In Episode 6 of The Week in Science, host Scott Turner, Director of Science Programs at the National Association of Scholars, explores a trio of fascinating topics.
Science magazine decries “massive cuts” to the National Science Foundation (NSF) budget, slashing it from $9 billion to $3.9 billion—a 57 percent reduction. The chance of a research proposal being funded drops from 26 percent to seven percent.
Scientists brand it “bonkers.” Turner calls it a strategic realignment, not an attack on science.
The White House, he argues, can set priorities, and it’s great that the deepest cuts hit sectors promoting “diversity, equity, and inclusion” ideologies, which Turner says harm research and have no place in science.
One cut that caught my eye targets the Laser Interferometry Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO), a system that detects gravitational waves—those “ripples in spacetime” caused by cosmic events, such as black hole collisions. LIGO needs two interferometer detectors for accurate measurements, but the new budget funds only one. Outrageous? Not so fast. Turner notes that LIGO instruments are already operational in Germany, Japan, and Italy, with another planned for India. Global cooperation ensures effective detection, so the U.S. doesn’t need to bankroll two.
Next up, Turner says that Leprosy existed in the Americas 450 years before Columbus, caused by an indigenous Mycobacterium lepromatosis.
Tuberculosis, smallpox, and Helicobacter pylori were also present, brought by Asian migrants. This new information challenges the narrative blaming Europeans for devastating indigenous populations, as isolated communities lacked immunity to new microbial variants, not the diseases themselves. In fact, Europeans faced similar epidemics, revealing a shared human story, not a story of oppressor versus oppressed.
Finally, Turner asks: What did dinosaurs sound like?
Focusing on hadrosaurs—large, bipedal dinosaurs that roamed in herds, as evidenced by fossilized footprints and mass fossil sites—paleontologists are using digital paleontology to find answers. Sophisticated CAT scans of hadrosaur skull crests, which house extended nasal cavities, suggest these acted as resonating chambers to amplify sounds for communication across sprawling herds.
By teaming up with acoustic engineers, scientists have reconstructed these sounds, giving us a thrilling glimpse into the prehistoric cacophony. This work ties into the upcoming BBC series Walking with Dinosaurs, which uses CGI and fossil data to bring these creatures to life.
Watch the episode below or on YouTube:
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Image: “Psittacosaurus Dinosaur Fossil Skeleton” by Rauantiques on Wikimedia Commons
