The Trump administration’s sweeping tariffs on imports to the United States are set to increase the costs of labware and specialist scientific instruments, exacerbating the already strained research budgets of US laboratories. The tariffs, which range from 10% to 54%, will come into effect on April 5, with steeper hikes for some countries on April…
Earth on The Soothsayer / page 2
A wave of fear has spread among university researchers in the US as immigration officials detain and deport international students and scholars, allegedly for their involvement in protests against Israel’s war in Gaza. The detentions have sparked a lawsuit from faculty organizations, citing violations of students’ constitutional right to free speech. The situation has left…
The US government has initiated a profound transformation of science in the country, shutting down research programs, blocking work on various topics, and firing thousands of federal employees, including scientists. The administration has promised further changes, including sharp reductions in research funding and lay-offs at federal agencies. This shift in policy is expected to have…
Neuroscientists have made a groundbreaking discovery in understanding the workings of the human brain, specifically the structures involved in conscious perception. Researchers have observed how the thalamus, a region deep in the brain, is activated when the brain becomes aware of its own thoughts. This breakthrough study, published in Science, has shed new light on…
A team of researchers at Google DeepMind has made a significant breakthrough in artificial intelligence (AI) by developing a system called Dreamer that can collect diamonds in the popular video game Minecraft without being shown how to play. This achievement marks a major step towards creating machines that can generalize knowledge learned in one domain…
The Trump administration has made significant cuts to HIV and AIDS research, including laying off staff from the US Office of Infectious Disease and HIV/AIDS Policy and cancelling over 230 research grants. This move has left researchers and experts concerned that the progress made towards ending the HIV epidemic in the US will be reversed,…
The US government’s recent cancellation of thousands of federal research grants has left scientists in a state of uncertainty. Soft-money faculty members, who rely on grants for their salaries, are particularly vulnerable to funding cuts. With many researchers anticipating having to leave academia, the projects they lead will disappear along with them, threatening the advancement…
A recent poll conducted by Nature found that over 1,200 scientists in the US are considering leaving the country due to the disruptions caused by the Trump administration’s policies. The changes include slashed research funding, halted federally funded science projects, and mass firings of federal employees, including scientists. Early-career researchers are particularly affected, with many…
A major Arctic-science conference in Boulder, Colorado, was disrupted by tensions between the US and Greenland over President Trump’s comments on taking over the island. The conference, which was meant to showcase research on Greenland’s melting ice sheet, was marred by a show of solidarity from scientists and a withdrawal of a session on research…
Mathematician Masaki Kashiwara has made history by becoming the first Japanese national and the first person based outside North America, Europe, or Israel to win the prestigious 2025 Abel Prize. Kashiwara’s groundbreaking work in representation theory has far-reaching implications for mathematics and physics, enabling mathematicians to interpret any representation as permutations on a finite set…