On April 22 , March for science had marches in over 600 cities around the world, thousands of people marched to support science. The fate of government-funded research and other scientific work hangs in the balance as President Trump tries to make cuts to science and education in favor of a military budget increase.

Thousands of people marched in the name of science with signs. It was a very important march and a morale booster for the science community. The event that took place in Chicago featured Bill Nye speaking from Washington D.C. The marches took place to defend fact-based policy making and scientists who are skeptical of Trump’s administration. Trump has previously stated that he thinks that climate change is a hoax and has plans to severely cut funding to the  Environmental Protection Agency as well as take the U.S. out of the Paris climate agreements.

 Although the march in D.C. only attracted 15,000 people, the marches around the country and specifically Chicago’s march drew upwards of 40,000 people. The march for science supports women’s reproductive health and the vaccination of everyone to prevent deadly diseases from spreading among the young and the very old.  

Though the marches got huge support with the thousands that attended the marches, it got a lot of criticism from scientists as well.  Sylvester James Gates warned that “such a politically charged event might send a message to the public that scientists are driven by ideology more than by evidence.” Others say the science has always been politically charged because politics controls what science can and cannot do.