Excellent piece. I'm a producer of a new documentary, THE ENDLESS FRONTIER, an intimate, urgent portrait of three scientists working to solve some of the most pressing challenges of our time, from disease to climate change, while revealing the growing threat to the American research engine and what is at stake for all of us if it falters.
This pisses me off. Absolutely a prime example of the Golden Law of Stupidity. Fantastic article, Kristin. It reminds me of the kind of profoundly researched deep dive John Oliver and his team do in each episode of Last Week Tonight. They spotlight something vital that has gone overlooked because we’re all distracted in a million different directions yet force us to pay attention anyway. If I might make an uninvited suggestion - and borrow something John and his team do that helps to focus the rage they provoke - it would help me self-soothe (if nothing else) to know ways you can think of that we can all do something to change the trajectory of this issue. Obviously, it makes no sense for America to continue down the path of defunding science, but I don’t work for the government. What can a private citizen do to get us back on the right track?
Minor footnote: Terman never would have been able to do what he did for E.E. at Stanford during the 1950's without the backing of its President, Wallace Sterling, under whom Stanford aggressively recruited Ivy League faculty to relocate and backed the creation of the industrial park that sparked what became Silicon Valley. Before that, Stanford was not very selective--just expensive.
Trump's antipathy towards science goes back at least to Covid, when he could have taken credit for the development of the mRNA vaccine, but instead bought into the anti-mask, conspiracy theory crowd. As a result, there probably was close to a million excess deaths due to Covid. Stupid is what stupid does.
Yes, indeed! Right now, the reputation of the pharmaceutical industries has been completely destroyed by the ongoing COVID debacle, to just quote one example. Many areas of science need to be questioned; teach by rote, while refusing to allow new thinking to be applied to both physics and cosmology, are another example. The Western economic model has been shattered by gigantic funds investing in small numbers of classic monopolies caused by the introduction of the Financial Services Industry is another. Eventually Trump will be vindicated, by the creation of a classic wave of freedom to think anew; within new scientific support mediums that must now be created from the ashes of the existing failures. Leaving the existing science support structures in place is never the way to replace failure with success. Take a look at any successful change; it has to always start with the closure of the failed mechanisms that have taken the wrong road to success for far too long.
Thank you, Kristin, for such an incisive look at yet another area where this administration is doing real damage to America's traditional values and strengths. The madness has to stop, and it's through articles like this, shining light on the true dangers to our nation's world standing, that we can get our government back to supporting and spearheading scientific research that benefits us all.
Here is another take on this: "From the administration's perspective, agencies like the NSF represent an autonomous, unaccountable bureaucracy." Reining in the ballooning national debt through mechanisms like DOGE has been a priority. The current administration argues that "federal research dollars must be tightly controlled to eliminate partisan bias, maximize economic efficiency, and reallocate resources toward core national security priorities." For example, science that promotes a "woke" agenda, such as transgender experiements on lab animals or that is used to push DEI initiatives. In other words, ideologically driven social, behavioural and economic sciences. The other target was climate science, which has served to put regulatory brakes on the expansion of fossil fuel industries, perceived as inhibiting economic growth. You mention China, which is now the number one emitter of GHGs in the world, so apparently they have not seen fit to rein in their emissions. The perception of this administration and many of the public who voted for them is that the USA should not suffer economically and in terms of jobs, due to a bureaucratic regulatory system, while China surges ahead to become the dominant superpower. Lastly, government-funded science, especially NIH, got a very bad reputation from the way that Fauci appeared to misuse it to advance the profit margins of Big Pharma and to impose destructive social engineering on the American people in the form of unnecessary lockdowns and mandates that did more harm than good. Many in the public are justifiably skeptical of medical science after that. It seemed compromised and corrupt and untrustworthy. The so-called vaccines did not end the pandemic; it was the evolution of the relatively benign Omicron variant that did so. The Trump administration is not against science; it is against bureaucratic waste, ideology and factors that inhibit economic growth and jobs. It was voted in for that reason, to do the difficult job of reining in excessive government spending that's out of control. This spending takes many forms. For example, the NIH funded a lot of animal testing that violated the 3Rs and was wasteful, not to mention cruel. White Coat Waste Project raised objections to this, both for taxpayers and to stop animal cruelty, and was successful in reducing government funding for repetitive and unnecessary experiments in some cases. Fauci's cruel experiments on beagles were instrumental in bringing widespread attention to this issue.
Doesn't matter. 75 Major Health organizations including the ADA and AHA announced on October 15, 2025 that 70% of us are obese-- sick-- unhealthy-- decline disability and premature death. The MEDIA and the Gov. covered this up. Pretend it is only 40% so we can continue to buy wellness and distract ourselves until the number of wheelchairs are too obvious to ignore.
Excellent piece. I'm a producer of a new documentary, THE ENDLESS FRONTIER, an intimate, urgent portrait of three scientists working to solve some of the most pressing challenges of our time, from disease to climate change, while revealing the growing threat to the American research engine and what is at stake for all of us if it falters.
