As elite researchers weigh leaving the U.S., the nation's once-unquestioned leadership in science teeters on the edge of collapse.
Ross Andersen reports for The Atlantic.
In short:
- Soviet physicist Roald Sagdeev’s story of a crumbling scientific empire echoes in today’s America, where researchers face political interference, dwindling funding, and increasing pressure to conform to ideology.
- The Trump administration’s second term has accelerated what critics call a “controlled demolition” of American science, from dismantling advisory panels to surveilling foreign researchers and slashing research budgets.
- Other nations are actively recruiting U.S. scientists disillusioned by these conditions, raising fears that America could lose its next generation of scientific talent.
Key quote:
“American science could lose a whole generation. Young people are already starting to get the message that science isn’t as valued as it once was.”
— Steven Shapin, science historian at Harvard
Why this matters:
America’s retreat from science leadership is a public health, environmental, and economic one that could reverberate for decades. When scientific institutions become politicized and underfunded, the consequences show up in everything from slower medical breakthroughs to weakened climate responses. In Ross Andersen’s dispatch, there are echoes of Cold War Soviet collapse, as American scientists now face dwindling federal funding, surveillance of foreign-born colleagues, and the growing fear that the next administration could finish gutting what's left.
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