Jul 16, 2025 08:33 PM
(This post was last modified: Jul 16, 2025 08:33 PM by C C.)
Contrary to the political narrative, a lot of government science funding doesn't go to science
https://www.science20.com/hank_campbell/...nce-257510
COVERED (excerpts):
1. Government has spent billions in science funding to engage in self-promotion to scientists. That should stop and the money should go toward science...
2. We won't lose leadership. Government has never funded the bulk of science research, it doesn't even fund the majority of basic research. What government does do that has value is give out visas to scientists, which is why America laps the field when it comes to Nobel Prizes...
3. Much of government science funding does not go to science and never has. A lot of science funding is actually tied up in government administration on the front end and universities treating science labs they way they do undergraduate student loans on the back end; like piggy banks. Academic science labs are basically small businesses. A scientist does the work to get a grant and he pays for graduate students and techs and equipment, plus nebulous university costs like electricity. Like sports, schools want science to be a profit center. Johns Hopkins spends an alarming amount of money they take from academics who got grants to recruit more academics who are proficient at getting government grants...
4. Science survived with less funding and a Democratic president who distrusted science a lot more than Trump; Bill Clinton. He is the president who gutted nuclear energy because his constituents hated science. He gave supplements a free pass. He diverted NIH funding from science to an alternative medicine outfit, National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine. He forced the US Department of Agriculture to create a marketing seal for Organic food, then made his own government exempt this new panel from USDA oversight. He prevented the Army Corps of Engineers from fixing the levees they wanted to fix because environmentalists objected, an anti-science decision that resulted in disaster when Hurricane Katrina hit...
5. The best thing for government-funded scientists is more awareness of how partisan and flawed the funding process really is...
6. Media simply cannot be trusted when it comes to Republicans. Was tuberculosis about to be cured before Trump took office? It was, if you believe corporate journalism and Democratic pundits.
We have heard the supernatural 'about to be cured if Republicans would get out of the way' claims many times before, like with human embryonic stem cells (hESCs). Democrats trotted out a grief-stricken former First Lady, Nancy Reagan, to claim if Bush would just stop banning hESC research, her beloved Ronnie's Alzheimer's could be cured.
There was one big problem with that, and it wasn't just that they exploited an elderly woman whom they had previously derided as a moron for believing in astrology. Clinton banned hESCs, not Bush... (MORE - missing details)
https://www.science20.com/hank_campbell/...nce-257510
COVERED (excerpts):
1. Government has spent billions in science funding to engage in self-promotion to scientists. That should stop and the money should go toward science...
2. We won't lose leadership. Government has never funded the bulk of science research, it doesn't even fund the majority of basic research. What government does do that has value is give out visas to scientists, which is why America laps the field when it comes to Nobel Prizes...
3. Much of government science funding does not go to science and never has. A lot of science funding is actually tied up in government administration on the front end and universities treating science labs they way they do undergraduate student loans on the back end; like piggy banks. Academic science labs are basically small businesses. A scientist does the work to get a grant and he pays for graduate students and techs and equipment, plus nebulous university costs like electricity. Like sports, schools want science to be a profit center. Johns Hopkins spends an alarming amount of money they take from academics who got grants to recruit more academics who are proficient at getting government grants...
4. Science survived with less funding and a Democratic president who distrusted science a lot more than Trump; Bill Clinton. He is the president who gutted nuclear energy because his constituents hated science. He gave supplements a free pass. He diverted NIH funding from science to an alternative medicine outfit, National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine. He forced the US Department of Agriculture to create a marketing seal for Organic food, then made his own government exempt this new panel from USDA oversight. He prevented the Army Corps of Engineers from fixing the levees they wanted to fix because environmentalists objected, an anti-science decision that resulted in disaster when Hurricane Katrina hit...
5. The best thing for government-funded scientists is more awareness of how partisan and flawed the funding process really is...
6. Media simply cannot be trusted when it comes to Republicans. Was tuberculosis about to be cured before Trump took office? It was, if you believe corporate journalism and Democratic pundits.
We have heard the supernatural 'about to be cured if Republicans would get out of the way' claims many times before, like with human embryonic stem cells (hESCs). Democrats trotted out a grief-stricken former First Lady, Nancy Reagan, to claim if Bush would just stop banning hESC research, her beloved Ronnie's Alzheimer's could be cured.
There was one big problem with that, and it wasn't just that they exploited an elderly woman whom they had previously derided as a moron for believing in astrology. Clinton banned hESCs, not Bush... (MORE - missing details)