Shattering, irreplaceable, confusing. These are some of the words used by scientists I’ve been speaking to this week about cuts to their US federal research funding initiated by the Trump administration. One prominent South African researcher has seen her work towards a HIV vaccine upended. Another US-based scientist working on risk factors for Alzheimer’s disease is appealing a decision by the National Institutes of Health to terminate her US$5 million (£3.75 million) grant. Such grants, won in a competitive process, can take years of work to secure and often support a team of researchers and administrators.

Listen to their stories, and that of a third scientist whose work examining health disparities between people of different sexual identities has similarly been impacted, in the latest edition of The Conversation Weekly podcast. It paints a dispiriting picture for the future of research. In the words of one of the interviewees, the cuts mean it will take “much longer” to answer the critical questions that they face in their work.

After months of very public wrangling, Ukraine finally signed a deal to give the US a share of profits from its mineral wealth in return for continued economic and military support. Much has been made of this being a much better deal for Ukraine than was initially offered, but Andrew Gawthorpe, lecturer in history and international studies at Leiden University, argues that it does little to change the underlying realities of the conflict.

If you’ve ever been roundly told off by your dentist for not flossing or brushing your teeth enough, now there are even more reasons to listen. Growing research shows that poor oral hygiene can prove a lot more consequential than previously thought – and could even lead to heart disease.

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