NYT gift link
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Re: funding for Math, from WaPo - “The world’s greatest mathematician avoided politics. Then Trump cut science funding.” Hopefully this is a gift link.
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^^Just coming to post that!
Terence Tao, arguably the best mathematician in the world, winner of the Fields Medal (equivalent to the Nobel Prize) has lost his research funding at UCLA.
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The Beltsville Agricultural Research Center (BARC) in Prince George’s County, MD, is being defunded and closed down.
BARC is the USDA‘s premier agricultural research facility, encompassing over 6500 acres.
Some scientists and research programs may be moved elsewhere–though Congress has not yet approved any funds to do so– but the facility itself will cease to operate. It issue is that, by law, the land & facilities cannot be sold, leased or rented so the land will remain unused and the research facilities vacant.
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So it goes from something that makes money and enhances the economy to something that is a drain. The facility will still need basic maintenance. I think we will see the economic impacts of this type of situation in many places across the country. 
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There is no amount of private funding that will make up for the cuts. I mean it’s noble -and really the only option - but there is only so much money for donations. If you donate it to research, it comes away from some other area.
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I don’t disagree. But it’s going to be a long time before change will come. Every little bit that can be done to help the present is important.
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The very foundation that underpins the research at LIGO is that fact that it has the two separate stations. If the Trump administration wants to slash the budget they might as well shut down the entire project because having only 1 LIGO station is completely useless. It just goes to show that the administration does not understand or value fundamental science.
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To be a horrible pessimist - I don’t think we will recover entirely. I am normally an optimistic person -but research takes years and years of effort. You can’t just ramp it up again. Donations might save some clinical trials -but they aren’t going to save the basic science or mouse model science that leads to the disease breakthroughs in a decade or so down the road.
I have a kid who wants to go into a science field. We’ve talked about her doing her undergrad here in the states and then going abroad for grad school. Or pivoting and going into a healthcare field which will still be a viable career (and transportable if things get really horrible).
I just can believe how people are just closing their eyes to all of this.
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I don’t think you’re a pessimist. The “Golden Age of Spain” came to an end. Some of the most gifted physicians in the world were trained in the Middle and Far East way back when. Europe’s great universities and research centers were thrown back 30 years in the 20th century- first when the Jewish scientists and academics fled (or were rounded up and killed), and then in the post-war environment when the focus was on rebuilding infrastructure and housing, not on knowledge creation.
No country has a lock on being the leader forever. And sadly, we are throwing it away.
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NYT gift link. This is an extended article with more detail than most.
Trump Is Shutting Down the War On Cancer
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Please explain how this makes sense? I can’t imagine what positive outcome this has for anyone.
The money goes somewhere else, I presume. Certain people will benefit from that.
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Edited:
Oops, this thread is not in the politics forum. I am deleting my comment.
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These diseases don’t discriminate based on politics. How incredibly shortsighted and ignorant.
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Many of those who were working on cancer research are being snapped up by research institutions in other countries. The wealthy are free to go anywhere in the world to buy the best possible treatment for themselves; everyone else can just suffer and die because they don’t count.
Think of how many social security and Medicare dollars will be saved.
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Well, it won’t even be saved - just spent on something else…(or used for tax cuts. For those people who can afford to fly to Europe for treatment.)
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Why, yes. As taxpayers, we should be grateful, right?
SOME GOOD NEWS for (mostly) science majors..
In New York, Macron unveils a fellowship program for American students
The ‘Lafayette Fellowship’ will welcome 30 outstanding American master’s students to France every year. The initiative aims to strengthen French soft power at a time when relations with Washington are increasingly strained.
“This fellowship is based on trust and youth,” Macron said on Tuesday, September 23, from Villa Albertine, the French cultural center in New York. Speaking in English, the French president evoked the two countries’ shared history, particularly during major wars, and expressed his hope to see “a new generation of Americans crossing the ocean, not to wage war, but to invent the future of science and culture together but to invent a future together, with this common idea – the legacy of the Marquis de Lafayette, which is a legacy of [the] Enlightenment, and belief (…) in reason, in culture and in education.”
Interest among American students appears strong: More than 500 have already started applications for the Lafayette Fellowship. “The Lafayette Fellowship was designed for these visionary students who wish to immerse themselves in French culture through work, studies and travel.”
The 30 selected students will be well looked after by the French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs. They will have access to exclusive sites, high-profile speakers and a range of courses drawn from the best universities and schools across the country, taught in both French and English.
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