By all measures of history, the rise of the United States as the most powerful, innovative, and prosperous country on Earth wasn’t simply due to its sheer size, natural resources, or even military dominance.
It was because the best and brightest minds from around the world came here—not just for opportunity, but because the U.S. was once the global epicenter of scientific discovery, academic freedom, and research excellence.
That may no longer be true.
A new survey from Nature reveals a chilling statistic: more than three-quarters of scientists in the U.S.—including the youngest and most promising Ph.D. candidates—are actively considering leaving the country.
Their top choices? Countries like Canada and those in Europe, where government support for science and innovation remains strong.
These aren’t just theoretical grumblings; these are people who have dedicated their lives to knowledge, discovery, and public health, now actively preparing to pack up their labs and leave.
Why? Because the current administration has declared war on science. It turns out cutting access to research grants through the NIH and National Academy of Sciences may have serious consequences.
Fueled by anti-intellectualism and a radicalized Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), entire federal agencies have been gutted. The National Institutes of Health (NIH)—arguably the world’s most important institution for public health research—has seen equity-focused studies slashed.
Grants for studying Black maternal mortality, HIV, and other critical public health issues have been erased overnight. Even indirect costs, the logistical scaffolding of modern research, have been arbitrarily capped at 15 percent.
And the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is bleeding talent amid sweeping layoffs—at a time when climate change increasingly threatens our environment.
“This isn’t just about research—it’s about jobs, economic stability, and America’s future as a leader in innovation,” said Dr. Theanne Griffith, an assistant professor at UC Davis School of Medicine during an interview with the Vanguard earlier this month.
Brandon Zipp, a UC Davis alum and biotech entrepreneur, explained that the ripple effects of federal budget cuts extend beyond the university and into private industry.
“I wouldn’t be where I am today without federal research funding,” Zipp said. “Right now, I’m fundraising for my startup, and a lot of venture capital groups are just holding tight, waiting to see what happens before making investments. New medicines aren’t going to be developed because of what’s happening at the federal level.”
Zipp warned that these cuts will set science back years, if not decades. “This is going to affect all aspects of society,” he said. “Science is universal. It’s not about politics. It’s about progress.”
And most frightening is the potential for the cuts to impact the next generation of scientists.
“Graduate students at UC Davis are asking, ‘Will there be money for us to continue our research?’ And we don’t have an answer,” said Charis Ramsing, a UC Davis graduate student specializing in plant pathology. “Many schools are already canceling admissions because there’s simply no funding available.”
Let’s be clear: these aren’t just “budget cuts.” This is the systematic dismantling of American scientific infrastructure.
And it’s suicidal.
This country didn’t lead the world because we silenced dissent, ignored data, or mocked expertise. We led because we welcomed Einstein, funded NASA, and built a research pipeline that lifted generations of scientists into careers that saved lives, cured diseases, and launched revolutions in technology.
How, exactly, does driving scientists out of the country make America great?
There is no version of a thriving, competitive, 21st-century America that doesn’t depend on science. Curing cancer, fighting pandemics, understanding climate change, creating new energy technologies—none of it happens without robust, well-funded, independent research. When the government cuts grants, shutters agencies, and scapegoats scientists, it’s not just a betrayal of our values—it’s a betrayal of our future.
More than 75 percent of Americans still trust scientists to act in the public’s best interest, according to Pew. But what happens when those scientists leave? What happens when the world’s best minds take their ideas, their cures, and their discoveries somewhere else?
If America wants to remain a leader in anything—health, innovation, defense, the economy—we cannot afford to let our brainpower walk out the door. We must ask ourselves: what kind of country are we becoming, when we treat knowledge as a threat and evidence as an inconvenience?
History will not remember us kindly if we choose ignorance over advancement. Great nations don’t shrink their brains—they invest in them.
“A new survey from Nature reveals a chilling statistic: more than three-quarters of scientists in the U.S.—including the youngest and most promising Ph.D. candidates—are actively considering leaving the country.”
Hell, almost every democrat says they’re planning on leaving the country but hardly any do. It’s all just overblown rhetoric.
See what happens if their funding gets cut
Then I guess other countries will have to fund their transgender animal studies.
That’s not the only funding that they are cutting. I can tell you a friend of mine, one of the top scientists in the world in his field, long time UC Davis professor, member of the National Academy of Sciences is opening a lab in China because of funding cuts – a multi-billion dollar lab. I don’t see how we can afford to lose this kind of work and be competitive on the world stage.
If his funds were cut, where is getting multiple billions of dollars to open a lab in China? Serious question.
