Trump Admin Plans to Cut Team Responsible for Critical Atomic Measurement Data
www.wired.com
The team at the National Institute of Standards and Technology publishes measurement data crucial for advanced research in areas like astrophysics, nuclear fusion, and semiconductors.

Summary

Trump plans to eliminate NIST’s Atomic Spectroscopy Group, which maintains crucial atomic measurement data used globally in fields like nuclear fusion and astronomy.

The Atomic Spectra Database, relied on by scientists and engineers, may be at risk, sparking backlash from researchers and lawmakers.

Critics warn that cutting the group will harm scientific progress and U.S. leadership in technology.

Representative Zoe Lofgren condemned the move as uninformed and potentially harmful to national security. A petition to save the group has gathered over 1,700 signatures.

    • frunch@lemmy.world
      8·
      7 days ago

      Liquidating the country. This is reminding me of the leveraged buyouts that were all the rage for a min

    • kibiz0r@midwest.socialEnglish
      6·
      7 days ago

      Neo-cons: Man, I wish we could just liquidate the entire country.

      MMT: We’ve been looking at the national debt all wrong. It’s not a burden, it’s a measure of all the assets in the country. The only way to “pay off” the national debt would be to liquidate the entire country.

      Neo-cons: Repeat that last part? … Guys, I have an idea. I really, really care about the national debt. It’s a big problem. We gotta solve it. Who’s with me?

    • Monument@lemmy.sdf.orgEnglish
      3·
      7 days ago

      I mean, Trump literally wants to do a crypto pump and dump by selling the U.S. gold reserves to fund the crypto exchange.

      From the perspective of someone who wants the U.S. to succeed, you could not do something dumber.
      From the perspective of someone who wants to extract every scrap of value from the country and then cut it loose while fleeing somewhere else to try to spend the trillions of whatever currency they think they’ll wind up with, it makes perfect sense.

      I just had a messed up thought. Maybe the talk of Trump having a ‘revenge tour’ isn’t revenge on individual people, but revenge on the entire country for not electing him in 2020.