Science is not a question of domination. It is a question of democracy
Science is the key to diplomacy, unity and democracy. What Trump administration is trying to do to weaken the United States
Nestled in the heritage foundation 2025 projectThe Slash-And-Burn game book for the federal government that the Trump administration follows by saying it is notis an American call “scientific domination. “”
There is nothing like it. And what the project understands by the term – turning the Ministry of Energy in a servant of the coal, oil and natural gas industry – is not only reprimanded by the taxpayer but science itself.
Science is not a win-at-vain of flag football at a zero top. Whether during the Cold War or the era of Sir Francis Bacon New Atlantis, The foundation of science has been international cooperation. People are pursuing scientific knowledge not only in order to correct our loot on everyone. The monetary value of research is not the only reason why humans undertake to ask why the world around us.
On the support of scientific journalism
If you appreciate this article, plan to support our award -winning journalism by subscription. By buying a subscription, you help to ensure the future of striking stories about discoveries and ideas that shape our world today.
Science Remains diplomacy. He Counter division. He tells us what is, not what we want things to be. Science Allows democracy. The way in which the Trump administration approaches the occasion, by reducing funds for projects that draw conservative values, such as Those related to diversityOr calling for research on complaints that have already been demystified, which is the case for the idea that vaccines are linked to autism, defies all of this. If this approach succeeds, it will make us a poorer nation in every sense of the word.
By Interrupt federal funds for scientific research,, Cancel university subsidies And threatening Immigrant scientists, the Trump administration restricts the flow of ideas. By trying legitimize demystified scientific ideas and allocating dollars taxpayers to research on these demystified ideasthe administration dries the discord and Maisse the role of public health in the prevention of disease and disease. By Cancel World Aid For public health projects, the administration avoids the American role in global health. And in their push for Energy dominanceTrump and his allies are Kicking for years of negotiation on climate change in the sidewalk.
By becoming island, By cutting the worldWe are careful lose our best and the brightest minds of science and Exchange of ideas This leads to innovation. Our country is a scientific and economic power precisely because we have been If open and collaborative For so long. China Academic scientific exitas measured by publications in Nature journals, has exceeded that of the United States how the reduction in funding for federal sciences can help administration Intellectual war with China? How can the United States advance its national interests if we exclude ideas and people? How does democracy survive if we stop research and information flow?
In prepare the way For the role of the American government in science, Vannevar Bush told President Harry Truman in 1945 that “scientific progress is an essential key to our security as a nation, our best health, more jobs, a higher standard of living and our cultural progress.” He noted the role of the federal government in the support of agricultural research and said: “The time has come when such support should be extended to other areas.”
From the 1950s, the United States government was the The largest scientific research fund in the nation, not to mention the world. Those Dollars have helped develop countless drugs and a large assortment of military and domestic machines, and they have paid wages of millions of researchers. These dollars saved people and helped Industrialize nations the whole world.
American scientific research has also Development of influenced policies. This is where the link with democracy has the most: the development of evidence -based policies allows as many people in the country to be healthy, to be safe and to have a voice. This is what science reductions threaten. This is how the research by Trump’s administration on questions to which has been answered essentially, because those responsible do not like the answer, threatens the ability of all Americans to prosper.
When the secretary of health and social services Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., says that the nation will know by The end of summer What environmental factors cause autism and calls Private medical records Autistic people as part of this thrust, it is a fishing expedition. Kennedy does not like the answers we already have –Vaccines do not cause autismAnd genetics influences the development of autism – it is therefore waste taxpayers’ money.
Recently, a group of scientists from around the world has won the revolutionary work price they have done at CERN, a multinational installation This tests fundamental ideas in physics. With scientific financing cuts, which will happen to projects like this, plans to Improve our Antarctic field stationsAnd efforts such as the Paris climate agreement focused on evidence? These ideas underlie our understanding of the natural world and probe the technologies that the United States needs. Sabording science and the closure of the world doors will leave us in darkness. Domination will condemn us to failure.
This is an article of opinion and analysis, and the points of view expressed by the author or the authors are not necessarily those of American scientific.