本文探讨了杰弗里·爱泼斯坦与科学家及科学期刊的复杂关系，包括其资助研究、试图影响科学界以及相关法律和道德问题。
The Robert F. Kennedy Department of Justice Building on December 19, 2025, in Washington, D.C. Epstein and his former girlfriend and co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell sat on the board of the now defunct science magazine Seed, which is mentioned in at least 78 of the released files. Forbes tallies around 1,100 mentions, including a redacted person’s proposal of “my writing a feature on AI in Ethiopia,” which was likely related to a lab in the country that Epstein had helped to fund.
At press time, Church, Hillis, Krauss and Nowak had not responded to requests for comment. In 2021 Harvard barred Nowak from accepting new student advisees or serving as principal investigator on new grants or contracts, following an investigation of his program’s funding by Epstein. These sanctions were lifted in 2023.
One former board member, Wolfe, who was also formerly CEO of the Global Viral Forecasting Initiative and a visiting professor at Stanford University, says he had a handful of professional interactions with Epstein more than a decade ago as part of his broad outreach to prospective donors. An analysis of the files suggests Wolfe spoke with Epstein multiple times between 2009 and 2014, after the financier’s conviction for solicitation of prostitution from a girl below age 18 in June 2008.
Epstein died in a federal prison in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges. He had been regularly in contact with scientists and funded research at institutes such as Harvard, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Santa Fe Institute. His scientific correspondents within the DOJ files mentioned meetings with science-minded outlets ranging from the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists to the Atlantic. These mentions do not necessarily indicate evidence of editorial influence.
DiChristina says this was common for students or other guests visiting the magazine’s offices to learn how reporters wrote news stories. She also recommended several authors for a writing project to him through an intermediary, according to an October 2014 e-mail.
“Epstein did support some good science: perhaps the only good thing he did,” Lloyd says. What’s unclear is whether Epstein simply sought influence and stature by cultivating scientists and science journalists or more widely sought to shape research outcomes.
Since December 2025, file releases have included disturbing discussions between Epstein and scientists of, for example, a proposed search for hypothesized sexually transmitted diseases that would increase the female libido and race science.