Three prominent researchers warn about the current existential threat in the United States
Helmut Schwarz has been reading about what happened to science during the rise of Adolf Hitler, almost a century ago.
The German chemist just received the Frontiers of Knowledge Award from the BBVA Foundation in Spain, due to his contributions to the field of catalysis. For him, there are parallels between the situation in Nazi Germany and Trump’s United States.
“From 1900 to 1932, a third of all Nobel Prizes went to Germany, more than to the U.S. and the U.K. combined,” he tells EL PAÍS. He and two other scientists sat down with EL PAÍS in Bilbao, where they received their awards.
“When Hitler came to power,” he continues, “German science — which led the world — completely disintegrated. But Hitler thought that wouldn’t be a problem,” he continues. Now, Donald Trump’s administration views universities — supposed hotbeds of progressive ideology — as the enemy. He wants to bring them under his control. “In my opinion, the threat isn’t immediate, but it’s very important in the long term,” Schwarz adds.
Luckily the reality that science attempts to measure doesn’t care about politics and will still exist no matter what he says. What it does mean is that it’ll be discovered in another country and the US will grow more and more isolated
UsA WILL decline like russia does, since russia is known to fund groups like these besides right wing governments.
As someone looking at this from the outside (and also with an interest in space) the saddest part for me personally has been the decline of NASA. I’m doubtful they will ever get back the prestige they once held after all is said and done. I hope I’m wrong but… yeah.
Also while I’m on the topic - I have my doubts about the chances of a long term program successful enough to compete in Europe and that only really leaves one major player left on the field: China. Everyone else will presumably be playing catch-up in the foreseeable future unless something drastic happens.
…and with the probable war we are about to have on our hands it’s even worse. So much for science.
Unfortunatly science is influenced by politics and ideology. Scientific research rely on funding by political and ideological funders
yea, i have read on other platforms that when applying for grants, researchers after to be careful around global warming, like “who is to blame” if they point it as a human cause they are unlikely to get funded(the backers are often billionaire groups who are part of the problem" it would have to be labeled as something abstract to even be considered for funding. but its probably not as hard for every grant though. and i think many people in the PHD field hate doing grant writing , and thats another whole can of worms.