US Congress cuts NSF budget

The US scientific community is raising concerns that a modest cut to the budget of the National Science Foundation (NSF) could be the beginning of a period of austerity for S&T. The cuts by the US Congress mean the NSF will receive $5.473 billion in 2005 — $105 million less than it received the year before, and $272 million less than the amount requested by president George Bush. The cut comes just two years after Congress voted to double the NSF budget in five years. Congress doubled the budget of the National Institutes of Health between 1998 and 2003....