frontpage.
newsnewestaskshowjobs

Made with ♥ by @iamnishanth

Open Source @Github

fp.

Open in hackernews

U.S. science agency moves to restrict foreign scientists from its labs

https://www.science.org/content/article/nist-moves-restrict-foreign-scientists-its-labs
95•JeanKage•3h ago

Comments

samrus•1h ago
> Sources at NIST contacted by ScienceInsider say they have yet to see any written versions of the proposed rules, which have been conveyed in meetings. Patrick Gallagher, a former NIST director now at the University of Pittsburgh, says the lack of clear communication and the short notice being given to foreign scientists is creating a sense of chaos. “I’m as disappointed as to how this is unfolding as to what is unfolding,” Gallagher says. “At the very least NIST owes an explanation to the country. If there is a good reason for what they are doing, they should flat out say what it is.”

This is the sort of "high agency", not waiting for permission mentality that works great for a startup thats making tinder for cats, but is really bad for foundational institutions that provide a critical service to not just the nation but humanity in general. I feel like musk and his DOGE initiative infected the government with this move fast and break things bullshit. Or they were at least correlational with it

mikkupikku•1h ago
Probably the most direct way to kick out the people they're actually worried about without invoking legal process for each one specifically, not least because if they did it on a case by case basis there would likely be an undeniable ethnic/national signal that right now is getting hidden in the noise. In other words, instead of targetting researchers for being Chinese nationals, and then subsequently having to defend ethnic discrimination in court, they're just going to throw the baby out with the bath water.

That's my guess anyway.

this-is-why•1h ago
It’s the trump admin. They don’t care about the decorum you’ve described. They would have no qualms about looking racist. Have you not seen what ICE has been doing? Racism is a badge of honor, and so is flipping off the courts and public opinion. No I believe this is simply paranoia and racism driven by Miller and his cronies.
titanomachy•1h ago
It's not about "looking racist"; or at least, it's not about public opinion. A racially targeted measure would violate specific laws and would be challenged in court, likely successfully.
rolandog•1h ago
It could also be a signal that they intend to take on the world; so they could technically not be racist if "everyone else is a threat".
ReptileMan•9m ago
There have been cases of British, Bulgarian, Canadian, German and Irish nationals also gotten in their claws. Seems pretty race agnostic to me.
TacticalCoder•1h ago
The problem with China anyway is that during the many decades when China was badly lagging, they already stole every secret they could. But now China has a very serious education system, motivated and intelligent people, lots of universities and researchers and China isn't lagging behind anymore.

So even if the goal was to prevent chinese from spying on US companies, it's too little, decades too late, because China is now at the very top too.

mc32•59m ago
In geopolitics you are forced to make deals with the devil. We armed and supplied the USSR to defeat Germany in WWII. In the 90s we gave an out of work China a wold franchise so we could make a few extra bucks with cheap labor and one billion consumers. Our blu collar workers would put down their dangerous and heavy machinery on the dank shop floor so they could take snazzy white collar jobs that were healthier and paid better because they use their American education to skill up their brains.

People were sold on that and many bought it. And now here we are living in the aftermath of us propping up systems incongruous to our own and living it down. It comes down to jockeying politicians like J Kerry and company who pretend they work for the people but in all honesty only work for themselves (remember Kerry never threw out his own war medals but rather reproductions he bought in the PX). Jane Fonda, her vanity sunk the nuclear energy industry for fifty years.

pyuser583•46m ago
I’m not seeing any ambitious people trying to get into Chinese undergrad universities.

I know a handful of folks who worked at them, and then found a more permanent position in the US.

kelipso•25m ago
Comes in stages. Used to be ambitious Chinese people wouldn’t go to Chinese universities for grad school (undergrad Chinese university to overseas grad school was a usual route). Now they definitely do. Next there might be foreign grad students in Chinese universities, then foreign undergrad students. Though you would have to learn Chinese I imagine, so that barrier is there.
ajross•14m ago
> kick out the people they're actually worried about without invoking legal process for each one specifically

Why are we assuming either/both good faith and competence here? Is there anything about the policymaking of this administration that lends credence to that hypothesis? Are there pre-existing policy proposals you're imagining that have weighed pros and cons about this? Existing abuses you're imagining that this curtails?

