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NIH is ending a key grant for budding clinical researchers

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Re: NIH is ending a key grant for budding clinical researchers

#81

Post by numpad0 »

b40d-48b2-979e wrote: post #48
numpad0 wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know this isn't HN type of a topic or a comment, but looking at US from outside, the theme looks to be explicitly destroying US hegemony and meritocracy... What I feel to be a common denominator for Trump, Thiel/Musk, and MAGA types, is that they are the people who "otherwise wouldn't have been chosen" for one reason or another. I've had stupidly engaged in a pointless argument with MAGA type people on some anonymo…

It was never a meritocracy. That's a lie to keep the workers in line.

Doesn't really matter. It works and keep this tall column of guys out. So probably not just workers. They don't like that. Call them narcs or psychos or autistic but I don't think the boring machine is catching too many of those guys.

Re: NIH is ending a key grant for budding clinical researchers

#82

Post by Bromeo »

talon8635 wrote: post #78
jmcgough wrote: post #10

We're seeing a generational loss of young talent that will be hard to reverse. PhD grads who would normally stay in the US after graduation are returning to their home countries. My American post-doc friends have had funding for cancer research, Alzheimer's research, Parkinson's disease; some have left the US, others are making plans to do so. And for what? Any money we "saved" by killing our research pipeline has al…

Your comment has an implication bigger than your point. Returning to their home countries… are there not American PHD at American university? Has the ratio of native to international shifted over the years? I’m being somewhat sarcastic, given I see an overwhelming representation of internationals in the American grad/phd programs I’m familiar with. But I honestly don’t have insight across every department. I’d be int…

Top stem grad programs at US universities have around 50% international students, with Stanford CS, for instance, as high as 68%. This is according to published university data and matches my own observation.

https://facts.mit.edu/enrollment-statistics/ https://hai.stanford.edu/assets/files/hai_ai-index-report-20...

Re: NIH is ending a key grant for budding clinical researchers

#83

Post by qsera »

999900000999 wrote: post #65
Nextgrid wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can anyone explain the reasoning behind it? I can understand (not saying I approve) targeted opposition to specific scientific claims to favor commercial interests (climate change denial to favor oil & gas, etc), but wouldn't a general anti-science movement make the country less competitive in the long run and directly hurt industries like pharma/etc?

Reality has a well known liberal bias. For example, the Security of War recently had a well produced video saying we're going to do anyway with vaccine mandates for the military. >Hegseth announced in late April that he was making the annual flu vaccine voluntary for service members "effective immediately." In a video posted to social media, Hegseth said requiring people to get vaccinated was "overly broad and not ra…

>Trying to understand conservative thought is to go into a bizarre twilight zone where vaccines cause autism

And to understand this thought is to go into the other twilight zone where "vaccine" is a single thing with a single composition with only a single set of properties and effects on the organism.

Re: NIH is ending a key grant for budding clinical researchers

#84

Post by a-french-anon »

oh_my_goodness wrote: post #4

Please understand that the goal of these policies is to weaken scientific research in the US. The people who push this stuff acknowledge openly that they oppose science, experts, and accurate information. This isn't a misunderstanding or a fumble.

Please, for your own sake and that of your ideals, don't fall into a Disney adult mentality of "these are bad guys who are clearly against Truth and Good^tm!" just because righteousness feels good. This falls under underestimating your enemy and never serves the people embracing said feeling.

Re: NIH is ending a key grant for budding clinical researchers

#85

Post by nielsbot »

SubiculumCode wrote: post #58
nielsbot wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm going to call it malice. Either way the people running the government now are the avowed enemies of functioning institutions. No need to give these freaks the benefit of the doubt. (See Russ Vought's comments about putting all government workers in trauma just for one and he's head of OMB.)

It's not the regulars at NIH. If anything they are pulling more unofficial overtime than ever before to try to compensate for what is coming from on top and what DOGE destroyed

Yes, I am not impugning the normal career staff--I mainly assume they're there for the opportunity to serve the public.

