Nobel Prize winners send letter to Milei against cuts in science – 03/06/2024 – Science

In a letter addressed this Wednesday (6) to President Javier Milei, 68 Nobel Prize winners state that Argentine science is “approaching a dangerous precipice” and ask the new president to reverse budget cuts to teaching and research institutions in the country. country.

“We write with respect and deep concern. We observe how the Argentine system of science and technology approaches a dangerous precipice, and we are discouraged by the consequences that this situation could have for both the Argentine people and the world,” they write.

Carrying a chainsaw as a campaign symbol, Milei is betting on a deep spending cut to balance public accounts, stop issuing money and curb Argentina’s very high inflation in a few months. According to him, 50,000 employees have already been fired and social programs have been withdrawn from 200,000 people.

In the two-page text, the scientists say they are concerned about the elimination of the Ministry of Science and Technology —which was excluded along with half of the portfolios and is now within the Head of Cabinet of Ministers—, as well as the dismissal of administrative employees from institutions cross country.

“We fear that Argentina is abandoning its scientists, students and future science leaders. We are concerned that the dramatic devaluation of Conicet’s budgets [Conselho Nacional de Pesquisas Científicas e Técnica] and national universities reflects not only a dramatic devaluation of Argentine science, but also a devaluation of the Argentine people”, they say.

The letter is also addressed to the head of the Cabinet of Ministers, Nicolás Posse, the president of Conicet, Daniel Salamone, and Argentine senators and deputies, who are being pressured by the government to approve Milei’s liberal reforms in Congress, including the “law bus” and a megadecree.

“Many problems, opportunities and solutions are local, regional or national, and there should be no expectation that investments and investors from other nations will provide the knowledge and resources needed to address these problems,” the scientists argue.

The signatures include 26 Nobel laureates in medicine, 21 in chemistry, 20 in physics and 1 in economics, who received the prizes from 1979 to 2023. Among them is Hungarian-Austrian Ferenc Krausz, one of the trio of physicists who won last year for discovering how to use pulses of light to study electrons, on which much of current technology depends.

The researchers list great achievements of Argentine science to Milei: “If it were not for Argentine science and scientists, the causes and treatment of cancer, diabetes and cardiovascular diseases would have remained a mystery for decades longer […]. The world would ignore how the Andes were formed and the incredible fauna that inhabited the continent millions of years ago.”

They mention that it was the only country in the region that developed its own vaccine against Covid-19, that it built and launched communications satellites and built state-of-the-art nuclear reactors that, in addition to being exported, will generate an internal supply of crucial radiation equipment. for medical use.

“Argentina ranks tenth in the world in the number of biotechnology companies, a remarkable feat that promises major advances in medicine and agriculture. Using genetic engineering, a publicly funded group has developed successful wheat genetic variants that are resistant to drought”, they list.

Finally, scientists ask Milei to restore the cut budgets. “Freezing research programs and reducing the number of doctoral students and young researchers will cause the destruction of a system that took many years to build, and that would require many, many more to be rebuilt,” they state.