My first true introduction to scientific research made me nauseous. I was on a NASA research flight, an intern of a team collecting air quality data. The takeoff went well and we quickly got up at the cruising altitude. During the flight radio, the pilot calmly explained that our first task would be to measure the air directly above a station on the ground – which sounded quite easy. However, we soon plunged into a tightly tight spiral, and I looked at the passengers – teachers, engineers and students and students – the passengers reached their vomit bags.
Faced with financing cuts, mass layoffs and hiring gels, the American scientific company is currently locked in a similar descending spiral. Reduce the budget for organizations such as National Sciences FoundationTHE National Health Institutesand the Oceanic and atmospheric national administration makes irreparable damage to science and threatens the American people.
The reduction in federal science financing is simply a bad investment. He will stifle innovation and will harm the American economy.
I grew up in South Austin, where my family still lives today. Inspired by Really good physics teachersMark and Nancy Misage at Westlake High School, I decided that I would be a scientist, but at the time I had little idea what it meant. My way to follow was widely sponsored by the United States government. I organized three courses: the Airborne Research Program for NASA students mentioned above, and later two research projects funded by the NSF. Now I am a doctorate. MIT student looking for air pollution of forest fires. I fear that future students will have the same opportunities and can be discouraged from pursuing scientific careers. Already, similar undergraduate programs are eliminated and higher schools, faced with limited support, admit fewer students.
Towards the end of our flight, after everyone recovered, we flew over the ocean, where the cargo cargo spread towards the horizon off the coast of Los Angeles. The gossip filled my headphones – we saw alarming concentrations of toxic chemicals of these ships, and they were blowing directly in the port. People on the ground, appreciating their vision of sunset, did not know what they were breathing in, and they would have no way of knowing without scientific observations, including those taken on our flight.
Each city is faced with a separate challenge in managing its air pollution. I remember being in college when forest fires devastated Bastrop and Spicewood in 2011. During the summer, Austin is regularly struck with dust of the Sahara desert which has crossed the Atlantic, and smoke of forest fires exploded from Mexico. In recent years, more days at 100 degrees have led to exacerbated pollution of SMOG. We know these things because of the data collected and analyzed by organizations such as NOAA and EPA. This maintains the communities responsible for promulgating the policies necessary to limit emissions and ensure healthy air. The work remains important; about half of the American population breathes in unhealthy levels of air pollution – and unfortunately this Includes Austin.
Despite Bipartite support For scientific research, proposed cuts jeopardize the complex discovery, monitoring and regulation systems such as that built to manage air pollution. The same story is played out in other areas: cancer research, renewable energies, extreme weather forecasts and many others. We will lose the ability to treat disease and monitor certain dangers, such as hurricanesBut the problems do not disappear. Beyond all of this, the reduction in funding for federal sciences is simply a bad investment – He will stifle innovation and will harm the American economy.
We can all use our voices to get involved in this issue. I encourage you to call your representatives and express your support for continuous scientific funding in the United States tell them that you are concerned about the way scientific financing will have an impact on your community. An investment in science is an investment in the American people, and this will lead to a healthier and more prosperous future.
Joseph Palmo is a doctorate. Candidate for the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He graduated from Westlake High School in Austin in 2017.
Do you have something to say? THE Chronic welcomes elements of opinion on any subject of the community. Submit yours now to Austinchronicle.com/opinion.