I usually don’t get preachy on this blog. However, there have been two events in the science world that have made me really angry, and I want to do something about it.

The first is this:

The National Science Foundation (NSF) is the United States government’s premier science organization. Until the sequester, they provided a huge amount of funding for scientific research in every field. Project proposals are subjected to peer review and either funded or rejected based on their scientific merit. The benefit that the United States, both as a political entity and as a society, has reaped from the NSF is incalculable. Every project I’ve ever worked on has been funded in part by the NSF.

Representative Lamar Smith, despite being a global warming denier, is the current head of the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology. He has recently proposed eliminating peer review from the NSF process. Instead, scientific research projects will be directly approved or denied by Congress.

This is screamingly not okay. It reeks of fascism and censorship and the slavery of science to political goals—science is only useful because scientific facts are true regardless of who you are or what you believe. Furthermore, we as a species need to do science regardless of what the results are likely to be. This will eviscerate our engines of technological advancement in general and the practice of pure science in specific. If Congress had had to greenlight research on lasers, semconductors, or nanofabrication, I very much doubt these technologies would ever have gotten off the ground…or developed into the billion-dollar industries they are today. If we hadn’t tested the limits of the old “aether” theory, we never would have discovered special relativity… which, by the way, is necessary to keep our GPS satellites in orbit. It’s just not always obvious what research will ultimately produce practical or lucrative results.

+Pamela Gay has proposed that we all write to our congresspeople this Friday to protest. Please, everyone, this really important. Science as a concept needs your help!

I first read about this issue here. Thanks to +Phillip Plait for pointing it out.

The Second Issue is This

Last week, a teenage girl in Bartow, Florida perfomed an impromptu science experiment. She mixed some cleaning fluids and some metal and threw them in a bottle to see what would happen. Later, the cap blew off the bottle and some smoke billowed out. No one was nearby. No one was hurt. No property was damaged. Seems fine, right? Unfortunately, she was on school grounds, and her community is insane.

The teen has been academically successful up until this point; she has a clean record and good grades, and the experiment clearly indicates inquisitiveness and intelligence. Despite this, she’s been expelled from her school and is facing felony charges. +Pamela Gay has the following to say:

Let me put this clearly: Because she did a science experiment, she is being expelled and having a felony charge put against her that if convicted [sic] will prevent her from taking many jobs, voting, or otherwise enjoying a fruitful life.

Scientific curiosity should not be punished.

I couldn’t have said it better myself. This incident demonstrates everything wrong with our educational system: A teenager displays intelligence and inquisitiveness, and these traits are stamped down because of some imaginary danger.

Someone has started a petition and I’d really appreciate it if you all could sign. We can’t fix the system—not easily, anyway—but we can help this young scientist. You can find the story of the incident here and a follow-up article here. If further information on this story materializes, I’ll share it with you.

That’s all for now. Tell your friends!