Commentary: Science is money

2 weeks ago 62

There is a difference between ignorance and stupidity. Ignorance can be cured; stupidity just rolls on and on. It is encumbered by neither elucidation nor modesty. Stupidity is in love with itself.

Given your choice, you always want to deal with ignorance. Ignorance does not love itself. It is painfully aware of its condition and seeks remedy. Thank goodness, the intelligent know that you can learn your way out of ignorance. Nothing fixes stupidity.

This is how I know that the current administration and its war on science is seated in stupidity and not ignorance. Stupidity is easily wounded. It is made arrogant through belligerent fear of exposure. So, let’s deal with ignorance instead and see if we can coax out a little illumination.

First, science means money. Every dollar spent on scientific research yields about $5 in economic progress. From nanotechnology to biometrics to solar technology, we live in a world where scientific research creates jobs and revenue of all kinds. Supporting scientific research means building the economy through land, labor, capital and entrepreneurship.

From colonial times forward, our nation has nurtured leaders in science as an investment in the future. We have encouraged both our own scientific minds and recruited those from around the world. What we have offered these scientists has served us well. One-third of our Nobel Prize winners have been foreign-born.

But now, our American scientists are actively seeking opportunities outside this nation. France, Canada, Australia and other nations are looking like both safe and productive harbors for our best minds. More than 1,200 American scientists said they were considering working abroad. Nature magazine’s job-search platform saw a 32% increase in applications for overseas positions.

Why the exodus? There is no mystery.

Three of my four grandparents immigrated to the United States from other countries. They came because what was ahead of them looked inviting and what lay behind them was devastatingly difficult. Not just hard times — we all wait and wade our way through hard times — no, what lay behind was ugly and dangerous to the point of soul-draining. You do not leave the land, people and culture you know for a land where you don’t even share a common language without compelling need. No one immigrates on a whim.

Why this exodus of scientific, money generating, job creating talent? Again, no mystery.

The current administration has defunded university studies on AIDS, pediatric cancer, aging and solar physics. The administration has laid off thousands of federal scientists, including meteorologists at the National Weather Service; pandemic-preparedness experts at the CDC; black-lung researchers at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. Even a next-generation space observatory, already built, ready and waiting (at the cost of $3.5 billion), awaits a launch that now may never happen. All because our current president doesn’t like science and scientists. He does not understand them. He has not that capacity.

Indeed, the president’s governance is erratic and illogical apropos of science. His government has expunged public data sets on air quality, earthquake intensity and seabed geology. You don’t cut the budget by erasing records. So why destroy the data? We pursue data to inform our decisions. What actions does this administration want (or not want) to pursue that are sensitive to already accumulated data?

Science has plenty of room for skepticism and debate. That’s what makes it work. But this constant attack on science is self-serving and disingenuous. Like in the novel 1984 by George Orwell, doublespeak is being used to obfuscate truth. “Facts are elite, facts are fungible, facts are false.” The goal is simple: Once nothing is true, anything can be true. But research based on lies and lack of data doesn’t create jobs. Denial of facts does not change reality. Garbage in equals garbage out.

If you want to grow the economy, you had better love science — real science — and keep the faith.

Louise Butler is a retired educator and published author who lives in Edinburg. She writes for our Board of Contributors.