NSF memo implementing Trump's 'golden age' of science unsettles researchers | Hacker News Reader

NSF memo implementing Trump's 'golden age' of science unsettles researchers

science.org

38 pointshn_acker17 comments

National science will now change course every 4 years.

Projects lasting longer than the current political administration are subject to losing funding and ending prematurely, wasting the previous 4 years of funding.

Yeah, guess you’ll be right.

The worst time to be a scientist in the US since people got burned at the stake for witchcraft.

You healed my dying cow, with those magic herbs, witch! Off with your head under my giant golden triumph arch!

Imagine someone dictating what you should research about who does not understand how two layers of paint work with each other.

And then starts blaming domestic terrorism on an Olympic athlete who just walked by and tried to figure out how your golf buddy fucked this reflecting pool coating up for 14 Million USD.

And then you realise 56 million people said yes, that’s my man, I want this guy to be in charge of shaping the future of my children. Nobody hates Americans more than Americans.

> Nobody hates Americans more than Americans.

It may be hopeless, but we can still try.

Fully predictable result of politicizing science. Really, I blame the scientists for it.

You're joking, right?

I do. I also blame doctors for the current state of our healthcare. It's a reprehensible, pissant, milquetoast thing to stand up and say "oh i hate the way <my_system> is. But I refuse to organize to fix it and I'll externalize responsibility for change onto those outside the system being victimized, who have no power at all." Thats all scientists do, bemoaning the state of affairs it took them decades to create.

If you thought ai data center NIMBYism was bad, ask a scientist about effecting change in their lab or field

You do realize that doctors aren’t the ones denying Americans life-saving care, right? They’re not even setting the rates. They don’t mandate the system, the perform within it.

They save lives, and you blame them instead of the politicians taking money from lobbyists to keep private insurance death panels profitable.

There are always going to be "death panels", the only question is if they're staffed by accountants, lawyers, or doctors.

You kill someone, expect to get hell from their family.

Eventually the paying customers will get their fair share, even if it takes the new interim CEO taking a few million dollar pay cut to save a few more hundred Americans paying them money every month.

The President of the United States committing to spending $1.2 trillion of public dollars to send every adult a one-time $5K check if we vote the way he wants us to, while some family members face $120K or more in medical debt, it’s just a wild time.

It's exactly this mentality that is the problem. Doctors have much more agency that they admit. And they certainly can get more if they wanted to. Instead, they don't. And it's the constant refrain of "oh i absolutely just have got to follow along and enable" that's infuriating. No healthcare exec pretends they're disgusted with the system they support and strengthen. Doctors do.

wtf, explain how you politicize cancer or Alzheimer's research?

Science will generally get painted with a broad brush by the public. Epidemiologists politicize their field for a few years and consequently biology and medicine gets seen as political by the public.

It’s saving brown people and triggered a keyword or two in a DOGE search conducted by big-ballz or his coworkers, so decade-long research projects got defunded.

https://apnews.com/article/california-research-grants-termin...

You’ll get your one-time $2.5K DOGE dividend check after you vote for Donald J. Trump for a third term.

There’s no reason it has to be like that. We could change course one more time back to a stable and non-partisan science funding landscape and then stick with it if we choose to. Even some of the alarm in this article over the proposed funding cuts isn’t set in stone, the presidential budget request from last year aimed to cut NSF by a similar amount and Congress didn’t go for it

Only to be reversed by the next MAGA politician when the administration from the “other team” fails to immediately address the economic impact of decisions made in 2025.

We vote on vibes and popularity now, not qualifications.

Grants will be awarded for proving testosterone levels mirror combat resolve /s

Don't forget lethality vs. beer pong ability.

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