cross-posted from: https://sopuli.xyz/post/47799327

Centrists don't understand that science is already destroyed in the US, the shockwave just takes time to propagate through the system.

Make no mistake, we have no future without science and we have just unplugged science.

The National Science Foundation (NSF) is trimming this year’s budgets for hundreds of its traditional basic science programs by 20% to 30% or more even though its overall budget is down just 3%, Science has learned. NSF has not publicly explained the drastic cuts. But sources within and outside the agency, who did not want to be named, say they suspect the goal is to free up funds for a new $1.5 billion initiative, launched last month, meant to turn NSF-funded discoveries into new products and industries.

...

Program managers would normally rush to tell potential and current grantees about such dramatic changes. But the memo tells program managers to keep their mouths shut. “This information is highly confidential,” it reads. “Please do not communicate anything to PIs [principal investigators].”

Knowledgeable sources within and outside NSF have told Science about comparable cuts in many other units, including 60% for each of the three core research programs within the geosciences directorate. The agency’s biology directorate has been cut by $200 million from its FY 2025 level of roughly $800 million. And some directorates have been hit even harder. NSF is “dissolving” its smallest directorate, which funds social, behavioral, and economic sciences and has made only a handful of awards this fiscal year. The coming months could bring other cuts: For 2 years running, President Donald Trump has proposed slashing NSF’s $1 billion education directorate by nearly three-quarters.