National Science Foundation funds nationwide network self-driving research laboratories at US universities

Good news! From self driving cars to self driving science labs!

The US National Science Foundation (NSF) has launched a new $380 million (£285 million) effort to establish a nationwide network of automated laboratories enabled by artificial intelligence (AI), and as part of this initiative North Carolina State University (NCSU) will lead a project that aims to build ‘self-driving’ chemistry labs.

Dubbed the self-driving platforms for experimental co-design in chemistry and materials science

NSF funds $380m AI lab network including self-driving chemistry platform at NC State University | Chemistry World

NSF announces $400M investment in new national network of AI-programmable cloud laboratories in alignment with the U.S. government's Genesis Mission (original news release) "Awardees will test, scale and demonstrate new methods and tools that advance automated science and engineering for discovery and translation"

Daring 20-hour medical emergency Mission Rescues 3 American scientists from Antarctica led by the New Zealand’s Air Force

Very impressive!

To date, the NSF apparently failed to put out a news release on this amazing rescue operation! I found only a news release from 2021 (see below)

"Three [American scientists from the National Science Foundation] were evacuated from McMurdo Station, a remote U.S. military-supported research base in Antarctica, in a daring 20-hour medical rescue mission led by New Zealand’s Air Force.

One patient required urgent care, and two others needed treatment that the station couldn’t provide. The U.S. requested help from New Zealand.

Faced with 24-hour darkness, sub-zero temperatures, and no backup landing options, a C-130J Hercules military transport aircraft flew round-trip from New Zealand, with a doctor on board.

The aircraft landed on a hand-groomed ice runway using night vision goggles and refueled on the ice without shutting off its engines. All three patients are now receiving care in Christchurch, the nearest major medical hub."

"... The United States Antarctic Program Winter Team must physically create the runway before we can depart by ensuring the ice is groomed and suitable for landing. ..."

Friday, August 8, 2025 - Join The Flyover

RNZAF carries out mid-winter medical evacuation from Antarctica (original news release) "Crew on a Royal New Zealand Air Force C-130J Hercules have carried out a challenging mid-winter medical evacuation from McMurdo Station in Antarctica."

Update: McMurdo station medical evacuation (dated 7/12/2021) Apparently, such medical emergency rescue operations happened before.

AAAS: Sexual orientation, gender options cut from U.S. Ph.D. graduate survey

Good news! What is the relevance to know about the sexual/gender orientation of a scientist? This is private business!

And why should the U.S. government collect this information? You may want to ask the once prestious AAAS (American Association for the Advancement of Science)! Why should taxpayers' money be wasted on this?

Even the National Science Foundation was in on this! Appalling!

Notice also the deceptive use of propaganda language in this article by AAAS: "Many scientist" as if the majority of scientists were "celebrating" these changes to the survey! Appalling!

"In an about-face approved this week by the federal office overseeing national surveys, U.S. researchers responding to a flagship census of Ph.D. recipients will no longer be invited to share information about their sexual orientation, and their options for gender will go back to a strict binary: male or female. Prompted by recent executive orders from President Donald Trump, the move reverses the U.S. National Science Foundation’s (NSF’s) addition last year of questions about sexual orientation and gender identity to its Survey of Earned Doctorates.

That step represented the culmination of a yearslong campaign. Many scientists who had celebrated it are now frustrated and disappointed. ..."

Sexual orientation, gender options cut from U.S. Ph.D. graduate survey | Science | AAAS "After adding questions to a key survey last year, the U.S. National Science Foundation is reversing course."

LGBTQ Ph.D. graduates will soon be counted in key U.S. survey by the National Science Foundation. Really!

Does this really matter! Appalling! Is LGBTQ a religion, a cult, or a mania?

Two thumbs down for the U.S. National Science Foundation if it indeed goes  ahead with these plans!

