Yesterday, I took a lot of time that I didn’t really have to watch Marcia McNutt’s presentation to the National Academies. I know there was a panel discussion afterwards, but didn’t watch it because McNutt’s talk was so frustrating.
And all I can say is, “Thank you, Heather Wilson.”
Wilson, president of the University of Texas El Paso, was the only panelist – of five! – who even came close to addressing the unfolding self-inflicted extinction event that is unfolding on American science.
She was the only one who talked about the president’s budget request to the American Congress, which proposed slashing science by amounts not seen in decades.
She was the only one who talked about getting grants terminated. (“That’s not ‘woke science,’ that’s genetics” she said at one point, gathering applause.)
She said science’s moral authority derives from its pursuit of truth,
I sent her a “Thank you” email for saying what she did.
The other panelists? Like McNutt, they were so concerned about showing a silver lining that they could not admit there was a cloud.
Or, to use a better known metaphor, “Rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.”
It is wild to listen to people talk about “needing to inspire kids in K-12 to take science and math” (biology is usually the most popular major of undergraduate students), how “scientists need to communicate with the public better” (no supporting data or acknowledgement of the fractured information ecosystem run by algorithms and gatekeepers), and, worst of all from former adviser to the current president, Kelvin Droegemeier:
We don’t want folks to walk out of here thinking, “Oh my god, it’s all doom and gloom.” Doom and gloom is the best opportunity to do really exciting, forward-thinking things.
That came . Such a flippant “Go make lemonade” dismissal of how much harm is being done by that president now.
Photo from here.
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