There were three items in today’s “Nature Briefing” that really caught my attention. The first “China pledges billion-dollar spending boost for science” in Nature highlighted how China is significantly increasing its support for science. Juxtaposed to that article, the second also in Nature “National statistics are in crisis around the world — and the impacts will be severe” and the third one published by the Boston Globe & focused on Massachusetts (& may be behind a pay wall) “‘My scientific career is essentially over.’ A brain drain imperils Massachusetts’ biomedical future” , presents the opposite perspective. 

As the current administration devalues science, challenges expertise, and limits access to data-based information, other countries, particularly China, but also Canada, the UK, and the EU are forging ahead for dominance in the fields of biomedical advances, energy resources, and other technologies of the 21st century. As the Globe article notes, we are losing not only our current established scientists, but also our early career scientists and even our budding “scientists to be”, which is a recipe for a very bleak future. 

It’s imperative that we write our federal and state elected representatives and demand they support basic research, academic independence, & scientific excellence free of political interference. I encourage you to write your representatives today. If they support these qualities, please thank them for their support and encourage them to push for that support to continue. If they don’t support these qualities, remind them that we’re losing our current and future scientists and engineers and that loss will last for generations.

Please let me know your thoughts on this issue. And, please let me know the response you get from your emails and letters to your federal and state senators and representatives.

Cheers, Bill

[Note: “Nature Briefing” is a free daily email that is a wealth of information. For articles in Nature, you may need to set up a free account with Nature to read their articles for free. I was able to read the Boston Globe article for free, but it took a couple of tries.]