratory accreditation through the Uganda National Accreditation Service (UGANAS), targeting private sector, PNFP, research and academic clients. That’s super specific and also quite ambitious. It doesn’t read like an American idea. There’s also a provision for solar panels, and other stuff that feels country owned and driven. This is where it gets interesting. If co-creation is the case, then both the US and co-signatory governments are accountable for the contents and the outcomes. Most discourse about AFGHS to date has focused on the decisions that America has made, or demanded that other countries make. The AFGHS architects have monopolized the hot seat. As they should, in so many ways. America absolutely created the conditions under which countries needed to come up with health financing strategies to fill unanticipated, catastrophic funding gaps. And with not-too-long a lens, we can look back and see that America is also on the hook for its role in the Bretton Woods institutions that made user fees and health system fiscal austerity conditions of loans during the era of structural adjustment. But in the here and now, it is not at all clear to me that the US is requiring Uganda or any other country to implement specific approaches to sustainable financing. Instead, it is as the authors of that paper up in footnote 6 suggest: African governments have agency. As implementation plans roll out—whether or not the narratives are shared—it will be important to understand what this agency looks like and what it means for people, including the poorest of the poor. And it will be important to figure out how to talk about it safely, respectfully and critically in places other than the literal and metaphorical footnotes. 25 This week’s song is “Once upon a time” by the Moody Blues. (I know, this is gonna be a weird, largely banger-free end of 2026 playlist. HMU with requests.) AND please do watch the video and appreciate the truly amazing opening sequence—a drum kit wasteland, a coupla plastic bags, a bit of sand. Sort of like the hill where fiscal austerity policies that put costs on health care users might go to perish. But then there’s a lady with amazing hair. It’s worth it.
Jülich Hosts EVE Language Model for Earth Observation and Earth Science
Nov. 3, 2026 — The Jülich Supercomputing Centre (JSC) has started a new collaboration with Pi School, an international centre of excellence for AI headquartered in Rome that brings together innovators, thinkers and entrepreneurs. As a result, JSC’s Helmholtz Blablador infrastructure now hosts the EVE-Instruct model, a large language model (LLM) for Earth observation (EO) and […]
Dragon’s Dogma II: Dark Arisen x Delicious in Dungeon collaboration announced
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Compounds that give citrus fruits their scent may affect gut health
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Seattle sandwich chain to close 2 stores, end operations
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The Toronto lab using new science to unlock the secrets of old books
Inside this medieval studies laboratory at the University of Toronto, researchers use high-tech tools to discover hidden text, invisible ink and centuries of human history.
Forced Labor Goes to the International Trade Commission: The Nekkanti Shrimp Case
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Nov. 5 talk: Using chemical vapor deposition to improve battery materials
Jeffrey Elam, senior chemist and Argonne Distinguished Fellow at Argonne National Laboratory, will present “Chemical vapor fictionization of battery materials” at 3:05 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 5, in 10 Sparks Building on the University Park campus.
FDA, CMS look to collaborate with states on health AI
In this edition of STAT Health Tech: Federal officials look to work with states on regulating AI, protecting doctors from AI liability, and more.
TreImage Partners with Haaseline Entertainment
Collaboration strengthens brand licensing initiatives, accelerates retail expansion and creates new commercial opportunities for TreImage.
Business Networks Harness Agentic AI to Bolster Collaboration and Operational Resilience Among Trading Partners
Implementing AI in business networks can streamline operations and enhance value with customers and partners. Read to learn more.
Health and Career Fair set for Thursday at Black Oak | Lewis County Herald The Lewis Co. Herald
Free health screenings, discounted laboratory testing, blood donations, employment opportunities, and workforce training information will be available The Lewis County Health and Career Fair will be held Thursday, November 5, at the Black Oak Volunteer Fire Department, bringing together healthcare providers, employers, and workforce development organizations for health screenings, blood donations, employment opportunities, and educational […]
Behind Reliable Laboratory Testing: The Science, Experience, and Problem-Solving Approach of Dustin Newman
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Commentary: When leaders disagree, ceremony plays an important role
When Chinese President Xi Jinping arrived at the White House on Sept. 24, the U.S. welcomed him with an elaborate display of ceremony. The Army Herald Trumpets sounded a fanfare,
University announces plans for new interdisciplinary science building
The University will construct a new building to aid collaborative scientific research, UT President Jim Davis announced in his 2026 State of the University address on Oct. 21. The University has not released any details on the future location or design of the building and a University spokesperson was also unable to provide additional information....
