In liberal democracies around the globe, science and its institutional environment are increasingly under pressure. In various places, universities and research organisations face budget cuts, political interference, and rising scrutiny. Scientific expertise is being instrumentalised, challenged, or even outright dismissed — not only by fringe actors, but also by public institutions. These developments are not limited to headline-grabbing attacks on climate science or public health research. They manifest in structural shifts: shrinking funding, changing research priorities, growing precarity, and contested authority in public discourse. At the same time, digital platforms amplify disinformation, accelerate backlash against scholars, and heighten the risks of public engagement.
As corporate investment eclipses public funding, the pursuit of scientific knowledge is increasingly guided by market logic. This shift is starkly visible in AI research, where the race towards AGI exposes how profit motives and national competition are quietly reshaping the norms and values of science itself.
The “orchestrator” design of ChatGPT-5 exemplifies how generative AI models, by becoming fluid services rather than static tools, make scientific replication impossible in principle, not just difficult in practice. Why is scientific publishing holding itself back? Pressure to publish in elite journals fuels politics, fragments fields like ecology, and weakens true peer review—could new tools help create a fairer, more objective editorial system?
In this study, Ben Shultz uncovers a sharp, politically driven collapse in academic communication about disinformation research following the 2024 U.S. election.
Teresa Völker interviewed Jeanette Hofmann about the role of science communication in fragmented publics, the impact of social media on democratic discourse, and why scientists shouldn’t retreat from social media.
Institutions often applaud public engagement, until the backlash begins. Then what? At a Berlin workshop, researchers explored how to move from awareness to action.
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