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Scientists Warn US Will Lose a Generation of Talent Because of Trump Cuts

(www.theguardian.com)
21 points andrewl | 1 comments | 04 Jul 25 02:14 UTC | HN request time: 0.212s | source
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ggm ◴[04 Jul 25 02:20 UTC] No.44460622[source]▶
Not wanting to disagree, I'd observe that while talent is a bit "you can't bottle it" there will nonetheless be a supply of eager, debt bearing science graduates who will take roles and knuckle down under the new rules because.. well debt and jobs and the future.

It's horrible to reduce these things to labour market conditions but I suspect science will continue to be done. Maybe not as expected, but it won't grind to a halt.

Historical comparisons to 1930s Germany and lysenkoism would be interesting. There was a brain drain. Ignoring the politics, there was a hit to the intensity of work in some fields. Soviet genetics took a huge blow. Rhodes suggests German chemistry and physics suffered.

If design and IPR behind things like mRNA drugs shifts, to europe and asia will that necessarily be worse for the world overall?

The big thing the USA has going for it, is acceptance of business failure as a norm. A million IPOs start and ten succeed is seen as a victory, in Europe the 999,990 failures are painted as the cost-to-much outcome.

replies(2): >>44460752 #>>44462779 #
1. fuzzfactor ◴[04 Jul 25 09:20 UTC] No.44462779[source]▶
>Not wanting to disagree

I understand what you mean but I think the "supply" is not the bottleneck that institutions can be.

Institutions that require generations to get up to momentum, before even the most qualified & experienced operators can actually make the best progress.

So I disagree quite a bit because I remember what happened with Reagan's cuts which have not yet been well recovered from, plus Trump is less cognitively sound than Reagan was back then, and Trump surrounds himself with less-honest associates to a degree that Reagan would not have tolerated either.

Looks like more than one generation to me.

Again.