I am a scientist and professor. My laboratory is looking for ways to stop or at least slow down Alzheimer’s disease and the means to help people with vision loss to use their remaining vision, all with the help of financing the National Institutes of Health.
But I do not write in this point of view, nor in the name of my employer. I contact you as a Ringard of Northport, in Alabama, which – thanks to a great public education in Alabama – obtained a doctorate. in neuroscience and has been an active neuroscientist for over 25 years. This context gave me a perspective on the importance of science in America and the risks presented by current events.
Science is a way of thinking, not a belief system. This is the possibility for all of us humans, with our stretches of attention and our limited memory banks, to come together to understand the big questions about the functioning of the world.
We use the scientific method, perfected during millennia: we ask a question; We test the answer. If the test results are inconsistent, we revise our working theory. We do it again and again. And we document it. And here we are, in 2025. Look around you: this way of thinking has brought us so far!
I could list the scientific breakthroughs made possible by the NIH and the National Science Foundation all day and do not browse the surface. Google Your favorite technology: In any case, it is likely that NIH and NSF research funded by the federal government allows it.
I will give some of my favorite examples:
Have you ever had an MRI? Thank you NSF and NIH for the fact that the surgeons did not have to cut you to look inside your body.
Cochlear implants mean that babies born can hear. NIH financing made this possible.
If you know someone who survived stadium cancer four because of immunotherapy, thank the NIH.
These things and so many are made possible because of the shared infrastructure science.
It is an infrastructure built with a long -term eye. Isaac Newton said he could have seen so far because he was on the giant shoulders. Now we all hold on his shoulders and the shoulders of the countless people who have contributed to our scientific understanding. Our modern scientific company would be someone’s desire for Newton; This company is now one of the greatest human achievements in history. Think about it: how much we know, how this set of knowledge continues to grow and change, how this knowledge is used to cure diseases and develop technologies to improve life.
And in this incredible scientific company and the best The United States of AmericaEast THE the most scientifically advanced on the planet. When children from anywhere in the world have put their hearts to make a difference in science, they put their hearts on America. Thus, in this better period of accumulated scientific knowledge, the American scientific system is one of the things that really made America really brilliant.
How is it that the NIH and the NSF, the engine that stimulates this research, is now attacked? It blurs the mind that anyone would seek to undermine this thing that gives such power in the United States – such health, wealth and prestige.
It took decades, almost a century to reach this scientific primacy. It took several thousand brilliant minds and millions of hours of work to build the American scientific engine. It is much easier to demolish something than to build it.
You see examples in the news each day of demolition of important systems that have made the United States a real leader. What a waste. Despite what so many so-called budget claim to want, it is not effective.
You could say, hey, many of these NIH and NSF breakthroughs are profitable – think of MRIs, immunotherapy … So let companies develop them. Why does the government have help?
Because the calendar for the fundamental discovery is long. Companies, however, need profit on a time scale that business sense. Companies have made R&D efforts in the construction of a better MRI, and my business colleagues like GE do a great job. But they Do not develop the fundamental knowledge that we must understand that an MRI is possible in the first place. Companies can improve immunotherapy, they will not offer idea immunotherapy.
Revolutionary discoveries do not occur on a business period. In addition to consumers and patients, the scientific infrastructure that America built during the last century stimulates innovation that benefits business. American companies benefit from new ideas and people Trained by the NSF and the NIH that end up working for businesses. From the smartphone in your pocket to the grocery store of your table, each product that I can think is based on the fundamental science of the American scientific engine. The return on investment of each dollar spent at NIH is estimated at $ 2.46. Yes, it’s true: for each dollar research, America recovers more than two dollars! It is good to maintain our American scientific engine – NIH and NSF. And I did not even mention the fact that this funding supports several thousand jobs here in Alabama.
There are other vital factors far beyond the scope of business plans. For example, environmental considerations for your children and children in your children. Companies that make decisions now are not encouraged or equipped to weigh these long -term consequences. For this, the community must come together to make difficult choices. It’s what government East. And government dismantling – including, but without limiting ability To do it.
Our American scientific engine, the NIH and the NSF, built with the future in mind, is good for the economy, it improves lives, and it is one of the real wonders of the world. And I have a broken heart to say that today it is attacked.
This relies on you to help him. This counts on you to vote, to tell your friends, call your representatives and stand up when you can, where you can. Our health, our prosperity and our collective future are at stake.
The Dre Kristina Visscher manages a laboratory that studies how brain circuits treat vision and how these circuits change with experience and with Alzheimer’s disease.