Fund astronomy, not genocide.
You can help save cosmic science for future generations.
One of the major strategies of the American authoritarians that currently run the United States governing apparatus is overwhelm. They make messy, ugly, large-scale changes quickly — so quickly that it’s hard for organizers on the ground and everyday citizens to track all the changes much less respond to them. (Notably, Mr. Rogers reminded us to look for the helpers, and indeed people have been building trackers, like this one for Project 2025, which is the primary blueprint for everything that’s happening right now.)
Our current situation is that there are so many extraordinarily bad things happening that those of us who care about our communities and communities around the world feel stretched thin — psychologically, financially, and temporally. Decision-making fatigue is easy in this situation. How do I choose what to do? Am I doing enough? Can I do anything to stop this? I feel helpless. What if I can’t afford to donate or volunteer?
In the midst of dealing with my own set of feelings about this, I have struggled with how to craft a newsletter about funding for science, and specifically funding for astronomy and particle physics. One of my own questions has been, How can I get people to care about a space telescope when we’re all worried about our neighbors and friends being kidnapped off the street by ICE (and possible ICE impostors)? How can I think about this when Palestinians are facing a genocide? When trans people are facing medical and social exclusion from public life?
On some level I am asking questions about my own precarity. In a moment when Black studies and gender studies are facing sustained attack, as a Black and queer woman in physics who also does Black feminist science studies, I am vulnerable in ways that my other colleagues in physics and astronomy are not. I am at higher risk for political targeting and my personal safety is a regular discussion in my inner circle.
That said.
What Happens Now Will Shape Generations, Plural
I am not overstating it when I say that the proposed cuts to NASA astrophysics and proposed cuts to the National Science Foundation’s physics and astronomy budgets, are catastrophic and nearly unimaginable. I say nearly because in fact in 2017 I began trying to warn people that the authoritarian turn could be devastating to professional science because we’ve seen this before — here are some slides from a talk I gave in January 2017 at the American Physical Society “April” meeting. I also wrote a piece about these worries with astronomer Sarah Tuttle and biophysicist Joe Osmundson. But it’s easy to say that it is unimaginable because honestly, I always felt that (American) white supremacy makes people behave incompetently but I never thought it would be this incompetent, like putting a stick in between the spokes of your own bike wheel.
I am full of grief about so many things right now and one of them is the devastation that is already rippling through American science. For example, I did graduate admissions for my department this year. Our department still admitted students to our PhD program, which historically has graduated more women per capita than most programs in the United States. But we admitted fewer. I know other programs rescinded offers of admission or did not make any at all. In other words, a generation of graduate students has already been squeezed — people who were enthusiastic about discovering new information about our reality are no longer going to do that work. Tomorrow’s professors aren’t being trained. (Of course the idea is there won’t be universities anymore, I guess, so there won’t be a need for professors . . .)
This is an emergency. Even if the government were to completely reverse course today, the damage will have been done. International students, understandably, cannot trust the United States government to maintain consistent policies that allow them to complete their degree programs without being incarcerated or prevented from re-entering the country after a routine trip abroad. They will choose to go elsewhere. Domestic students are likely not going to choose graduate programs where financial support can no longer be guaranteed. Professors and other research scientists are looking for jobs outside of the United States so that they have access to the resources they need to keep going.
But every demographic is facing a crisis right now, so why is this one that should capture your attention? Maybe for medical and life sciences the answer feels obvious — our lives depend on the work they do. But what about astronomy? Why does it matter that the NASA astrophysics program as we know it — one that generations spent decades building — is in the process of being functionally shut down?
One of the arguments currently in circulation is that if the United States government really goes through with these plans then, “China wins.” There is an element of truth to this: the Chinese government has been ramping up investment in fundamental physics and astronomy while the United States has been essentially flatlining both for a while. But on the whole I hate this argument, partly because it situates American science as American scientists vs. them, where in this case, the “them” are Chinese scientists.
The reality is that American science is an international enterprise, and this is by capitalist and political design. Previous administrations, including deeply conservative ones, had some understanding that being the epicenter of global science is better than not because there is power in it. They also understood that scholars trained at American institutions were more likely to be sympathetic to American policies. So factually, the idea that it’s American scientists vs. non-American scientists doesn’t make sense.
Most importantly for me, the emphasis on competition with China is morally and spiritually untenable. These “Yellow Threat!” type arguments create an unsafe environment for Asian Americans and Asian immigrants. American science — for as long as there has been a United States — has never been just Americans. It has always been Native folks, enslaved and free Black folks (before the 14th recognized them as citizens), as well as European immigrants and their children. It is not possible to speak of American science without international scholars and people who exist outside the legal definition of “American.” (And sometimes the Chinese people you deport are the ones that actually you were depending on.)
