Government Shutdown's Effects on Science Seen on Twitter

NOAA Twitter account screen shot — A screen shot of the Twitter account for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration on Oct. 1, 2013, when the government shutdown went into effect.

(Image credit: Screen shot/Twitter)

The federal government has been through federal shutdowns before — there have been 17 of them since the 1970's in fact — but the world and technology are very different from where they were during the last shutdown, which happened over 16 days in 1995-1996. Communication over the Internet then took place via email and rudimentary chat rooms and forums, but today, we have Facebook, Vine and Twitter, which can help illuminate the scope of a government shutdown.

The current shutdown is having particular effects for the sciences, with portions of the CDC and FDA being shut down, as well as all of the country's national parks and the Smithsonian museums and zoo. All but 600-odd NASA employees are being furloughed, which could affect future missions, and the U.S. Geological Survey won't be able to monitor water quality or ecosystem restoration.

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Andrea Thompson is an associate editor at Scientific American, where she covers sustainability, energy and the environment. Prior to that, she was a senior writer covering climate science at Climate Central and a reporter and editor at Live Science, where she primarily covered Earth science and the environment. She holds a graduate degree in science health and environmental reporting from New York University, as well as a bachelor of science and and masters of science in atmospheric chemistry from the Georgia Institute of Technology.