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U.S. science is in chaos

scientificamerican.com

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Re: U.S. science is in chaos

#881

Post by Peaches4Rent »

opsnooperfax wrote: post #836
matsemann wrote: post #570

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder what discoveries that could've helped people are now pushed back years if not decades.

Given the reproducibility crisis and perverse incentives of the past several decades, it may be less significant than you think. There’s no philosopher stone that turns money into impactful research. Fewer people in it for the love of the game focused on fewer problems may actually be a good thing.

Booooo

Yeah just milk those suckers dry. Hope dare they try to do something good and ask to get paid

Re: U.S. science is in chaos

#882

Post by Peaches4Rent »

josephg wrote: post #816
xnx wrote: post #776

Earlier quoted context omitted.

American exceptionalism is regressing to the mean.

Strangely enough, america's tech sector is still exceptional on a global stage. I'm not entirely sure why. There's something magic that happens in the bay area as a result of funding and talent density. Its weird - I'm australian. We have the same caliber of software engineers here. But there's not the same ambition amongst skilled engineers to solve problems at the world stage. And its far more difficult to convince…

The reason is copyright law keeping the monopoly going

See https://doctorow.medium.com/https-pluralistic-net-2026-01-01...

Quote: ``` Anticircumvention law originates in the USA: Section 1201 of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 establishes a felony punishable by a five year prison sentence and a $500,000 fine for a first offense for bypassing an “access control” for a copyrighted work.

So practically speaking, if you design a device or service with even the flimsiest of systems to prevent modification of its application code or firmware, it’s a felony — a jailable felony — to modify that code or firmware. It’s also a felony to disclose information about how to bypass that access control, which means that pen-testers who even describe how they access a device or system face criminal liability.

```

Re: U.S. science is in chaos

#883

Post by ars »

joe_mamba wrote: post #867
plaidthunder wrote: post #572

Earlier quoted context omitted.

US citizen moves to Canada on a CUSMA visa: - 30-50% pay cut - points and lottery based immigration system that penalizes them for each year you age after 30 - frequent unfavorable rule changes - fear of being trapped forever on a temporary visa and eventually sent back to the USA, poorer than their peers who stayed stateside. Canadian citizen moves to us on equivalent CUSMA visa: - huge pay raise - retire back home…

>US citizen moves to Canada on a CUSMA visa: - 30-50% pay cut But what about "free healthcare". Don't americans want socialized healthcare over their despised privatized system? > - points and lottery based immigration system that penalizes them for each year you age after 30 Many countries with socialized healthcare do this. They only want young people and don't want older people who are a risk at becoming a burden…

> But what about "free healthcare". Don't americans want socialized healthcare over their despised privatized system?

Not really. The internet bubble might make you think that, but actually ordinary people aren't interested.

People with good jobs have health insurance, people without get government subsidized insurance. Either way most people are fine with what they have.

And the issues with healthcare in the US will not be solved by the government being the one to pay. Billing is too complex (i.e. costly), and Dr salaries are too high (compare them to other countries). Neither of those issues are solved by the government paying.

And don't forget how Americans hear stories from other countries about huge waits for care, and they want none of that.

There are zero proposals to make all Dr's employees of the government, on salary, who just take care of whoever shows up. But that might actually work to reduce costs.

Re: U.S. science is in chaos

#884

Post by platevoltage »

protocolture wrote: post #851
platevoltage wrote: post #778

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I live in a state where my vote for President basically doesn't count, so you can fuck right off with that.

Ok, so you think your responsibility ends with voting? You build and fund a giant death machine and "welp my vote for death machine leader doesn't count so nothing else can be done"?.

How about throwing a few direct action ideas my way. What should I be doing in your mind?

Re: U.S. science is in chaos

#885

Post by haberman »

skulk wrote: post #794
haberman wrote: post #676

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you can easily turn this around: scientists who are only willing to do science if it involves preferential treatment, DEI statements, and other practices that half of the country despises are saying that it's better to do no science at all than to set those divisive practices aside and just do science. Proponents of these policies want to have it both ways; they're at one moment just this small thing that nob…

This group of people you're describing ("scientists who are only willing to do science if it involves preferential treatment") is simply not real. The idea that academics would cling to DEI statements or refuse funding is beyond laughable, and could only be dreamt up by someone who has never experienced academia.

It happened directly at least once: https://www.science.org/content/article/u-s-college-first-de...

It happens indirectly all the time. As of 2025, despite all the funding cuts, the AAAS is still publishing its yearly DEI report, now rebranded as an "Inclusivity for Excellence Report", but containing all of the same stuff: an effort to collect and publish as much demographic data as possible, and a stated goal of getting all the numbers to go in the "right" direction. These practices are too ingrained and sacrosanct at this point to let a mere funding crisis throw them off course.

Re: U.S. science is in chaos

#886

Post by whatshisface »

rbtprograms wrote: post #855
jandrewrogers wrote: post #758

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The terms "expat" and "immigrant" are not synonyms. There is a material semantic distinction in American English. Most Americans that live overseas tend to be expats rather than immigrants. Those two terms don't convey the same meaning.

whatever makes Americans feel better about being immigrants or migrant workers is fine by me

Expats have to pay taxes in their home country. The US is very difficult to temporarily not be in.

Re: U.S. science is in chaos

#887

Post by protocolture »

platevoltage wrote: post #884
protocolture wrote: post #851

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ok, so you think your responsibility ends with voting? You build and fund a giant death machine and "welp my vote for death machine leader doesn't count so nothing else can be done"?.

How about throwing a few direct action ideas my way. What should I be doing in your mind?

No idea what the most heavily armed civilian population on the planet could possibly do about its tyrannical government?

We are approaching a situation where everyone else on the planet is going to have to do it for you. It would be much cleaner for everyone involved if you dealt with this before it got that far.

Re: U.S. science is in chaos

#888

Post by AnthonyMouse »

matsemann wrote: post #576
AnthonyMouse wrote: post #441

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's actually kind of a hard problem. There are tens of thousands of grants. Some of them are classified as "medicine" and study things like hormones, some are classified as "computer science" or "mathematics" and study things like statistical bias. Which of these are the "real science" ones (e.g. HRT in older people with menopause or low-T) and which are the partisan-coded ones (e.g. gender HRT)? Put aside whether o…

Just do as DOGE/Musk: ctrl+f for "diversity" and deny all grants. Even if it had nothing to do with "woke", for instance diversity in bacteria cultures or whatever...

That's the machete. Now present a way to do it properly.

Re: U.S. science is in chaos

#890

Post by kakacik »

wredcoll wrote: post #357
kakacik wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I see no controversy there, yes we should take some very strong action since we literally crap where we live and we only have 1 self-contained room for it all, the debate (not controversy) should be about which steps are most efficient, while not ruining the economy albeit some acceptable setback is probably unavoidable. So no to dumb fuckery EU did with biofuels (for which vast rainforests in ie Borneo had to be cut…

You're being downvoted, probably for being abrasive, but I agree with your overall point. When I was younger and more naive, this > "the debate (not controversy) should be about which steps are most efficient") i is what I thought (american) politics meant. When people talked about things being political or arguments related thereto, this is what I imagined happening. Then I grew older and saw it was mostly people wh…

Thank you, I don't care about some meaningless points here. Its often tough to be a critically thinking person in a crowd of folks who coast life deep in comfort zone who want quick convenient 'truths' and frequent dopamine kicks and couldn't care less about some higher or deeper concepts.
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