There are many great, well really just sad, but well told stories out there about how the government shut down has affected science and scientist. The Huffington post did a short article on how for some research groups this has really hurt their labs and experiments. Scientific American talks about how some Antarctic researchers had to turn around right after completing the long journey down under. The type of research affected is as diverse as science itself. Nature talks about how some NIH labs have been affected. NPR has had numerous reports which span the fields and how having so many scientist out of work has affected the local communities and businesses where they live.
At the moment the BARREL mission is fine and we haven't been directly hit with the closing of the Antarctic research for the season. This is because we launch from two non-American stations, Halley Bay 6 (a British base) and SANAE IV (a South African base) which are still open for the entire Antarctic summer. This does not mean that we haven't been affected or might not be directly affected in the future if the government doesn't open before we are suppose to launch, but we have every hope that this year will be a success. Some data sites are offline so we can not get the data needed to make progress with our current research on the data we collected last year. We can not get in contact with some of our collaborators through normal means which slows up the progress of our ability to get data, collaborate, and publicize our data availability. At meetings we can not meet with our collaborators who were planning on attending. These are lost opportunities to have more collaborations and hear about progress in their fields. And unfortunately funding for grants has been put off and/or reduced or postponed for at least a year. This is what will end up hurting the most. If we can't get funding, then we don't get paid and an already competitive job field becomes even more competitive. This also means that there is less science getting funded and ultimately less progress as a society and culture.
We as a society use the results of science, both pure and those that are closer to implementation in to technology and the market, every day. We use GPS systems without thinking. I am typing up this blog post on what would have been considered a super computer when I was in elementary school. We predict the weather with better accuracy than ever before. We find cures, treatments, and preventions for illnesses that would have wiped us out not even 30 years ago. We have cool LED flashlights! We use the results of science everyday, and every day we are discovering the next small step forward which will ultimately make a neat new technological innovation tomorrow. However if we stop science, we'll never know what that new thing that will make our lives better is. Science use to only be able to be done by the rich or those with rich benefactors. Now most science, especially physics, is done in academia and government labs and a bit in the industry, but most are funded by the government. It is tough to see the effects rippling though the fields and I can't even imagine how long it is going to take to get back to where we were. Many long term experiments have been derailed, and those effects will lost much longer than the shutdown itself. There are many great, well really just sad, but well told stories out there about how the government shut down has affected science and scientist. The Huffington post did a short article on how for some research groups this has really hurt their labs and experiments. Scientific American talks about how some Antarctic researchers had to turn around right after completing the long journey down under. The type of research affected is as diverse as science itself. Nature talks about how some NIH labs have been affected. NPR has had numerous reports which span the fields and how having so many scientist out of work has affected the local communities and businesses where they live.
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