No, let's be real here: this is yet another impulsive idea that some crank sold the president/cabinet on.

yieldcrv•1h ago
its real war time now, so makes sense

I know the administration was already doing that and largely xenophobic, it just also makes sense now that the same administration went to war

AreShoesFeet000•1h ago
The administration is doing what’s called “pragmatism”. Xenophobic will the reaction within society to justify it.
j16sdiz•36m ago
Last time I checked, only congress can declare a war.
collabs•1h ago
It makes no sense. Foreign scientists usually can't work on classified projects because they require clearance that is very difficult if not impossible for non citizens to obtain. Restricting foreign scientists from US labs is in my opinion a stupid move. What am I missing?
lukan•1h ago
"What am I missing?"

That nationalism is the new state doctrin? Foreigners are inferior by definition, so they cannot really help with research anyway, all they want to do is steal secrets. If you think like that, then it makes sense.

croes•51m ago
Did you miss who was elected president?

There isn’t much rationality since then.

jfengel•26m ago
It is often asked what an actual foreign agent would do differently if he were trying to destroy the country.

I don't think that's entirely valid. Nonetheless, there is enough overlap that the question keeps getting raised.

So... perhaps that's what you're missing?

cue_the_strings•22m ago
You're missing the preparation for WW3.
ggm•1h ago
> NIST researchers do not carry out classified research. As a result, Gallagher says, “It’s very difficult to see the security benefit this might have.”
FpUser•1h ago
Not administration sympathizer but:

I think there are of course valid security concerns and this could be logical solution free of way more problematic issues of dealing on case by case basis.

On the other hand this will play more to people choosing some other country to advance their science aspiration and slowly but surely erode pool of talent for the US to help it stay dominant.

Practically the US have used people like Wernher von Braun on good scale and very sensitive areas and it worked just fine for the country. Qian Xuesen might of course have couple of words on the subject of course

bronlund•55m ago
Reminds me of this one :D https://www.b4x.com/android/forum/attachments/usteam-jpg.114...
rmm78•53m ago
way overdue, US labs are wide open for China spies
michaelmcdonald•18m ago
Does the 1 day old account have any type of source or information to back up this claim?
hnthrowaway0315•43m ago
> Scientists from China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, Cuba, Venezuela, and Syria are considered “high risk.”

I think this makes sense from a national security perspective (although I doubt there is any scientist coming from these countries who are working on sensitive projects, maybe except China). Since there is too much trouble to figure out who is a spy, might as well ban all of them for the moment.

I do feel a strong nostalgia about the globalization era between the 90s and the 2010s, when I spent most of my life. But I understand it comes to an end, and I'm going to spend my second half of life in a much more splintered world.

ajewhere•34m ago
But aren't they happy you bring them democracy? I am confused..
lyu07282•31m ago
> Since there is too much trouble to figure out who is a spy, might as well ban all of them for the moment.

You know why not put them into concentration camps for now, just to be sure.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internment_of_Japanese_America...

AdamN•11m ago
That was indeed the logic then. Keep in mind though that the internment was based on 'race' and 'ethnicity'. This action is based on citizenship and it's a job limitation not a forcible relocation into an open air prison.
hsuduebc2•7m ago
Ok, then let them spy continuously I guess and then carry the know how home. Even countries openly hostile to you.

I mean it is unfair for sure but it's not your given right. If for example Chinese are literally breaking their law when they refuse to spy what else can you do?

noworld•4m ago
Man, if there were only something more reasonable... something in-between letting them spy at will and concentration camps. Hmmm, maybe we will think of something eventually.
rsfern•10m ago
This list of high risk countries is not new (with the exception of maybe Venezuela being recently added, I’m not sure). Researchers with these citizenships have faced extra security review before joining NIST for years, and last year the lab increased the level of security review for everyone (not just this list)

I can understand a clearly communicated need for additional security requirements. But NIST operates almost totally in open science mode, with the main exceptions of being industry cooperative agreements. I don’t think this move to shed international researchers by reneging on commitments from the lab has been at all justified from a security standpoint.

bdangubic•20m ago
President Biden’s Executive Order 14117 is related

https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2024-03-01/pdf/2024-0...

