U.S. Science Is in Chaos

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/americas-compact-between-science-and-politics-is-broken/

#HackerNews #USScience #ChaosPolitics #ScienceNews #ScientificAmerican

Unsurprising but still awful to see literal AI slop as policy that forces AI into every sentence of the ruin that is US science policy now after DOGE and this admin destroyed the NSF and other agencies.

https://youtu.be/p6Ejmhwb8Sc

from @acollierastro

#USPol #USScience #Science #AISlop #AI

It is a common reflection as changes are introduced that what has taken a hundred years to develop can be torn down in hours and may never be recovered. What are Congress and the Senate thinking (I won’t speculate on the voting public who seem content to sink into a feudal, witchcraft dominated future where health, shelter and food are no longer taken for granted by the majority)?

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/entire-nsf-science-advisory-board-fired-by-trump-administration/

#USScience #NSF #BarbariansThroughTheGates #Ignorance #NoBreadJustCircuses #Science

US scientists - your federal government is lost. Set up your own independent structures to help maintain a free society.

https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aea9328

#USFederalGovernment #USgov #USscience #ScienceUnderAttack #IndependentScience #ScienceAdvice #SciPol #USSciencePolicy #OpenSociety #OpenInfrastructure

Americans will be interested to hear BBC R4 this morning talking about mRNA and RFKjr new US dept of health policies. Anne Willis (Cambridge uni) refers to mRNA as transformative tech, saving countless lives. Various fact checking is covered.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002gr01

Also recommends White Coats v White House documentary with Roland Pease
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w3ct81nr

These shows are accessible using a VPN.

#bbc #academia #academicchatter #mrnavaccines #usscience

"Fear and loathing on study section: Reviewing grant proposals while the system is burning"
https://www.thetransmitter.org/craft-and-careers/fear-and-loathing-on-study-section-reviewing-grant-proposals-while-the-system-is-burning/

#TheTransmitter #USScience #USScienceCut #NIH

"This lung-on-a-chip serves as an accurate model of human lungs to test for drug safety and efficacy." 😂🙄

Context: the now-corrupted NIH plans to stop funding all non-human animal research. Not just for drug testing (for which it is obviously still necessary, unless they don't plan to develop any new drugs?) but seemingly also for fundamental research.
Source: https://nihrecord.nih.gov/2025/07/04/nih-prioritize-human-based-research-technologies#:~:text=NIH%20is%20adopting%20a%20new,to%20reduce%20testing%20in%20animals

More recent source that @susanleemburg already shared on here: https://www.drugdiscoverytrends.com/nih-announces-end-to-funding-for-animal-only-studies/

However, the NIH apparently cannot change policy without a minimum consultation period from the public first, so anyone can comment about this proposition here: https://www.fda.gov/news-events/fda-meetings-conferences-and-workshops/fda-nih-workshop-reducing-animal-testing-07072025

They tried to remove the comment box, but people complained about this so it is back now. Will anyone look at the comments? Who knows..

#UsScience #USResearch

There's a lot of framing of the anticipated exodus of US scientists as "a great opportunity for Ireland, Europe, etc" which I find deeply problematic. It is not a zero-sum game where one party's gains balance another's losses, but a global tragedy for science and scholarship. Better to think of it in terms of offering some refuge to academics under threat. Also please don't forget the humanities.

#AcademicFreedom #USscience

The US administration is coming for #ScientificJournals now.. I don't have access to the full article, and it's in French, but several journals have received a "questioning" mail from the Columbia district state attorney, and two journals have suspended submissions (Environmental Health Perspectives (EHP) and the Journal of Health and Pollution (JHP)) citing federal funding cuts.

L’administration Trump s’attaque aux revues savantes

Next step: destroying published papers? We should all probably archive as much of the scientific literature as we can before it's too late..

Here's another source in English:
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/29/science/science-journal-environment-trump.html

#USScience #AcademicJournals #Academia