Life unknown: On science and research freedom  

The University of Cambridge issued a press release regarding a paper coauthored by one of its scientists that reported an exoplanet called K2-18b may be habitable, with the misleading headline, Strongest hints yet of biological activity outside the solar system. The paper, published on April 17, 2025, made headlines because astronomers have been interested for some time in this exoplanet’s peculiar surface physiochemistry. The paper is to its credit sedate in its prognostications: the authors have reported detecting the presence of dimethyl sulphide or dimethyl disulphide in K2-18b’s atmosphere; the former is considered a sign of life on the earth and could be on the exoplanet. Independent scientists and the paper’s authors have called for dispassionate efforts to refine the data and reduce uncertainties as well as to double-check the implications. If the history of the search for biomarkers on other planets both within and without the solar system is any guide, there is no guarantee that the findings will not be overturned. The cosmos still harbours too many mysteries for us to not be surprised by new information awaiting discovery. Research of this nature — initiated by curiosity and a pursuit of the unknown — has sometimes been overtaken by hype. Unfortunately, it faces another threat today: funding cuts of the type U.S. President Donald Trump has unleashed in his country.

After downsizing or cancelling grants issued via the National Institutes of Health, Mr. Trump began holding entire universities hostage: drawdown DEI initiatives and rein in student protests or forgo federal funding, he seemed to say. The institutions affected count some of the world’s best in their ranks and the funding withheld, a non-trivial fraction of that spent on certain subjects worldwide. Earlier this month, the White House’s budget proposal for the 2026 fiscal revealed its plans to cut National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration funding by 27%, nix most spending for science at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, and halve NASA’s earth-science budget. The essential programme is to control the practice and pursuit of science that does not align with Republican state ideology. Curiosity-driven research, such as that concerned with the possibility of extraterrestrial life, both proves universities’ freedom to explore the unknown and fulfils the innate curiosity of humankind. However, the Trump government’s policies leave whatever research freedom that remains very precious yet also more vulnerable to misinformation and ideological capture, and the world itself more short-sighted.