When was the last time a scientific breakthrough actually surprised you? Or better yet, when was the last time you even heard of one? These days, science feels stagnant. It’s easy to feel that science is always improving behind the scenes, through vigorous research, experiments and trials, but a harsh truth about the current state of science seems to be becoming more plausible: America’s leaving science behind. But even more importantly, America is abandoning the belief in pursuing the truth.
America was built to do science. For years, America was a powerhouse in scientific research, a land where science was embedded in the Constitution. After WWII, the U.S. built a highly collaborative research ecosystem that integrated the funding of universities for research with private industry, which was responsible for scaling solutions. As a result, scientists were paid more than just wages; they were connected with the facilities and supportive administrations to pursue what they loved. And the results were life-changing. From the early 1950s to the 1970s, America changed scientific history, giving the world the transistor, the polio vaccine, the moon landing and even the modern-day internet’s precursor. The flurry of American discoveries made it clear to the rest of the world that when given the right resources and care, science is able to flourish.
Flash forward to today. We currently live in a society in which science has been made to be political, a fact that holds immense ramifications for us all. This year, a Nature study found that in 2025, a total of 5,844 NIH grants and 1,996 grants were cancelled — projects that were found to largely misalign with the Trump administration’s political agenda: misinformation, vaccine hesitancy, infectious disease and even research on people from underrepresented ethnic and gender groups. Politicizing science makes the truth controversial, which isolates groups and erodes trust. Specifically, politicized science in healthcare can lead to public health crises when political figureheads discredit vaccines or medicine, and as a result, put the public at large in crisis.
Further, the blending lines between science and attacks on ideology have aided this diminishing state of science. COVID-19 largely shifted science into becoming political. With the rise of the anti-vax movement and the politicization of expert researchers and doctors, like Dr. Anthony Fauci, opinions regarding science changed from medical viewpoints to tests for political affiliation. Republicans have seen a 23% point drop in confidence in science since 2018, while Democratic trust in science surged during pandemic times before leveling off. Due to the politicization of this subject, innovations and breakthroughs have become increasingly difficult. Not only do they have to undergo rigorous evaluation, but more importantly, they seem to be filtered by ideological “strainers.”
The outlook for science in 2026 remains bleak. Earlier last year, several universities at the forefront of American research: Harvard, Columbia, UCLA and UC Berkeley, among others, faced large-scale budget cuts, halting work across medical, engineering and various other scientific fields. Further, the federal budget for scientific research has significantly decreased, with a 23% decrease in scientific R&D grants, and making up around 0.6% of the total GDP compared to its peak of 2% in the 1960s. The changes to funding largely fuel this problem. Science is truly unable to be carried out in this environment.
As surprising as it sounds, the very foundation of scientific inquiry was shattering even before the current administration came into the picture. We currently live in a seemingly “publish or perish” culture, in which institutions have become more focused on mass-producing papers and new works, while compromising the quality of work produced. A survey of 1500 researchers found that over 60% were unable to reproduce another scientist’s experiment, and more than 50% were unable to reproduce their own. This reproducibility crisis has dangerous consequences. Because institutions have come to emphasize research quantity over research quality, many scientists and researchers have felt pressure to produce without adhering to the goal of studying science itself
Some argue that science has already had its moment. Others may say that the massive influx of innovation in the late 1900’s was necessary to happen. The byproduct of a warring world? Maybe the golden age of scientific innovation has come and passed? It’s easy to believe that something like science is cyclical in nature, that innovations come and leave with time. But, if anything, the output of innovation should be and has been linear.
The misdoings of the American system aren’t a lack of able-minded scientists, but a lack of administrative support. Science is largely dependent on its practitioners, but it is also dependent on funding and trust. Specifically, trust that research will be navigated to the highest of standards.
Stimulating the scientific community requires trust, structural changes and encouraging risk and replication. Instead of prioritizing a high quantity of research output, it’s time institutions come to focus on the quality of research being executed. As we all know, the best things take time.
Additionally, leaders who acknowledge and stand behind science are the ones who can make the largest impact on its comeback. We currently live in a seemingly anti-enlightenment stage, but a commitment to understanding this world better through science can quickly change that. The question has never been whether Americans could afford to invest in science. Especially now, it’s whether we are willing to become a society that stops following the truth.
