The US government shutdown has broken the record for the longest federal shutdown in American history. While this had an obvious impact on many issues, the negative implications for scientific research have perhaps been overlooked. Scientists from organisations such as NASA, the NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration), FDA (Food and Drug Administration), and the NSF (National Science Foundation) – along with many other companies with abbreviated names – were not at work for 35 days, a significant loss of valuable research time. Now the shutdown has ended, things do not just return to normal. It can take weeks or perhaps even months for research to be resumed, and operations to once again run smoothly. This is all worsened by the fact that there could be another shutdown in the near future.
Before addressing the problems an imminent second shutdown presents, let’s first focus on the issues created by Trump’s 35-day negotiations. Despite the shutdown lasting ‘just’ 35 days, the effects will be felt for much longer. For example, NASA have stated there will be overruns in project costs as the shutdown caused a 5-week lag in research. Decades long investigations like the Antarctic ice depth records now have gaps in their data due to the shutdown, such losses of knowledge never occurring before in the programme’s history. This is one among many interrupted research studies, from medical drug trials to studies on California’s fisheries. Also, many open access data sets, such as weather data, had to be taken offline – negatively impacting students who depend upon federal open access data.
It isn’t just scientific research that has been affected, with American National Parks feeling the full effects of the shutdown. It directly removed management of time sensitive tasks in the parks, such as wildlife population counts and prescribed habitat burns to promote biodiversity. Furthermore, the lack of rangers has allowed the general public to wreak havoc. The amount of litter abandoned in national parks is up, and so is the damage to wildlife – with people were straying off the footpaths and harming life such as cyanobacteria (which could take years to recolonise the area).
The combination of both wages and research funding being held back has made many scientists reconsider working for the federal government. NASA has already seen this brain drain, with many of its scientists quitting during the shutdown. Some smaller companies that rely on contracts with NASA saw a 20% drop in their staff. PhD applications were also stopped during the shutdown, with researchers receiving government funding not wanting to take on students with the support ambiguous. This left a lot of people’s futures hanging in the balance.
With the chance of another possible shutdown following the 15th of February, researchers cannot yet breathe a sigh of relief. They may once again be banned from their labs, field centres, or even from checking their emails.
image source: Monty Rakusen—Getty Images/Cultura RF