This spring, graduate students in various science disciplines and young scientists, who were just beginning their careers, spearheaded a campaign to write to news organizations nationwide about their passion for science and the threat posed to their ability to do research by budget cuts planned — and in some cases carried out — by the Trump administration.

The campaign was part of a larger effort called the McClintock Letters Initiative, named for the geneticist Barbara McClintock, who was the first woman to win the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine that was not shared with a man. McClintock, who won the Nobel in 1983, first accepted a position in the 1940s at Cold Spring Harbor Lab, where she conducted much of her groundbreaking research before leaving. She returned in 1983 to Cold Spring Harbor after winning the Nobel Prize. McClintock died in Huntington in 1992.

The five essays here were written by current graduate students at Cold Spring Harbor Lab. They are conducting research on breast cancer, hearing issues, and applications of artificial intelligence to health care, and are worried about their ability to continue that work in the future. Their opinions are their own.