Since the inauguration of President Donald Trump on Jan. 20, a number of actions aimed at slashing federal science spending and restricting research topics have begun to worry the American scientific community.
These include firing many — then rehiring some — staff across major science agencies, as well as holding up over a billion dollars in federal funding and triggering a pause in graduate admissions and faculty job postings at universities. Executive orders prompted the flagging of research projects for review based on whether they contain words like "female" or "gender," and scrubbing peer-reviewed papers from agency websites if they conflict with the current administration's policy priorities.
