‘Crucial Scientific Advancements’ At Risk Because of Trump? Whatever!

A few weeks ago, I published a post about anti-Semitism gone wild on our nation’s most elite campuses and how some of those campuses have been and are being sued. In that post, I mentioned also that federal money was being withheld from Harvard by the Trump administration until it cleans up its act, and that in response, Harvard President Alan Garber said, “If this funding is stopped, it will halt life-saving research and imperil important scientific research and innovation.”

I pointed out that since Harvard is endowed with some $52 billion, its “life-saving research” and “important scientific research and innovation” is fully capable of sailing right along without so much as a speed bump — if it so desires.

It strains credulity to the utmost to believe that, a.) a university that allowed itself to be turned into a mini-Gaza Strip by Hamas-supporting trash who terrorized Jewish students, and b.) a university that is the most financially well-endowed on earth, deserves to get federal funding, without which, supposedly, scientific progress grinds to a halt.

The left-wing media, it goes without saying, has sided with Harvard and portrays the withholding of a few billion dollars as basically the end of all scientific progress, even though (again) Harvard has the money to continue if it wants.

Well, now there’s a new Harvard-related threat to scientific progress. We’re told by the media of another ghastly, unfair Trump administration policy, this time related to immigration. So what is it this time? Did ICE discover that Harvard’s most brilliant, indispensable scientific researcher is an illegal from south of the border, now being sent to El Salvador’s supermax prison where a “rival” gang will likely murder him/her, thus ending humanity’s hope for a cure for cancer? Not quite . . .

But ruining our chances of being able to effectively deal with cancer, we are told by the media, is actually one of the consequences of this egregious act by Trump’s ICE. Here’s the story, according to NBC News:

A groundbreaking microscope at Harvard Medical School could lead to breakthroughs in cancer detection and research into longevity. But the scientist who developed computer scripts to read its images and unlock its full potential has been in an immigration detention center for two months — putting crucial scientific advancements at risk.

The scientist, the 30-year-old Russian-born Kseniia Petrova, worked at Harvard’s renowned Kirschner Lab until her arrest at a Boston airport in mid-February. She is now being held at ICE’s Richwood Correctional Center in Monroe, Louisiana, and fighting possible deportation to Russia, where she said she fears persecution and jail time over her protests against the war in Ukraine.

So, “crucial scientific advancements” emanating from Harvard are “at risk” once again because of Trump. But why was Petrova arrested in the first place? According to the Department of Homeland Security, "The individual was lawfully detained after lying to federal officers about carrying substances into the country. A subsequent K9 inspection uncovered undeclared petri dishes, containers of unknown substances, and loose vials of embryonic frog cells, all without proper permits."

Sounds messy, but not exactly a sensational crime. Should she be deported over this? I have no idea, but I’m pretty certain of one thing. If she is, it won’t be the end of scientific research as we know it. Yet NBC News and most other media sources would have you believe otherwise. Here’s more from the NBC News article:

Dr. William Trim, a postdoctoral fellow who is a co-worker and housemate of Petrova, underscored her irreplaceable role in their research project using the one-of-a-kind microscope. Petrova developed the computer scripts to analyze the 100,000 images contained in the microscope.

“I’m very confident she is the only way we can achieve the true potential of this microscope and the insights we could make,” Trim said. “Without her, I fully believe that all the insights into cures or fundamental biology that we could make will not be made.”

Petrova’s “housemate?” So, they’re shacking up? Fine, he’s understandably biased in her favor. But isn’t it a bit much to believe that no one else on earth will be able to learn how to use this amazing microscope in order to make “all the insights into cures or fundamental biology?” And if Petrova is deported, we’re supposed to believe the thing will just sit there in the lab collecting dust while all the other Harvard geniuses throw up their hands and say, “How do you work this gizmo? We’re lost without her!”

That’s exactly what the media want you to think. But it gets worse. According to the esteemed (allegedly) scientific journal Nature, the United States is about to have a brain drain of scientists who want to go elsewhere because of — you guessed it — Trump. Apparently, 75% of scientists who responded to a Nature survey claim they are considering leaving the country.

Yet another article in Nature had the provocative title, “Trump’s siege of science: how the first 30 days unfolded and what’s next,” along with the wildly hyperbolic subtitle, “The breakneck pace and devastating impact of the administration’s policy changes has shocked researchers.”

You want to talk about a “siege of science?” Then let’s talk about what happened to science during COVID, when we experienced perhaps the most authoritarian and mendacious chapter in American history. The people who represented “science” — all of whom, by the way, Trump basically went along with at the time — lied profusely and damaged this country and its people like nothing we’ve ever seen. If any of them want to leave the country, I’ll help ‘em pack and chip in on their tickets — though I’d rather see them doing hard time in prison.

This publication, Nature, is an absolute swamp of Trumpophobic paranoia. The articles are hidden behind a paywall, but here’s a sampling of titles:

“‘We need to be ready for a new world’: scientists globally react to Trump election win.”

“‘Never seen anything like this’: Trump’s team halt NIH meetings and travel.”

“The U.S. is the world’s science superpower — but for how long?”

“Dread and determination: how climate scientists are preparing for Trump 2.0.”

And that’s barely scratching the surface. You might as well be reading Mother Jones.

But getting back to Petrova . . .

It sounds like she knowingly broke some laws by bringing in biological materials without declaring them to customs, but the consequences of that are less than earth-shattering. Knowing no more than I do at this moment, I hope she isn’t deported and believe there’s a good chance she won’t be. Yet even if she is, our panic-stricken media need to know that life will go on, cancer research will proceed apace and somebody will learn how to use that dadgone microscope.

Don’t listen to NBC News or read Nature magazine. As long as Trump is in office, the seas will always be rising, the sky will always be falling and there will be a “constitutional crisis” every single day in their fevered imaginations. But as for the rest of us, we’ll just keep winning.