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Live updates: US government shutdown

Live updates: US government shutdown

The US government shut down on 1 October after Congress failed to agree on a new budget. Most government scientists have been ordered to stay at home, their offices and labs closed or run by a skeleton staff of ‘essential’ workers. US agencies have stopped processing grants, many government websites and databases are offline, and government-funded research facilities have begun to close.  Read more

National laboratories prepare to shut down

Los Alamos National Laboratory will stop most work on 18 October due to the US government shutdown.

With no end in sight for the US government shutdown that began on 1 October, the Department of Energy (DOE) is now preparing to shut down the sprawling complex of national laboratories that maintains nuclear weapons and performs a range of basic and applied research.  Read more

US astronomy organization plans closure of Arizona scopes

Telescopes atop Kitt Peak, in Arizona, include the NOAO's 4-metre Mayall telescope (foreground).

The National Optical Astronomy Observatory (NOAO), the Tucson, Arizona-based organization that runs a number of major ground-based telescopes, is preparing to furlough its employees in Arizona if the US government shutdown continues past 18 October — but it will keep workers on in Chile.  Read more

Iranian student awarded human-rights prize while in prison

Iranian student awarded human-rights prize while in prison

Omid Kokabee, a physics PhD student jailed in Iran since January 2011, was awarded yesterday the 2014 American Physical Society’s Andrei Sakharov Prize for “his courage in refusing to use his physics knowledge to work on projects that he deemed harmful to humanity, in the face of extreme physical and psychological pressure.”  … Read more