RobotToaster•18m ago
Oh, we're the John Birch Society, the John Birch Society

Here to save our country from a communistic plot

Join the John Birch Society, help us fill the ranks

To get this movement started we need lots of tools and cranks

https://youtu.be/pG6taS9R1KM?si=QqquYHFG2S7o7-73

Motorola announces a partnership with GrapheneOS Foundation

https://motorolanews.com/motorola-three-new-b2b-solutions-at-mwc-2026/
914•km•6h ago•329 comments

/e/OS is a complete "deGoogled", mobile ecosystem

https://e.foundation/e-os/
279•doener•4h ago•144 comments

U.S. science agency moves to restrict foreign scientists from its labs

https://www.science.org/content/article/nist-moves-restrict-foreign-scientists-its-labs
96•JeanKage•3h ago•51 comments

How to talk to anyone and why you should

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2026/feb/24/stranger-secret-how-to-talk-to-anyone-why-yo...
170•Looky1173•5h ago•342 comments

Making Video Games in 2025 (without an engine)

https://www.noelberry.ca/posts/making_games_in_2025/
214•alvivar•3d ago•91 comments

Show HN: Omni – Open-source workplace search and chat, built on Postgres

https://github.com/getomnico/omni
70•prvnsmpth•4h ago•24 comments

Microsoft bans the word "Microslop" on its Discord, then locks the server

https://www.windowslatest.com/2026/03/02/microsoft-gets-tired-of-microslop-bans-the-word-on-its-d...
218•robtherobber•2h ago•76 comments

Jolla phone – a full-stack European alternative

https://commerce.jolla.com/products/jolla-phone-sept-26
181•spinningslate•2h ago•72 comments

Mondrian Entered the Public Domain. The Estate Disagrees

https://copyrightlately.com/mondrian-public-domain-controversy/
83•Tomte•2d ago•15 comments

If AI writes code, should the session be part of the commit?

https://github.com/mandel-macaque/memento
321•mandel_x•12h ago•302 comments

Go-Native Durable Execution

https://www.dbos.dev/blog/how-we-built-golang-native-durable-execution
13•hmaxdml•4d ago•1 comments

Neocaml – Rubocop Creator's New OCaml Mode for Emacs

https://github.com/bbatsov/neocaml
40•TheWiggles•2d ago•3 comments

Computer-generated dream world: Virtual reality for a 286 processor

https://deadlime.hu/en/2026/02/22/computer-generated-dream-world/
122•MBCook•8h ago•16 comments

WebMCP is available for early preview

https://developer.chrome.com/blog/webmcp-epp
319•andsoitis•15h ago•178 comments

Right-sizes LLM models to your system's RAM, CPU, and GPU

https://github.com/AlexsJones/llmfit
190•bilsbie•14h ago•39 comments

How to record and retrieve anything you've ever had to look up twice

https://ellanew.com/2026/03/02/ptpl-197-record-retrieve-from-a-personal-knowledgebase
90•Curiositry•9h ago•33 comments

An interactive intro to Elliptic Curve Cryptography

https://growingswe.com/blog/elliptic-curve-cryptography
56•vismit2000•7h ago•11 comments

Show HN: Timber – Ollama for classical ML models, 336x faster than Python

https://github.com/kossisoroyce/timber
147•kossisoroyce•12h ago•27 comments

Ghostty – Terminal Emulator

https://ghostty.org/docs
782•oli5679•1d ago•326 comments

Show HN: Web Audio Studio – A Visual Debugger for Web Audio API Graphs

https://webaudio.studio/
8•alexgriss•1h ago•0 comments

Everett shuts down Flock camera network after judge rules footage public record

https://www.wltx.com/article/news/nation-world/281-53d8693e-77a4-42ad-86e4-3426a30d25ae
307•aranaur•9h ago•89 comments

Process-Based Concurrency: Why Beam and OTP Keep Being Right

https://variantsystems.io/blog/beam-otp-process-concurrency
57•linkdd•8h ago•32 comments

Pluralism and the Modern Poet

https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v48/n03/seamus-perry/pluralism-and-the-modern-poet
9•Caiero•3d ago•0 comments

Tove Jansson's criticized illustrations of The Hobbit (2023)

https://tovejansson.com/hobbit-tolkien/
191•abelanger•2d ago•95 comments

Evolving descriptive text of mental content from human brain activity

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20260226-how-ai-can-read-your-thoughts
30•ggm•7h ago•25 comments

Enable CORS for Your Blog

https://www.blogsareback.com/guides/enable-cors
68•cdrnsf•2d ago•26 comments

Why does C have the best file API

https://maurycyz.com/misc/c_files/
133•maurycyz•17h ago•105 comments

Decision trees – the unreasonable power of nested decision rules

https://mlu-explain.github.io/decision-tree/
514•mschnell•1d ago•78 comments

Little Free Library

https://littlefreelibrary.org/
138•TigerUniversity•14h ago•71 comments

When does MCP make sense vs CLI?

https://ejholmes.github.io/2026/02/28/mcp-is-dead-long-live-the-cli.html
404•ejholmes•20h ago•258 comments