Re: NIH is ending a key grant for budding clinical researchers

#86

Post by tancop »

bonoboTP wrote: post #70
amelius wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To make it easier to push "alternative truths". I think the plan might be to reinstate science in some form after they have grabbed full control of the country.

"Alternative facts" vs "other ways of knowing". Great choices that America has. Objective science is off the table for both camps.

It's recognizing thats science is not the only valid form of knowledge vs pushing fringe theories that claim to be science but don't follow the expected standards.

The definition of pseudoscience is something that a) claims to use the scientific method and b) is not actually doing it properly. The "other ways of knowing" you talk about don't meet the first condition, but the right wing "alternative facts" do. Saying climate change is fake is a testable claim that contradicts mainstream science. Saying it's caused by spiritual corruption is not because anything supernatural is out of scope by definition.

Science limits itself to the predictable, testable, natural, objective (if you believe in that) parts of the universe because otherwise it would be useless. If the answer to any question can be "because God wanted it that way" then all theories end there. That doesn't mean science denying the existence of God, just indifferent to it and all other spiritual beliefs. A theory that depends on a religion being false would also not count as scientific.

"Other ways of knowing" is an expression used for indigenous knowledge with elements of both science and spiritual views. Nobody is saying that it's fully science or should be treated as such, just that we should respect it and treat it as equal. I don't see how that could be equivalent to anti vax conspiracies.

Re: NIH is ending a key grant for budding clinical researchers

#87

Post by nielsbot »

tokioyoyo wrote: post #12
nielsbot wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm going to call it malice. Either way the people running the government now are the avowed enemies of functioning institutions. No need to give these freaks the benefit of the doubt. (See Russ Vought's comments about putting all government workers in trauma just for one and he's head of OMB.)

From the outside, I can see how they want to revamp the institutions with hopes to accelerate timelines, and reduce waste. But it’s also funny because it’s not something that can be achieved in a span of 4 years and without long term goals/objectives/process changes/changing the pipelines/etc. I’ve mentioned it in the past as well, but everything that US has done in the past looks like as a knee-jerk reaction to Chin…

> From the outside, I can see how they want to revamp the institutions with hopes to accelerate timelines, and reduce waste.

That's just a cover story--don't be fooled.

Re: NIH is ending a key grant for budding clinical researchers

#88

Post by tancop »

fastaguy88 wrote: post #69
afpx wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They should be incentivizing researchers who have histories of publishing research that has been independently replicated. Way too much fraud going on that’s seeping into the real world.

There is a fixed (decreasing) budget for research. What should be the balance between repeating things that have already been done, and expanding knowledge?

Why is it decreasing when the economy is growing? That's the real question. Maybe it's something to do with austerity and wealth concentration in the hands of rich investors?

Re: NIH is ending a key grant for budding clinical researchers

#89

Post by afpx »

SubiculumCode wrote: post #56
afpx wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They should be incentivizing researchers who have histories of publishing research that has been independently replicated. Way too much fraud going on that’s seeping into the real world.

Frankly, this is a bit of an ignorant take. 1st, K-awards are specially meant to provide a funding path to support an early career scientist to continue in the field. Expecting that another team has already replicated the early work of a young scientist is not realistic. They are just starting out. 2nd. If you want replication, you got to fund replication. Researcher money doesn't appear out of nowhere, so make the d…

Why should the fruits of our labor be taken to pay for some rando’s job training? If they actually had any potential, they wouldn’t need job training and certainly wouldn’t need average people to pay for it.

I’ll think of the poor researchers once we get the homeless in my hometown of Pittsburgh down to zero. Currently, real people matter more to me.

Re: NIH is ending a key grant for budding clinical researchers

#90

Post by pvaldes »

Once is gone, is gone.

Scientists (and common people) should strike back and fund a political party in the next week of being fired. Or two, or five. If all your voting options lead to your death, create new options.

That, and only that, would send the correct message. A message than the current dinosaur politicians will hear. Every scientist fired and interviewed should casually mention the idea of thinking about creating a new party as the only way to solve this crisis.

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