Sean Carroll

There was this weird event where there was a memo that went out that said all federal grants are hereby suspended for a while. That would be just enormously destructive to the country. You know, grants, maybe the word is bad. I don't know. Maybe people don't understand what the word means. It's not like a present.

It's money that is used to do important things like get science done among other things. So then another memo went out saying – no, the previous memo had been rescinded because they realized how bad it would be. But then the presidential spokesperson, the White House press secretary said the substance of the memo is still true even though we rescinded the memo itself.

It's money that is used to do important things like get science done among other things. So then another memo went out saying – no, the previous memo had been rescinded because they realized how bad it would be. But then the presidential spokesperson, the White House press secretary said the substance of the memo is still true even though we rescinded the memo itself.

If this doesn't make any sense to you, join the club. It doesn't make any sense to anyone else either. Science has been dramatically affected. This is my own bailiwick. All grant reviews at National Science Foundation and National Institutes of Health and elsewhere have been suspended indefinitely.

If this doesn't make any sense to you, join the club. It doesn't make any sense to anyone else either. Science has been dramatically affected. This is my own bailiwick. All grant reviews at National Science Foundation and National Institutes of Health and elsewhere have been suspended indefinitely.

I have a grant proposal in, hoping to fund some research into quantum gravity and cosmology, but that has been put on hold. If it ever comes back, who knows? That's a minor inconvenience for me. The more important thing is that they're not paying salaries to people like postdocs and grad students at the National Science Foundation, for example.

I have a grant proposal in, hoping to fund some research into quantum gravity and cosmology, but that has been put on hold. If it ever comes back, who knows? That's a minor inconvenience for me. The more important thing is that they're not paying salaries to people like postdocs and grad students at the National Science Foundation, for example.

For the grad students, I am told it is not such a big deal because if you're a NSF fellow, if you have a fellowship from the National Science Foundation, they allocate your yearly salary in one lump sum at the beginning of the year, and then the university doles it out monthly or whatever, so they should be okay, at least until next year. Postdocs don't have it that good.

For the grad students, I am told it is not such a big deal because if you're a NSF fellow, if you have a fellowship from the National Science Foundation, they allocate your yearly salary in one lump sum at the beginning of the year, and then the university doles it out monthly or whatever, so they should be okay, at least until next year. Postdocs don't have it that good.

They have a monthly salary, if they're NSF-funded, that is just not coming. They're not getting paid. Postdoc life is not easy, right? You are bouncing around. You have a three-year job, typically, at most, and then you have to go somewhere else. You're living paycheck to paycheck, and those paychecks are not coming, so this is going to be catastrophic for them personally.

They have a monthly salary, if they're NSF-funded, that is just not coming. They're not getting paid. Postdoc life is not easy, right? You are bouncing around. You have a three-year job, typically, at most, and then you have to go somewhere else. You're living paycheck to paycheck, and those paychecks are not coming, so this is going to be catastrophic for them personally.

Of course, it's also catastrophic for US science as a whole. Why in the world would the best people from outside the US think of coming here with all of this obvious chaos and dysfunction that we are exhibiting to the rest of the world? Anyway, I could go on for hours about this. I don't want to do that.

Of course, it's also catastrophic for US science as a whole. Why in the world would the best people from outside the US think of coming here with all of this obvious chaos and dysfunction that we are exhibiting to the rest of the world? Anyway, I could go on for hours about this. I don't want to do that.

But there's one other thing I just can't help but mention because I'm sure that the people of the future are just going to think there's no way that that actually happened. We had fires in Los Angeles not long ago, devastating fires. I used to live in L.A. and I know many people who either – had to evacuate. Some came very close to losing their houses.

But there's one other thing I just can't help but mention because I'm sure that the people of the future are just going to think there's no way that that actually happened. We had fires in Los Angeles not long ago, devastating fires. I used to live in L.A. and I know many people who either – had to evacuate. Some came very close to losing their houses.

Others who are not very close to me, but did lose their houses. Many people were significantly, severely affected by these fires. And the response to the fires on the part of the local government was not great. I'm not going to defend it. I think that the California governments, both locally and the state, most of whom are completely run by Democrats, didn't do a great job of preparing for

Others who are not very close to me, but did lose their houses. Many people were significantly, severely affected by these fires. And the response to the fires on the part of the local government was not great. I'm not going to defend it. I think that the California governments, both locally and the state, most of whom are completely run by Democrats, didn't do a great job of preparing for

a fire that was quite this bad. Some of it is there are unpredictable natural disasters. Some of it is you weren't ready for it, right? So that there's plenty of blame to go around. But Donald Trump somehow got it into his head that it was simply because there was water to fight the fires and the California government didn't want to turn on the faucet.

a fire that was quite this bad. Some of it is there are unpredictable natural disasters. Some of it is you weren't ready for it, right? So that there's plenty of blame to go around. But Donald Trump somehow got it into his head that it was simply because there was water to fight the fires and the California government didn't want to turn on the faucet.

and let the water come down to Los Angeles to be used to fight the fires. This is entirely nonsense. There were times when the water ran out, but it was just because the capacity of the local firefighting infrastructure wasn't up to it because the fires were so bad. There were multiple fires, and they were very, very bad.