Afrika Konnect Las Vegas 2026 to Welcome International Business Delegation November 18
AFRIKA KONNECT & Networking Las Vegas 2026 returns Wednesday, November 18, bringing together African and American business leaders, entrepreneurs, investors, and economic development stakeholders for an evening of international networking and strategic collaboration. In partnership
NH is destination for space sector
The two-day Space, Technology, Trade and Research expo on Oct. 28-29 in Durham convened innovators, producers, scientists, engineers, investors, bankers, students and representatives of the U.S. Space Force and Department of War. The goal: Increase networking, collaboration and awareness of what’s happening here, including on the campus of UNH, which provides tools, expertise and facilities for product development and testing.
Fayetteville PWC to host Veterans Business Expo Nov. 12
The Fayetteville Public Works Commission (PWC) will host a Veterans Business Expo on Thursday, Nov. 12, 2026, from 4:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. at PWC's Main Operations Complex, located at 955 Old Wilmington Road in Fayetteville. The event will provide Veteran-owned businesses with an opportunity to showcase their products and services directly to government entities, public agencies, contractors and resource partners. The expo is designed to encourage networking, strengthen business relationships and connect Veteran entrepreneurs with potential opportunities for growth and collaboration. The Veterans Business Expo reflects PWC's ongoing commitment to supporting local businesses, fostering economic development and creating opportunities for businesses throughout the Fayetteville and Cumberland County community. The event is being promoted in collaboration with the Veterans Business Outreach Center at FSU (VBOC) and the Fayetteville-Cumberland Regional Entrepreneur & Business HUB.
What’s Up: November 2026 Skywatching Tips from NASA
I'm Raquel Villanueva from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and that's What's Up this month.
DOL Final Rule Expands PBM Transparency for Self-Insured Health Plans
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Preparing for the Pathogen We Can’t Predict: Lessons from Dr. Stephen Morse
National Emerging Special Pathogens Training and Education Center
FSU celebrates completion of $137.5 million health research building in Tallahassee
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U.S. science academy and IIT Kanpur sign climate research accord
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Where Life Science Scales in Basel
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BrainsWay Announces Strategic Collaboration with Mindful Health Solutions
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Economic headwinds mounting for Maine family-owned businesses
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PRG PROJECTS OPENS NEW LONDON STUDIO TO COLLABORATE WITH LIVE ENTERTAINMENT'S CREATIVE COMMUNITY
PRG Projects, part of global entertainment technology company PRG (Production Resource Group), today announced the opening of Project Studio, a new collaborative space in central London that expands the company's custom engineering and technology integration capabilities, bringing its technical expertise closer to the creative teams shaping the future of live entertainment.
PRG PROJECTS OPENS NEW LONDON STUDIO TO COLLABORATE WITH LIVE ENTERTAINMENT'S CREATIVE COMMUNITY
/PRNewswire/ -- PRG Projects, part of global entertainment technology company PRG (Production Resource Group), today announced the opening of Project Studio, a...
Dead by Daylight Devs Apologize After TheBurntPeanut Stream Stirs Controversy in Its Community
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Strengthening Japan–India partnership for science and innovation
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VITAS Healthcare reports strong Q3 growth despite cost concerns
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National award recognizes ETSU Health ALS Clinic as model for collaborative care
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Photos show elaborate preparations for Thailand’s Royal Barges Procession
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WLF meet ends with new science body plan
The Shanghai-based World Laureates Foundation has proposed establishing the World Laureates Organization to further strengthen global research collaboration among scientists, with the initiative unveiled at the 2026 World Laureates Forum, which concluded in Shanghai on Sunday.
WLF meet ends with new science body plan
The Shanghai-based World Laureates Foundation has proposed establishing the World Laureates Organization to further strengthen global research collaboration among scientists, with the initiative unveiled at the 2026 World Laureates Forum, which concluded in Shanghai on Sunday.
Global Summit for Eye Health Kicks Off in St. John’s With Calls for Action
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MF DOOM's Estate Teams With Sanford Greene for Capsule Collection
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FSU celebrates completion of new $137.5 million health research building in Tallahassee
Construction is complete on FSU Health’s $137.5 million Health Research and Collaboration building. The university unveiled it during a ribbon cutting Friday.
