We're Losing Recipes: The Damage Already Done to Science Will Take Generations to Repair

On American manufacturing and international scholars.

An action item up top before the paywall: Visit SaveNSF.com to learn more about how we can protect science funding. https://www.savensf.com/

Additionally…

• Immigrant Defenders Law Center: give.immdef.org/donate

• LA Jail Support / Bail Fund: https://account.venmo.com/u/jailsupportla

• Unión del Barrio: https://uniondelbarrio.org/main/support-our-work-my-making-a-donation/

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Every once in a while, someone from my old research lab reaches out to ask me a question. I finished my PhD in 2021, yet to this day I will get the occasional email asking me how to repair a certain instrument, where a certain tool is located in the lab, how to formulate a certain blend of nanomaterial solution, or just my thoughts on how an experiment might go. Four entire years after I’ve left, enough time for a new PhD student to have entered and graduated from the lab without even having known me, and still, I’m the “expert” that knows more about this topic than even my former advisor.

This is by no means uncommon, either; PhD students often know more than their advisors about certain aspects of their work since they’re the ones actually spending time in the lab. Before I left the lab, I made sure to train a new student to the best of my abilities, teaching them everything I knew and handing them all my documentation for all my experiments. But that’s the funny thing about knowledge: it takes hands-on mentoring to get at the nitty-gritty stuff, the “actually this happened to me one time, you have to hold this bolt in place while tightening this one”-type wisdom. My critiques of the neoliberal university aside, I’m proud of my PhD and I’m proud to continue serving as a lifelong mentor to students (current and former) and those who want to learn more about polymers (take my class on pollution, by the way!)

I thought about the impermanence of knowledge while watching SmarterEveryDay’s new video. It’s a great watch, especially for those who are new to the world of manufacturing, and it gets at the heart of a massive issue in my country, one that matters deeply as science funding gets slashed by a tyrannical ruler. It’s not just that our manufacturing capacity isn’t what it used to be; it’s that we’re losing the knowledge of how to manufacture things in the first place. We’re losing recipes!