As scientific research opportunities are increasingly at risk, the U.S. is creating refugees of science. Instead of sticking around and remaining worried about their U.S. jobs, scientists are turning to international institutions to create new opportunities for themselves without fear of the Trump administration.

Background
President Donald Trump halted research funding in several disciplines, leaving many scientists stranded. "Federal science budgets have been slashed," said The New York Times. 

Also, stricter immigration policies have "spread fear among international scientists" working in the U.S. and those who "had hoped to," said the Times. Graduate and postdoctoral students have "had their visas canceled or worry they will." 

This has created a scientific brain drain. A whopping 75% of scientists have considered leaving the U.S. to pursue scientific opportunities elsewhere, according to a poll by the scientific journal Nature. 

The latest
Where one door closes, another one opens. Scientists who have felt abandoned in the U.S. are being courted by institutions across the world. 

France's Aix-Marseille University "introduced eight U.S.-based researchers who were in the final stage of joining the institution's 'Safe Place for Science' program," which aims to "woo researchers who have experienced or fear funding cuts" under the Trump administration, said Politico. The program has received close to 300 applications from some of the top institutions in the U.S.

The reaction
The scientific refugees of the U.S. provide an opportunity for other countries. With France "even considering a scientific refugee status as a result of the U.S. exodus, the country is laying the groundwork to capture that talent," said Monocle. While the U.S. "shoots itself in the foot," Europe might "receive a shot in the arm." Several Chinese universities are also "aggressively recruiting Chinese undergraduates abroad to skip traditional academic pathways and enroll directly into PhD programs," said the South China Morning Post.

There are also new scientific refugees in the making. Trump's "Big Beautiful Bill" calls for a 56% cut to the National Science Foundation budget and a 73% reduction in staff and fellowships. There's a "whole generation of young scientists who see no pathway into the field," said Jacquelyn Gill, a paleoecologist at the University of Maine, to The Guardian. These cuts are "deeply upsetting and demoralizing" to a "community of people who only ever wanted to solve problems and be of use."

Soaring summer temperatures have long made delivering packages an especially treacherous job. Now, there's concern that federal protections against overly hot delivery trucks could be stripped away by President Donald Trump's nominee to head the Occupational Safety and Health Administration: David Keeling, a former executive at UPS and Amazon.

Why are delivery trucks so dangerous in hot weather?
While Amazon has said its vehicles are air-conditioned, the majority of UPS trucks do not have air conditioning. Temperatures "inside the trucks, both the cab and especially the cargo space where drivers need to go to fetch and drop off packages, can regularly get well over 120 degrees [Fahrenheit]," said CNN.

Under a 2023 labor contract with the Teamsters Union, UPS "committed to deliver at least 28,000 new or replacement sprinter vans and package cars with in-cab air conditioning," said supply chain news outlet FreightWaves and pledged that all trucks purchased after Jan. 1, 2024, would have air conditioning. But the union "estimates that UPS has delivered only 10%" of the promised vehicles.

How could Trump's OSHA nominee exacerbate this?
Keeling was a health and safety executive at both UPS and Amazon and is the man "some workers blame for the inaction" of heat safety initiatives, said The New York Times. There are currently no nationwide standards for delivery truck safety, but Keeling would be "taking helm at the agency just as it considers the first federal rule designed to protect as many as 36 million workers from extreme heat."

This rule, drafted by the Biden administration, is "aimed at requiring access to water, shade and breaks," said The Guardian. But as some labor unions are pushing to get the rule passed, delivery corporations have "pushed to gut the rules," and there are "concerns among safety advocates and some workers that Keeling could help them do so."

Delivery drivers who worked at UPS during Keeling's tenure say they "struggled to get the company to take measures to address dangerous heat conditions," said the Times. OSHA records show that "about 50 UPS workers were 'seriously injured' by heat exposure," said The New Republic, and "required hospitalization" during that time.