Yale Scientific Magazine

As Volume 98 of the Yale Scientific Magazine draws to a close, our team continues the annual tradition of focusing the final issue on a special topic. We cannot avoid the central fact of the year: 2025 has been a uniquely calamitous year for science research, science education, and science policy in the US.

As a child, Sean Lewis (YC ’26) spent hours glued to the Science Channel, mesmerized by black holes and planets. His parents nurtured his passion with space-themed books and toys. By high school, Lewis had moved from watching science to practicing it, predicting how a ball might fall or how electricity and magnetism interact. When Lewis arrived at Yale, he found the Yale Undergraduate Aerospace Association (YUAA) at the extracurricular bazaar and knew he had to join.

For Nabarun Dasgupta (YSPH ’03), the summer of 2002 marked a turning point. While studying OxyContin use with a Yale School of Public Health professor, he found himself connecting his earlier interest in chronic infections to what would become a lifelong mission: understanding and preventing drug overdose. “It changed my life. It changed the trajectory of my professional career and helped me find the thing that I get meaning out of,” Dasgupta said.

In 2008, presidential nominees Barack Obama and John McCain participated in an online debate on the top science issues facing the nation, each providing their own written responses to a set of questions prepared by the organizers of ScienceDebate.org. Originally launched as Science Debate 2008, the grassroots campaign for a public presidential debate on science emerged from a growing sense of uncertainty regarding the relationship between politics and science in the United States. If George W.

On October 6, 2025, nearly three hundred advocates gathered on Capitol Hill for the Planetary Society’s (TPS) 2025 Day of Action. Diverse in backgrounds, ranging from scientific researchers to corporate executives, the attendees shared one purpose: to urge Congress to protect NASA from unprecedented budget cuts. The event took place during the federal government shutdown that stretched until November 12.

To establish lifelong infection, HIV-1 must cross one of the most secure borders in human biology: the nuclear envelope. Once inside, the virus integrates into the host genome, making it nearly impossible to eradicate without extremely early intervention. More than forty million people worldwide currently live with HIV, and despite major therapeutic progress, the exact molecular process that enables nuclear entry remains unresolved.

The American Dream is enchantingly simple: come to the land of opportunity, where hard work and ambition could change your life forever. For immigrant scientists, that promise has been no different: come change the world by contributing your talents to our world-class labs. But for many scientists, the American dream is no longer the fruitful promise it once was. Since the Cold War, the United States has relied on global talent to fuel its scientific dominance.

Leucovorin is a derivative of vitamin B9 (folate) that is typically administered as a “rescue agent” to mitigate the toxic side effects of chemotherapy drugs such as methotrexate. Powerful chemotherapy drugs accomplish their goal targeting cancer cells, but they can also damage healthy cells in the process. Leucovorin mitigates the negative side effects because it  “rescues” healthy cells by replenishing their folate stores. Recently, however, US Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F.

Psychological research is an exercise in trust. At the foundation of every psychological experiment lies a fundamental confidence between participant and researcher: that the participant will engage honestly, and that the researcher will act ethically and handle data responsibly. But psychologists must do more than establish trust with participants. They also bear the responsibility of convincing the general public that their findings are valid, transparent, and reliable.

In the 1950s, members of Congress nearly laughed a group of entomologists out of their hearing room. The scientists’ research proposal? To study the mating habits of screwworm flies—parasites that burrow into the flesh of cattle. Though elected officials and members of the news media mocked the idea at the time, the unglamorous research effort eventually led to a sterilization program that saved the livestock industry billions of dollars.