The Download: DOGE’s influences, and rescuing federal data from deletion

1 The Trump administration is slashing billions in biomedical research funding 
The change, effective immediately, is sending shockwaves through academia. Expect lawsuits. (STAT $)
+ Scientists are also increasingly alarmed about the fact that federal health data is disappearing. (Undark)
+ A prominent US scientific society is facing a backlash from members after removing references to diversity on its website. (Nature)

2 Computing experts are seriously alarmed by DOGE’s behavior
The systems they’re tinkering with are immense, they are complex, and they are critical. (The Atlantic $)
+ Elon Musk, DOGE, and the Evil Housekeeper Problem. (MIT Technology Review)
+ A federal judge blocked DOGE from accessing Treasury records. (AP)
+ Secrecy is becoming one of DOGE’s defining traits. (NBC)

3 OpenAI’s agent can spend your money without your consent 
All the reviews of Operator seem to indicate it’s been launched way before it’s ready. (WP $)
+ Anthropic’s chief scientist on 4 ways agents will be even better in 2025. (MIT Technology Review)

4 There’s a growing measles outbreak in one of Texas’ least vaccinated counties
The saddest thing about this is how totally avoidable it is. (Ars Technica)
+ To tackle vaccine hesitancy, first we should measure it. (MIT Technology Review)

5 The US Transportation Department suspended its EV charger program
Tesla is one of its biggest beneficiaries, so Musk can’t be too thrilled about this. (Insider $) 

6 DeepMind’s AI can tackle math problems on a par with top human solvers
AlphaGeometry 2 can reportedly surpass the average gold medallist in the International Mathematical Olympiad. (Nature)
+ It’s a major step forward from even just one year ago. (MIT Technology Review) 

7 What DeepSeek’s success tells us about China’s AI talent
Its top researchers are just as educated as in the US. But they operate under huge constraints.  (NYT $)
+ How China stands to benefit from the US’s retreat from soft power. (New Yorker $)

8 Location-sharing is increasingly a deal-breaker in relationships
But is it really reducing people’s anxiety? Or is it fuelling it? (WSJ $)

9 Here’s an idea for how to make the Vision Pro even less appealing 
Add crocs! (The Verge)

10 Inside the fraught US-Soviet hunt for extraterrestrial life
Now that’s a frontier of the Cold War you don’t hear as much about. (New Yorker $) 

Quote of the day

“Red states have universities too.”

—An anonymous Trump official worries to the Washington Post about blowback after the sudden withdrawal of National Institutes of Health research funding.