At an emotional meeting, NSF officials announced layoffs for about 10 percent of their workforce and warned of more firings to come

Can you pitch in a few bucks to help fund Mother Jones' investigative journalism? We're a nonprofit (so it's tax-deductible), and reader support makes up about two-thirds of our budget.

At an emotional meeting, foundation officials announced layoffs for about 10 percent of their workforce and warned of more firings to come.

It wasn’t until the 1950 establishment of the National Science Foundation (NSF), the largest funding source for basic research in the country, that America became a powerhouse of modernization. F or most of the past century,

Firings at the NSF included permanent employees who had already completed their one-year probationary period, as well as at-will workers.

The National Science Foundation fired 168 employees this week, a spokesperson disclosed, to comply with executive orders from the White House to reduce the federal workforce. It amounts to about 10% of the foundation's payroll.