from Hacker News

National Science Foundation freezes payments in response to executive orders

by mizzao on 2/1/25, 8:55 PM with 13 comments

• by duxup on 2/1/25, 9:13 PM

  >This presents a huge challenge to the NSF. The CHIPS and Science Act of 2022 has several provisions tied to NSF that explicitly require it to broaden participation in science, and earlier laws governing the foundation have similar language. That means that in addition to weighing the intellectual merit of proposals, NSF must consider how the research it funds will expand "participation of women and individuals from underrepresented groups" in science — something studies show leads to more productive science.

  So the order in this case violates the law?

  But who can defend the law if the department is staffed by loyalists, and there's a broader effort to filter out anyone "disloyal"?

• by coldcode on 2/1/25, 9:31 PM

  If you don't fund science, you give the world to other countries, especially China. If you only fund science that makes immediate profits, you never get them, as the foundation does not exist, and the researchers never learn enough to discover anything anyway.

  Science, engineering, medicine and technology do not invent themselves. It takes people, sometimes for decades, to make it happen overnight. If you spend nothing, you get nothing. I guess nothing is now the plan.