Thousands of people across the United States plan to gather today in support of science. So-called Stand Up for Science rallies, organized by volunteers, are a response to widespread and rapid-fire moves targeting science and scientists following the inauguration of President Donald Trump in January.
During the past several weeks, the Trump administration has ordered federal science agencies to stop researching, funding, communicating, and hosting data on topics that do not align with the White House agenda. Much of that agenda is based on debunked science or outright false information.
Science agencies, including the National Science Foundation, EPA, and NOAA, have collectively fired hundreds of employees. Remaining staff have seen their government-issued credit cards effectively frozen, leaving them unable to pay for analyses, travel, and supplies needed to continue their work.
Among the scientific fields targeted are climate science; diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility; gender affirmation; social and environmental justice; vaccine science and public health; weather and climate forecasting; clean air and water regulations; and cybersecurity. These actions have hurt the science community and general public.
“Science is for everyone. Science keeps us safe, and enables us to live longer, healthier lives,” wrote the leadership of Stand Up for Science. “We call on leaders at every level, regardless of political affiliation, to champion and protect scientific research, education, and communication—for the progress, prosperity, and well-being of all.”
Calls to Action
Inspired by the 2017 March for Science during the first Trump administration, Stand Up for Science organizers are urging policymakers to secure and expand scientific funding; to end censorship and political interference in science; and to defend diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility in science.
Official rallies are planned in Washington, D.C., and in 31 other cities across the United States. Similar events have sprung up in more than 100 other U.S. locations and in Europe, too. Scientists, science communicators, educators, elected officials, activists, and health care patients are scheduled to speak.
Ahead of his speech at the Washington, D.C., rally, astronomer and science communicator Phil Plait told Eos he will speak “about the attacks on science of the current administration and how that has echoes in history that are very relevant today.”
Plait plans to call attention to the impact of funding cuts and research censorship on the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, and universities and remind people about how similar attacks on science unfolded throughout history.
“We saw this happen in Nazi Germany and Stalinist USSR, with scientists fleeing, exiled, or imprisoned, and those countries suffered greatly because of it,” Plait said. “I do not want that to happen here.”
“My biggest concerns as a citizen and human being are the wholesale attacks on medical science,” Plait said.
“My hope is that people will get a renewed sense of how science is massively important to everyone and how we must vigorously speak out to defend it.”
In particular, he denounced Robert F. Kennedy Jr., secretary of health and human services, as a “crackpot.”
“He is an anti-vaxxer, he promulgates long-debunked medical quackery, and he is actively undermining critical medical research,” Plait said. “Because of this, people will die.”
Stand Up for Science organizers estimate that the main rally in Washington, D.C., will draw around 10,000 people to the National Mall.
“My hope is that people will get a renewed sense of how science is massively important to everyone and how we must vigorously speak out to defend it,” Plait said. “I want people to be inspired and motivated to make their voices heard, to call their government representatives, and to make sure the United States doesn’t go any further down this very dark path it’s facing.”
Eos reporters will be covering rallies and updating this article as events unfold.
—Kimberly M. S. Cartier (@astrokimcartier.bsky.social), Staff Writer
Citation: Cartier, K. M. S. (2025), Crowds stand up for science across the United States, Eos, 106,https://doi.org/10.1029/2025EO250096. Published on 7 March 2025.
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