Holden Thorp

I think we just have to do our very best science and feel like that in the end will win the day and the country needs that.

Kornbluth was joined by Holden Thorp, editor-in-chief of the Science family of journals, to argue for the model of American research that for the last eighty years propelled the U.S. to global dominance in science, technology and medicine.

First articulated by Vannevar Bush in his 1945 report, The Endless Frontier, it involved sustained public funding of science at research universities and federal laboratories and a commitment to open inquiry.

While that model was showing signs of stagnation before the second Trump presidency, the last eighteen months have shredded the social compact at its foundation.