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U.S. science is in chaos

scientificamerican.com

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Re: U.S. science is in chaos

#381

Post by lopsotronic »

0xbadcafebee wrote: post #296
Schlagbohrer wrote: post #33

My friends from grad school who went on to become professors tell me that not only did their grant funding dry up, but they were unable to follow through on hiring many of the grad students they had planned to hire, since the students came from foreign countries and faced new visa restrictions. So the money for science is gone, the people to do to the science are gone, and the institutions continue to not support the…

Americans voted to bring the country back to the 1950's and the plan is working perfectly

The retrogression perception is correct; but the specific timeframe is so incorrect that the back of my head blew out like a pinata.

The goal is - and I am not picking on the reactionary wing alone, this impulse has broad support across our ideologies - de-industrialization. The complexity of post-Enlightenment civilization is being rejected, in favor of some hypothetical state. This puts the past timeframe as far back as the 17th century.

But not a "real" past. No one can recreate the past. Only their idea of the past.

And of course, when you "create" anything, too much and too quickly, you risk systemic collapse. Not a problem if you imagine you will be Immortan Joeing around in your Death Wagon, but odds are, I'm sorry to say, against it.

Re: U.S. science is in chaos

#382

Post by nine_k »

analog31 wrote: post #181
changoplatanero wrote: post #10

I would have supported reforming the way science is funded in the US, but the way republicans did it is far worse than if they had done nothing at all.

What's a better way, that's not the Chinese way? What I mean is more centralized oversight over research priorities, metric-driven rewards, and preference for political favorites?

What made places like Bell Labs, Xerox PARC, IBM Research, etc thrive? What happened to that mechanism, and can we have it back?

Re: U.S. science is in chaos

#384

Post by WarmWash »

simojo wrote: post #360
ArmadilloGang wrote: post #337

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My family is looking at Missouri to Spain. Why Spain: Expat communities, cost of living, friendly visa options, beautiful climate. Why leave: Sick of U.S. politics and the way it directly and indirectly affects us and how difficult it is to escape from it - it’s a major point of conversations with family and friends, it’s on the local radio, local subreddit, local social media pages, etc. Also, I have over $7k in per…

From what I understand, Spain has their own set of politics worth losing sleep over; perhaps as an expat you won't be as attached though.

Apart from being the nexus of the current hot button issue - immigrants and housing costs.

Re: U.S. science is in chaos

#385

Post by jyounker »

MemoryHoleHQ wrote: post #111
ModernMech wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The grants should go the best proposals, not to those with the proper genitalia, melanin content of the skin, and correct religion of those applying. I'm confused. At least at the NSF, about 60-70% of their awards go to white men. Are those the appalling discriminatory practices, or what do you mean?

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Re: U.S. science is in chaos

#386

Post by kjkjadksj »

drak0n1c wrote: post #352
dwa3592 wrote: post #307

My wife operates an optical trap (a sophisticated microscope, she uses it for studying gene/dna physical properties) and she's pretty good at working with that instrument. The number of people good at working that microscope are in the ballpark of 2000 (+- 1000) in the world! She has cried a lot in the last one year for the mess science research has become. We are moving out of the country at the end of August.

There are many biotech startups and private research labs thriving and paying high salaries with excellent benefits for that specialty right now - focused on genetic testing, editing, and longevity. Before moving abroad, widening the search outside of academia and considering moving internally might be worthwhile.

You are a fool if you think these companies are hiring enough to meet the labor needs. So many Phds I know are looking for work and yes they’ve applied to probably 500 jobs mostly in industry.

Re: U.S. science is in chaos

#387

Post by mike_bob »

ck2 wrote: post #311

and it's 100% Russell Vought most people know who Stephen Miller is but the real monster is Russell Vought Heritage Foundation's #1 enforcer, the destruction of science and academia is their top 10 If Vance somehow gets the reigns and/or 2028 it will be even worse because Vought will get even more power/control * https://www.propublica.org/article/russ-vought-trump-shadow-... * https://www.propublica.org/article/vide…

It's 100% christian evangelicals (bible fundamentalists) that inserted themselves into the republican party after the counter-culture movement of the 60s. They hate freedom and liberty, full stop.

Re: U.S. science is in chaos

#388

Post by [deleted] »

0xbadcafebee wrote: post #296
Schlagbohrer wrote: post #33

My friends from grad school who went on to become professors tell me that not only did their grant funding dry up, but they were unable to follow through on hiring many of the grad students they had planned to hire, since the students came from foreign countries and faced new visa restrictions. So the money for science is gone, the people to do to the science are gone, and the institutions continue to not support the…

Americans voted to bring the country back to the 1950's and the plan is working perfectly

[deleted]

Re: U.S. science is in chaos

#389

Post by wredcoll »

bxk76 wrote: post #159
kranke155 wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is absolutely a Chinese century. Even the comment above isn’t wrong per se - great power competition is normal during the interregnum, ie as Arrighi described it - one hegemon is rising while another is declining. But eventually one of them does rise and the world conforms to that - ie America in post WW2.

Well China cant seem to make a single friend beyond North Korea and Russia. Everyone is a bit wary of them. I mean when the US replaced the Brits as Hegemon a large part of the world wasnt nervous about it.

God, this is depressing.

I think it's difficult, if you're a millenial/zoomer/whatever we're calling these things, to understand just how much of the world genuinely liked and respected and wanted america involved in their local affairs.

America obviously wasn't perfect and many, many more people than trump were involved with squandering all of this goodwill, but we still had some left over before he showed up.

Re: U.S. science is in chaos

#390

Post by wredcoll »

Covzire wrote: post #323

The article buried the lede. DEI was the bridge too far that lit a massive tinderbox among the electorate who wanted the vast majority of what happened with DOGE, to happen. DEI was the appetizer, and once the teeth starting biting it found a lot more than anticipated (USAID). The lesson is that real scientists should have stood up en masse to the political commandeering of their institutions by fringe activists pedd…

> The lesson is that real scientists should have stood up en masse to the political commandeering of their institutions by fringe activists peddling pseudoscience and this would have been avoided.

Yeah, if only they had tried to appease the fascists harder and earlier. Thanks Nigel.

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