Washington DC. Boston, Massachusetts. Denver, Colorado. Seattle, Washington. Trenton, New Jersey
Thousands of researchers and science supporters have protested in more than 30 cities in the United States and Europe today against the actions taken by the Administration of US President Donald Trump To cut American scientific workforce And Slash spending for research worldwide.
American science is threatened – now scientists retaliate
The atmosphere was provocative in many rallies, where the songs of “scientists will not be silenced”, “facts on fear” and “what do we want? Peer exam! When do we want it? Now! “Have been heard.
Citing the musician Bob Marley, Rush Holt Jr, former director general of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, told the crowd of Trenton, New Jersey, “Get Up, Stand Up”.
In the crowd of the Boston rally, Ana-Maria Vranranu, psychologist at the Harvard Medical School whose work helps people with dementia, chronic pain and other conditions, said: “It’s time to stop this, before things become really bad.”
During the last month, “I was waiting for someone to do something,” said Abraham Flaxman, a world -class metric researcher at Washington University who attended the Seattle Rally. But “It came across me: nobody comes to save us. We will have to save ourselves.
Marie Walde, biophysicist at the Roscoff organic station in France, Published on a rally, she attended the social platform of the Bluesky mediaBy saying: “Solidarity with our colleagues in the United States, researchers and citizens of all France protest today for science and knowledge as a public good.”
‘A fire at five alarms’
Standing gatherings for science is an answer to the Trump administration Headquarters of the American research company. Since his entry into office in January, Trump and his team have dismissed and, in some cases, have then tried to rehire, thousands of American scientific agencies, whose jobs involved nuclear security, surveillance of bird flu, forecasts in extreme weather and more. Administration also has tried to freeze research subsidies in scientific financing agencies Including the US National Science Foundation. And he has I tried to reduce “general costs” Awarded to biomedical research institutions by the United States National Institutes of Health (NIH) – although federal judges have since blocked this action. This week, Nature revealed that under Trump, the NIH – the largest public funder in the world of biomedical research – started the end of mass of active research subsidies For projects that study subjects, including transgender health, which are not aligned with the political ideology of the administration.
The demonstrators went down to the streets of Paris to solidarize with American scientists.Credit: Mohamad Salaheldin Abdelg Alsayed / Anadolu via Getty
Défonnished by these movements and wondering why people did not “defend science”, five American scientists decided to organize today’s rallies. “This is a fire with five alarms,” said co-organizer Colette Delawalla, psychologist at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. “If we do not fix our work and do not turn attention to these questions”, and try to modify politicians, “there will be no science to come back,” she said.
But the organizers know past demonstrations, such as International march for science in 2017 – which was organized by researchers criticizing the policies of the first presidency of Trump – that rallies alone do not affect change. “It’s not a unique thing,” said Samantha Goldstein, who studies the health of women at the University of Florida in Gainesville and is one of the scientific organizers. She adds: the organizers will continue to “go there, by ensuring that our objectives and our political requests are satisfied – this is what is important”.
A lost generation
During a certain number of rallies today, speakers and participants are concerned about the frightening effect that the actions of the Trump administration will have on future sciences and scientists.
In Boston, Nancy Kanwisher, a cognitive neuroscientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, told the crowd: “You cannot simply dismiss everyone, then re -engage them when you need it. A generation of scientists will have been lost. »»
A demonstrator holds a panel at the rally at Washington Square Park in New York.Credit: Charly Triballeau / AFP / Getty
ATUL GAWANDE, a public health researcher and former assistant administrator of the US Agency for International Development (USAID), Washington DC was told that scientists had seen their career in boxes when they left the dream jobs they had been dismissed. (Trump administration has dismissed thousands of workers from the USAID, which finances health and rescue programs in the event of a disaster, saying that it had been led by “radical left crazy people” and went to “enormous fraud”.) Scientists are targeted, because “science does not always give the responses that power”.
Others have expressed anger at the way scientists are treated. “I am a scientist and I am upset,” explains Carolee Caffrey, behavioral ecologist at Rider university in Lawrence Township, New Jersey, who welcomed people at the Rallye de Trenton. “I am all the words” D “: dismayed, depressed, disgusted.”
Some considered rallies to offer a safe outlet to scientists to express their feelings. Valerie H., who refused to give him a full name for fear of reprisals, is a software engineer who works in culture science. Recent mass fire on the National Oceanic and Atmospheric American administration and other agencies had a huge impact on Valerie’s research. “I know hundreds of people on LinkedIn who are looking for work,” she told Denver’s rally. “People are happy to have a place to come and say something.”