Our Best Scientists are Leaving the U.S. & Why is Everyone in the News "Melting Down"?
June 6, 2025
What I’m Discussing Today:
Kareem’s Daily Quote: Hamlet’s admonishment of Horatio got it all wrong. Fortunately, I’m here to set him straight.
World Scientists Look Elsewhere as U.S. Labs Stagger Under Trump Cuts: This will have disastrous results on our ability to compete with other countries.
RFK Jr.’s MAHA Report Included Lots of Bogus Studies: The incompetency continues as he attempts to control all scientific reporting available to the public.
US veterans agency orders scientists not to publish in journals without clearance: The VA is responsible for many scientific breakthroughs, not to mention its treatment and support of our veterans. Not anymore, if Trump has his way.
Kareem’s Kvetching Korner: The Melt-Down Myth in Headlines: Legit journalists should be above this pandering trend.
What I’m Reading: I’m not much of a science-fiction reader, but today’s selections are great examples of why I need to be more open-minded.
Kareem’s Video Break: If this doesn’t make you smile, you’re a zombie.
Kareem’s Sports Moments: The anticipation of this high dive from a cliff left my stomach in knots.
Duke Ellington & John Coltrane: “In a Sentimental Mood”: Two of my favorite jazz greats give us a song that will envelop you in a warm blanket of soothing sounds.
Kareem’s Daily Quote
“There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.”
Hamlet in Act 1, Scene 5 of William Shakespeare’s Hamlet.
This is Hamlet’s reply to his pal Horatio who doesn’t believe in ghosts, though in the play, the literal ghost of Hamlet’s father visits him. A frustrated Hamlet admonishes Horatio’s inability to think beyond the limitations of logic and reason. The quote is popularly used to rebuke someone who refuses to believe in an occult or supernatural explanation for strange occurrences in the world. Like a god or miracles or ghosts or angels.
This is an attempt to give supernatural explanations the same weight as reason. Kind of like when they drowned, burned, and hung people for being witches. For those feeling smugly superior about our Salem and Spanish Inquisition past, the UN Human Rights Council reported that “hundreds of thousands are harmed each year due to witchcraft beliefs, and at least 20,000 people were killed across 60 countries between 2009 and 2019.” It’s difficult to be rhapsodizing about supernatural explanations when others are using the same basic “logic” to legitimize their murdering people.
This brings me to another famous quote attributed to science-fiction author Arthur C. Clarke: “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” If a time traveler from 500 years from now popped back into our time, many people would very likely see magic in all their technology. Who 500 years ago could imagine airplanes or rockets to the moon or medicine?
The “real” ghost in Hamlet is merely a story device, like ghosts in Ghostbusters, but doesn’t make them real outside of fiction. Hamlet’s challenge of Horatio’s logic-based thinking actually means that there are more things than are dreamt of in Horatio’s philosophy—for now. Our knowledge is always limited and probably always will be. But the knowledge of the way the world works—from molecular structure to mating habits of bugs—is not the result of supernatural divinations, but of research and logic.
Part of our desire for supernatural explanations is a deeply rooted dissatisfaction with a world ruled by science. Many people feel diminished that they are no more than flesh bags that feed off living organisms and in turn, provide food for other organisms. We like to elevate ourselves above the messy, nasty, brutish cycle of life into a pristine world not bound by mundane cause and effect. A world beyond toilets.
I’m okay with this messy world. The more we learn, the more we discover how little we know about the universe and ourselves. It’s all a delightful wonderment. But it is a wonderment that has physical laws and there are consequences to actions. One may consult a heavenly spiritual world for personal strength to endure the slings and arrows of life, but our actions need to be governed by what’s on the ground. There is definitely more to the universe than what we know, so let’s commit to knowing more and not just throwing up our hands and muttering about Fate.