First, some inside-baseball US funding discussion. Apologies to my international readers, who likely don't care much about this except in the abstract.
- Breaking news: According to journalist Dan Garisto, as of April 25, 20206, the president has fired the entire National Science Board. The NSB helps oversee the National Science Foundation. From the outside, it had sure looked to me like the NSB had tried verrrrrrry hard to stay on the administration's good side. That was fraying recently, as this February article in Science included comments implying that not everyone was thrilled with the executive branch strongly shifting NSF priorities. It sure looks like their reward for not speaking out strongly about the importance of continued support for research was apparently to be terminated with prejudice. If any readers have first-hand knowledge of what happened, please post in the comments.
- I had already been planning to point out this article in Nature, which says that NSF funding may finally be about to flow, after a long, murky back-and-forth between the agency, Congress, and OMB. It's worth noting that Congress had stated in their guidance that no directorate within NSF should be cut by more than 5%, while OMB has mandated (apparently) different spending levels which, among other things, would cut Mathematics and Physical Sciences by 15% and Engineering by 18%. It sure doesn't look obvious to me, with everything else going on right now, that Congress is willing to truly push back on this. Surrendering microscopic spending authority to OMB seems like a complete abdication of congressional authority, but what do I know.
One bit of science:
- I participated in a virtual workshop this week, Targeted Questions: Strange Metals. I have written about strange metals before (see here and here). The workshop was streamed, including the discussion sessions, and here is the youtube link if you are interested.
Some essays this week:
- There was a report by a Yale University committee about the erosion of trust in higher education in the US earlier this month. It certainly spurred a lot of conversation, and it raises many important issues. That said, it does seem to downplay the fact that there has been a decades-long campaign by some with the goal of eroding trust in higher education, as pointed out in this essay.
- A friend pointed me to this essay by Santiago Schnell about higher education in the era of AI - I found it very thoughtful, even though I don't agree with every aspect.
- Speaking of AI, this essay ("The future of everything is lies, I guess: Bullshit about bullshit machines" by Kyle Kingsbury was provocative and worth reading, again even if I don't agree with every aspect.
- Speaking of thoughtful commentary, here is an essay by a billionaire that is worth reading.
4 comments:
I exchanged texts with a board member. To summarize their message, they confirmed that the whole board was fired. They're looking at what options are there to fight back. Apparently there has been talk of combining several independent agencies like NSF into a new department. The NSB successfully advocated Congress last year to keep the budget at the levels it was for FY26, which the administration views as an obstacle going forward.
Thanks for that information. It would be nice if the National Academy leadership felt empowered to speak out; they too have been trying to walk a narrow line, in part bc they have federal contracts. I haven’t heard anything about JASON as an organization since about 2022 - again, while largely DOD focused, they have had no issues in the past with speaking out as a self-appointed independent voice. Does the presidential science advisor really truly think this is a good thing? Does Dario Gil, who served on the board before shifting to DOE? I presume that they can’t say anything out of step with the white house or they would have to resign. We can start placing bets. Will the NSB just cease to exist, or will it be filled with people entirely from segments of industry that want to drastically shrink federal support for research? Waiting for bets to open on Kalshi and Polymarket….
Sorry if this is a naive question, but what does the destruction of the NSB mean for the day to day operations of the NSF, at least in the short term? I’m sure that long term, the NSF would have difficulty setting strategic direction and priorities without the centralized NSB guidance. But as far as immediate day to day operations, would the money still be able flow through, with the organization being able to award funds, review proposals, etc…?
The person I know thought highly of Dario Gil from the time they overlapped on NSB. That's about all I can relay on that topic.
Switching to my views, I personally question the motives of anyone who would sign up to work for this administration. At a minimum, they should have known what damage was coming. In that case, he should be resigning and speaking out tomorrow. Alternatively, Gil and people like him are on board with all of this. The latter seems more likely in my opinion.
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