Fall colors are developing quickly in much of North America. On Wednesday, September 10, we will tell the story of autumn colors from the trees’ perspective. Why do colors change? What environmental factors affect the time and intensity of colors, and why do trees make different colors? All that is coming Wednesday.

Our knowledge of autumn colors is the result of many years of scientific research. That research has helped us to understand fall colors and to know how human activities, especially climate change, alters the lives of trees in a way that affects colors. Right now, though, the US government and the Republican party are destroying our ability to do good science. They are driving great scientists to quite their careers or move to other countries. They are dismantling the extremely valuable infrastructure of our science enterprises.

The US has been the world leader of science for many decades. We not only train US scientists, but a very large number of the world’s most important scientists. And we have built up capabilities for scientific research all over the world. A great deal of my work when I was an American professor was to build science capacity at universities in Asia, and to train scientists from tropical countries.

We cannot give this up. A strong scientific community and good funding for science have been an important part of building our strong economy and will continue to do so if we continue to support it. We must work together to stop the destruction of American science. In the long run, we need to restore our democracy. Right now, we need to persuade a fairly small number of Republicans in congress to go against their leaders and join the Democrats to restore science funding and opportunities. thebulletin.org/2025/06…