There’ve been heaps of warnings since the start of the final term of President Trump (“second term” implies too much flex on what might follow) about the short- and long-term damage to American welfare and security from the Doge-led demolition of funding for research and budgets of relevant agencies and programs.
Andy: The warnings you cite are timely and well-founded.
The issue, as I see it, is that no one in the mainstream scientific community pays attention to the prescient warning 65 years ago: Eisenhower's in his farewell address. Not his first "military industrial complex" warning but his second warning about the federalization of scientific research.
NSF and others only fund "mainstream" science. That is rarely where breakthroughs occur. The scientists NASA funded, to use a recent example, certainly didn't fund reusable rockets.
For the past 13 years, NSF and others have funded putting social science into meteorology to improve the understanding and usefulness in tornado warnings. Yet, tornado warnings are --word for word -- the same language and format as they were 15 years ago.
I agree with President Eisenhower that the inventor in the garage may be intimidated by the costs involved today. But, there has to be a way to do better than, more or less, continuing the way we have been.
Andy: The warnings you cite are timely and well-founded.
The issue, as I see it, is that no one in the mainstream scientific community pays attention to the prescient warning 65 years ago: Eisenhower's in his farewell address. Not his first "military industrial complex" warning but his second warning about the federalization of scientific research.
NSF and others only fund "mainstream" science. That is rarely where breakthroughs occur. The scientists NASA funded, to use a recent example, certainly didn't fund reusable rockets.
For the past 13 years, NSF and others have funded putting social science into meteorology to improve the understanding and usefulness in tornado warnings. Yet, tornado warnings are --word for word -- the same language and format as they were 15 years ago.
I agree with President Eisenhower that the inventor in the garage may be intimidated by the costs involved today. But, there has to be a way to do better than, more or less, continuing the way we have been.
Great points, Mike, and I actually was unaware of the other Eisenhower warning. Here's a fascinating discussion of his warnings about a "scientific-technological elite." https://www.aaas.org/news/after-50-years-eisenhowers-warnings-against-scientific-elite-still-cause-consternation