How is the sequester affecting science in America?
The Federal Government's budget sequester has left the nation's science and technology funding at its lowest in years. As predicted, labs are ditching projects and scientists; researchers are looking overseas for jobs and funding; health initiatives are being hamstrung; and federal agencies across the board are floundering. Here's what you need to know about the state of science in America.
Get yourself up to speed: The Huffington Post's Sam Stein has been covering the sequester's impact on science in America for months now. His in-depth feature is a great place to start. When you're through, check out this from-the-field followup post that goes through some of the feedback Stein received from scientists on how the sequestration is killing their projects left and right – literally and figuratively. Robert E. Marc, Ph.D., Distinguished Professor of Ophthalmology at the University of Utah School of Medicine, writes:
I have riffed one postdoctoral fellow and euthanized many beautiful, rare and expensive transgenic rabbits that were new, exciting models for testing new therapies for human retinal degenerations. We petted them, played with them, fed them treats. Now they are dead. I blame Congress directly for that.
...the sequester's cost is tremendously understated as no one is counting the destroyed investments. I've spent over $25,000 developing a colony of animals who have a progressive age dependent blindness. Because of the sequester we've killed them before we could finish the treatment study. We saved about $4000 from this year's budget. We thus wasted 5x more money than the sequester saved. When and if Congress ever does anything again, it will be years before we get our new blindness treatment study back on line. If it doesn't get better soon, I'll retire early and then 15 people will be unemployed.
Researchers across the country are being placed under similar pressure to cut people and projects. A funding report from the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology shows NIH funding is 22 percent ($4.7-billion) less than it was in 2003, and at its lowest inflation-adjusted appropriations level since the turn of the millenium. A study released earlier this year by the American Society of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (ASBMB) revealed nearly half of researchers receiving federal science funding have recently laid off, or will lay off, members of their lab.
more
http://io9.com/how-is-the-sequester-affecting-science-in-america-1283470414
= new reply since forum marked as read
