The New York Times reports:

President Trump’s tariffs could drive up prices. His efforts to reduce the federal work force could increase unemployment. But ask economists which of the administration’s policies they are most concerned about and many point to cuts to federal support for scientific research.

The Trump administration in recent weeks has canceled or frozen billions of dollars in federal grants made to researchers through the National Institutes of Health, and has moved to sharply curtail funding for academic medical centers and other institutions. It has also, through the initiative called the Department of Government Efficiency, tried to fire hundreds of workers at the National Science Foundation, an independent federal agency. And it has revoked the visas of hundreds of foreign-born students.

To economists, the policies threaten to undermine U.S. competitiveness in emerging areas like artificial intelligence, and to leave Americans as a whole poorer, less healthy and less productive in the decades ahead.

“Universities are tremendously important engines of innovation,” said Sabrina Howell, a New York University professor who has studied the role of the federal government in supporting innovation. “This is really killing the goose that lays the golden egg.”

Scientists have warned that the United States risks losing its status as a leader in cutting-edge research and its reputation as a magnet for top scientific minds from around the world. [Continue reading…]

The Guardian reports:

More than 1,900 members of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine signed an open letter warning Americans about the “danger” of the Trump administration’s attacks on science.

The letter comes amid the administration’s relentless assault on US scientific institutions which has included threats to private universities, federal grant cancelations and ideological funding reviews, mass government layoffs, resignations and censorship.

“We see real danger in this moment,” the letter states. “We hold diverse political beliefs, but we are united as researchers in wanting to protect independent scientific inquiry. We are sending this SOS to sound a clear warning: the nation’s scientific enterprise is being decimated.” [Continue reading…]

CBC reports:

Renowned Ottawa heart surgeon Marc Ruel was planning a move to the United States last year, with the University of California, San Francisco “thrilled to announce” that he would be leading a heart division in their surgery department.

But Donald Trump’s threats toward Canada were such that Ruel has now decided to remain in Canada.

“Canada is under duress right now,” he told CBC. “I felt my role and duty at this point was to directly serve my country from within.”

Ruel is not the only medical professional now reluctant to work in the United States.

That means Canada’s health-care system could stand to benefit from the political upheaval unleashed by the U.S. president, as American physicians look to move north and Canadians forgo opportunities south of the border.

For over a decade, Ruel served as the head of cardiac surgery at the University of Ottawa Heart Institute, developing world-leading techniques in less invasive bypass surgery.

Ruel says he considers his skills a product of Canada, abilities that he was ready to share globally when he accepted the position at UCSF last year.

“In the western United States, no one does this more advanced, minimally invasive multiple bypass surgery,” he said. [Continue reading…]