March 26, 2025 ☼ --npr ☼ cuts ☼ doge ☼ science ☼ stupid ☼ trump
Source: www.npr.org (Link)
The Trump administration is planning to close a small, obscure laboratory whose work undergirds everything from microchip manufacturing to nuclear fusion.
The Atomic Spectroscopy Group at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) provides the definitive measurements of atomic spectra. Spectra are specific sets of colors emitted by different atomic elements. Those sets of colors act as atomic fingerprints that are used to characterize a wide variety of things — from the gases in far-off stars, to the blood in a person’s finger.
The laboratory has been in continuous operation for more than 120 years, but in mid-April it will be forced to close, according to a letter sent by the lab’s head, Yuri Ralchenko, to dozens of colleagues around the world.
“We were recently informed that unless there is a major change in the Federal Government reorganization plans, the whole Atomic Spectroscopy Group will be laid off in a few weeks,” Ralchenko wrote in the letter, which was emailed on March 18 and seen by NPR. The letter was first reported by Wired.
Ralchenko says in the letter that he was told “our work is not considered to be statutorily essential for the NIST mission.”
But thousands of scientists and engineers disagree. A petition is now circulating to reverse the closure, and it has received close to 3,000 signatures as of Wednesday. Among the signatories is Nobel Prize-winning physicist Sheldon Glashow.
“I cannot believe that the government would be stupid enough” to slash this kind of work, Glashow said in a video statement.
I completely agree with the sentiment on the last line. This reeks of incompetence.