NSF plans end to lone U.S. Antarctic research icebreaker
1–10 of 79 posts
Re: NSF plans end to lone U.S. Antarctic research icebreaker
#2Re: NSF plans end to lone U.S. Antarctic research icebreaker
#3> NSF has been opaque about these plans—intentionally so, Wellner believes. “They are purposely not putting anything in writing,” she says. And the planned cancellation is leaving in limbo the scientists who have cruises planned for the Palmer this Antarctic summer, which begins in December.
Incompetence (we didn't think about this out loud), or malice (we didn't want to leave a paper trail)?
Re: NSF plans end to lone U.S. Antarctic research icebreaker
#4The beings beyond the ice wall told the NSF to go away
Re: NSF plans end to lone U.S. Antarctic research icebreaker
#5The descent into scientific ignorance continues. What possible justification could you have for this?
Re: NSF plans end to lone U.S. Antarctic research icebreaker
#6Someone ELI5: Why is the Trump administration defunding scientific research? Is there a bigger picture we're not seeing, or is it 8D chess he's playing ?
Re: NSF plans end to lone U.S. Antarctic research icebreaker
#7The descent into scientific ignorance continues. What possible justification could you have for this?
There is no market test for “fundamental” research. So when an avenue of research secures taxpayer funding it exists into perpetuity, and as papers are published and requests for additional funding are made, it tends to grow like a tumor over the decades, getting more PhDs to be matriculated in the labs that began the avenue and grow ever more forever. Very rarely is an avenue of research closed off once the trifecta of university research labs + journals, PhDs who are minted to continue the research, and grants secured and grown.
A lot of the hand wringing by academics themselves are unfocused but circling the root cause, which is this. I would prefer corporations fund research but directed through the university system. The patents and gains are then funneled through the corporations that funded it, rather than the academics and universities with zero return to the taxpayers other than abstract “society gains” pablum, when the academics and universities truly gain all the profit.
When corporations that actually have a market test and profit motive are funding the research, avenues that are unlikely to succeed will be cut off sooner, and alternatives to the current vogue will be funded quicker. You can see a real-life example (of failure) in Alzheimer’s research which was hamstrung by decades of political control of research labs and taxpayer grants that refused to fund alternatives to the “mainstream” theories which set back society and the disease.
You asked for the justification and I provided it
Re: NSF plans end to lone U.S. Antarctic research icebreaker
#8Someone ELI5: Why is the Trump administration defunding scientific research? Is there a bigger picture we're not seeing, or is it 8D chess he's playing ?
It's not subtle. Donald perceives colleges as bastions of wokeness. Nature literally endorsed Joe Biden: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-02852-x
Now that he's president, here come the reprisals. Zero out NSF's funding, shut down NPR, end the COVID era break on student loan enforcement, withdraw grants from Harvard.
Re: NSF plans end to lone U.S. Antarctic research icebreaker
#9The descent into scientific ignorance continues. What possible justification could you have for this?
A lot of excellent climate research is done in the polar regions.
Re: NSF plans end to lone U.S. Antarctic research icebreaker
#10The descent into scientific ignorance continues. What possible justification could you have for this?
> What possible justification could you have for this
The base wants to see spending cuts in exchange for the tax cuts the rich are getting, and thinks science (especially climate science!) is a blunt tool by which liberals berate and control them.