China’s funding the new lab.
” a multi-billion dollar lab”
Not just a multi-million but a multi-billion.
$3 billion
“China’s funding the new lab.”
What could go wrong?
” . . . more than three-quarters of scientists in the U.S.—including the youngest and most promising Ph.D. candidates—are actively considering leaving the country.”
Also ‘actively considering’ leaving the country — three-quarters of Hollywood just before a scary Republican comes into office. At least Ellen DeGeneres and Rosie O’Donnell actually followed through, but that’s a fraction of a percent, not 75%, and I doubt we’ll see a much higher ‘brain drain’ than we saw an ‘entertainment drain’.
It’s one thing to have ideological differences with the governing party, it’s another to have your career’s funding cut off. We’ll see how this all shakes out.
Working at UC Davis years ago and seeing how grants were doled out, working in the non-profit world and in government, I have become quite cynical about how grant money decisions are made and how funding is justified. I’m not by a mile saying all grants are unworthy, but some are transparently just matching the words in the application to the words in the grant and ‘saying it is, just what they want’. Yes, I have serious concerns about the speed with which these cuts are being made, because there is clearly no time to analyze the harm being done. But, Yes, I have long had serious concerns about the vast waste in government spending. And I think many Americans have had serious concerns as well, which is why there is so much support for the slash and burn at this point.
And at some point, we will see what the consequences are for that
At some point we’re going to see the consequences of our national debt if we don’t get it under control.
At the end of the Biden regime they were said to be “throwing gold bars off the Titanic”.
Keith you’re basically using the national debt as a rhetorical cudgel to justify cuts that in the grand scheme are fiscally meaningless but devastating in impact.
You’ve got to start somewhere and at sometime because we’re heading for a fiscal cliff.
What if what we are doing actually causes us to go off the cliff? I mean devastating science and technology is about the worst thing we can do for the economy. Musk has to know that. That leads me to believe he has another motivation.
Keith, let’s look at your National Debt cudgel a bit more closely. As the graph below shows, in the four years of Trump’s presidency, 2017 2018 2019 and 2020, there were consistently increasing deficits every year, culminating with the worst deficit ever. As a result the national debt rose faster under Trump than it ever had in US history, Biden actually reduced the deficit two years in a row while fighting Covid.
That isn’t to say the national debt isn’t a problem, it is. But Trump was a very bad actor vis a vis the national debt while he was in office.
Matt asked me to post this:
“That leads me to believe he has another motivation.”
Here we go, conspiracy theories.
Nice dodge. For the economy – debt may matter, but economic growth matters more.
David, you can bring those two together by looking at national debt as a percentage of GDP. I will send you a helpful graphic for this as well.
Looking at the chart all three, Obama Trump and Biden were all not good keepers of the debt. At least now Trump is trying to do something about it. Why aren’t you guys on board?
I’m on board Keith, but you have been painting Trump as a saint on this issue and the facts don’t support your painting. Further, a huge portion of the deficits from 2017 to 2024 is a direct result of the Trump tax cuts which have been in place in all those years, and which Trump now wants to renew and expand. That will produce even more deficit adding to the national debt.
“I’m on board Keith, but you have been painting Trump as a saint on this issue and the facts don’t support your painting.”
I have not been painting Trump as a saint on this issue. I’m just saying that Trump is trying to now rein in the spending instead of taxing the people more.
” Further, a huge portion of the deficits from 2017 to 2024 is a direct result of the Trump tax cuts which have been in place in all those years”
Looking at the chart the Obama years were full of deficit spending and you can’t blame Trump for that.
“I have not been painting Trump as a saint on this issue.”
Your words tell a different story
“At the end of the Biden regime they were said to be “throwing gold bars off the Titanic”.”
Obama inherited a recession, and he absolutely did amp up the deficit in bring us out of that housing bubble driven Great Recession.
Trump inherited a robust economy and in order to keep that economy going he reduced taxes and maintained Obama’s high level of government spending.
The last President to run a surplus was Bill Clinton (with help from Newt Gingrich and Tip O’Neill.
It’s a revolt against the intelligentsia. Who knew Trump would become America’s Mao?
“It’s a revolt against the intelligentsia.”
Who knew the intelligentsia were so unintelligentsiant?
“Who knew Trump would become America’s Mao?”
Can we just talk about what someone is or does, all persons, without attempting to draw parallels to the most populist evil figures from history. Hilter Hitler Hitler, and now Mao Mao Mao.
By the way every morning I ask my cat, “Who ruled China from from 1949 to 1976? Chairman . . . ”
And he always gets it right. Smarter than the intelligentsia that cat.
