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Meanwhile DOGE has cancelled more than $2 billion in federal research grants. The US is shooting itself in the foot when it should be competing at its best. ht

• eastbound 1y ago
  [flagged]
  • munchler 1y ago
    Give me a freaking break. One side is carrying on the Enlightenment ideals of rationality and secular humanism, while the other is trying to drag us back to the dark ages of superstition and fear. It has nothing to do with political “left” and “right” anymore. It’s just sane vs. insane.
    • dingnuts 1y ago
      your comment would have a lot more weight if the grandparent hadn't been flagged and removed by people who don't like to read things they disagree with! How am I supposed to know what arguments to expect from MAGA if you people censor what they have to say? Censorship isn't helping your cause! It just makes your side look weak and scared.
      • gherkinnn 1y ago
        You can adjust the HN settings to show flagged and dead comments. It was a rubbish comment.
        • codybontecou 1y ago
          TIL. Thanks for this.
        • lurk2 1y ago
          Flagging isn’t a super downvote for bad comments, it’s for posts that break the site guidelines, which the grandparent comment did not.
      • biophysboy 1y ago
        I agree HN hides comments/posts too quickly, but the main issue here is that you can easily google federal outlays by month. This is an extremely easy thing to do. Unless you don't believe the data collected, there's nothing to debate. Why don't we have a debate about what color the sky is, or what 1+1 is?
      • Rzor 1y ago
        Go to your profile settings and change showdead from "no" to "yes".
      • munchler 1y ago
        FWIW, I agree with you. It was an absurd comment, but it shouldn't have been flagged (and I wasn't the one who flagged it).
      • blargey 1y ago
        What are people supposed to argue with the sort of person that claims destroying 2B of federal science funding is justified solely by alleviating 0.001% of the 1.83T deficit - aka accomplishing nothing? There's nothing to be aware of, nothing to prepare for, it's an "argument" that destroys itself with simple division. (Taking their grossly exaggerated "3T per semester" deficit number - combining the 2020 peak in annual deficit and casually doubling it - at face value only makes the 2B from the NSF an even more insignificant 0.00033%) I find nothing revelatory about it. Just another person that wants to vandalize anything associated with their vague meme-complex of woke-lib-fed-science-international stuff.
    • gotoeleven 1y ago
      I'd honestly love to have a real discussion with people about this topic. HN comment sections, as imperfect as they may be, are afaik about the only place left on the internet where somewhat fact-based discussions of contentious topics happen. The flagged comment is pretty inscrutable but I think I can explain the overall sentiment a bit better: half the country is under the impression that much of the science spending in this country is wasteful or even pernicious. They hear stories about studies of "racist highways" and "periods in transgender men," or the CDC claiming racism and gun control are diseases it should control, and think "why am I paying for this?". Combine this with the perception that the science establishment really shat the bed in their response to covid--lying about its origins, lying about the efficacy of masks, lying about the efficacy of the vaccine, lying about two more weeks, pushing ineffective and harmful lockdowns, etc--and half the country is ready to burn the whole thing down. I, personally, know that science in general is a great good and should be funded. But the craziness, corruption, and dishonesty have to be excised or people are not going to support it. To your comment in particular, the people supportive of these cuts don't think they're dragging us back to the dark ages. They think they're excising a tumor.
      • kbenson 1y ago
        I don't think most here would disagree about the perceptions that each side has. The problem is that is imperfect a lens to reality they are, it sure seems like the one side has embraced much of the fundamentals of QAnon even if most haven't realized it.
      • munchler 1y ago
        I'm happy to have this discussion, but I think you're making a false equivalence between the two sides. The examples you provided of liberal scientific overreach are either false or exaggerated. On the other side, you have an anti-vaxxer running the Department of Health and a president who suggested ingesting bleach to treat covid. To respond to your examples specifically: * Racist highways: I don't know what this is about. * Periods in transgender men: This is a small, nuanced issue, not something worth destroying civilization over. * Racism is a disease: Again, not familiar with this. * Gun violence is a disease: It is the leading cause of death among children in this country, so treating it as an epidemic makes some sense. Should the CDC just pretend it's not happening? * Lying about the origins of covid: Not sure who lied about this. The actual origin may never be known, but it most likely evolved from a disease that affected animals in Asia. There is no evidence that it was developed deliberately by China as a bioweapon. * Lying about the efficacy of masks: Again, not sure what lie you're referring to. Masking was a rational response to an unknown virus. Since covid is a highly contagious respiratory disease, too much masking is certainly better than not enough masking. * Lying about the efficacy of the vaccine: Again, not sure what lie you're referring to. The covid vaccines saved many thousands of lives. * Pushing ineffective and harmful lockdowns: This was another rational response to an unknown virus. Lockdowns saved lives, even though they caused huge disruptions. Your claim that the scientific community overreacted to covid is particularly unjustified and concerning to me. People like Anthony Fauci should be celebrated as heroes, not vilified.
