White House budget proposal could shatter the National Science Foundation

[dalton99a]

https://arstechnica.com/science/2025/02/white-house-budget-proposal-could-shatter-the-national-science-foundation/

White House budget proposal could shatter the National Science Foundation
"This kind of cut would kill American science and boost China."
Eric Berger – Feb 6, 2025 4:38 PM

...

During an emotional all-hands meeting on Tuesday, the agency's assistant director for engineering, Susan Margulies, told agency employees to expect between a quarter and a half of its staff to be laid off within the coming months, E&E News reported.

On Thursday, two sources told Ars that the science agency should expect to see steep cuts in Trump's forthcoming budget request. In recent years, the National Science Foundation has received an annual budget of approximately $9 billion, the vast majority of which is spent on research and research-related activities. The cuts could be as deep as 66 percent, with one person indicating the top-line budget number for the National Science Foundation could start at $3 billion.

"This kind of cut would kill American science and boost China and other nations into global science leadership positions," Neal Lane, who led the National Science Foundation in the 1990s during Bill Clinton's presidency, told Ars. "The National Science Foundation budget is not large, of the order 0.1 percent of federal spending, and several other agencies support excellence research. But NSF is the only agency charged to promote progress in science."

The National Science Foundation was established by Congress in 1950 to fund basic research that would ultimately advance national health and prosperity, and secure the national defense. Its major purpose is to evaluate proposals and distribute funding for basic scientific research. Alongside the National Institutes of Health and Department of Energy, it has been an engine of basic discovery that has led to the technological superiority of the United States government and its industries.

Some fields, including astronomy, non-health-related biology, and Antarctic research, are all almost entirely underwritten by the National Science Foundation. The primary areas of its funding can be found here.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

https://new.nsf.gov/impacts#brought-to-you-by-nsf-467

Innovations and discoveries made possible through NSF support:

The internet
Drawing on DARPA's pioneering support for early computer networking projects, NSF funding catalyzed the creation of today's internet.

DNA amplification
Polymerase chain reaction, a lab technique that powers today's biotechnology sector, traces its roots to NSF funding.

3D printing
3D printing is spurring a manufacturing revolution in the U.S. thanks to decades of NSF investments.

Doppler radar
Decades of NSF–funded research have improved the capabilities of the national Doppler radar network.

American Sign Language
NSF funding revolutionized education for deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals in the United States.

Detecting gravitational waves
Opened in 1999, NSF LIGO was the first to detect gravitational waves: ripples in space-time.

Geographic Information Systems (GIS)
NSF investments helped chart the course for the technologies that use spatial data to make people's lives more convenient.

Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI)
One of the most widely used medical imaging technologies is rooted in decades of NSF-powered research.

CAPTCHA and reCAPTCHA
The tools that keep badly behaving bots from taking over the internet were invented by NSF-funded researchers.

Kidney matching
Decades of NSF funding for economic and algorithm research has facilitated thousands of lifesaving kidney transplants every year.

Seeing black holes
Thanks to NSF support, international researchers have now captured images of two black holes, including the one at the center of the Milky Way galaxy.

Duolingo
One of the most popular language-learning tools got its start from NSF funding.

LASIK eye surgery
Decades of NSF funding supported the development of bladeless LASIK, which uses a laser instead of a scalpel to reshape a patient's cornea and improve their vision.

Deep-ocean exploration
Decades of NSF-funded deep-sea research and subseafloor ocean drilling reveal fundamental knowledge about the entire Earth system.

Learning beyond the classroom
Throughout its history, NSF has made the excitement of scientific discovery available to everyone by investing in children's TV programming, movies, museum exhibits and apps.

...

[MrWowWow]

1. NSF Will Be Privatized

-If and unless a Blue Wave happens next year with the midterms. If we get into a war or anorher pandemic, we'll be under martial law. NSF funding won't be a national concern if we're at war or sick with bird flu or whatever.

[royable]

2. NSF funding, or the lack of it, could well be a national concern if we're at war.

NSF funds space weather prediction and research. Among many other things, this includes prediction and monitoring of the solar magnetic field and solar flares that can affect the Earth environment, such as satellites and the ability to rely on communications with drones.

I"m sure there are many other aspects of NSF-funded research that is of military interest.

Of course, considering that we wouldn't necessarily be on the side of our "government," I don't know what its matters...

[Starbeach]

3. Open and Deliberate Sabotage

I bet they get an extra thrill to destroy an institution labeled “Science.”

[Passages]

4. Yes and so much more.

They sponsor internships through academia and their purpose is to educate and then help people with disabilities to become employable. I cannot begin to fathom the level of depravity it takes for two billionaires to be gleeful about such an endeavor.

[dalton99a]

5. +1