Standing up for Science

 It's been forever since I've written a blog post. Twitter, and then X, and then Bluesky, has absorbed most of my hot takes. But I think more and more that it's time to move away from transient thoughts to things that are more well formed, and so I'm going to try and blog a bit more again. 

Mar 7, 2025 was Stand Up For Science Day. I was invited to speak at the Rhode Island local event. It was a freezing cold day in front of the Rhode Island State House in Providence, RI. With encouragement from my students, we did a little "teach-in" on campus first to lay out some of the history of federal funding in the US (going back to Vannevar Bush and Endless Frontiers), and why some of the new administration moves were so radical and dangerous. 

Then a bunch of us walked over to the State House for the rally. There was a good crowd there inspite of the bitter wind - by my estimate it was over 100 and perhaps close to 200. Lots of fantastic placards, including this one: 

And then it was time for me to speak. I've never spoken at a rally before, and it took a good amount of preparation (and much more trepidation) to generate my 3 minutes of remarks. The crowd was very encouraging, cheering every time I paused, and that helped a lot :). 

Here's what I said.