OUR PICKS: ASSAULT ON SCIENCEMAGA’s Assault on Science Is an Act of Grievous Self-Harm, and more
· MAGA’s Assault on Science Is an Act of Grievous Self-Harm
· Trump Has Cut Science Funding to Its Lowest Level in Decades
· Trump’s Attack on Science Is Growing Fiercer and More Indiscriminate
· America Is in Danger of Experiencing an Academic Brain Drain
· How Cuts to Science Funding Will Hurt Ordinary Americans
MAGA’s Assault on Science Is an Act of Grievous Self-Harm (Economist)
America will pay the price most of all.
The attacks have been fast and furious. In a matter of months the Trump administration has cancelled thousands of research grants and withheld billions of dollars from scientists. Projects at Harvard and Columbia, among the world’s best universities, have been abruptly cut off. A proposed budget measure would slash as much as 50% from America’s main research-funding bodies. Because America’s technological and scientific prowess is world-beating, the country has long been a magnet for talent. Now some of the world’s brightest minds are anxiously looking for the exit.
At the beginning of the 20th century there was no branch of science in which Uncle Sam led the world. At the century’s end there was none where it did not. America’s triumphs—its economic prowess, and its technological and military might—were interwoven with that scientific success. As America pulls back, it will cede ground to authoritarian China as a scientific superpower, with all the benefits that confers. MAGA assault on science is not just about DEI, nor is it about universities. It is first and foremost an act of self-harm.
Trump’s Attack on Science Is Growing Fiercer and More Indiscriminate (Economist)
It started as a crackdown on DEI. Now all types of research are being cancelled.
America Is in Danger of Experiencing an Academic Brain Drain (Economist)
Other countries may benefit. Science will suffer.
How Cuts to Science Funding Will Hurt Ordinary Americans (Economist)
Federal agencies are struggling to predict the weather and monitor disease.
Trump Has Cut Science Funding to Its Lowest Level in Decades (Aatish Bhatia, Irineo Cabreros, Asmaa Elkeurti and Ethan Singer, New York Times)
The National Science Foundation, which funds much of the fundamental scientific research at American universities, is awarding new grants at the slowest pace in at least 35 years.
The funding decreases touch virtually every area of science — extending far beyond the diversity programs and other “woke” targets that the Trump administration says it wants to cut.
