1. transcript
  2. Let's talk about facts this election - Part V - Science Funding

Let's talk about facts this election - Part V - Science Funding

By apalazzo on August 30, 2008.

And I won't even talk about the whole Global Warming issue. Governmental funding of science is fundamentally important to our economic future.

First let's look at funding for the National Institutes of Health, the main source of money for biomedical research in the US:

i-8ea064c9702f42bd4dced5c7e6a339de-NIH_Funding.jpg

Joseph j7uy5 @ Corpus Callosum points out:

I can't help but notice that the funding leveled off the same year that the Iraq War started.

How about the Physical Sciences, Engineering, Math & Computer Sciences? They have all flat-lined since GWB came to power:

i-207b2844f52ebe7b7997942355d469d8-NYT_budgets.gif

On the biggest issues of our time, energy, the story is no better. Money for alternative energy research has been flat through both Democrat and Republican Administrations. You would think that after 9/11 there would be a push for this type of research. Here's the data:

i-250d59ba5e9feedd7e2daed3a21cee7f-energy.jpg

One of the most ambitious ideas is to develop fusion power, but is it being done in the US? Try Southern France. So if our future relies on a strong support for Science, who do you trust?

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The USA is a partner in ITER. Because it such an expensive and complicated it's better to built just one together than compete.

Sure we're helping, but we are not the leader. We first pulled out of ITER then rejoined. I've touched on this before.

The energy R&D numbers are an absolute disgrace. I can understand flat funding for biomed, etc., due to the war (although I strenuously disagree). I cannot understand for the life of me the failure to drive hard for energy R&D expenditures.

One way to interpret all of these posts is that you care so much because you have decided to stay in the US... shall we expect news sometime soon??