What It Means to be Part of a Coalition
In the end, what is objectionable about what is happening to American astronomy and physics is that it sucks. And studying the cosmos — as I argued in The Disordered Cosmos and will be arguing further in The Edge of Space-Time — is part of how we engage with our spiritual selves as a species that evolved under the night sky. Scientists do cool shit, like take photos of black hole event horizons and try to figure out why neutrinos are non-trinary and that shit is a way cooler and more ethical way to spend your money than bombing people.
And it is notable that the department of defense’s science budget isn’t being cut.
I don’t want to put him on the spot, so I’m going to anonymously paraphrase one of my Bluesky mutuals, who said that scientists are looking around campus asking why students aren’t standing with them when scientists chose silence while those same students were suppressed because they spoke out against a genocide.
As one of the scientists who continues to speak out against the genocide in Palestine, I nodded my head in hard agreement. We cannot be surprised when our silence produces silence. How can we expect coalition solidarity from people that we — collectively, if not individually — refused to coalition with? We should not be surprised that people are suspicious about what team we are on, when some of us are uncritically accepting defense research money and others are quietly looking the other way. We should not be surprised that our colleagues in the humanities sometimes don’t want to lift a finger for us but instead just side eye us with the note, “Welcome to the show.”
I’ll write another newsletter later about how it looks to people who are being threatened with job loss via AI that astronomers and physicists keep running around publicly and uncritically extolling the value of AI, even as it causes such ecological damage that the NAACP is calling for an emergency shut down in one community. It’s not a coalition-building move, fam.
Of course, despite the questions people have about our place in their coalition, the response scientists have gotten is quite far from silence. Our colleagues have galvanized, calling their Congressional representatives, signing petitions, supporting legal actions taken by the American Association of University Professors(AAUP), and giving many of us a shoulder to cry on. The potential for solidarity is there because it’s already happening, even as people are stretched thin.
We are not helpless! Actions to take.
One of the things that kept me from writing is that I didn’t want to say something in long form until I was certain that I could offer suggestions. It’s important to be critical, but it’s good to have ideas too, especially in this moment. So a few recommendations:
Go to a Tesla Takedown event and carry signs demanding continued support for science done by civil servants at NASA, instead of engaging in government waste by subsidizing Nazi saluting billionaires.
Call your members of Congress — especially if you live in a red district/state — and tell them you are appalled by the genocide in Palestine and demand that Congress stop supporting it financially. While you’re there, demand that ICE stop kidnapping people off the street. Tell them you think billionaires like Elon Musk should be taxed out of existence. And then point out that with the savings involved in not bombing people and incarcerating them, we can do an awful lot of cool science and the NASA science budget and NSF budget should be increased. (Need help because calling makes you anxious? 5 Calls will help! You can always call after hours and leave a message.)
You can prepare yourself to talk about the economic impact of NASA science funding by using the Planetary Society NASA Science Funding dashboard, which helpfully includes information about how much money NASA directly contributes to every single congressional district. For example, selecting New Hampshire-01, where I live and work, gives me a document which explains NASA gives $13 million/year to our district and generates $36 million/year in value.
If you’re in a district with Democrat representatives, let them know that in the next round of primaries, you’ll be looking back at their record of resistance, whether they advocated on the issues you care about, and whether any opponents they are facing seem like they’ll do a better job.
If you’re in a district with Republican representatives, let them know that you’ll be voting for the Democrat in the next election and that you’re paying close attention to state legislature races that determine how district lines are drawn.
If you’re a scientist, for the love of G-d, start making a point of being community engaged even when there isn’t obviously something in it for you. We need professional societies to be leading examples, too. I hope we will see more public statements from our leadership in the form of op-eds in national newspapers and trying to get on television (yes including C-SPAN) to talk about these policy issues.
If you’re unsure about my suggestions but also don’t know where to get started, I recommend a few resources that I’ve found useful:
Picking up a copy of Let This Radicalize You and doing the free workbook with friends.
Subscribing to the podcast Movement Memos, which is refreshing, hopeful, and helpful.
Signing up for the Organizing My Thoughts newsletter. (yes I realize there’s a Kelly Hayes pattern here …)
Signing up for Charlie Jane Anders’s newsletter.
Arm yourself with facts based on the links in this newsletter so that you can tell your friends and family about why this matters and formulate an action plan with them.
Forward this newsletter and discuss it with your people! (I’m not asking so I can get subscribers! I want people to take action!)
If you’re an artist, make some art highlighting what astrophysics and particle physics do for you and share it on socials! Tag me: chanda.bsky.social and instagram.com/chanda.prescod.weinstein
For folks in rural/not so urban communities, there are organizers in your area. Keep looking. Instagram can be a good way to seek out people. Try your local NAACP or Black Lives Matter chapter if you’re not sure where to start. Look for mutual aid groups, which are usually trying to provide immediate help to the community.
But if nothing else, please call and email your Congressional representatives and tell them to fund astrophysics, not genocide. Remember that calls count more than emails, but an email is better than nothing.
Finally, re: my last newsletter, the deadline to defend the civil service has been extended to June 7, so please submit a comment about its political independence, TODAY.