Anyone who has worked at the leading edge will tell you they did not get there alone. Indeed, the breakthroughs that fit in our pocket or speed us down the highway are culminations of large scientific and engineering ecosystems. Progress is not linear nor wholly predictable. Fundamental science, i.e., science for the sake of science, often happens when someone mutters “That’s odd” or “That’s funny.” Many everyday breakthroughs like penicillin, radioactivity, and the microwave oven began this way.
In 1950, the US government recognized the importance of fundamental science to the nation’s growth by establishing the National Science Foundation (NSF). The stated mission is “to promote the progress of science, to advance the national health, prosperity, and welfare, and to secure the national defense.” The NSF’s scope has expanded over the years to include many areas not in its initial portfolio, including the social and behavioral sciences, engineering, and science and mathematics education. The NSF is the only US federal agency with a mandate to support all non-medical research fields. The NSF does not perform research directly. It provides research funding to academic faculty and organizations throughout the US.
The NSF was also created to protect against the control of centralized knowledge by nation states or other closed organizations. As such, the NSF and other public-facing government organizations provide public access to taxpayer-funded research.
Before the NSF, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) was founded in 1887 and is part of the United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Its primary goal is to support biomedical and public health research.
Modern science and engineering are impossible without high-performance computing (HPC). From determining how proteins fold to simulating automotive crashes, HPC is a cost-saving and invaluable tool for scientists and engineers. The need for fundamental research in both developing and using HPC systems has always been a goal of US-funded science organizations, including NIH, NSF, the DOE, NASA, DARPA, and others.
In 1985, NSF began funding the creation of five new supercomputing centers:
John von Neumann Center at Princeton University
Cornell Theory Center at Cornell University
Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center (PSC), a joint effort of Carnegie Mellon University, the University of Pittsburgh, and Westinghouse
National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign
San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC) on the campus of the University of California, San Diego (UCSD)
In 1981, the NSF created an academic research network to facilitate researchers’ access to the supercomputing centers funded by the NSF. The resource was the NFS Network (NSFNET). NSFNET was to be a general-purpose research network, a hub to connect the five supercomputing centers and the NSF-funded National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder, Colorado.
NSF-backbone 56K (Source: Wikipedia)
In 1993, students and staff at the NSF-supported NCSA at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, developed Mosaic, the first freely available web browser to allow World Wide Web pages that include both graphics and text. Within 18 months, NCSA Mosaic became the Web browser of choice for more than a million users, setting off an exponential growth in the number of Web users.
In 1994, NSF, together with DARPA and NASA, launched the Digital Library Initiative. One of the first six grants went to Stanford University, where two graduate students, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, began to develop a search engine that uniquely used links between Web pages as a ranking method (rather than keywords). They later commercialized the engine under the name Google.
In 1996, NSF-funded research established beyond doubt that the chemistry of the atmosphere above Antarctica was grossly abnormal and that levels of key chlorine compounds are greatly elevated. During two months of intense work, NSF researchers learned most of what is known about the ozone hole.
In 1998, two independent teams of NSF-supported astronomers discovered that the expansion of the universe was actually speeding up. It was as if some previously unknown force, now suggested as dark energy, was driving the galaxies apart at an ever-increasing rate.
All of these breakthroughs were not by design. Web browsers, web search, ozone chemistry, or dark energy were not specified or predicted when the NSF began. They happened because people were given the ability to explore and develop ideas. These discoveries were not linear, nor did they happen in a vacuum. Communities and relationships provided fertile ground for these new ideas to grow.
NSF is not alone in its fundamental approach to science. For instance, NIH is currently funding research into Mapping How Cancers Form and Spread.
Seeing the Forest and the Trees
The NSF continues to fund basic science and computing. As reported in www.govtech.com, NSF Grants Fuel University Interest in Supercomputing, at least 88 NSF-funded grants totaling more than $164 million are underway or planned for 2024 involving the use of supercomputers.
88 NSF-funded grants totaling more than $164 million are underway or planned for 2024. (Source: www.govtech.com)
An image of the location of each grant is provided below (provided by www.govtech.com). While looking at the image, consider each “geographic pin” a tree. Think about the leaves on this tree, each being a student, administrator, or researcher that will grow and flourish over the lifetime of these systems (and possibly longer). Each leaf will develop and interact with other leaves in the same and other trees. These relationships and communities are not linear, and may last for many years — possibly entire careers. The forest analogy extends to every corner of modern science and technology development.
