2 h. ago Britain's surge in vaping appears to be at an end as youngsters ditch disposable e

Cancer Research UK-funded review suggests the rapid rise of vaping since 2021, when disposable e-cigarettes became popular, appears to have stalled

Politics

5 h. ago Harvard stands to lose $2.2 billion in federal funding. Researchers fear science will suffer

In a high-stakes standoff, President Donald Trump’s administration says it will freeze $2.2 billion in federal research grants for Harvard University, which is pushing back on demands for changes to campus policy

Economics

10 h. ago Obama backs Harvard as Yale faculty members support standing up to Trump

Harvard faces funding freeze as Yale faculty asks leadership ‘to resist and legally challenge any unlawful demands’US politics live – latest updatesBarack Obama has come out in support of Harvard after the Trump administration elected to cut $2bn of its federal grants after the Ivy League school in Massachusetts rejected what it said was an attempt at “government regulation” of the university.Meanwhile, faculty at Yale University – another prominent Ivy League institution – has asked its leadership “to resist and legally challenge any unlawful demands that threaten academic freedom and self-governance”. Continue reading...

Politics

4 d. ago Documents reveal Trump’s plan to gut funding for Nasa and climate science

Critics say Nasa faces ‘extinction-level event’ with budget plan, with climate research funding also to be slashedDonald Trump shows no signs of easing his assault on climate science as plans of more sweeping cuts to key US research centers surfaced on Friday.The administration is planning to slash budgets at both the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency (Noaa) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Nasa), according to internal budget documents, taking aim specifically at programs used to study impacts from the climate crisis. Continue reading...

Politics

5 d. ago Trump administration cuts $4m to Princeton’s climate research funding

White House claims university’s work exposed students to ‘climate anxiety’ and ‘exaggerated climate threats’US politics live – latest updatesAlmost $4m in federal funding has been stripped from an Ivy League university’s prestigious climate research department because the Trump administration has determined it exposed students and other young people to “climate anxiety”.The government research grants to Princeton University have been cut off because the White House considers its work on topics including sea level rise, coastal flooding and global warming to be promoting “exaggerated and implausible climate threats”, according to the New York Times. Continue reading...

Politics

6 d. ago Women should avoid all alcohol to reduce risk of breast cancer, charity says

World Cancer Research Fund goes further than UK and WHO advice on alcohol after review of evidenceWomen should avoid alcohol altogether to reduce their risk of breast cancer, a charity has warned.The World Cancer Research Fund (WCRF) has published a review of evidence on how diet and lifestyle factors can play a role in the development of the disease. Continue reading...

Events

1 week ago Trump demands UK universities which get funding from US prove none of it is spent on woke DEI projects or research

Donald Trump is demanding British universities which receive funding from the USA prove the money is not being spent on ' woke ' research in a new crackdown.

Politics

1 week ago Harvard faculty organize amid anxiety that the college will capitulate to Trump

Elite schools like Harvard weigh the costs of standing up to Trump as some, such as Princeton, signal it won’t concedeThe day after the Trump administration announced a review of $9bn in federal contracts and grants with Harvard due to what it claimed was the university’s failure to combat antisemitism on campus, the university’s president, Alan Garber, sent an email to the Harvard community titled: Our resolve.“When we saw the Garber statement’s subject line, everybody thought: ‘Oh, great, Harvard’s going to stand up!” said Jane Sujen Bock, a board member of the Coalition for a Diverse Harvard, a group of alumni founded in 2016 amid a legal battle over affirmative action. Continue reading...

Politics

1 week ago Harvard faculty organize amid anxiety university will capitulate to Trump

Harvard weighs costs of standing up to president as other elite schools, such as Princeton, signal they won’t concedeThe day after the Trump administration announced a review of $9bn in federal contracts and grants with Harvard due to what it claimed was the university’s failure to combat antisemitism on campus, the university’s president, Alan Garber, sent an email to the Harvard community titled: Our resolve.“When we saw the Garber statement’s subject line, everybody thought: ‘Oh, great, Harvard’s going to stand up!” said Jane Sujen Bock, a board member of the Coalition for a Diverse Harvard, a group of alumni founded in 2016 amid a legal battle over affirmative action. Continue reading...

Politics

1 week ago Trump sets sights on Harvard in latest antisemitism crackdown

The university has been told to ban masks and remove DEI programs or lose federal funding

Politics

1 week ago Scientists sue NIH, saying politics cut their research funding

A group of scientists and health groups sued the National Institutes of Health on Wednesday, arguing that an “ideological purge” of research funding is illegal and threatens medical cures

Politics

2 w. ago Scientists shielding farming from climate change need more public funding. But they're getting less

Public funding for agricultural research in the U.S. has been declining for the last two decades, a process Trump has rapidly accelerated by freezing or pausing support for a variety of research programs financed by the USDA, EPA and other organizations

Politics

2 w. ago Trump makes sweeping HIV research and grant cuts: ‘setting us back decades’

Trump administration’s slashes to prevention and access expansion likely to erode progress on eliminating epidemicThe federal government has cancelled dozens of grants to study how to prevent new HIV infections and expand access to care, decimating progress toward eliminating the epidemic in the United States, scientists say.Over the last month, more than 300 research projects funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) have been terminated – 65 of them were specifically related to researching advancements in HIV care. Some scientists were notified about losing funding as recently as last Thursday. NIH, a division of the Department of Health and Human Services, is the largest funding source of medical research in the world, leaving many scientists scrambling to figure out how to continue their work. Continue reading...

