Sweeping layoffs, funding freezes and executive orders have provoked outcry among federal researchers and their university partners, who fear that science itself is under siege. “This is simply the end.” That was the five-word message that Rick Huganir, a neuroscientist at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, received from a colleague just before 6 p.m. two Fridays ago, with news that would send a wave of panic through the scientific community.… The flurry of activity in recent weeks stems from Trump’s executive orders that aim to shrink the federal workforce and target programs related to gender identity, environmental justice or diversity,...