Karl-Anthony Towns and Jordyn Woods' GOT Costumes
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California Science Center and NASA JPL Collaboration to Debut at Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center on Nov. 13
The California Science Center and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory are joining forces to showcase six decades of robotic space exploration at the new Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center in Los Angeles. Opening November 13, 2026, the Kent Kresa Space Gallery will feature spacecraft models, a restored Ranger lunar probe, Mars rover exhibits and hands-on activities exploring planetary science, exoplanets and future space missions.
More than scary costumes: Finding friends, politics and love at Wild Rumpus
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WLF prize laureate: Science takes curiosity and a stubborn streak
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CVG Airport's next big business may not involve flying
At Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport, some of the more interesting traffic isn't in the sky. Autonomous machines scrub terminal floors. Robots can deliver concessions to passengers. An experimental baggage tractor has been designed to move luggage without a driver. CVG is trying to turn the airport itself into a laboratory and, potentially, some of what it learns into products that can be sold elsewhere.
Carbondale businesses collaborate for a Halloween Costume Bar Crawl
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'Defund Musk': Former Clinton Cabinet official urges Democrats to target SpaceX founder
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NANCY GUTHRIE | After 9 months, investigators turn to Florida scientists for new DNA leads
Arizona investigators working on the Nancy Guthrie case are continuing DNA testing with laboratory partners, according to authorities.
NANCY GUTHRIE | After 9 months, investigators turn to Florida scientists for new DNA leads
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Hollywood actor and Jackie Chan collaborator dies at 75
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United Automobile, Aerospace & Agricultural Implement Workers of America
The labor union representing workers in auto, aircraft and agricultural implement manufacturing and other industries in the U.S., Canada and Puerto Rico.
FSU opens new health facility, names it after Wilton Simpson
FSU Health is celebrating the completion of its Research and Collaboration Building, naming it after Florida Agriculture Commissioner Wilton Simpson.
A photo tour of the FSU Health Research and Collaboration Building
FSU Health held a ribbon cutting ceremony for the new Research and Collaboration Building, which will be named after Wilton Simpson, Friday, Oct. 30.
FSU Health opens new research and collaboration building, names it for Florida Ag Commissioner Wilton Simpson
Florida State University cut the ribbon Friday on its new FSU Health Research and Collaboration Building and announced that the facility will be named for
Forensic Science Professor Helps Discover Vulnerability in Technology
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United Automobile, Aerospace & Agricultural Implement Workers of America
The labor union representing workers in auto, aircraft and agricultural implement manufacturing and other industries in the U.S., Canada and Puerto Rico.
2026-2027 Audree V. Fowler Fellows in Protein Science
Graduate students Lenka Milojević (Zhou group), Akshaya Narayanasamy (Lindert group), Sarah Singleton (Conway group), and Janet Zhong (Feigon group) have been selected as 2026–27 Fowler Fellows and shared their research at a special event on Oct. 13, 2026. 2026-27 Fowler Fellows – Sarah Singleton, Lenka Milojević, Janet Zhong, and Akshaya Narayanasamy. Akshaya Narayanasamy and Prof. Steffen Lindert. Sarah Singleton and Prof. Stuart Conway. Janet Zhong and Prof. Juli Feigon. About the 2026-27 Audree Fowler Fellows in Protein Science Lenka Milojević is a fifth-year Biophysics Ph.D. candidate in the lab of Professor Z. Hong Zhou at UCLA. As an undergraduate at Maastricht University, she studied the structural basis of Mycobacterium tuberculosis virulence and amyloid-β fibril nucleation in the lab of Professor Peter Peters. She completed her bachelor’s thesis research at UCLA in the lab of Professor David Eisenberg, focusing on amyloid disaggregation, before beginning her doctoral studies. In the Zhou lab, Lenka uses cryo-electron tomography to visualize and characterize membrane-associated protein assemblies across a range of viral and cellular systems. Akshaya Narayanasamy is a fifth-year Ph.D. student in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at UCLA, mentored by Professor Steffen Lindert. She earned her B.S.