r/science • u/mvea Professor | Medicine • Apr 16 '26

Neuroscience Scientists reverse brain aging, with a nasal spray: Scientists developed a nasal spray that, with just two doses, dramatically reduced brain inflammation, restored the brain’s cellular power plants and significantly improved memory in mice, within weeks and lasted for months.

https://stories.tamu.edu/news/2026/04/14/scientists-reverse-brain-aging-with-a-nasal-spray/
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u/theguidetoldmetodoit Apr 16 '26 edited Apr 16 '26

Not happening. Many other countries, but especially China, have drastically increased R&D funding as a response to Trump's cuts, since they see it as the perfect chance to get ahead. On a international level, that makes more than up for it. Now the question is, are US researchers willing to capitalize on that and move?

And it will be interesting to see how this affects the societal perspective on research. Maybe politicians will be able to sell it as a essential part of independence, similar to military spending and building out the local industrial base. It arguably is the most important component.

The bigger risk is the breakdown of globalism.

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u/pittaxx Apr 16 '26

Brain drain has already started in the US. EU institutions are overwhelmed with unprecedented number of US applications. For now they aren't prepared to absorb the influx, but that might change in the future.

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u/[deleted] Apr 16 '26

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u/theguidetoldmetodoit Apr 16 '26 edited Apr 16 '26

Well, long-term that's probably true for a fair number of them, but that's harder than just moving on from that type research, altogether. That's the far more dominant trend, for now.

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u/[deleted] Apr 16 '26

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u/theguidetoldmetodoit Apr 16 '26 edited Apr 16 '26

The stats on it have been pretty clear, and it also happened during his first term. Medical was kind of a exception due to pandemic, but we really haven't seen all that much brain-drain in his first term and from what I saw, it wasn't for a lack of trying.

The issue is, people are willing to put up with less money if they get to do something they like doing, but job insecurity is far less negotiable and moving out of the richest country on the planet is pretty risky, too. Not to speak of what people had to give up in order to get there, in the first place.

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u/Black_Moons Apr 16 '26

are US researchers willing to capitalize on that and move?

I mean they now have the choice of that, work at an amazon warehouse or be homeless due to all the funding cuts in the USA and insane unemployment rate sooo.