Science Quote by Steven Squyres

Public money comes with a moral receipt, and Steven Squyres is cashing it in. The line is blunt on purpose: “public trust” isn’t a grant number or a NASA press badge, it’s a democratic bargain. If the public underwrites the risk, the labor, and the occasional failure, scientists don’t get to treat the results like private property or insider currency. The phrasing makes that obligation feel less like PR and more like fiduciary duty: trust is something you’re “given,” not something you’re entitled to.

Squyres, best known as the principal investigator for the Mars rover missions, is speaking out of a particular modern tension: science that depends on taxpayer funding and political permission, yet increasingly lives inside specialized institutions that can sound sealed off. In that environment, “share with the public” isn’t just about posting pretty rover selfies. It’s a strategic inoculation against cynicism and conspiracy: transparency as a way to keep the social license for exploration intact.

There’s subtext here, too, aimed at his own community. The sentence quietly rebukes the reflex to communicate only through journals, conferences, or gated expertise. It argues that translation is part of the job, not a hobby for the media-savvy. And by framing it as responsibility rather than outreach, Squyres sidesteps the performative tone that can make public engagement feel like marketing. He’s insisting on a simple hierarchy: the public isn’t an audience; it’s the stakeholder.