Science takes it on the chin during shutdown.

• Position: YOUR LIFE

The haggling over the Federal budget is choking the U.S.'s science innovation pipeline--strangling new discoveries, future economic growth, and job creation--charges Marinda Li Wu, president of the American Chemical Society, Washington, D.C.

As a result of the shutdown, the National Science Foundation will issue no new grants or cooperative agreements for innovative scientific research, and no continuing grant increments for existing projects will be provided, effectively suspending or completely halting critical research efforts. NSF recalled scientists from the Antarctic Research Stations; they will lose an entire season of research, which stands to impact hundreds of projects in which the U.S. already has invested millions of dollars.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Ga., had to recall furloughed workers to deal with an outbreak of salmonella that was traced to a poultry producer in California which had sickened hundreds of people in 18 states. The National Institutes of Health had to close its cancer clinics, interrupting the treatment of hundreds of patients.

Wu maintains that federally funded research facilities have proven themselves to be cradles of innovation, conducting basic and...