-M.S. in Chemistry from the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Thiruvananthapuram, where she worked in Professor Mahesh Hariharan’s lab investigating how single-atom substitutions influence crystal packing and charge transport behavior. She received her M.S. in Physical Chemistry from The Ohio State University before moving with the Lindert lab to UCLA. At UCLA, Akshaya develops integrative modeling methods that combine deep learning and Rosetta with experimental data, such as ion mobility mass spectrometry and cryo-EM, to improve protein structure prediction. Her current work focuses on developing an experimentally guided diffusion model and designing de novo protein binders with potential antibacterial activity. Ultimately, she aims to bridge AI-based structure prediction and experimental data to make computational protein models more reliable for drug discovery and therapeutic design. Sarah Singleton is a 4th year BMSB student, working in Professor Stuart Conway’s lab. She earned her B.S. in Biochemistry at Simmon University (Fenway, MA). Her research is centered on drugging the previously undruggable class of proteins—transcription factors. Zinc finger (ZF)-containing transcription factor proteins typically contain multiple ZF motifs, but little is known about the principles that govern the recognition of multi-ZF arrays by immunomodulatory imide drugs (IMiDs). In a multi-ZF array that contains several potentially targetable ZFs, which will be accessible and why? How does the surrounding protein architecture inform IMiD recognition? Sarah’s research aims to utilize her findings on the fundamental principles of ZF recognition to design IMiD therapeutics for transcription factors involved in health and disease. Janet Zhong is a fourth-year BMSB student, working in Professor Juli Feigon’s laboratory. She received her BSc and MRes from Imperial College London. At UCLA, Janet combines cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM) and biochemical approaches to investigate how proteins and RNAs assemble into ribonucleoprotein structures. Her research focuses on telomerase, the enzyme that maintains chromosome ends, with interests in its structure, assembly, and mechanisms. She has also worked on capturing the cryo-EM structure of a small bacterial non-coding RNA called raiA motif RNA. About Dr. Audree Fowler A strong supporter of the basic sciences and medicine at UCLA, alumna Dr. Audree Fowler (B.S. ’56 chemistry, Ph.D. ’63 biochemistry) established the Audree V. Fowler Fellows in Protein Science in 2008. Fowler was Director UCLA Protein Microsequencing Facility from 1984-1999 and is a Researcher Emeritus of the UCLA Department of Biological Chemistry. She is one of the first four women to receive a Ph.D. from the UCLA Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry. In 2018, the women were awarded the department’s 2018 Alumni Legacy Awards in recognition of their achievements in life, and generous support and service to UCLA. “The sciences gave me a great life. Now I want to help others have access to the same opportunities I enjoyed,” Fowler explained when she established the Fowler Fellowships endowment. Applications for the fellowships are solicited from graduate students in the Molecular Biology Interdepartmental (MBI) Ph.D. Program, Biological Chemistry, and Chemistry & Biochemistry Departments. In addition to presenting their research at a special seminar, the recipients each receive a $5,000 award. Previous Fowler Fellows from the UCLA Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry 2025-26 – Nikki Cheung (Clubb Group), Jonathan Jih (Zhou Group), Eileen Olivares (Loo Group), and Lily Taylor (Rodriguez Group) 2024-25 – Andrew Goring (Clubb lab), Eric Pang (S. Clarke and Rodriguez labs), and Miranda Villanueva (Backus lab) 2023-24 – Alexandra Turmon (Backus lab), Cindy Wang (S. Clarke and C. Clarke labs) 2022-23 – Cody Gillman (Gonen lab), Declan Evans (Houk lab), Troy Lowe (S. Clarke lab), Ashley Julio (Backus lab), and Alex Stevens (Hong Zhou lab) 2021-22 – Weixian Deng (Wohlschlegel/Plath labs), Yi Xiao “Sean” Jiang (Eisenberg lab), Maria Flores (Rodriguez lab), Carter Lantz (Loo lab), and Logan Richards (Rodriguez lab). 2020-21 – Janine Fu (Loo lab), Calina Glynn (Rodriguez lab), and Jiahui Lu (Eisenberg lab) 2019-20 – David Boyer (Eisenberg lab), Orlando Martinez (Clubb lab) and John Muroski (Loo lab) 2018-19 – Scott McConnell (Clubb lab), Kevin Murray (Eisenberg lab), Rebeccah Warmack (S. Clarke lab) 2017-18 – Michael Hughes (Eisenberg lab), Yuxi Liu (Yeates lab), Kanishk Jain (S. Clarke lab) 2016-17 – Brendan Amer (Clubb Lab) and Jeff Vinokur (Bowie Lab) 2015-16 – Henry Chan (Feigon lab), Smriti Sangwan (Eisenberg lab), Nicholas Woodall (Bowie lab) 2014-15 – Dan McNamara (Yeates lab) 2013-14 – Alex Jacobitz (Clubb lab), Alexander Patananan (S. Clarke lab), Carly Ferguson (Loo lab) 2012-13 – Letian Xie (C. Clarke lab), Anni Zhao (Eisenberg lab) 2011-12 – Timothy Anderson (Clubb lab), Soohong Kim (Weiss lab) 2010-11 – Zeynep Durer (Reiser lab), Cecilia Zurita-Lopez (S. Clarke lab) 2009-10 – Luki Goldschmidt (Eisenberg lab), Kristofer Webb (S. Clarke lab), Sheng Yin (Loo lab) 2008-09 – Nathan Joh (Bowie lab), Neil King (Yeates lab) Photos courtesy of Helen Houldsworth, the Molecular Biology Institute.
