Chuck Darwin<p>The US National Institutes of Health (NIH), a massive biomedical-research funder that also employs thousands of scientists at its own laboratories, <br>🔥is “totally broken and non-functional right now”, <br>according to a principal investigator at the NIH who asked for anonymity because they are not authorized to speak to the press. <br>“We can’t <a href="https://c.im/tags/hire" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>hire</span></a> people. We can’t <a href="https://c.im/tags/recruit" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>recruit</span></a> people. We can’t <a href="https://c.im/tags/talk" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>talk</span></a> to people on the outside. We cannot <a href="https://c.im/tags/travel" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>travel</span></a>,” they say.</p><p>Other government scientists, say that they can’t afford <a href="https://c.im/tags/publication" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>publication</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/fees" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>fees</span></a> or the <a href="https://c.im/tags/supplies" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>supplies</span></a> they need to process lab samples.<br>At the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) <br>— which monitors Earth’s oceans and atmosphere and provides weather forecasting services <br>— some scientists cannot do fieldwork because many of the contractors they have historically worked with have been <a href="https://c.im/tags/furloughed" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>furloughed</span></a>. <br>Meanwhile, the US Department of Government Efficiency, effectively run by billionaire Elon Musk, has been sowing <a href="https://c.im/tags/fear" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>fear</span></a> among federal workers with its visits to various agencies, threatening possible workforce cuts and more.<br><a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-01245-2" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" translate="no" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://www.</span><span class="ellipsis">nature.com/articles/d41586-025</span><span class="invisible">-01245-2</span></a></p>