The worst year in U.S. science since this blog began

Today I will depart from my usual avoidance of political matters, because of the extraordinary shift in the relationship between the U.S. government and its nation's scientific community this year.  I alluded to certain aspects of it in an earlier post, and I won't give a thorough discussion of the topic here.  Others more eloquent than me have done so elsewhere.  However DTLR cannot end the year without at least acknowledging the shift, for it has affected nearly every corner of the scientific community in the United States.

This blog began in July, 2013; now we are 12.5 years later in a completely different world.  In that time, incredible scientific tragedies were witnessed, such as the global COVID-19 pandemic, and two outbreaks of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (the second, currently ongoing) in North America.  However, thus far, 2025, has been the worst year of all for science, since this blog began.  For we have witnessed the conscious, deliberate choice by the nation's leaders to cripple itself in many ways, including by crippling its scientific community.   Many scientists (including me) have been left in a prolonged state of under- or un-employment as a result.  Others have fled the United States, and many, many talented scientists have chosen not to even come to this country to learn or to work. At the same time, the People's Republic of China has been expanding its investment in science and in scientists, and could not have wished for a better boost for its scientific community than what the United States has voluntarily done to itself.  Investments in science, engineering, technology, and medicine are massive stimuli for a nation's economy, public health, and national security.  In this enterprise, the United States has used 2025 to build up China (including its ruling Communist Party) and weaken itself.  

In the big picture, this is not simply the fault of one particular homegrown party or group of politicians.  Collective blame should be shared with their domestic predecessors/opponents, whose multidimensional failures paved the way for the current regime's election.  Much of the damage will thus be irreversible.  Future leaders of any party will politicize and weaponize elements of "science" at their convenience, and use scientific funding to reward and punish.  The nonpartisan civil service, including its scientists,will never fully recover, and even if someday allowed to pursue its work without interference, will never be trusted by the taxpaying public again.

DTLR does not approve.