3 things to know about investigations into missing US scientists

The disappearances and deaths of nearly a dozen scientists with ties to secretive U.S. scientific information have raised alarms about national security, prompting a House Oversight Committee investigation.

The string of deaths and disappearances began with the death of Michael David Hicks, who worked as a scientist at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory from 1998 to 2022, according to the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. At least 10 individuals so far who “had a connection to U.S. nuclear secrets or rocket technology” have gone missing or died in recent years. 

Here are three things to know about the disappearances and deaths of scientists connected to U.S. nuclear secrets and other sensitive scientific information.