Science Activism Surges!

The story of Barbara McClintock is simply extraordinary for multiple reasons. She loved science as a young woman, at a time when pursuing a research career would, in her family’s eyes, make her “unmarriageable.” She studied genetics, but in corn, which would not give her the molecular level insights that later confirmed her work, and made important genetic discoveries deriving from the molecular level prior to the discovery of the double helix structure of DNA and the genetic code. She published in lesser known journals, and ceased publication around 1950 in light of skepticism towards her findings. Most significantly, she discovered the existence of transposons, or jumping genes, which received separate confirmation in single celled organisms.

This led to her receiving the 1983 Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine decades past her initial discovery. Her work was immortalized in Evelyn Fox Keller’s biography “A Feeling for the Organism,” which emphasized her empathic approach to her lifelong object of study, corn and its genes. Her transposon discoveries are important to human health, for example, in understanding how bacteria acquire resistance to antibiotics.

Her story is a reminder that progress in science comes from many directions, that human diversity can encourage different approaches to science, and that the benefits of supporting basic science research can become evident many years after the discoveries are made.

It is no doubt this extraordinary story which has inspired graduate students in plant science at Cornell University, her alma mater, to launch an initiative to explain science to the public at large through letters to the editor of local papers, the McClintock Letters, with publication on or near her birthday of June 16. I will discuss this action, The Summer Fight For Science, and a bill introduced in California by State Sens. Scott Wiener (San Francisco) and Dr. Akiliah Weber Pierson (San Diego), to create a state based science foundation, the California Institute for Scientific Research, which could leverage California’s position as the fourth largest economy in the world (after the full US, China, and Germany) to expand upon innovation here in the Golden State.

In response to Trump, Kennedy, Musk and the massive and ill informed cuts to scientific research the Trump Administration is carrying out, scientists and their friends are taking action.

The McClintock Letters

The goal of the McClintock Letters project is to enhance community appreciation of science and scientists appreciation of their communities, in honor of Barbara McClintock. The project was begun by the Cornell Advancing Science and Policy (ASAP) club, which was founded by Cornell graduate students. The goal is to have at least 1000 letters from scientists, especially younger scientists, to local papers in communities that are meaningful to the writers which address the following topics:

• Your research as a next-generation scientist,

• Its broader impacts, 

• How research in your field generally impacts the local community, and

• How the local community impacted your journey to science 

• A call for action

The organizers are asking for sending the letters around early June to achieve publication by the McClintock birthday deadline, and to register with the site so your letter can be counted as one of the McClintock letters. You can read about the initiative and sign up here.

The Summer Fight for Science

Stand up for Science is starting a Summer Fight For Science, with multiple ways to participate. Stand up For Science was initiated as a grass roots efforts, again with significant energy from graduate students, with a series of protests in February and continuing. The goal her is to inform the congressional budget process leading up into the finalized budget in September to ensure that the massive proposed cuts to science by Trump’s OMB director do not get realized.

By reaching out to the public, and encouraging the public to pressure legislators, to make sure that federal support for scientific research is preserved at levels closer to those before Trump 2.0 began.

SB-829 California Institute for Scientific Research: CalRx Initiative: vaccines.

Sen. Scott Wiener, state senator from District 11 in San Francisco, and Sen. Dr. Akilah Weber Pierson, state senator from District 39 in San Diego, have initiated an effort (co-authored with Sen. Josh Becker and Sen. Jerry McNerney) to create a California Institute for Scientific Research through SB 829 within the state government that can provide peer reviewed funding for scientists hit hard by the federal slashing.

The bill lays out the realm of funding that could be considered. Quoting from the text:

“The institute’s role is to facilitate scientific research by awarding grants and making loans to public or private research companies, universities, institutes, and organizations for scientific research and development, including, but not limited to, research in any of the following fields:

(1) Biomedical.

(2) Behavioral.

(3) Climate.

(4) Weather.

(5) Ocean.

(6) Coastal and marine ecosystems and resources.

(7) Detecting and responding to new and emerging health threats.

(8) Disease prevention.

(9) Promoting healthy and safe behaviors, communities, and environment.

(10) Safety, efficacy, and security of drugs, biological products, medical devices, our nation’s food supply, and cosmetics.”

There is considerable enthusiasm for this legislation on many fronts. There is also some concern. Some UC faculty, in private communications to me, view the bill as in zero sum competition with university funding and would prefer that the state government raise university funding for research directly (which would of course leave out the other institutions cited such as private industry or foundations). They are leary of a new state bureaucracy to contend with for obtaining funds. Others are concerned about the specific items listed in 1-10, above which notably excludes such topics as materials research, much of engineering, astrophysics, and artificial intelligence. The phrase “included, but not limited to” would appear to allow other areas of research to be entertained.

There are also the limitations of the state budget. Carving out funding for an entirely new program in the face of a state budget deficit will require zero sum tradeoffs, and higher education has already faced large cuts from the state. An alternative approach is to float a bond measure for this Institute, along the lines of the State Stem Cell Research Institute which was formed in response to the federal ban on embyronic stem cell research (the California Institute For Regenerative Medicine) instituted during the George W. Bush administration. Of course, typically such bond measures require citizen approval through a referendum, raising the bond funding, and kicking the can down the road to future state budgets for repayment. The timeliness of either the SB 829 funded directly by the state or by a referendum approved bond may not meet the moment as needed in the face of the rapid Trump attacks on science.

Nevertheless, it is very encouraging to see such efforts in the state legislature, and we can hope for the best in states enlightened enough to see the benefits of scientific progress.