[deleted]
American science to soon face its largest brain drain in history
31–40 of 129 posts
Re: American science to soon face its largest brain drain in history
#32Are institutions elsewhere massively increasing funding and positions? Aren't all the non-bankruptible tuition fees providing plenty of funding already? Where's that money going? The football team?
The gov't here in Norway put $10 million on the table[1] for 2026 as a response to what's going on in the US. Due to reasons they can't direct it solely at US researchers, but the intent is there: The minister has followed the recent developments in the United States closely: "Academic freedom is under pressure in the United States, and it is an unpredictable situation for many researchers in what has been the world'…
That’s like a couple of DoE grants in the US.
Re: American science to soon face its largest brain drain in history
#33Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm not sure why NIH is left off this list, since it's probably the most important scientific organization in the world. Between them NIH and NSF fund a huge proportion of the cutting edge science that is done in the US, either directly or by funding the training and early career work of researchers. They fund a lot of the foundational work that doesn't get a lot of resources from the private sector. 99% of new drugs…
It was probably an omission. Fill it in, and it makes sense. I believe the NIH is larger than the NSF. In addition to funding research, these agencies also fund education, both directly and indirectly.
Correct. One of the guys in my cohort in post graduate work was funded by a grant from the NIH.
Re: American science to soon face its largest brain drain in history
#34> Many of the most valuable scientific organizations in the world, including NOAA, NASA, the NSF, the CDC, the EPA, and the FDA, I don’t dismiss the premise of the article and I think it is a shame how these organizations are being impacted, but I don’t know that these are the best exemplars of cutting edge science being shut down that will lead to America’s downfall from its scientific perch.
> but I don’t know that these are the best exemplars of cutting edge science Then you simply aren't familiar with their work. These (plus NIH, DOE, DOD etc.) are the engines of a large portion of the world's science. The engine is starved and it is going to destroy American industry.
> Then you simply aren't familiar with their work. These (and NIH) are the engines of a large portion of the world's science.
The problem is that not all cutting edge science is "sexy". NOAA and NASA are doing some _really_ cool stuff with weather monitoring / climate predicting. Sexy? Arguably no. Unless the weather app on your phone is sexy.
Important? I'd argue that it's critical that we keep getting better at it.
Re: American science to soon face its largest brain drain in history
#35Earlier quoted context omitted.
?
I don't even know what you mean by "let those kind of people go". If they can't get funding, they won't become scientists in the first place. If they lose funding, the US can't just prevent them from moving overseas. It's (still) a free country! And a large proportion of them are foreign-born anyway. Geoff Hinton couldn't get a job doing AI research in his native UK, so he moved to the US, where there were a lot more…
[deleted]
Re: American science to soon face its largest brain drain in history
#36Are institutions elsewhere massively increasing funding and positions? Aren't all the non-bankruptible tuition fees providing plenty of funding already? Where's that money going? The football team?
I don’t know if it should be called “massive,” but in Japan both the government and universities have announced increased funding:
https://www.perplexity.ai/search/38843335-64cd-4c03-bdbc-a77...
Re: American science to soon face its largest brain drain in history
#37Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't know where that money is going, but from my own experience, research at universities really isn't supported by tuition money. At least in STEM, PhD students are paid for by grants and contracts that their advisors secured from sources like NSF, DARPA, NIH, NSA, etc. Those are the people actually execute the research. You might want to say tuition should support research, but the reality is that it doesn't.
Why would we want tuition to support research?
If we assume science still has new things to tell the world, who better for researchers to share their discoveries with than the next generation? That’s the argument, anyway. In practice, it’s a crapshoot. Many researchers are dreadful educators due to incentives, training, and disposition. Every now and then you’ll run across a researcher who is also a great educator, but there’s no institutional force that pushes them in the right direction.
Re: American science to soon face its largest brain drain in history
#38> Many of the most valuable scientific organizations in the world, including NOAA, NASA, the NSF, the CDC, the EPA, and the FDA, I don’t dismiss the premise of the article and I think it is a shame how these organizations are being impacted, but I don’t know that these are the best exemplars of cutting edge science being shut down that will lead to America’s downfall from its scientific perch.
They're also the data collection point for much down stream research which is cutting edge
Re: American science to soon face its largest brain drain in history
#39Earlier quoted context omitted.
> but I don’t know that these are the best exemplars of cutting edge science Then you simply aren't familiar with their work. These (plus NIH, DOE, DOD etc.) are the engines of a large portion of the world's science. The engine is starved and it is going to destroy American industry.
> Then you simply aren't familiar with their work. These (and NIH) are the engines of a large portion of the world's science. The problem is that not all cutting edge science is "sexy". NOAA and NASA are doing some _really_ cool stuff with weather monitoring / climate predicting. Sexy? Arguably no. Unless the weather app on your phone is sexy. Important? I'd argue that it's critical that we keep getting better at it.
And some important work is even less sexy than that. People like Ted Cruz love to mock work on animal models, because if you don't know anything about the field it sounds ridiculous ("look at these idiots wasting money putting shrimp on a treadmill"). But finding a simpler animal model has been one of the most successful ways to understand biological systems, and we've found all sorts of useful things by looking at how animals solve problems.
Re: American science to soon face its largest brain drain in history
#40Earlier quoted context omitted.
It was probably an omission. Fill it in, and it makes sense. I believe the NIH is larger than the NSF. In addition to funding research, these agencies also fund education, both directly and indirectly.
Correct. One of the guys in my cohort in post graduate work was funded by a grant from the NIH.
[deleted]