Here’s a link to the trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZ6sMhPDVZI
The film is premiering this Friday, June 12 at the DC/DOX film festival in Washington DC ( https://dcdoxfest.com/films/the-endless-frontier/ ). We’re also screening in NYC on Monday, June 15 at the New York Academy of Medicine ( https://support.nyam.org/event/the-endless-frontier-new-york-film-premiere/e797007 )
Scientists need our support!
- Elizabeth Westrate
This pisses me off. Absolutely a prime example of the Golden Law of Stupidity. Fantastic article, Kristin. It reminds me of the kind of profoundly researched deep dive John Oliver and his team do in each episode of Last Week Tonight. They spotlight something vital that has gone overlooked because we’re all distracted in a million different directions yet force us to pay attention anyway. If I might make an uninvited suggestion - and borrow something John and his team do that helps to focus the rage they provoke - it would help me self-soothe (if nothing else) to know ways you can think of that we can all do something to change the trajectory of this issue. Obviously, it makes no sense for America to continue down the path of defunding science, but I don’t work for the government. What can a private citizen do to get us back on the right track?
Please see an earlier article on this in 2017: https://www.weforum.org/stories/2018/04/united-states-manufacturing-innovation/
Minor footnote: Terman never would have been able to do what he did for E.E. at Stanford during the 1950's without the backing of its President, Wallace Sterling, under whom Stanford aggressively recruited Ivy League faculty to relocate and backed the creation of the industrial park that sparked what became Silicon Valley. Before that, Stanford was not very selective--just expensive.
Trump's antipathy towards science goes back at least to Covid, when he could have taken credit for the development of the mRNA vaccine, but instead bought into the anti-mask, conspiracy theory crowd. As a result, there probably was close to a million excess deaths due to Covid. Stupid is what stupid does.
Yes, indeed! Right now, the reputation of the pharmaceutical industries has been completely destroyed by the ongoing COVID debacle, to just quote one example. Many areas of science need to be questioned; teach by rote, while refusing to allow new thinking to be applied to both physics and cosmology, are another example. The Western economic model has been shattered by gigantic funds investing in small numbers of classic monopolies caused by the introduction of the Financial Services Industry is another. Eventually Trump will be vindicated, by the creation of a classic wave of freedom to think anew; within new scientific support mediums that must now be created from the ashes of the existing failures. Leaving the existing science support structures in place is never the way to replace failure with success. Take a look at any successful change; it has to always start with the closure of the failed mechanisms that have taken the wrong road to success for far too long.
Thank you, Kristin, for such an incisive look at yet another area where this administration is doing real damage to America's traditional values and strengths. The madness has to stop, and it's through articles like this, shining light on the true dangers to our nation's world standing, that we can get our government back to supporting and spearheading scientific research that benefits us all.
Here is another take on this: "From the administration's perspective, agencies like the NSF represent an autonomous, unaccountable bureaucracy." Reining in the ballooning national debt through mechanisms like DOGE has been a priority. The current administration argues that "federal research dollars must be tightly controlled to eliminate partisan bias, maximize economic efficiency, and reallocate resources toward core national security priorities." For example, science that promotes a "woke" agenda, such as transgender experiements on lab animals or that is used to push DEI initiatives. In other words, ideologically driven social, behavioural and economic sciences. The other target was climate science, which has served to put regulatory brakes on the expansion of fossil fuel industries, perceived as inhibiting economic growth. You mention China, which is now the number one emitter of GHGs in the world, so apparently they have not seen fit to rein in their emissions. The perception of this administration and many of the public who voted for them is that the USA should not suffer economically and in terms of jobs, due to a bureaucratic regulatory system, while China surges ahead to become the dominant superpower. Lastly, government-funded science, especially NIH, got a very bad reputation from the way that Fauci appeared to misuse it to advance the profit margins of Big Pharma and to impose destructive social engineering on the American people in the form of unnecessary lockdowns and mandates that did more harm than good. Many in the public are justifiably skeptical of medical science after that. It seemed compromised and corrupt and untrustworthy. The so-called vaccines did not end the pandemic; it was the evolution of the relatively benign Omicron variant that did so. The Trump administration is not against science; it is against bureaucratic waste, ideology and factors that inhibit economic growth and jobs. It was voted in for that reason, to do the difficult job of reining in excessive government spending that's out of control. This spending takes many forms. For example, the NIH funded a lot of animal testing that violated the 3Rs and was wasteful, not to mention cruel. White Coat Waste Project raised objections to this, both for taxpayers and to stop animal cruelty, and was successful in reducing government funding for repetitive and unnecessary experiments in some cases. Fauci's cruel experiments on beagles were instrumental in bringing widespread attention to this issue.
Great article. It would be great to know the impact on PhD programs and post-doc funding.
Doesn't matter. 75 Major Health organizations including the ADA and AHA announced on October 15, 2025 that 70% of us are obese-- sick-- unhealthy-- decline disability and premature death. The MEDIA and the Gov. covered this up. Pretend it is only 40% so we can continue to buy wellness and distract ourselves until the number of wheelchairs are too obvious to ignore.
www.80bites.com/wellville
Sharing this everywhere.