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American science to soon face its largest brain drain in history

(bigthink.com)
133 points yowzadave | 2 comments | 02 Jul 25 22:42 UTC | HN request time: 0.412s | source
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andsoitis ◴[02 Jul 25 23:48 UTC] No.44450073[source]▶
> 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.

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searine ◴[03 Jul 25 00:26 UTC] No.44450313[source]▶
> 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.

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1. baby_souffle ◴[03 Jul 25 00:31 UTC] No.44450339[source]▶
> 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.

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2. apical_dendrite ◴[03 Jul 25 00:36 UTC] No.44450376[source]▶
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.