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As the inaugural speaker of the Marine Biological Laboratory’s 2025 Friday Evening lecture series, Science magazine editor-in-chief Holden Thorp visited Falmouth to paint a sobering picture of American science today and what it will take to defend it.

Introduced by MBLDirector Nipam Patel, Thorp began with an overview of Science magazine, describing it as a publication that does “three things, all of which are important and wonderful.” In addition to publishing top-tier research—accepting just 750 papers out of 12,000 annual submissions—Science also runs an investigative newsroom and provides space for commentary.

“They [the Science reporters] enjoy freedom of the press, and certainly will as long as I’m the editor-in-chief, which means I don’t get to tell them what to write,” Thorp said. “If they get themselves in trouble, I’m the one who has to get them out of it. That’s how we should run the media in this country.”

Emphasizing the role of journalism within the scientific community, Thorp stressed that the newsroom at Science “is not state media for the scientific enterprise.” Instead, it plays an important watchdog role, “just like political journalists holding politicians to account.”

Thorp, who has led the journal since 2019, emphasized that in this moment, the most important thing for the scientific community to do is “to be the best we can possibly be at doing the work the way we want to do it.” 

Source: Science Editor Holden Thorp Urges Scientists To Hold Tight To Their Values | Falmouth Enterprise