By the time you recognize something’s very wrong, it’s going to be too late to do anything about it
“By the time you recognize something’s very wrong, it’s going to be too late to do anything about it”
Not really. We recognized something was very wrong with Biden, and with Harris.
So “we” did something about it, and now we have Trump.
I wasn’t part of the “we”, I voted for Rob Roy. And I’m not sure if the “disease” of the “cure” (new disease) is more toxic. I do know most of you are sure, and have fun enjoying your certainty. Since we don’t get parallel realities to look at, we’ll never know.
One of the more chilling statements from Elie Wiesel’s Night was: “This is the 20th century! Things like this don’t happen anymore. Not in civilized Europe.’”
It was a most chilling statement, particularly since that wasn’t 1933 Berlin, it was 1944 Hungary after 3 million-plus Jews were killed. And yet even then people wouldn’t believe. I used to wonder how that was possible, but now I see it. If you want to call Biden – Weimar be my guest, but we all know what happened next. The problem now is we’re in the middle of. We’re the frog in the slowly heating pot and some of us don’t recognize that it’s boiling and we’re all going to die. By the time you figure it out, it’ll be too late. The banality of denial.
“Elie Wiesel”
Is that a friend of Tupac’s ?
“We’re the frog in the slowly heating pot and some of us don’t recognize that it’s boiling and we’re all going to die. By the time you figure it out, it’ll be too late. The banality of denial.”
And yet I see that threat from the left as well as from the right, and you only see it from the right.
I am thrilled that Biden and Harris and that whole shockwave is out of power and terminated because the direction the country was going in was terrifying . . . and I am terrified by what replaced it, for completely different reasons.
Actually, I’m in a perpetual state of terror, especially over the policies of the City Council and County Supervisors. I use a powerful cocktail of Ketamine and Propofol administered by a veterinary student every evening, just so I can sleep
You don’t know who Elie Wiesel is?
Giving you ever opportunity to look down on me and feel superior due to my poor education and culturing.
Do you know who Gwen Stefani is?
No doubt
As David has already observed at length, it makes no sense to cut science grants. Almost all of our major medical breakthroughs have occurred at large, publicly-funded research universities. Big Pharma doesn’t do hard science, they run clinical trials– important no doubt, but not the place where discoveries are made. Trump has thrown a monkey wrench into that engine of growth and discovery. Why? Because most smart people hate him so he wants to mess with smart people. If he were really interested in saving tax dollars, he’d take a machete to the defense budget– those guys piss away tens of billions on nonsense. And by the way, even the Chinese compare Trump to Mao.
I’ll try again and stop at Jews . . .
“Because most smart people hate him so he wants to mess with smart people.”
So you are calling Trump supporters ‘mostly not smart people’ ?
As people like to say here, please cite your data source. “even the Chinese compare Trump to Mao.”
Do ‘even the Jews’ compare Trump to Hitler?
So what was wrong with the rest of the list — all groups of people rounded up for extermination by the Nazis ?
What do you think of Trump’s decision to revoke the collective bargaining rights of almost a million Americans?
“What do you think of Trump’s decision to revoke the collective bargaining rights of almost a million Americans?”
Trump is doing a lot of things, probably too many too fast — please link to an article on the issue you are referring to and I’ll post my opinion.
Generally, public employee unions shouldn’t exist. I quite the political fee on mine the moment I was able, and quite the union completely once that became legal. I am mostly supportive of private unions up to the point they become overly-wealthy to the point some become the very type of entity they are in opposition to.
Ok, I think I found what you are referring to, BW. Yes, I agree with Trump, and I hope he makes all government unions illegal. They are essentially bargaining both sides of the table. Us government employees get plenty of benefits, thank you, and I never once agreed with my former union on a single issue. As I said, I generally support private unions.
Oh my, I’ve heard Trump called Hitler, Mussolini but never Mao until now. Hey that rhymes…
I hadn’t thought of it before, but there are some interesting parallels between Trump and the cultural revolution. The Cultural Revolution under Mao saw a sustained assault on established institutions, the elevation of loyalty over expertise, the purging of perceived enemies, and the use of mass propaganda to shape a cult of personality.
There are clear parallels with how Trump weaponized rhetoric against the “deep state,” attacked the legitimacy of the press, and demanded personal loyalty from officials. Not to mention the destruction of various prominent government institutions and the weeding out practices that Trump deems to be bad.
Then there’s the performative outrage, public denunciations, and attacks on education and expertise also feel like echoes of Red Guard tactics, though obviously the scale and context are vastly different at least so far.