Politics

2 w. ago ‘The physics community has never split like this’: row erupts over plans for new Large Hadron Collider

Ambitious project could soak up funding for subatomic physics for decades, say opponentsScientists are refining plans to build the world’s biggest machine at a site beneath the Swiss-French border. More than $30bn (£23bn) would be spent drilling a 91km circular tunnel in which subatomic particles would be accelerated to near light speeds and smashed into each other. From the resulting nuclear debris, scientists hope they will then find clues that would help them understand the detailed makeup of the universe.It is an extraordinarily ambitious project. However, it is also a controversial one – for many scientists fear the machine, the Future Circular Collider (FCC), could soak up funding for subatomic physics for decades and leave promising new research avenues starved of resources. Continue reading...

Events

2 w. ago Colleges rely on federal research funding. Under Trump, its future is in doubt

After decades of partnership with the U.S. government, American colleges are facing new doubts about the future of their federal funding

Politics

2 w. ago Trump administration at ‘war’ with mRNA technology: scientists alarmed vaccine skeptics could kill research

Public health experts are sounding the alarm over recent move by the NIH to collect information about funding for research into mRNA technologyA cutting-edge technology expected to foster new medical breakthroughs in treatments for cancers and infectious disease is being treated “like a four-letter word” inside the Trump administration, causing panic among scientists who fear Trump-appointed health officials, driven by misinformation and conspiracy theories about the Covid-19 vaccine, will cut critical research in the field.Scientists and public health experts interviewed by the Guardian are sounding the alarm over a recent move by the National Institutes of Health to collect information about funding for research into mRNA technology. Continue reading...

Events

2 w. ago Donald Trump’s ‘war on woke’ is fast becoming a war on science. That’s incredibly dangerous | Christina Pagel

Contrary to claims by the US president, we have found that diversity initiatives result in better scientists and greater progressChristina Pagel is a member of Independent SageDonald Trump’s attacks on diversity, equality and inclusion (DEI) initiatives since his January inauguration have been intense, indiscriminate and escalating. A tragic plane crash was baselessly blamed on DEI. All DEI programmes within public bodies have been ended and private contractors face cancellation if they also don’t comply. Webpages that defend religious diversity in the context of Holocaust remembrance have been taken down.Science and academia have been particularly targeted. Universities are threatened with losing federal funding if they support DEI. Government reports and government-funded research are being held back if they include prohibited terms such as “gender”, “pregnant person”, “women”, “elderly”, or “disabled”. Grants funded by the National Institutes of Health are being cancelled if they...

Politics

3 w. ago European universities offer ‘scientific asylum’ to US researchers fleeing Trump’s cuts

Academics from US hoping to escape funding freezes and ideological impositions are being actively recruitedLaced with terms such as “censorship” and “political interference”, the Belgium-based jobs advert was far from typical. The promise of academic freedom, however, hinted at who it was aimed at: researchers in the US looking to flee the funding freezes, cuts and ideological impositions ushered in by Donald Trump’s administration.“We see it as our duty to come to the aid of our American colleagues,” said Jan Danckaert, the rector of Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), in explaining why his university – founded in 1834 to safeguard academia from the interference of church or state – had decided to open 12 postdoctoral positions for international researchers, with a particular focus on Americans. Continue reading...

Politics

3 w. ago A French university is offering ‘scientific asylum’ for US talent. The brain drain has started | Alexander Hurst

The Trump administration is cutting funding, while specifically targeting institutions like Columbia. No wonder academics want outIn six weeks, the Trump administration’s “rapid scheduled disassembly” of American science has been as sharp and deep as its trashing of the US’s alliances and goodwill; Earth science, weather forecasting and early warning systems, medical research (including cancer research), Nasa. Academic grants more broadly have been cut, paused and subject to review for a long list of banned words (including such contentious terms as “political” and “women”).This has caused universities across the country to reduce their intake of PhD students, medical students and other graduate students, introduce hiring freezes and even rescind some offers of admission. More than 12,500 US citizens currently in other countries on Fulbright research grants recently had their funding paused, along with 7,400 foreign scholars currently hosted in the US, leaving them financially stran...

Events

3 w. ago Disbelief as £10,000 is handed out for project to 'decolonise' Welsh cakes

Arts Council of Wales, which receives Government and lottery funding, gave a researcher £9,952 in 2023 to spend a year on research work entitled 'Decolonising the Welsh Cake'.

Economics