Science: Yesterday Spain’s national government announced its long-delayed 2012 budget, which includes a severe 25% funding cut in scientific research. The Spanish scientific community was especially disappointed because the cuts were even larger than had been proposed last December and the decrease in science money is larger than the average drop in funding across all the ministries, which is around 17%, writes Elisabeth Pain for Science. This marks the third year in a row that scientists have seen a severe setback in funding.