Shaking Up the Lab Rats

When the new Republican majority took their seats last January, a shudder rippled through the science establishment, and with good reason. Republicans in the House of Representatives threatened to make sweeping cuts in scientific programs across the board. They even talked about eliminating whole agencies, such as the Department of Energy, home to research on high-energy physics, solar power, and fusion energy, and the Department of Commerce, which finances commercial technology programs, the patent office, and the climate-watching services of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). At one extreme, a House leader went so far as to suggest slashing funds for climate research because it had produced such scientific nonsense and unproven . . . liberal claptrap as the global warming hypothesis.