By Dr Steuard Jensen
Guest columnist
I was a proud scientist when I was a child, and there was no better place for a grass -growing scientist than the United States of America – so far. I had an excellent education that led me to a doctorate. At the University of Chicago, one of the best research universities in the world, supported by a scholarship and federal government’s grants.
Now that I am a physics teacher myself, I have been proud to help my students establish their careers in the same way.
But faced with the brutal cancellations of this spring subsidy and the federal budget proposed next year, I really do not know if the financing of graduates and scientific careers for my students will even exist in the United States after next year. I have already written letters of recommendation for one of them who only requires higher education in the universities of Europe.
Since the Second World War, we, as a nation, have invested in scientific research: our model of federal support has been envied worldwide. I was able to study with some of the best academics in the world, both Americans for life and brilliant scientists from other countries who have contributed to come here and contribute to American excellence. There is a good reason why the Americans have won about half of all Nobel Prize winners in the sciences since 1950.
The gain for this investment goes far beyond national pride. On the one hand, fundamental research inspires us with wonderful discoveries on the mysteries of life and the universe. We unravel the fundamental nature of matter in particle accelerator installations such as farmilab. We decode what makes us human with the project of the human genome. We are emerging images of space telescopes like Hubble and James Webb who teach us about the history and the fate of the Cosmos. And in universities and laboratories across the country, academics work tirelessly to tell these stories and understand all of this.
More concretely, scientific research funded by the federal government also plant the seeds for the practical breakthroughs of tomorrow and economic prosperity: profit -oriented companies cannot afford to spend a lot on exploratory research that may not pay for decades. Dow Chemical creates innovative products using the principles of chemical structure and synthesis developed first in academic laboratories. Smartphone fleas and screens are based on the physics of semiconductors. Agriculture and medicine are being revolutionized using sequences of CRISPR genes discovered in bacterial DNA. Really, investment in science has been an engine that stimulates the success of our country in engineering and technology.
Today, however, American science is on the verge of a cliff. Even if NASA’s combined budgets, the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health represent only 1% of federal spending, existing financing gels and the proposed federal budget of next year are devastating. The NASA and NSF scientific budget are reducing in half; NIH by more than a third. (Science is not alone in this area. There are also overwhelming cuts proposed for things like libraries, museums and arts, which enrich our communities and cost even less. But I focus here on my own domain.)
These cuts will not only do research on the break, they will destroy years of investment. A biology laboratory cannot simply connect the freezer next year and expect a decade of samples to be preserved inside. NASA space probes are only designed to have power and functioning so long in the severe vacuum of the earth.
I firmly believe that the world scientific leadership in America is worth its 1% of the federal budget, not only for pride and inspiration, but for great economic value, it generates years. We must not eat our seed corn. I also believe in my students and their dreams to be part of this great human company: I cannot bear the thought of the doors of the closure of these careers for an entire generation. If you feel the same thing, I urge you to call your representatives to the congress to let it be known.
Dr Steuard Jensen
Physics teacher
Alma