Science eats its seed corn 28 Oct 2009 An essay in PLoS Biology observes that the state of granting in science is having a chilling effect on research, by selecting for a lack of originality and allowing too short a time frame to plan and undertake research. As a result, scientists are dropping out of doing science altogether early in what should have been their careers. As the author, Peter Lawrence, says, having described the plight of “K” (not the Kafka character, but close): K.’s plight (an authentic one) illustrates how the present funding system in science eats its own seed corn[2]. To expect a young scientist to recruit and train students and postdocs as well as producing and publishing new and original work within two years (in order to fuel the next grant application) is preposterous. It is neither right nor sensible to ask scientists to become astrologists and predict precisely the path their research will follow—and then to judge them on how persuasively they can put over this fiction. It takes far too long to write a grant because the requirements are so complex and demanding. Applications have become so detailed and so technical that trying to select the best proposals has become a dark art. This is not confined to the sciences, of course, but it is particularly problematic there. I have watched a number of academics struggle to find funding while trying to run an existing research project. One almost needs to have done the present project altogether before you apply for the funds. General Science Politics
Politics So, Dumbledore was gay, so what? 23 Oct 2007 Much to do about the sexual inclinations of a fictional character in the most successful (and I still think, despite the lack of editorial control, one of the classic) children’s stories. PZ Mungle has this to say: I really, honestly, truly do not give a good goddamn if Dumbledore is… Read More
Evolution New work on the origin of life 11 Jun 2008 I can’t say much about this without reading the paper in the company of Somebody Who Knows About Chemistry, but Jack Szostak’s team at the Harvard Medical School has done some interesting looking work on the self assembly of lipids into miscelles that could contain DNA reactions. What is new… Read More
General Science Vale Wheeler, and Libet updated 14 Apr 2008 Daniel Holz at Cosmic Variance has a beautifully written obit for John Wheeler. We are grateful for the time the great thinkers spend on us students. Wired has an article on the updating of the classic experiments by Benjamin Libet on the fact that conscious choices occur after the brain… Read More
How odd – I’m basically a scientist who has dropped out of science for that reason, and I keep meeting other smart scientists in the same boat or at the very least having trouble staying motivated to finish up the PhD. And doing the research before writing the grant is not new. I met several rather senior scientists in the 1990s who only kept their large, established labs running with tricks like that.