American Chemical Society warns of effect of shutdown on US science

The president of the American Chemical Society says the U.S. government shutdown is putting American innovation and critical services "at peril." In an ACS statement release Friday, ACS head Marinda Li Wu said the shutdown impasse is effectively choking America's science innovation pipeline and strangling new discoveries, future economic growth and job creation. Because of the shutdown, she said, the National Science Foundation will issue no new grants or cooperative agreements for innovative scientific research; the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has had to furlough workers needed to protect Americans from disease outbreaks; and the National Institutes of Health has closed its cancer clinics, interrupting the treatment of hundreds of cancer patients. "These closures may well be necessary given the current federal impasse, but to shut down a critical part of our nation's research and innovation pipeline puts our nation at a severe competitive disadvantage globally," Wu said. "Science cannot fuel our innovation economy without sustained, predictable funding, this we know. She urged elected officials to act quickly to resolve the crisis. "A government shutdown that closes the world's largest research system can lead to unintended negative consequences putting at peril America's economic growth and long-term stability," she said.