Uploaded June 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya says American science needs a second scientific revolution. As a scientist trained on publicly funded research funda, I think his essay gets the diagnosis half right and the prescription wrong.
In this video I work through Bhattacharya's Imprimis essay, "Launching a Second Scientific Revolution," point by point. I cover what he gets right about peer review, replication funding, and supporting young scientists, and where the argument oversells the evidence, including a misleading take on egg nutrition research and the assumption that bleeding-edge ideas are automatically better than mature science. I also look at what's actually happening at NIH right now: thousands of terminated grants, stalled funding, and a fight over indirect costs the essay doesn't fully reckon with. I close with my own version of what a more disciplined reform agenda for NIH could look like.
Chapters
0:00 Introduction: stepping outside my usual lane
2:08 The danger in an overdrawn narrative
4:06 What Bhattacharya gets right
8:27 Where the evidence doesn't hold up
14:26 What real reproducibility reform looks like
16:33 Bleeding-edge science vs. good science
18:55 Why basic science gets undervalued
20:38 The fight over indirect costs and infrastructure
25:34 A better reform agenda for NIH
28:09 Conclusion: humility cuts both ways
Link to Dr. Bhattacharya's article in Imprimis: https://imprimis.hillsdale.edu/launching-a-second-scientific-revolution/
Blog post version of my video: thenaturalhistorian.com/2026/06/22/gold-standard-science-requires-more-than-crisis-rhetoric
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Joel Duff (aka Dr. Duff or The Natural Historian) resources:
About: joelduff.org
Blog: thenaturalhistorian.com
Twitter: twitter.com/NaturalHistoria
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thenaturalhi...
Photography "Portraits of Creation:" beechnutphotography.com
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NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya says American science needs a second scientific revolution. As a scientist trained on publicly funded research funda, I think his essay gets the diagnosis half right and the prescription wrong.
In this video I work through Bhattacharya's Imprimis essay, "Launching a Second Scientific Revolution," point by point. I cover what he gets right about peer review, replication funding, and supporting young scientists, and where the argument oversells the evidence, including a misleading take on egg nutrition research and the assumption that bleeding-edge ideas are automatically better than mature science. I also look at what's actually happening at NIH right now: thousands of terminated grants, stalled funding, and a fight over indirect costs the essay doesn't fully reckon with. I close with my own version of what a more disciplined reform agenda for NIH could look like.
Chapters
0:00 Introduction: stepping outside my usual lane
2:08 The danger in an overdrawn narrative
4:06 What Bhattacharya gets right
8:27 Where the evidence doesn't hold up
14:26 What real reproducibility reform looks like
16:33 Bleeding-edge science vs. good science
18:55 Why basic science gets undervalued
20:38 The fight over indirect costs and infrastructure
25:34 A better reform agenda for NIH
28:09 Conclusion: humility cuts both ways
Link to Dr. Bhattacharya's article in Imprimis: https://imprimis.hillsdale.edu/launching-a-second-scientific-revolution/
Blog post version of my video: thenaturalhistorian.com/2026/06/22/gold-standard-science-requires-more-than-crisis-rhetoric
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Joel Duff (aka Dr. Duff or The Natural Historian) resources:
About: joelduff.org
Blog: thenaturalhistorian.com
Twitter: twitter.com/NaturalHistoria
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thenaturalhi...
Photography "Portraits of Creation:" beechnutphotography.com
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