The politics of science and America's future

Tomorrow's Earth Day March for Science, which will be held in Washington and 400 other cities across the country, was scheduled before President Trump formally proposed massive cuts in federal funding for research in medicine, public health, energy and the environment. That's complicated the original goal of March organizers: to stress the vital importance of what they do without being perceived as another unhappy, partisan interest group. Many scientists are alarmed about losing the benefits of their work — and America's advantage over other countries that might never be recovered. But others fear that public protest will politicize work that needs to be free of partisanship to be most effective.