Last Friday, President Trump signed a new executive order that claims to ensure the US continues to fund smart, unbiased scientific research, Restoring Gold Standard Science. But, as Colette Delawalla et al. write for The Guardian, the executive order in fact undermines scientific independence. It gives political appointees the power to eliminate research they don’t approve of and exact punishment on anyone publishing research that is out of line with the Trump administration’s desires.
While the executive order defines gold standard science as transparent, conflict-free and all other good things, the order gives political appointees the ability to decide what research meets the gold standard and what research does not. These political appointees can punish anyone whose research they judge to be unacceptable, by simply stating that the researcher is engaged in scientific misconduct.
This executive order can do grave damage. During the Stalin era, a researcher who did not believe in natural selection and the laws of genetics was able to imprison and kill scientists who opposed his views. This Stalin era researcher controlled agriculture, dictated how agriculture would work, and caused famines that led to millions of deaths in Russia and China.
The executive order lists an array of “best practices” in science that are effectively near impossible to meet. Science evolves. Scientists cannot know everything. There is a lot that is unknown. Still, scientific results can be important. For example, we know that burning fossil fuels causes global warming.
The Trump administration budget would mean huge cuts to federal spending on research and development. The executive order could mean that the administration could stop some of our nation’s top researchers from conducting their research. The future of sound scientific research is in peril.
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