It's not news.

When I catch up on email, I go through the tables of contents for several major journals.

Something I never did as a grad student (but now wish I had) was read the editorials and science budget news. But it's all right there, in the front of Nature, Science, EMBO, not to mention journals like The Scientist.

The recent issues included various sagas about how the Republican Congress never finished the budget, and how biomedical funding has flatlined for now, and how stem cell research probably still won't be funded because the Dems didn't get enough votes to override a Presidential veto.

It's not a secret, and it's not news. Science funding is tough, it has been getting worse for a while, and although we have a new Congress, improvements won't be immediate. And it may be too late for some of us.

This week I had a run-in with yet another person who subscribes to the theory of always encouraging students to pursue careers in science. I really don't know what to do besides try to force them to face facts, and say to everyone I meet that it's all there, they can look it up, look at the numbers. It's not news that science is a tough career.