NASA Astrobiology Agency Severely Cut Back by Bush

[LongTomH]

Op-ed at ThinkProgress: Flashback: NASA Agency That Discovered New Life Form Was Subject to Severe Cuts Under Bush. While everyone worldwide is still oohing and ahhing over NASA's announcement of a unique life form that can use arsenic in place of phosphorus, only ThinkProgress is pointing out how much NASA's Astrobiology Institute's funding was cut back by the Bush Administration:

It is important to note that NASA’s Astrobiology Institute, which produced these amazing findings, is surviving despite falling victim to the Republican war on science. Under President George W. Bush, the department saw its funding reduced by half. The cuts were so drastic that many young astrobiologists faced tough decisions about leaving the field entirely:

Astrobiology at NASA has been hit especially hard by the budget cuts. NASA astrobiology funding has declined 50% over the last 2 years, and funding isn’t likely to be restored anytime soon. “These cuts have already resulted in major reductions in programs that fund graduate students and postdocs,” says Michael Mumma, principal investigator at NASA’s Goddard Center for Astrobiology in Greenbelt, Maryland. Mumma says he tries to protect the young people as much as possible, but “sometimes you just can’t renew a student or postdoc position when the money simply isn’t there.” Mumma is seeing many young astrobiologists reaching decision points about leaving the field.

Another young researcher, who asked to remain anonymous, says that astrobiology is “dead in the water.” After years of working on flagship missions at a major NASA centers, she tells the students she mentors not to “go into anything related to NASA because it’s too difficult and unstable.” She switched from planetary science to astrobiology 4 years ago, just before the budget cuts started. “I’m seriously thinking about doing something else with my life, maybe starting a business. I don’t know what yet.” She hasn’t given up on science completely. “I’m a good scrounger, so I’m hoping to be able to scrounge up some money.”

Felisa Wolfe-Simon, the young scientist who made these discoveries, apparently persisted in the face of these cuts. One wonders what other discoveries have been set back by the Republican war on science. Just today, The Hill reported that the Bush-era prohibition on stem-cell research may soon return if Congress doesn’t take action; the delays have already had destructive effects on researchers.

Maybe I should have posted this on the Science board; but, I think most DU'ers will be concerned about the loss of American leadership in science that's resulted from the Republican War on Science. According to Phil Plait, the Bad Astronomer, the Republican Anti-Science Party is looking to do more damage to science now that they're in the majority:

Many times, when I post about political antiscience, I get some people who are very upset that I don’t point out when liberals or Democrats attack reality. While I do disagree with some or even many of the Democrats’ planks, they typically are not the ones rabidly attacking science. For the most part these days, those on the left are more supportive of science than those on the right. Stem cell research, evolution, climate change, cosmology… these are not generally targets of those on the left.

So it was with some grim amusement that two articles came up one after the other recently in my RSS feed reader: one from Chris Mooney at The Intersection, where he points out that attacks on global warming come almost exclusively from Republicans (and you can read more from Chris about this on DeSmogBlog), and the other by Josh Rosenau at Thoughts from Kansas where he frets — and rightfully (haha) so — about Eric Cantor’s gearing up to attack science en masse when Congress reconvenes.

I have a lot of worries about the new Republican majority in the House, and you can get a taste of them in an earlier blog post. Everything I’ve read and seen in the few days since I’ve posted that hasn’t exactly been reassuring, either: John Boehner just announced that when the Republicans take over, they’ll dismantle the House Select Committee on Global Warming.

It's worth following some of the posts in both the ThinkProgress and Bad Astronomy posts. There isn't enough attention being given to the Republican War on Science since the Bushies left office.

[Turbineguy]

1. He did not want them

to accidentally discover the Bush family genesis germ.

[HuckleB]

2. K & R.

[upi402]

3. I can almost smell the rocket fuel being pumped back into this stuff again

Repukes need the chickens pretty damn dumb if they're going to BS them into a majority in the WH and Senate too.