Researchers, doctors, their patients and supporters ventured out of labs, hospitals and offices Friday to stand up to what they call a blitz on life-saving science by the Trump administration.
In the nation鈥檚 capital, a couple thousand gathered at the Stand Up for Science rally. Organizers said similar rallies were planned in more than 30 U.S. cities.
Politicians, scientists, musicians, doctors and their patients were expected to make the case that , in health, climate, science and other research government agencies in the Trump administration鈥檚 first 47 days in office are endangering not just the future but the present.
鈥淪cience is under attack in the United States,鈥� said rally co-organizer Colette Delawalla, a doctoral student in clinical psychology. 鈥淲e鈥檙e not just going to stand here and take it.鈥�
Higher ed institutions on the Front Range also participated in the national day of action to defend science funding. Students at the Colorado School of Mines walked out of class and gathered to share stories on what science means to them. Biochemistry senior Grace Perry is in disbelief that science funding would be cut now. She's worried what a lack of research means for her future.
鈥淭he climate is changing. Our world is changing, and like, if we don't do it now, then there's like, no turning back," Perry said.
Health and science advances are happening faster than ever, said former Director Francis Collins, who helped map the human genome. The put at risk progress on Alzheimer鈥檚 Disease, diabetes , he said.
鈥淚t鈥檚 a very bad time with all the promise and momentum,鈥� said Collins.
鈥淚鈥檓 very worried about my country right now,鈥� Collins said before breaking out into an original song on his guitar.
Students at the Mines walkout called for an end to censorship and political interference in science. And they defended the role of diversity, equity and inclusion.
鈥淚 know so many people that are involved in research here, and so I think that lack of funding would just totally change the culture of how this institution works,鈥� said student Emma Khorunzhy. Khorunzhy, who studies Chemical Engineering, organized the walkout at Mines. She says federally funded research is a core part of the school.
Friday鈥檚 rally in Washington was at the Lincoln Memorial, in the shadow of a statue of the president who created the National Academy of Sciences in 1863. Some of the expected speakers study giant colliding galaxies, the tiny genetic blueprint of life inside humans and the warming atmosphere.
鈥淲e鈥檙e looking at the most aggressively anti-science government the United States has ever had,鈥� astronomer Phil Plait told the booing crowd that carried signs that were decidedly nerdy and attacking President Donald Trump, Elon Musk and Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Signs included 鈥淓dit Elon out of USA鈥檚 DNA,鈥� 鈥淚n evidence we trust,鈥� 鈥渟cience is the vaccine for ignorance鈥� and 鈥渢icked off epidemiologist.鈥�
Nobel Prize winning biologist Victor Ambros, Bill Nye The Science Guy, former NASA chief Bill Nelson and a host of other politicians, and patients 鈥� some with rare diseases 鈥� were scheduled to take the stage to talk about their work and the importance of scientific research.
From , NASA proved science could divert potentially planet-killing asteroids, Nelson said. On his space shuttle flight nearly 40 years ago, he looked down to Earth and had a 鈥渟ense of awe that you want to be a better steward of what we鈥檝e been given,鈥� he said.
Emily Whitehead, the first patient to get a certain new type of treatment for a rare cancer, told the crowd that at age 5 she was sent hospice to die, but 鈥渢aught my immune system to beat cancer鈥� and she鈥檚 been disease free for nearly 13 years.
鈥淚 stand up for science because science saved my life,鈥� Whitehead said.
The rallies were organized mostly by graduate students and early career scientists. Dozens of other protests were also planned around the world, including more than 30 in France, Delawalla said.
鈥淭he cuts in science funding affects the world,鈥� she said.
Protesters gathered around City Hall in Philadelphia, home to prestigious, internationally-recognized health care institutions and where 1 in 6 doctors in the U.S. has received medical .
鈥淎s a doctor, I鈥檓 standing up for all of my transgender, nonbinary patients who are also being targeted,鈥� said Cedric Bien-Gund, an infectious disease doctor at the University of Pennsylvania. 鈥淭here鈥檚 been a lot of fear and silencing, both among our patients and among all our staff. And it鈥檚 really disheartening to see.鈥�
Meanwhile, the School of Mines students were concerned about their future without science and the spread of incorrect information.
"Science is what pushes, especially this country, towards progress. So I feel like taking away funding for projects and research is just kind of slowing us down as a whole, and pushing us more towards this, like, conspiracy way of thinking," said Anna Bose, a senior studying Biochemistry. "And I feel like now more than ever, we need facts and figures and actual concrete information to back up the decisions that we're making in the policies moving forward."
Bose continued, "There's a lot of really important decisions that need to be made in the science world, especially with climate and with all these things with diversity and all these things that we're moving kind of away from, if we can't really gather the funding and gather the push back towards that direction, I think it will have a really, really intense impact on our future, especially our future as young people."
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Isabella O鈥橫alley contributed from Philadelphia.
Emma VandenEinde contributed to this story from Golden, Colo.
