US Abandons Hunt For Signal of Cosmic Inflation (science.org)
- Reference: 0178354894
- News link: https://science.slashdot.org/story/25/07/11/1750256/us-abandons-hunt-for-signal-of-cosmic-inflation
- Source link: https://www.science.org/content/article/u-s-abandons-hunt-signal-cosmic-inflation
> Known as CMB-S4, the project envisioned new arrays of ultrasensitive microwave telescopes at the South Pole and in Chile's Atacama Desert. Their goal: to detect patterns in the ancient light that would prove the newborn universe expanded in an exponential growth spurt called cosmic inflation.
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> The project, which could have delivered smoking gun evidence for a key theory in cosmology, was supposed to be a joint venture between the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Department of Energy (DOE). However, yesterday, the agencies sent an unsigned statement to the leaders of the collaboration saying the project is off. "DOE and NSF have jointly decided that they can no longer support the CMB-S4 Project," it reads.
[1] https://www.science.org/content/article/u-s-abandons-hunt-signal-cosmic-inflation
Surprise! (Score:5, Insightful)
If it's science, this government is against it.
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> If it's science, this government is against it.
In this case, looking for a "afterglow" sounds kinda woke -- can't have that. :-)
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What is the current total Federal budget for science across all departments?
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To be fair, CMB-S4 had been on hold and in serious trouble long before the current bunch of people took over the government. Had the election gone the other way, this was still a rather likely result for this particular project. Sucks, but this one's the least of the things we should be outraged about.
Because MAGA hates facts (Score:2, Insightful)
and science has got to go. The scientists are all practically communists right? And what you don't know can't hurt you, right? La La La La La I can't hear you.
Heading back to the middle ages (Score:2, Insightful)
as long as the Clown runs the show.
If you are going to cut $900M in science ... (Score:1)
... funding, this ranks relatively low on the "harm to the human race if we don't do this research now" scale.
Yeah, this hurts and I wish it wasn't happening, but many of our other science cutbacks hurt a lot more per dollar "saved."
As others have already pointed out, the data isn't going to disappear on us any time soon.
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Given that they're planning to spend [1]almost half a billion dollars [slashdot.org] to take a retired space shuttle away from the Smithsonian and move it to Texas, one can perhaps question their motives. If the goal were actually to save money, that would be one thing. If it were to be used for something valuable like healthcare for the poor (oops, just cut [2]a trillion dollars [slashdot.org] from that), you could make a good argument. But the goal clearly is to take money away from people they don't like and give it to their supporters.
[1] https://science.slashdot.org/story/25/07/11/0349227/senator-calls-out-texas-for-trying-to-steal-shuttle-from-smithsonian
[2] https://news.slashdot.org/story/25/07/03/1849252/house-passes-bill-that-slashes-solar-wind-and-ev-tax-credits
Science can be done outside the US. (Score:3)
The sooner the culturally inevitable decline of the US is accepted the better rest-of-world can succeed it. Needing the US for anything is a long hangover from WWII destroying real and potential competition.
The world should be doing its own research to keep the fruits thereof from Wall Street's grubby tentacles. I grew up through the space race but now see no reason the US deserves to hog research it can only use to benefit our owning kleptarchs.
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> Needing the US for anything is a long hangover from WWII destroying real and potential competition.
The US had little to no competition long before WW2. Europe's relevance was over the second the US decided to step out from its isolationist curtain.
> The sooner the culturally inevitable decline of the US is accepted the better rest-of-world can succeed it.
Ethnocentric trash steeped in dripping denial and insecurity.
Luxury Spending (Score:2)
We have record homelessness, addiction, child trafficking, and a curiosity about the earliest moments after the Big Bang, if that even exists.
Oh and not enough electricity for humans and AI aspirations.
Given limited funding we need to prioritize.
Cutting the War Department funding in half would be another good move.
By all means if this can be philanthropically endowed, like the Simons Observatory, that would be fantastic.
And where are the Oil Sultan countries on this? Muslims used to be the very best Astron
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Except that the cuts are likely funding none of that, just more $$ for billionaire tax cuts. I did notice that there doesn't seem to be much pork going to member-districts which seems a more plausible explanation for cutting the funding.
Even without billionaires wanting that money (Score:2)
There's a whole world of religious lunatics that really really really get upset with this research because it contradicts the 6000-year-old Earth. So this was always going to be knocked out first thing.
And yeah literally every single aspect of science contradicts the young Earth nonsense. But the thing about the religious lunatics is they have a lot of money and a lot of time. So they are happy to attack basically all of science.
Existing instruments give us a data firehose (Score:1)
Between the incredibly successful Webb telescope, the nearly online Simonyi Survey Telescope, and a bunch of other instruments, we have or will soon have more data to deal with than astronomers can possibly handle. It's not as if the CMB is going to evaporate or something.
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We will not tolerate our political outrage being tempered by your facts. Get in line or get the fuck out.
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Gentleman, please! There's room on the internet for both tempered facts AND political outrage! /deadpan