But the tie is there. Brendan’s point is spot on.
Does Trump = Mao?
Not really. While both Donald Trump and Mao Zedong were strong political figures with significant influence, they had vastly different ideologies, leadership styles, and historical impacts.
Key Differences:
Ideology:
Mao was a communist revolutionary who led China through a radical transformation into a socialist state.
Trump is a capitalist businessman and former U.S. president with a focus on nationalism, deregulation, and conservative policies.
Leadership Style:
Mao ruled as a one-party dictator with absolute control over China, enforcing policies like the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution, which led to mass suffering.
Trump, while controversial, operated within a democratic system with checks and balances, facing legal challenges and electoral opposition.
Impact on Society:
Mao reshaped China’s entire political and economic system, often using mass mobilization, propaganda, and repression.
Trump influenced American politics significantly but did not fundamentally alter the U.S. system.
Use of Media & Personality Cult:
Both used strong rhetoric and populism to mobilize supporters, but Mao’s cult of personality was far more extreme, with mandatory ideological adherence.
Trump has a devoted base but operates in a media-driven, multi-party democracy.
While both leaders were disruptive and appealed to populist sentiments, their goals, methods, and systems of governance were fundamentally different.
Keith – you didn’t ask AI the right question. The point was not that Trump IS Mao. What I said is that there are some common threads between what Trump has done and the cultural revolution, and I acknowledged in my comment that he has not gone near as far Mao had gone (at least not yet). Despite that, I find it ironic that AI gave a far more nuanced answer than you were willing to give.
Then I asked one of my tools ‘ways that progressives parallel Mao’:
1. Emphasis on Revolution and Social Change
Mao sought to radically transform Chinese society, especially through land redistribution and the Cultural Revolution.
Progressives advocate for major systemic changes, such as wealth redistribution, racial justice policies, and restructuring institutions they see as oppressive.
2. Class and Identity Struggles
Mao focused on class struggle, pitting the proletariat against the bourgeoisie.
Progressives often emphasize systemic oppression and privilege based on race, gender, and class, advocating for policies to redress perceived historical injustices.
3. Youth Mobilization
Mao’s Red Guards were young, radicalized activists who enforced ideological purity during the Cultural Revolution.
Progressive movements often rely on young activists in movements like climate change, racial justice, and LGBTQ+ rights, though within legal and democratic frameworks.
4. Language Policing and Cultural Control
Mao controlled speech and thought through ideological campaigns, public denunciations, and re-education.
Some critics argue that progressives enforce ideological conformity through cancel culture, political correctness, and social shaming for dissenting views.
5. Rewriting History
Mao promoted historical revisionism to fit communist ideology.
Progressives are sometimes accused of pushing historical reinterpretations (e.g., through initiatives like The 1619 Project) that challenge traditional narratives.
6. State Involvement in Economy and Society
Mao believed in a state-controlled economy with centralized planning.
Progressives advocate for increased government intervention in healthcare, education, and wealth redistribution, though still within a capitalist framework.
Great. I request that people stop comparing politicians they don’t like to peak evil politicians from history and just discuss the actual issues today, and DG doubles down. Sheesh.
Hehe
” . . . also feel like echoes of Red Guard tactics, though obviously the scale and context are vastly different at least so far.”
I’m sure the mass murder part is just around the corner
Alan, Trump’s decision to strip Americans of their right to bargain collectively with their employers for their mutual aid and protection is fundamentally wrong, indeed evil. He has expressly robbed almost a million federal workers of that right. And by firing the 3rd member of the NLRB— probably an unlawful decision even from the perspective of this lawless Supreme Court—he has left all private-sector workers without a legal mechanism to obtain union representation or redress of unfair labor practices. These are not innocent acts or a simple political stunt. Stop acting like there’s no proof the man is a dangerous megalomaniac.
I agree with Trump on some things, I disagree on others; I’m not ‘acting like’ anything. I believe that public employee unions should not exist. I do support, to the point when they approach the corruption levels of the corporations, private unions.
Alan – it doesn’t matter whether you agree or disagree with public employee unions, they exist and have legal standing and you can’t arbitrarily change that.
A lot of legal things exist that you don’t like.
I never once agreed with a single thing my public union (SEIU) did or took a stand on. Laws change. When they allowed us to not contribute the portion of our dues the court deemed to be used for political purposes, I stopped paying those dues. When they allowed us to quit the union and stop paying altogether, I quit the union.
Public employee unions essential place the government and the employees on the same side against the taxpayer and are ideologically almost universally left-wing extreme in their policies and politics.
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