‘We need to be ready for a new world’: scientists globally react to Trump election win
“我们需要为新世界做好准备”：全球科学家对特朗普大选获胜的反应

Scientists around the world expressed disappointment and alarm as Republican Donald Trump won the final votes needed to secure the US presidency in the early hours of 6 November. On account of Trump’s anti-science rhetoric and actions during his previous term in office, many are now bracing for four years of attacks on scientists, both in and outside the government.
当共和党人唐纳德·特朗普在 11 月 6 日凌晨赢得确保美国总统职位所需的最后选票时，世界各地的科学家都表示失望和警觉。由于特朗普在上一个任期内的反科学言论和行动，许多人现在正在为四年来政府内外对科学家的攻击做准备。

The US election is monumental for science, say Nature readers — here’s why
《自然》杂志的读者说，美国大选对科学来说具有里程碑意义——原因如下

“In my long life of 82 years ... there has hardly been a day when I felt more sad,” says Fraser Stoddart, a Nobel laureate who left the United States last year and is now a member of the chemistry department at the University of Hong Kong. “I’ve witnessed something that I feel is extremely bad, not just for the United States, but for all of us in the world.”
“在我 82 岁的漫长人生中......几乎没有一天让我感到如此难过，“去年离开美国的诺贝尔奖得主弗雷泽·斯托达特（Fraser Stoddart）说，他现在是香港大学化学系的成员。“我目睹了我认为极其糟糕的事情，不仅对美国，而且对我们全世界所有人来说都是如此。”

Michael Lubell, a physicist at the City College of New York in New York City who tracks federal science-policy issues, says that given how polarized US politics are right now, he is “shocked, but not surprised” by the result. The implications of the win for both government policy and science are profound, especially because of Trump’s deep scepticism of scientists and other specialists who manage public health and environmental policy in the federal government, Lubell says.
纽约市城市学院（City College of New York）追踪联邦科学政策问题的物理学家迈克尔·卢贝尔（Michael Lubell）说，鉴于美国政治现在的两极分化程度，他对结果感到“震惊，但并不惊讶”。卢贝尔说，获胜对政府政策和科学的影响都是深远的，特别是因为特朗普对联邦政府中管理公共卫生和环境政策的科学家和其他专家深表怀疑。

Votes are still being counted in many places, but Trump has already won enough US states to sail to a resounding victory over his Democratic opponent, US vice-president Kamala Harris. Trump addressed his supporters as the victor early today, declaring his coalition “the greatest political movement of all time”.
许多地方的选票仍在统计中，但特朗普已经赢得了足够多的美国州，以压倒性的优势战胜了他的民主党对手、美国副总统卡玛拉·哈里斯（Kamala Harris）。特朗普今天早些时候向他的支持者发表胜利者讲话，宣布他的联盟是“有史以来最伟大的政治运动”。

Republicans also look primed to win the upper chamber of the US Congress — the Senate — flipping at least three Democratic seats, although there are four other competitive races that have yet to be called for either party. Results for the lower chamber, the US House of Representatives, are still coming in, and it could be days or weeks before the final numbers are known, but it seems likely that the Republicans will retain control. This would give Trump and his party full control of government in Washington DC.
共和党人似乎也准备好赢得美国国会上院——参议院——至少三个民主党席位，尽管两党还有其他四场竞争激烈的竞选尚未确定。美国众议院（House of Representatives）的结果仍在出炉，最终数字可能需要几天或几周的时间才能知道，但共和党似乎很可能会保持控制权。这将使特朗普和他的政党完全控制华盛顿特区的政府。

“We need to be ready for a new world,” says Grazyna Jasienska, a longevity researcher at Jagiellonian University in Krakow, Poland. “I am trying to be optimistic, but it is hard to find any positive aspects for global science and public health if Republicans take over.”
“我们需要为新世界做好准备，”波兰克拉科夫雅盖隆大学（Jagiellonian University）的长寿研究员格拉兹娜·贾西恩斯卡（Grazyna Jasienska）说。“我试图保持乐观，但如果共和党人掌权，很难为全球科学和公共卫生找到任何积极的方面。”

Worries pour in 忧虑涌入

Trump has, in the past, called climate change a hoax and pulled the United States out of the Paris climate agreement. He has also said he would give Robert F. Kennedy Jr, a political figure who has questioned vaccine safety, a “big role” in his administration, and he has promised to make it easier to fire specialists, such as scientists, from the US government if they oppose his political agenda.
特朗普过去曾称气候变化是骗局，并将美国退出巴黎气候协定。他还表示，他将让质疑疫苗安全性的政治人物小罗伯特·肯尼迪（Robert F. Kennedy Jr）在他的政府中发挥“重要作用”，他还承诺，如果科学家等专家反对他的政治议程，将更容易从美国政府解雇他们。

The US is the world’s science superpower — but for how long?
美国是世界科学超级大国——但能持续多久呢？