    • lurk2 1y ago
      [flagged]
      • munchler 1y ago
        I'll tell you what: I'll admit that one side has put too much emphasis on the freedom to choose one's sexual identity if you'll admit that the other side has put too much emphasis on resisting such choices.
        • lurk2 1y ago
          I appreciate the effort to be conciliatory but I think this undermines the point you were making. Anti-scientific thinking has proliferated in left-wing spheres since the mid-2010s. This was one obvious example, but you also have the rejection of psychometrics and heredity (admittedly more among academics than actual scientists), an (albeit brief) embrace of Modern Monetary Theory, and then the “Trust the experts, believe in science” mantra of the early 2020s. I just don’t see a lot of evidence to support the idea that progressives are exceptionally rational.
  • biophysboy 1y ago
    What do you think the research goals of the NIH are? Why do you think the debt is decreasing now?
• whatshisface 1y ago
  The administration is also pressing for a 55% budget cut to the National Science Foundation. The NSF is the primary funding agency for engineering, physics, mathematics, chemistry and computer science, among many other fields. If there's any doubt about the seriousness of that situation, the director has resigned over it. When some worried that US world leadership in physical and life sciences may be surpassed in a generation, I doubt anyone realized it could happen in one year. https://www.science.org/content/article/nsf-director-resign-amid-grant-terminations-job-cuts-and-controversy https://www.science.org/content/article/nsf-director-resign-...
  • ImaCake 1y ago
    >I doubt anyone realized it could happen in one year I mean China has been modernizing their academics for a long time. See "Double First-Class Construction" [0]. But it's worth remembering that they did a lot of damage during the Cultural Revolution. 0. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_First-Class_Construction https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_First-Class_Constructio...
    • jimbob45 1y ago
      China has a highly unique language for foreigners to acclimate to. While I salute the effort for and commitment to higher education, I’m not sure this will bring the boon they’re hoping for. I would have suggested that they create a high-quality course for introducing westerners to their language instead. It’s the sort of thing that everyone takes for granted that it exists but often doesn’t (where is the Wheelock’s for Spanish these days?) Tonality, pictography, and a highly analytic morphology are all high barriers for any language learners, let alone all three at once.
      • seanmcdirmid 1y ago
        AI has made real time translation very feasible, I don’t think Chinese will be much if a language barrier for foreign students and researchers in the near future. You can do it all in a local model with a moderately powerful mobile GPU. We are almost at the point where you put some ear buds in your ear and some glasses could handle reading…etc…
• saturdaysaint 1y ago
  Fascinating, then, how the head of DOGE has deep financial interests in China. It’s really not out of bounds to suggest that his benefactors could’ve pulled some strings to kneecap the US.
  • ToucanLoucan 1y ago
    Never attribute to malice what is equally explained by incompetence, and these morons have been openly saying this is what they want to do for years. We’re so unbelievably fucked.
    • Loughla 1y ago
      No. No. That no longer applies, and I would argue never applies to a publicly funded entity like the federal government. When you're spending public dollars there is zero difference between incompetence and malice. This administration has shown that it absolutely isn't incompetent. It's getting stuff done. Which means it's malice. Guaranteed. We're watching a self made disaster where few will profit, but will profit ENORMOUSLY.
      • sudoshred 1y ago
        The public officials have a vested interest in appearing incompetent, for legal reasons. Examine the incentives to understand the behavior.
    • __MatrixMan__ 1y ago
      But it's not equally explained by incompetence. One does not accidentally orchestrate such a clean handoff to their competitor.
• forgotpwagain 1y ago
  Indeed, now is the moment to step on the gas in biotech. The past 15 years have been nothing short of extraordinary in the field. We finally have the tools needed to effectively measure biology, manipulate biology, and increasingly predict biology. More recently, we have been able to turn more and more problems into computational problems. With all of this coming together, we should be accelerating both public and private investment in biotechnology because we're getting closer and closer to transformative therapies. But...we're failing to rise to the occasion and meet the moment.
  • EMIRELADERO 1y ago
    Could you give some examples/directions for interesting things that have popped up in the period you're mentioning? Sounds like a fun time.
    • DrAwdeOccarim 1y ago
      Not op, but I’m in the field and can give you some things to read about: - CAR-T - CRISPR - PRIME editing - Base editing - Modified mRNA - PD-1 inhibitors - On the cusp of personalized cancer vaccines - ADCs - Structure correctors - Targeted protein degraders - siRNAs These have all really hit their stride in the past 15 years. Guess where all of them initially came from? Random ass government-funded academic research. Sure, you can split hairs with me on the 15 years and NIH/NSF etc funding, but it’s basically true. We are killing the golden goose…
      • sudoshred 1y ago
        Are any of these technologies profitable currently?
        • DrAwdeOccarim 1y ago
          Unsure if you’re genuine or trying to be edgy, but I’ll bite—-yes, most of them make significant profits currently.
• oldpersonintx 1y ago
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• mchusma 1y ago
  Without commenting on the cuts themselves, this article suggests its regulatory reform that is needed to keep up.