Even though the government shutdown in the US has ended and a second one avoided, the Los Angeles Times reports that scientists are still feeling the effects of the 35-day closure.
For instance, it reports that researchers and their students had been preparing to run experiments at the National Institute of Standards and Technology's Center for Neutron Research, but that with the shutdown, lost their time slot and have had to reschedule. According to the LA Times, this led researchers to lose money as they cancelled plane tickets and other arrangements, in addition to having squandered preparation time and materials. It could also affect some postdocs' career prospects as they enter the job market and other researchers as they apply for new grants and try to publish papers, it says.
The University of California, Santa Barbara's Stephen Wilson tells the LA Times that the shutdown harmed research in the US. "Science, to a large degree, is a race," he says.
NIST estimates that it may take six months or more for its operations to return to normal, according to the LA Times.