John Wallace named director of Penn State Regenerative Agriculture Center
John Wallace, associate professor of weed science in Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences, has been named director of the Penn State Regenerative Agriculture Center to help guide research and collaboration aimed at advancing regenerative farming practices across Pennsylvania.
The Foundation celebrates a decade of building community through sports in Denver
The social sports school that the Real Madrid Foundation operates in Denver (Colorado) in collaboration with Colorado United Soccer Club held its...
Science Begins With Wonder and Sometimes With a Salamander.
The Bar Harbor Story is generously sponsored by the Don & Beth Straus Center at Birch Bay Village. BAR HARBOR—The children had come to see the axolotls, those odd little salamanders with pink frills around their heads and the remarkable ability to grow back what they lose. But also there were stickers. There were crafts. There was the kind of excitement that makes a roomful of kindergarteners forget, for a little while, that sitting still is ever a requirement. And then there were the animals themselves, alive in their clear cases at the MDI Biological Laboratory, where 12 children from Pemetic Elementary School got to meet the creatures they had been learning about in class. “Do you love them?” their teacher, Carol Null, asked. The answer came back in a chorus. “I do!” “I do!” “I do too,” Null said, smiling. “I love them even more now.” That was the thing about a day at the lab. Science was no longer a picture in a book, or a word on a classroom wall. It had a face, a tail, and a set of extraordinary powers. And for a child, sometimes that is where wonder begins. Sometimes learning about science is about stickers. Sometimes it’s about bright pink feathers and getting super excited about that glow in the dark. Sometimes learning about science is joy—pure and simple joy. That’s how it was October 28 at the MDI Bio Lab as Miss Hannah (known in the lab as Dr. Hannah Lust, director of STEM, undergraduate and graduate Training), other scientists, graduate students, and MDI Bio Lab staff, hosted 12 students from Carol Null’s Pemetic Elementary School’s kindergarten class. The 2.5-hour program created by Dr. Lust focused on axolotls, a species of mole salamanders, a superhero in the animal world: a superhero with some scientific-study worthy superpowers. One of those superpowers come from the axolotls’ ability to regenerate body parts, including entire limbs. But also, they’re cute. This fall, before coming to the internationally renowned lab nestled in Salsbury Cove, Null has been integrating axolotls into her class. They’ve been part of the kids’ vocabulary and their storytelling. They’ve been part of science. They’ve been part of the children’s learning about facts vs opinions. The Pemetic Elementary kindergarten students learn about invasive species and the impact on the ecology and one student related it to their dad, who lobsters, and his worries about green craps, an invasive species in Maine. “Are they bigger or smaller than you thought they’d be?” the children are asked after the scientists show them multiple see-through cases of axolotls, lined up on a table that they’re told not to jiggle. “Bigger!” “I think they’re bigger.” “Smaller!” The bio lab opening its doors to the collaborations and to students and families is a norm, but this is the first program of this kind. It’s meant to encourage kindergarten students about axolotls. But when the students come to the bio lab something else happens too—something beyond Null’s child-focused teaching—the students see science—and the regenerating creatures in real life. They do crafts. They speak with them. They meet people who know all about them: scientists and educators who talk to the kids like they’re equals. That’s a superhero power, too. Null speaks about meeting the kids where they’re at in her classroom, letting their interest and hearts lead her in their learning. That requires recognition of interests, of individuality, of empathy. Some would argue that’s a super power, too, but it’s also in those 12 students as they listen to the storybook, encounter those live axolotls, and hear about how axolotls might help advance society’s understanding of human health. As Eddie Seckeler (comparative animal models, CORE facility manager), carefully puts the axolotls on a cart and rolls them away, some of the children stop what they’re doing to watch. “Bye axolotls.” “Bye!” “Bye!” The axolotls are not just images in a book, Hello, I’m an axolotl by Hayley and John Rocco; they are real and cool. MDI Biological Laboratory scientists Dr. Prayag Murawala and Dr. James Godwin who both feature in the Roccos’ book. The kindergarteners get to meet them in real life, off the page, in the world, doing science. They learn from them, laugh with them. “The visit is about more than meeting an unusual animal. By introducing children to scientists working in their own community, the experience helps make science tangible and accessible. Students can see that science is not just something they read about in books or learn about at school. It is something real people do every day by asking questions, making observations and working to understand how the world