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

The NSF confirmed the layoffs to The Register in an email, saying it had dismissed 86 employees classified as probationary, and 84 part-time expert appointees. The agency says it has "approximately 1,500 federal employees and 200 scientists from research institutions in temporary positions."

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,