And here is a quiet truth about fundamental progress in science that those outside of science and technology may not know. The breakthroughs that help fuel the US and world economies don’t come from individual leaves or trees sitting alone in the forest. They come from a forest ecosystem of communities composed of like-minded scientists and engineers all working toward the greater good.
As Isaac Newton famously remarked in a letter to his rival Robert Hooke in 1675 (published in 1855):
“If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants.“
Swinging a Lazy Axe
The forest of scientific progress is under threat. Through its government agencies, the US has created a world-leading science and technology infrastructure. Make no mistake, this infrastructure fuels the economy. For example, fundamental research leads to better weather prediction that saves lives, property, and crops. Better biomedical science creates vaccines that save lives. Batteries, semiconductors, and green energy all started with basic research in a lab, possibly funded by NSF or NIH. These discoveries often take years to filter through to the open market. There is no shortcut.
The ongoing DOGE effort wields a lazy axe and wants to cut funds, any funds. Operating without any review, contracted (promised) funds are being cut or halted. There does not seem to be any consideration of consequence or impact. Controlling government spending is admirable; history teaches us it can be done in a good way.
In March 1993, just two months into his presidency, Bill Clinton announced the creation of the National Performance Review led by Vice President Al Gore. The aim was “to make the entire Federal Government both less expensive and more efficient.” The review lasted six months and made 384 recommendations to improve the federal bureaucracy. Implementing those policies took a lot longer because some required legislation to be passed through Congress. The effort reduced the federal workforce by 351,000 people between 1993 and 1998 without causing harm or breaking things.
The lazy axe needs no such erudite plan; it just chops. Recent reporting reveals how quickly and indiscriminately the lazy axe is devastating the scientific forest in the US.
Einstein is often recognized for his quote, “Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler.” Perhaps wild budget cutting is not so simple a solution, and the naive axe may have an unanticipated cost.
Reports state the DOGE effort has saved $160 billion. The Partnership for Public Service (PSP) responds that those cuts (so far) will cost taxpayers $135 billion. The non-partisan PSP analysis tallies the costs associated with putting tens of thousands of federal employees on paid leave, re-hiring mistakenly fired workers, lawsuits, and lost productivity.
Catastrophic Butterflies in the Forest
Moreover, such deforestation of science and technology is not as simple as restoring the funding when a more enlightened political environment emerges. Once the trees are cut, the ecosystem collapses. Many of the important relationships and communities die or become strained. Career scientists and engineers need to eat and often move on, not necessarily to the remaining trees. As reported in HPCwire, Nature Reports a US Science Brain Drain Has Begun.
In addition to relationships and communities, a vast trove of institutional knowledge will be lost, as will careers of experience. There is no onboarding new people, no transition plan. These lazy, indiscriminate, and immediate cuts are decimating the forest. Regrowing the bountiful forest will take decades, possibly generations.
Perhaps the lazy axe is in the hands of those who never paid attention in science class. That situation is understandable; science, engineering, and mathematics are not easy. Nor is understanding non-linear dynamics where presumed small changes, butterflies in the forest, can create large, unexpected, and potentially disastrous outcomes. For some, the popular and witless phrase, “move fast and break things,” may apply here. It is a way to justify lazy, naive behavior and not take responsibility for destroying things.
Except for job loss and important services, some changes to the scientific ecosystem will not materialize overnight and may take years to show an impact. The next pandemic comes to mind.
Now is a time to use your voice. HPCwire invites you to contact your representative and senators. You matter, your opinion matters, and your science and technology matter.
Update: As of May 10th a federal judge in California issued a temporary restraining order pausing reductions in force (RIFs) actions across major federal agencies for a two-week period, until May 23. NSF and NIH research grant stoppages are still in effect.
Main image attribution: By Tony Webster from Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States – Henry Lake Fall Colors – Autumn at Ottawa National Forest, Upper Peninsula, Michigan, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=68498132
This article first appeared on HPCwire.
