Common Sense

Viewpoint From our Founding Director

By Donald Ingber, M.D., Ph.D.

I live in Boston’s South End less than 1000 feet from what was the original narrow neck of the city through which William Dawes rode his horse out from the town gates a step ahead of British forces to warn the people of Lexington that the British were coming, while his more famous friend Paul Revere quietly rowed across Boston harbor to begin his ride to Concord. This was the first act of rebellion against tyranny that threatened the individual freedom of colonists who toiled to make the land their own on this new continent.

250 years later, we find ourselves having to defend our freedom once again. Some of our most precious institutions, our colleges, universities, and research hospitals, are under attack. I know this because my lab and the research institute that I head at Harvard were hit by one of the first shots across the bow. On the evening of April 14^th, just hours after Harvard’s leadership rejected the unreasonable demands of the Trump Administration, we received three stop-work orders from government funding agencies that demanded we immediately cease work on almost $20 million worth of scientific research and technology development projects. These efforts supported work to identify drugs that could protect our citizens and soldiers against radiation injury caused by potential nuclear reactor disasters or a nuclear explosion. The same drugs also could help astronauts withstand radiation exposure in deep space that currently makes it impossible to fly to Mars. Another project was developing high sensitivity diagnostics that could detect ALS and Alzheimer’s Disease early, using just a drop of blood.

But we are not alone. The National Institute of Health (NIH), National Science Foundation (NSF), and other agencies have stopped funding labs at numerous colleges and universities in virtually every state across the Nation. And now NIH is apparently holding back additional funding without informing the universities about the details of their plan. The Trump administration is holding science hostage to pressure these universities to remedy antisemitism on their campuses, and Harvard has been chosen to be sacrificed as an example to terrorize the others. But is this fair?

Imagine a scenario where the current administration is criticized for a misstep that originated during the previous administration, well over a year before Trump took office. And this occurred even though the new administration implemented reforms to start addressing the issue. The Trump Administration would likely condemn the attack as a distortion of justice and defend itself with fervent resolve. This is the situation in which Harvard finds itself now. The reality is that Harvard’s new leadership, and many of the other leading universities, have made major changes to combat antisemitism since the Hamas-Israel conflict ignited in October 2023. Harvard has strengthened rules and disciplinary action, initiated efforts to support the sense of belonging for Jewish students, suspended programs that had been accused of bias against Israel, and created mechanisms for anonymous reporting of bias incidents. And they even have reprimanded Harvard professors as well as students who did not follow the University’s new rules.

What the Trump Administration is doing now has nothing to do with fighting antisemitism. It is merely a pretext to take away academic freedom and instill the current administration’s own ideology. They are trying to bring the world’s greatest educational and research institutions to their knees and instill fear in others. Along the way, scientific research — the eternal source of America’s innovative technologies that form the basis of our nation’s economic success and international competitiveness — is being strangled.

For the past 75 years, collaboration between the government and academia has supported the greatest advances in science and medicine in the history of the world. We are the magnet for the world’s best and brightest young scientists who become future citizens. This is a positive feedback loop that makes America stronger and life better for all. Now our government is turning its back on this alliance, yet it offers no clear alternative for improving the health and welfare of our people. The focus is exclusively on politics and ideological control without regard for what will get broken along the way. It’s only common sense to not destroy your greatest strengths.

King George III blockaded Boston Harbor to starve the city until it gave in to his unreasonable demands two and one-half centuries ago. Virtually all our cities and small college towns are now being blockaded by our own government, which is restricting the flow of funds to support science and technology innovation. These funds don’t only support scientists and engineers, they pay the salaries of tens of thousands of teachers, administrators, groundskeepers, dining room workers, custodians, and other support staff who are soon going to find themselves without jobs too.

In 1775, the proud New Englanders stood strong, threw down their plowshares, and confronted the totalitarian threat even though they knew the battle would be long. And now, we must do so again. For anyone who cares about their neighbors and the health of their loved ones, it’s time to fight again for freedom. But this time it’s not about taxation without representation; it’s about cessation without justification. We all must fight to retain our freedom to pursue truth with openness and transparency, and without constraints of political dogma that can change every four years.