US Nobel laureate fears US politics could undermine science
STOCKHOLM — An American scientist who shared this year’s Nobel Prize for medicine bluntly criticized political developments at home in his address at the awards’ gala banquet, saying that U.S. scientists are facing funding cutbacks that will hurt research.
Michael Rosbash, who was honoured for his work on circadian rhythms — commonly called the body clock — expressed concern that U.S. government funding such as that received by him and Nobel colleagues Jeffrey Hall and Michael Young is endangered.
“We benefited from an enlightened period in the postwar United States. Our National Institutes of Health have enthusiastically and generously supported basic research … (but) the current climate in the U.S. is a warning that continued support cannot be taken for granted,” Rosbash said in a short speech Sunday night at Stockholm’s ornate city hall.
The 2018 federal budget proposed by President Donald Trump calls for cutting science funding by billions of dollars.