Friday afternoon, several hundred scientists gathered in Raleigh to protest against federal cuts in universities and local agencies. It was part of a series of demonstrations across the country presented as “standing for science” gatherings.
Graduated students, teachers and researchers from federal agencies sang “outside the laboratory, in the streets”. For some, it was their first insurance against a demonstration.
Tatiana Prioleau, a doctorate. The student of the Molecular Cancer Biology Program at Duke University wore a sign that said “Science Gues. Cups kill”.
Prioleau said that the rally had given him a feeling of unity with other scientists affected in the triangle.
“This is the culture of this field, of the research triangle,” said Prioleau. “We have Duke, NC State, UNC, so really we all realize.”
The Group of Graduates of the Department of Prioleau said that current and planned federal financing reductions had already affected their laboratories, their research priorities, their subsidy opportunities and their job prospects. For them, the cuts seem personal.
“Many of us are really essential in our research training,” said Duke University PH.D. Student Anna Towne. “It seems that we are leaving and that we do it, because it is for our own future and any other person who cares about biomedical sciences, who is essentially everyone – you hope.”
Angela Buckalew, the retirement biologist of the Environmental Protection Agency, said that she had kept in mind how cancer research benefited her own family who had cancer.
“Research is important to me,” said Buckalew. “I personally survived cancer, and with each person I know that it was through, their lifespan was longer because of the research, their suffering was less because of the research.”
Buckalew said she had recently retired from EPA because she “had seen what was going to happen.” It is concerned about the long -term effects, the recent financing reductions will have on young people who start their research and their careers, because many of the first lost jobs have been for positions of entry level.
“The future of science is the people who go first, so my concern is, where is Science?” Said Buckalew. “When you reduce science financing, that’s like anything else. You could lose years of data, years of work. »»