Scientific Dark Age Dawns: America Slides into Oblivion

The High Cost of Delayed Medical Breakthroughs and Lost Lives

America’s scientific institutions are under attack – and most people don’t realize how fast it’s already affecting their lives. The engines of our health, innovation, and economic strength – places like the National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation, Environmental Protection Agency, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and U.S. Department of Agriculture – are being gutted. Not by accident, but by deliberate design.

In just the first 100 days of the second Trump administration, sweeping changes have begun dismantling the very foundation of American science. These moves are not bureaucratic details. They are grinding real-world progress to a halt, killing thousands of jobs, stalling medical breakthroughs and throwing away the global leadership we spent decades building.

Start with the NIH, the world’s premier biomedical research institution. It now faces a proposed 44% budget cut – nearly $18 billion slashed. That means cancer research halted. Alzheimer’s breakthroughs abandoned. Clinical trials for new drugs shelved indefinitely. Up to 22,000 biomedical jobs – scientists, lab techs, project leaders – are on the chopping block. The very people who could cure your future illness are being driven out of the field – or out of the country.

The Economic Toll of Slowed Innovation and Lost STEM Jobs

America’s basic scientific engine – the NSF – is grinding to a halt. It has frozen new grants, canceling more than $400 million in research funding. Around 10,000 high-skill STEM jobs are vanishing as academic labs shut down and innovation hubs go dark. Startups built on federally funded discoveries are losing investors. Economic growth slows when discovery does.

The Environmental and Public Health Impacts of Gutted Institutions

The EPA, once a global model for environmental protection, has lost more than 4,000 scientists and environmental experts. Entire offices dismantled. Pollution standards gutted. Science-based decision-making replaced with political loyalty tests. These are not bureaucratic changes – they are blows to the air we breathe, the water we drink and the public health we rely on every day.

The Human Face of Science

Personal Stories of Depression, Resilience, and the Importance of Access to Science

I learned that depression is no small thing and can suck the life out of an otherwise healthy being. I learned that given the chance to live in the fullest sense of the word, I wanted to live. My depression scared me. I never would’ve thought I could have fallen so deeply. I view myself as a mentally healthy person, an optimist who can meet any challenge with aplomb, but that period of depression shook me.

Getting healthy brings enthusiasm for new experiences. I say “yes” to almost everything. I have to pace myself. My brain continues to decline but in ways that aren’t probably noticeable to friends, and in some ways that aren’t noticeable to me. My husband says I use the wrong word for what I mean to say, and just go right on talking without noticing. I’m not aware that I do this but I don’t doubt it.

This dilemma is why I advise caution to anyone who wonders if they may have dementia and who is considering being tested. It’s a very personal decision. When I found out I had the genetic predisposition and knew my brain power was slipping, I got tested right away. The scientific part of me wanted to verify. I wonder now how my life these past three years might have been different from how it has been having a diagnosis.