U.S. science is in chaos
Points and comments are a snapshot, not live.
Federal science funding faces mass cancellations and political censorship under Trump administration.
Nearly 4,000 NASA employees accepted buyouts; the Advanced X-ray Imaging Satellite (AXIS) was canceled after losing 20 team members. The NIH issued only 14 of 850 expected funding opportunity notices by March 2026. Program directors banned DEI-related language from grants. A Nature poll found 75% of 1,650 scientists considering leaving the U.S. The author traces the breakdown to post-COVID trust erosion and a shift from Bush's 1945 "Endless Frontier" model to venture-capital-driven innovation.
What commenters are saying
Commenters are saddened and angry, seeing the cuts as political control rather than frugality. One camp argues climate change is inconvenient for the wealthy, another that science has long had precarious cycles. A top comment criticizes DEI-related research as wasteful and celebrates its removal. Several note that junior researchers are leaving academia for industry, and the system was already toxic before these cuts. The thread splits between mourning the AXIS loss and viewing some funding cuts as overdue.