New NAS Chief Doubles Down on Science as US Research Faces Headwinds

Neil Shubin — the paleontologist who famously co-discovered Tiktaalik, the fish with proto-limbs that rewrote the story of how life crawled onto land — is taking the helm of the National Academy of Sciences. His message on day one is blunt and deliberately loud: "a society that loses science loses the future."

That's not a throwaway line. It's a positioning statement. The NAS, founded in 1863 to advise the US government on matters of science, carries real institutional weight — its reports shape policy on everything from climate to drug safety. Whoever leads it sets the tone for how American science talks to power, and right now that conversation is tense.

Shubin's pledge to "double down" on research lands in a climate where science funding, academic independence, and the relationship between researchers and Washington are all under active pressure. He's not naming names, but nobody in the room needs him to. The signal is clear: the Academy intends to be louder, not quieter.

The honest caveat? This is a speech, not a budget line. Vows from incoming institutional leaders are cheap — what matters is whether the NAS uses its advisory muscle to push back on funding cuts, defends researchers under political fire, and keeps its own credibility intact by staying rigorously nonpartisan. Shubin has the scientific pedigree and the public communication chops (he wrote the bestselling Your Inner Fish). Whether that translates into institutional backbone is the actual story, and it hasn't been written yet.

Still, in a moment when a lot of science leaders are choosing careful silence, a clear "we're doubling down" from the top of the NAS is at minimum a useful data point — and at best, the opening move of something more consequential.