Ann Gibbons

correspondent for Science/author who writes about evolution

[Dylan Byers @DylanByers]

New statement from Scott Pelley:

There has never been anything in America like 60 Minutes.

The Sunday tradition is the most successful program of any kind in history. For more than a decade, its innovative growth on every major online platform has extended its reach to countless millions around the world. This spring, at the end of our 58thseason, 60 Minutes grew rapidly with an unheard-of 9% jump in viewers on CBS.

“60” has been the number-one program in America for decades because our beloved audience finds integrity, quality, and humanity in our stories. When stewardship of the program passed to my colleagues and me, our responsibility was to expand energetically into a new age of media technology while preserving the values our audience expects. Now, the new owner of our network is casting this legend aside, apparently to curry a moment of favor with the Trump administration.

The waste is heartbreaking.

Last month, 60 Minutes lost its DNA when our entire senior leadership and two of our best on-air correspondents were cruelly fired without cause. Good people were silenced because they stood up for our audience. They stood for fairness against the forces of political bias; they stood for professionalism against chaos.

For my part, new management has instructed me to inject falsehoods and bias into a politically sensitive story. I’ve been told to include assertions that are unverified. To date, in every case, I have managed to ignore these instructions or refuse them. Recently, politicians have been invited to choose correspondents for interviews on the broadcast. Giving politicians control over 60 Minutes interviews is not how this is done. Finally, incompetence and unprofessionalism in the new management have wreaked havoc. In a case involving one of my stories, the entire program came within 19 minutes of not getting on the air at all.

At 60 Minutes, we have fought harder than anyone knows to save the program that became an American icon. We owed that to our millions of viewers. I am deeply moved by the thousands of wishes we have received to “keep up the good fight.” Most of the men and women of CBS News are still in that fight. But now the collapse of values at the top has become untenable. The leadership of 60 Minutes is no longer recognizable. The principles I hold dear are gone, and so I must leave as well.

I depart after 37 years at CBS with one emotion—a heart brimming with gratitude for the men and women of CBS News who encouraged and enriched my work, very often at the risk of their own lives. I pray for a day when those people and their ideals are honored again—a day when sanity, competence, and courage return.

Scott Pelley

[Ann Gibbons @evolutionscribe]

Another red alert for American science | Science https://t.co/B3wriSYoPI

[Ann Gibbons @evolutionscribe]

Vaccines work. This is unnecessary suffering and death.
Hospitals See Diseases Resurge as Vaccinations Decline https://t.co/x8WW1IRsRs via @NYTimes

[Ann Gibbons @evolutionscribe]

Can fast, nimble clinical trials deliver a drug for the new Ebola outbreak? | Science | AAAS https://t.co/doRSMLyAZ5

[Ann Gibbons @evolutionscribe]

Bronze Age loom weaves a tale of ancient textiles | Science | AAAS https://t.co/Zj5W35JKoL

[Ann Gibbons @evolutionscribe]

The scale is shocking: A series of graphics reveals how the Trump administration has sought historic cuts to science and the research workforce. https://t.co/dERvI3Nhsp

[Ann Gibbons @evolutionscribe]

NIH research grant funding rates plummeted in 2025 | Science | AAAS https://t.co/kllWlGhudP

[Ann Gibbons @evolutionscribe]

These losses in PhDs represents 14% of the total number of Ph.D.s in science, technology, engineering, and math or health fields employed at the end of 2024U.S. government has lost more than 10,000 STEM Ph.D.s since Trump took office | Science | AAAS https://t.co/z0t6DolKAx

[Ann Gibbons @evolutionscribe]

My story on an incredibly rare partial skeleton of an iconic human relative: The earliest Homo species did not look human, partial skeleton shows | Science | AAAS https://t.co/LRERO8ajI5

[Ann Gibbons @evolutionscribe]

My colleague Jon Cohen writes: The Trump administration says some approved childhood vaccines need better studies. Scientists disagree | Science | AAAS https://t.co/SeAWUby2TT

[Ann Gibbons @evolutionscribe]

This is sad news.
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette to shut down https://t.co/5mCb8yYd5z

[Ann Gibbons @evolutionscribe]

14 of NIH’s 27 institutes and centers now lack a permanent leader.

of neuroscience institute chief adds to NIH’s leadership vacuum | Science | AAAS https://t.co/d3DgUiFKYV

[Ann Gibbons @evolutionscribe]

Two ancient humans, including famed ‘Iceman,’ had cancer-causing virus | Science | AAAS https://t.co/vPcoDc8EZd

[Ann Gibbons @evolutionscribe]

My fundraiser got some press! Lea is too kind to me— this is such important public health research to me sets finding.
Fundraiser for epidemiologist focused on ticks https://t.co/9gwXcGixzG via @TheMVTimes

[Ann Gibbons @evolutionscribe]

I write about how new fossils form Ethiopia are helping solidify the identity of a mysterious hominin that lived 3.4 million years ago: A puzzling, 3.4-million-year-old fossil foot belonged to a contemporary of the famed Lucy | Science | AAAS https://t.co/yLwI07hZn3

[Ann Gibbons @evolutionscribe]

Lea Hamner is the only epidimiologist studying tick-borne diseases on Martha's Vineyard, but her funding was cut. Her research is essential to combat this growing threat on the Island, which is an epicenter for these diseases, and beyond.. https://t.co/IuCI9imLKB

[Ann Gibbons @evolutionscribe]

And Neanderthals didn’t even drink protein powder! A fascinating story by my colleague Mike Price: Did lead poisoning doom Neanderthals? | Science | AAAS https://t.co/136adOYK9O

[Science Magazine @ScienceMagazine]

In the more than 20 years since the term “microplastics” was first coined, a rapidly growing body of research has consistently shown how pervasive and problematic the pollutants have become.

A 2024 #ScienceReview provides an overview of this research and the progress made in understanding #microplastics. https://t.co/B2DVGXrCK9 #ScienceMagArchives

[Ann Gibbons @evolutionscribe]

I write about a beautiful fossil hand skeleton from an ancient relative of ours shows it had huge hands but also was probably adept with tools.

An ancient cousin to humans probably built tools with its huge hands | Science | AAAS https://t.co/Ars4WJ7ibX