Scott shares an open letter urging the NIH to spend $5 billion in allocated but unspent research funds before the fiscal year deadline. Longer summary

Scott Alexander shares an open letter to the NIH about unspent research funding. The letter, which he was asked to share by anonymous authors concerned about retaliation, urges NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya to follow through on his commitment to spend $5 billion in allocated funds before the fiscal year ends on September 30th. The letter emphasizes the bipartisan support for NIH funding, the economic returns on research investment, and the importance of keeping pace with China's increasing research spending. Shorter summary

Scott Alexander reviews the EA Hotel, a project offering free accommodation to effective altruists in Blackpool, England, discussing its potential benefits and challenges. Longer summary

Scott Alexander reviews the EA Hotel, a project in Blackpool, England, offering free accommodation to effective altruists working on research projects. The hotel, purchased by Greg Colbourn, aims to provide a low-cost living environment for EA researchers, away from expensive cities like San Francisco. The post discusses the potential benefits of this model, including cost-effectiveness, community building, and freedom from financial pressures. It also addresses potential challenges such as vetting residents and maintaining productivity. Scott finds the project endearing and sees it as a possible model for a future with basic income, allowing people to live modestly while pursuing meaningful work in aligned communities. Shorter summary

Scott criticizes a NYT article on sugar industry influence, arguing that such bias is common across food industries and doesn't justify completely reversing nutritional advice. Longer summary

Scott Alexander critiques the New York Times article about sugar industry influence on nutrition research. He argues that while the sugar industry did sponsor biased research, this is common practice across all food industries, including the dairy and meat industries which promote pro-fat research. He suggests that the NYT article overstates the significance of this one instance of sugar industry influence, and that nutrition science has been shaped by an ongoing 'war' between various food industry lobbies. The post cautions against overcorrecting based on this single revelation and emphasizes the complexity of nutrition research and its funding. Shorter summary

Scott Alexander proposes a utopian scientific system using prediction markets and impartial researchers to eliminate bias and efficiently resolve controversies. Longer summary

Scott Alexander describes a utopian scientific system in the fictional culture of Raikoth. In this system, anyone can do exploratory research, but confirmatory experiments are funded through prediction markets and conducted by impartial consultant scientists. The system includes pre-registration of experiments, public statements of predictions by experts, and financial incentives for accurate predictions. This approach aims to eliminate bias, increase transparency, and efficiently resolve scientific controversies. The post ends by highlighting the benefits of such a system, including the elimination of pseudoscience and the creation of a comprehensive, dynamic list of scientific hypotheses and their probabilities. Shorter summary