Worries pouring in this morning align with those expressed by the majority of readers who responded last month to a survey conducted by Nature. More than 2,000 people answered the poll, with 86% saying that they favoured Harris, owing to concerns including climate change, public health and the state of US democracy. Some even said they would consider changing where they live or study if Trump won.
今天早上涌入的担忧与上个月对《自然》进行的一项调查做出回应的大多数读者所表达的担忧一致。超过 2,000 人回答了民意调查，其中 86% 的人表示他们支持哈里斯，因为人们担心气候变化、公共卫生和美国民主状况。一些人甚至表示，如果特朗普获胜，他们会考虑改变自己的生活或学习地点。

Responses geared towards that sentiment have come swiftly in the wake of Trump’s win. Tulio de Oliveira, a prominent virologist at the Centre for Epidemic Response and Innovation at Stellenbosch University in South Africa, posted on X (the social-media platform formerly known as Twitter): “With the changes around the world, you may want to relocate to one of the best Universities in [South Africa] in one of the world’s most beautiful region!” He also posted a link to job advertisements for postgraduate and postdoctoral fellowships at the university.
在特朗普获胜后，针对这种情绪的回应迅速出现。南非斯泰伦博斯大学流行病应对和创新中心的著名病毒学家图利奥·德·奥利维拉 （Tulio de Oliveira） 在 X（社交媒体平台前身为 Twitter）上发帖说：“随着世界各地的变化，您可能希望搬迁到位于世界上最美丽的地区之一的 [南非] 最好的大学之一！他还发布了该大学研究生和博士后奖学金的招聘广告链接。

Not all researchers are against a Trump presidency, however. Of those who responded to Nature’s reader survey, 6% expressed a preference for Trump — usually citing concerns about security issues and the economy. César Monroy-Fonseca, chief scientific officer at Seele Neuroscience, a behavioural neuroscience laboratory based in Mexico City, favoured Trump, telling Nature that he is “the lesser of the evils”. The Mexican economy is strongly dependent on decisions made by the US government, Monroy-Fonseca says.
然而，并非所有研究人员都反对特朗普担任总统。在回答《自然》读者调查的人中，6% 的人表示更喜欢特朗普——通常是因为担心安全问题和经济。位于墨西哥城的行为神经科学实验室Seele Neuroscience的首席科学官塞萨尔·蒙罗伊-丰塞卡（César Monroy-Fonseca）支持特朗普，他告诉《自然》杂志，他是“邪恶中较轻的”。Monroy-Fonseca 说，墨西哥经济在很大程度上依赖于美国政府做出的决定。

Another reader who agreed to be contacted but did not want their name to be used, said they are concerned about Trump’s hostility towards science and evidence. But the respondent, a long-time nurse from Wilmington, North Carolina, said they would vote for Trump because, “at the end of the day, I want to be safe, and I want to be able to take care of my family”.
另一位同意联系但不愿透露姓名的读者表示，他们对特朗普对科学和证据的敌意感到担忧。但受访者是来自北卡罗来纳州威尔明顿的一名资深护士，她表示，他们会投票给特朗普，因为“归根结底，我想保证安全，我想能够照顾好我的家人”。

Lessons learnt

Others, however, are focused on what a second Trump presidency will mean for science. “Perhaps one of my biggest worries ... is that Trump will be another nail in the coffin for trust in science”, given his anti-science rhetoric, says Lisa Schipper, a geographer at the University of Bonn in Germany who specializes in climate-change vulnerability. According to a survey of thousands of US adults by the Pew Research Center in Washington DC, the percentage of people who say that science has had a positive effect on society has been declining steadily since 2019.

US election debate: what Harris and Trump said about science

“I’m speechless, but I think it’s a learning moment,” says Sheila Jasanoff, a social scientist at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Trump’s victory illustrates a fundamental disconnect between academic researchers and many Republican voters. Finding common ground will require social engagement, and probably humility on the part of scientists, who have yet to fully come to grips with this social and political divide. For many Republicans, Jasanoff says, “the problem is us” — the academic ‘elites’.

Some have already begun to think about January 2025, when Trump is slated to take office. “I hope we can convince the Trump administration to adopt a bold evidence-based science agenda and to hire people who are skilled and competent to implement it,” says Georges Benjamin, the executive director of the American Public Health Association in Washington DC. But the last time Trump was in office, Benjamin adds, “he had some absolutely amazing scientists who worked for him, and then he undermined them — he didn’t follow their advice” — in particular, by publicly rebuking them and not pushing a strong response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Starting now, we are going to need brave people, people willing to push back, protect the vulnerable, and do what’s right over what’s easy,” says one senior official at the US Environmental Protection Agency who declined to be named because of fears of retribution under the forthcoming Trump administration. “We do have to remember what’s right. And what’s right is protecting public health and the environment.”