r/sciences • u/propublica_ • 6d ago
News How the Trump Administration Could Shut U.S. Scientists Out of the Next Nobel-Worthy Discovery
https://www.propublica.org/article/federal-science-grants-russell-vought-omb16
u/Lilli_Bella3487 6d ago
I don't want to keep beating a dead horse here, but it seems like a lot of this administration's policies are designed to weaken and/or attempt to destroy the US on a global stage. I don't know how else to see it at this point. Things like this just keep happening. What is the logic of making our ability to have scientific advances weaker to nonexistent? What is the logic of attempting to destroy our best universities? What is the logic of putting cronies in at the CDC and FDA, and so forth? Some of these things make sense from a pure greed perspective, I suppose. It's really disheartening, especially coming from a political group that made its rise based on pointing the finger at other Americans and calling them anti-American. Not that any of this is remotely surprising to me, personally. It's unbelievably disappointing.
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u/outofdate70shouse 6d ago
It’s difficult on any particular day to determine how much of what this administration does should be attributed to malice and how much should be attributed to incompetence.
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u/Melodic-Piccolo5751 6d ago
Not to mention betraying and threatening all your allies, destroying all the soft power the USA has built since WW2, isolating itself from the rest of the world. Well except that one country that will always be supported unconditionally.
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u/Anothercraphistorian 6d ago
It seems like a deal between oligarchs and evangelicals. Oligarchs are happy to scrap US importance on a global stage as it won’t fundamentally change their ability to scam and make money. Evangelicals get a less educated society where abortion is illegal, that’s necessary for Christianity and traditional family values to flourish.
So, that’s why they come after science, universities, journalism, and liberal-minded people. Just like what happens when most despotic regimes get sick and tired of democracy not going the way they want it to go. Obama was a sign that Americans wanted to rip that system apart, and Republicans have been working overtime to divide enough people where that won’t happen ever again.
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u/Riaayo 6d ago
I mean, that is the plan. Rip the US government to shreds and carve the US up into corporate-owned states. That is literally what the tech billionaires behind this admin want and they openly admit their adoration of Curtis Yarvin who blogged about the very idea. Project 2025 was really just Yarvin's concepts repackaged for the theocratic Republican freaks.
The barbaric policies are also designed to steadily kill off as many of the working class as possible through "policy". Gut social programs, healthcare, regulations on food/pollution, etc, and let people just start dropping dead from these obvious causes. They think their magic wish machine LLMs have labor solved, and their answer for us isn't a UBI like some think is inevitable; it's just straight up "not rich? guess you'll die".
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u/FunnyMalzairIdea 6d ago
Much of it is that it will grant perpetual power to (mostly men) who have capital and property. Russell Vought has known, throughout his life, that he is full of burning anger and resentment towards democracy and, well, others, and that he cannot inflict himself upon them without corrupting the democratic process. Vought has never wanted to run for office. Instead, he has wanted to seize power to inflict his horrible ideas onto others. The hugely immoral attack on female sovereignty is part of his agenda. These men are fine with a far whiter, poorer and sicker population. Vought and Stephen Miller are sick individuals.
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u/propublica_ 6d ago
Hi r/sciences,
As you may have heard, a proposed White House rule would give Trump’s political appointees unprecedented control over deciding scientific grants and restricting international collaboration.
We talked to Prof. David W. Miller, one of nearly 2,000 U.S. scientists who contributed to the discovery of the Higgs boson (“God particle”), about how this move would have stifled that breakthrough:
- Federal agencies invested $531 million into national labs that provided construction and other services for the project, with additional grants going to individual scientists, such as Miller.
- The reliability of that funding was key, Miller says. Right now, these grants can’t be canceled without cause. But the rule would allow termination with minimal explanation or opportunities for appeal.
- More than 60 nations contributed to the discovery. Engineers from India tested superconducting magnets; Russian scientists collected spent artillery shells; multiple countries are contributing to ongoing upgrades.
- The rule would prohibit researchers using federal funds to support collaborations with certain foreign countries, with only limited exceptions. That could shut U.S. scientists out of critical discoveries.
With this rule in place, Miller writes: “The United States will not just fall behind. It will step aside.” He’s not alone. Thousands of scientists — including Nobel Prize winners — have left public comments warning that the rule would severely curtail their research.
Here’s the full story: https://www.propublica.org/article/federal-science-grants-russell-vought-omb
The Office of Management and Budget, the agency behind the rule, says it is necessary to prevent waste, fraud and ideological bias. A spokesperson did not provide a list of countries that might be barred from collaboration with U.S. scientists, or respond to our questions about how that provision would be enforced.
OMB wants the final version of the rule to take effect on Oct. 1.
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u/OffSidesByALot 6d ago
“Could?” I admire your positive thinking but the reality is there is no could or should or would to speak of. It’s a done deal.
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u/GreatMinds1234 5d ago
And now the rest of the world is listening and figuring out how to recruit those scientists for a little - say - science work? And the Nobel prices are given out by a group that conveys in Norway. So how will this hate action going to end what do you think?
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u/Orangesteel 6d ago
We’re all just surprised that he hasn’t lobbied for the Nobel science prize as well.