works,” explains MDI Biological Laboratory Director of Communications Rebecca Woods. While the students make axolotl-related crafts around tables, graduate students and staff help out. Ryan holds up his construction paper setting and axolotl to show Omar Maged, a graduate student. “Do you like it?” Ryan asks, eyes wide, turning from his axolotl to look up at Omar. Omar studies the construction paper for a moment, smiles and says definitively, each word important. “It is beautiful.” Null says that she’s so thankful for all the “amazing” community partners that her school and her students get to interact with as they learn and grow and live, but emphasized how the MDI Bio Lab goes out of its way to create something meaningful, something that allows her young students to build their own agency, to know that they can be impactful in their community, to show them how how things they learn about in text is connected to themselves and their community. Woods explains, “Axolotls have an extraordinary ability to regenerate, or regrow, certain body parts, including limbs. Scientists study these animals to understand how regeneration works and what their biology might teach us about tissue repair and healing in humans.” The children enter the space for “a memorable introduction to a big scientific question,” Woods said. “How can some animals regrow body parts? The encounter encourages children to look closely, wonder about what they see and begin to understand how scientists use observations and experiments to investigate questions.” “For the students, the visit is an opportunity to explore a fascinating animal and meet scientists in their own community,” Woods explains. “For MDI Biological Laboratory, it is a chance to share the excitement of research, nurture curiosity, and help young learners discover that science begins with asking questions.“ At the beginning of the school year, Pemetic kindergarteners didn’t know what the axolotl was—at least not exactly—now they know all about the axolotl’s life cycle. “It’s different than a butterfly,” one student told Mrs. Null. It is. The change and knowledge might seem small**,** but it offers a glimpse of what happens when a subject moves beyond the pages of a book and into a child’s world. The children have been learning about butterflies at the Charlotte Rhoades Park and Butterfly Garden. At both the garden and the MDI Bio Lab, the children see the animals, meet the scientists who study them and at the lab encounter a question that researchers are still working to answer: how can some creatures regenerate body parts, and what might that teach us about healing in humans? They leave with gift bags, paper-plate salamanders, new things to wonder about and a connection between the science they learn in school and the work happening in their own community. The axolotls may be remarkable for their ability to grow back what they have lost. For these young students, the day offers something different: a chance to discover how much there is to ask, observe, and imagine. When Null’s students had time to use chalk and draw whatever they want, in the beginning of the year, they drew rainbows. Now? They’re using that chalk and choosing to draw axolotls instead. About MDI Bio Laboratory For more than 125 years, MDI Bio Lab has been a center for training and research in comparative biology. In the last two decades its biomedical research has focused on aging, regeneration, and environmental toxins. The Laboratory houses 11 research groups staffed by an international team of world-class scientists and graduate students. It also leads a statewide network of colleges, universities and research institutions that collaborate to provide training, research experiences and financial support to help young Mainers play a bigger role in today’s biomedical revolution. Located on Maine’s rugged coast, the Laboratory’s 100+ acre campus houses research facilities, cottages and dorms that house visiting scientists and students. It is also home to MDI Bioscience, a subsidiary working to design innovative techniques to speed the drug discovery process. The Bar Harbor Story is generously sponsored by Rick Osann Art. LINKS TO LEARN MORE NIH INBRE MDI BIOLOGICAL LABORATORY Pemetic Elementary School Hello, I’m an Axolotl Photos: Carrie Jones/Bar Harbor Story HELP SUPPORT THE BAR HARBOR STORY When we started The Bar Harbor Story, we didn’t know if anyone would read it. But you showed up. You shared. You sent tips. Now—over 400,000 views every month later—it’s clear: people here care about their community and each other. We’ve kept everything free because news should never be out of reach, but every one of our stories takes time to write, and your support keeps The Bar Harbor Story going. If you value our work, please consider a paid subscription, a founding membership, or a sponsorship. It truly helps us cover one more meeting, tell one more story, shine one more light. Even $5 a month makes a difference. Click here to become a one-time supporter now. Thank you so much for being here. Founding member information can be found here. Have questions about sponsorships? Just send Shaun an email at sfarrar86@gmail.com, he’d love to hear from you. Subscribe Share Bar Harbor Story Share Leave a comment
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