"The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) plans to add questions about sexual orientation and gender identity to its Survey of Earned Doctorates (SED) in the coming months, the agency announced last week.
The move, which comes after years of pilot testing, pressure from scientists, and a scientific integrity complaint, is being applauded by activists and diversity experts who say the data will be critical for understanding how many LGBTQ people are in STEM. But NSF has yet to release specific details about its plan, including how it will safeguard the information. ..."

LGBTQ Ph.D. graduates will soon be counted in key U.S. survey | Science | AAAS

Nature journal: White men still hold majority of US science and engineering jobs. Really!

This demagoguery spewed by a once prestigious scientific journal is so absurd! Skin color ideology to be damned!

This supposedly news article is trash pure and simple! Why does the representation in sciences & technology have to match the overall proportions in the U.S. population as suggested by the National Science Foundation? This is not science, but a terrible ideology!

What is also again extremely perfidious is the deliberate attempt to mix skin color ideology plus feminism with justifiable and generally accepted concerns for individuals with disabilities!

Hitler is long dead, but not in academia! This neo racism against white people is so disgusting!

E.g. how many white individuals occupy science and engineering positions in African countries (perhaps except South Africa)?

Men watch out in the battle of the sexes:

E.g. are women not also typically underrepresented in the mining and construction industries? Who cares! Let men do the dirty and sweaty work!

"Women, members of minority ethnic groups and those with disabilities continue to be under-represented in positions across the US science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) workforce ...

White men [not Jews anymore] dominate science and engineering positions in the nation ..."

From the National Science Foundation news release:

"... However, those groups — as well as people with disabilities — broadly remain underrepresented in science, technology, engineering and mathematics when compared to their overall distribution in the U.S. population, reflecting the larger equity challenges our nation faces. ..."

White men still hold majority of US science and engineering jobs Despite gains by women and people of colour, men continue to occupy almost three-quarters of all science and engineering positions in the nation, and close to two-thirds are occupied by those who identify as white.

NSF's NCSES releases report on diversity trends in STEM workforce and education Diversity and STEM: Women, Minorities, and Persons with Disabilities 2023 is most comprehensive federal data source on this topic

UCLA: NSF awards funding to white scientists at higher rates than other groups, study shows. Really!

The typical propaganda and demagoguery! Skin color ideology trumps science!

The simple fact is that there have been far more white scientists in the U.S. than other skin colors! What about Asians?

One may also notice that this is "meta" research! This study is also based on self identification of researchers in terms of their ethnic background/skin color. Any good scientist would not bother to such self identification and see this as an insult!

Please note more than 2,000 grants are not accounted for!

"... In 2019, the most recent year of data, the NSF funded a total of 11,243 grants. It approved: 

31.3% of proposals by white applicants (6,389 awards).

29.0% of proposals by Hispanic or Latino applicants (449).

26.5% of proposals by Black applicants (246). 

22.4% of proposals by Asian applicants (2,073). ...
Had the NSF awarded grants to all groups at the same rate, white academics would have received 798 fewer awards [??? laughable] in 2019 alone, the authors note."

From the abstract:

"Concerns about systemic racism at academic and research institutions have increased over the past decade. Here, we investigate data from the National Science Foundation (NSF), a major funder of research in the United States, and find evidence for pervasive racial disparities. In particular, white principal investigators (PIs) are consistently funded at higher rates than most non-white PIs. Funding rates for white PIs have also been increasing relative to annual overall rates with time. Moreover, disparities occur across all disciplinary directorates within the NSF and are greater for research proposals. The distributions of average external review scores also exhibit systematic offsets based on PI race. Similar patterns have been described in other research funding bodies, suggesting that racial disparities are widespread. The prevalence and persistence of these racial disparities in funding have cascading impacts that perpetuate a cumulative advantage to white PIs across all of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics."

NSF awards funding to white scientists at higher rates than other groups, study shows | UCLA Researchers from UCLA, 4 other institutions analyzed 2 decades of data

Meta-Research: Systemic racial disparities in funding rates at the National Science Foundation (open access)