Tips for resisting the anti-science lurch

{"text":[[{"start":null,"text":""}],[{"start":7.29,"text":"The writer is a science commentator"}],[{"start":10.69,"text":"When Virginia Burkett was targeted by political appointees during President Trump’s first term for her climate and land use research at the US Geological Survey, she fought back."}],[{"start":24.04,"text":"Burkett, also a lead author on three Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reports, opposed efforts to dismantle climate research programmes inside her own organisation and resisted pressure to soften a key national report assessing climate impacts. Her acts of defiance, she claimed, earned her a demotion from her role as associate director. She eventually had her leadership position and salary restored under the Biden presidency and last year filed a whistleblower complaint, in a bid to protect other government scientists who speak out."}],[{"start":67.64,"text":"Last week, her courage earned her the John Maddox Prize, an international award given annually to a researcher for standing up for science in the face of adversity (it is named after a former editor of the journal Nature). Previous winners include scientific sleuth Elisabeth Bik, who uses image analysis to detect plagiarism, fraud and misconduct. The €5,000 prize is awarded jointly by Nature and the UK charity Sense about Science (declaration: I served as an unpaid trustee until 2023)."}],[{"start":113.03999999999999,"text":"As misinformation multiplies and hostility to science spreads, the prize has never felt more necessary. Burkett, who retired in January as USGS chief scientist for climate and land use change, used the London ceremony last week to offer survival tips to others under fire. Her principled and practical advice will hopefully energise researchers deflated by the second Trump administration’s attacks on science — and inspire others to fight the good fight."}],[{"start":152.43,"text":"Her first tip: never compromise on scientific integrity and do not change facts or conclusions to mollify critics. “If the public does not have confidence in science”, she warned, “they will not rely on science to make decisions.” The loss of robust evidence in the public realm harms us all."}],[{"start":175.13,"text":"Second: find allies. Burkett found hers in the USGS Office of Scientific Integrity and among peers in climate research. She also sought help from the non-profit Climate Science Legal Defense Fund (she is giving half of her prize money to the fund, which took on her whistleblower case; the other half is going to an IPCC scholarship programme for students from developing countries)."}],[{"start":205.22,"text":"Third: know your institution’s scientific integrity policy. Admittedly, these can change. In May, the White House replaced Biden-era policies which explicitly forbade political interference with an executive order for restoring “gold-standard science”. It feels very much like an attempt to tighten political control."}],[{"start":228.6,"text":"Fourth: keep receipts. “Document even the most subtle attempts to inappropriately alter your work,” she advised. “It can start with a phone call or an email.”"}],[{"start":243.32999999999998,"text":"Finally: be prepared for setbacks. In her darkest moments, she told me afterwards, Burkett relied on family and her religious faith."}],[{"start":254.45999999999998,"text":"Her compatriots need encouragement more than ever, with planned 2026 funding cuts of between a third and a half for major science-related agencies like the National Institutes of Health, Nasa and the National Science Foundation. Some grants have been reinstated after legal challenge but the chill remains, especially for younger academics. Other regions, including the EU and China, have seized on the country’s anti-science lurch as a recruitment opportunity; the first US “scientific refugees” fleeing to Aix-Marseille university under its Safe Place for Science scheme, relocated to France this summer."}],[{"start":301.14,"text":"How has this leviathan of science fallen so far, so fast? The American Enterprise Institute, a right-leaning think-tank, recently summarised the new hostility: “The Biden administration clearly saw career agency scientists as allies, and the Trump administration sees them as enemies, the ‘deep state.’” That poisonous belief is seeping into public culture: in the 2025 book Science Under Siege, co-authors climatologist Michael Mann and vaccine researcher Peter Hotez describe being threatened online and in person. The book urges researchers to fight back, rather than cower in defeatism."}],[{"start":349.68,"text":"Burkett found out earlier this year that her whistleblower case was being closed. Would she advise those back home to leave? “Each scientist has to make her or his own decision but I do hope that people don’t give up during this unusual period of hostility. It will pass.”"}],[{"start":369.77,"text":"Yes, the storm against science, reason and evidence will and must pass — but we do not yet know the destruction it will leave in its wake."}],[{"start":null,"text":""}],[{"start":390.9,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1762497501_1358.mp3"}