Opinion (old)

So powerful has the language of science become that it has in effect been hijacked by those who seek to discredit or even derail it. Two cases in point: Creationists are repackaging their message as the pseudo-science of "intelligent design theory." And pro-life groups are misusing real science, remarkable advances with adult stem cells, to argue that there is no need for embryonic stem cell research--research that carries with it virtually limitless potential for the alleviation of human suffer

All organizations who fund and conduct scientific research are increasingly "under the gun" to better evaluate the performance of their programs. Scientific research is supported by two major sponsors; the federal government funds most basic research and industry supports the more applied research. These sponsors have organizational goals and obligations to their stakeholders. They must account for their expenditures and must justify these investment decisions. How to do so in a viable yet accep

I have been in the scientific arena since 1972, 30 long years. By my rough estimate, I have attended an average of four seminars a week, for a total of over 5,000 seminars. I have lost count of the meeting presentations. However, with my tongue firmly planted in my cheek, I'm offering here some random thoughts about the scientific talks I have heard over the years.   At a meeting, graduate students often stick to the time limit; Principal Investigators usually go over. I think that the r

Many students are interested in majoring in biology because they liked it in high school or because they have plans to attend medical school. But when majoring in science, discouragement can set in when faced with the daunting task of memorizing many facts, which are frequently forgotten once the course is over. Today's student often feels bored and/or intimidated by science. While classroom instruction pursues the goal of critical thinking, the actual performing of research is what requires co

While the social sciences have devoted much attention to the origin and prevention of violence, relatively little biomedical study has been conducted. Human behavior is determined by a combination of genetic and environmental influences governing brain structure and function. Violence, therefore, ultimately derives from the operations of the brain, and recognizing the importance of neurobiology will inform and invigorate study of this urgent problem. A working group under the auspices of the A

Illustration: Anthony Canamucio In response to increased economic pressures, research-based pharmaceutical companies are attempting to streamline and accelerate their drug discovery and development processes. With the advent of genomics, proteomics, and bioinformatics, these companies now have access to an unprecedented abundance of potential therapeutic targets. With the emergence of combinatorial chemistry and innovative robotic-based technologies for conducting high throughput screening, thes

Illustration: A. Canamucio The sad truth is that we're a bunch of fatsos, and getting fatter. Sixty-one percent of adults are now overweight, an all-time high, and more than a quarter are actually obese, or grossly overweight, according to the 1999 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey just released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But while we get fatter and suffer from diabetes and high cholesterol in record numbers, federal regulators are drastically limit

Illustration: A. Canamucio In a recent issue of The Scientist, an opinion article by Raymond J. O'Connor suggests that, in contrast to biomedical research, ecology has lagged behind the surging advances of most of the life sciences.1 O'Connor's main argument for the putative lag of ecological sciences is the failure to distinguish form from substance in the hypothetico-deductive research that drives most current scientific endeavors. Categorizing most ecological sciences as descriptive and poss

Illustration: A. Canamucio The 13th International AIDS Conference opened with a rousing call to "Break the Silence." Individuals, communities, and governments were implored to engage openly in dialogues on HIV and AIDS. Looming in the background was a hastily crafted Durban Declaration [DD] asserting, without proof, that HIV is the sole cause of AIDS.1 This factually is incorrect.2 Scientists, including an "AIDS-industrial complex," now are challenged to break all silence, end all blaming, and e

Illustration: A. Canamucio I came to this country in 1969, trying to be a pathology resident. After finishing my residency, I decided to try my hand at research. Deep down I suspect that I used it as a ruse to prolong my already long apprenticeship and delay having to make an honest living as a practicing pathologist. A particularly influential event that convinced me to enroll in the immunology program rather than any other was a journal club presentation by Frank Lilly, who was then chairman o

Illustration: A. Canamucio Cell biology has become the third overlapping core discipline of modern biology, along with biochemistry and genetics. Progress over the century--since E.B. Wilson's classic book1 elegantly framed many of the questions of cell biology--has relied on advances in technology and yielded fascinating insights into the ways that cells work. We now have an unprecedented understanding of the structure, organization, and functions of cells. As the number of completed ge

© 2000 Anthony Canamucio Resolving the question of whether cellular phones are safe has been complicated by conflicting information about electromagnetic fields (emfs): no danger; yes there is danger; well, we don't know. This has been unsettling for the public and has put pressure on health policy decision makers to act. But can they take action based on the biological data now available? I think not. In fact, I believe it would be unethical to use much of it to make public health decision

Illustration: A. Canamucio There has never been a better time, technologically, for our federal health agencies to launch a significant effort to prevent and control a chronic disease that has inflicted suffering on mankind for centuries. Chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) is the current name for an illness with many names and a long history. In 1681 Thomas Sydenham, founder of modern clinical, scientific, and public health medicine, described a disease spectrum identical to it called "muscular rheu

Research Assessment Exercises (RAE) were conducted in the United Kingdom in 1992 and 1996. The grades obtained by university departments determined the ratios with which public funds were to be distributed to universities to support research infrastructure, within a centralized and publicly funded university system. Other geopolitical regions would have comparable exercises, although with different approaches to research evaluation, and initial information about specific criteria and procedures

Illustration: A. Canamucio The triumph of the mapping of the human genome is eloquent testimony to how fast the life sciences have come from the 1960s when the Nuffield Foundation found it necessary to launch a program of biological scholarships to leaven the "soft" biological sciences with expertise from the "hard" sciences of physics and chemistry. The program supported academically qualified physicists and chemists seeking careers in the life sciences, or life scientists wishing to obtain a d

As the amount of scientific research proliferates and science becomes more costly to produce, funding agencies around the world are increasingly interested in objectively assessing the quality of academic research. Several governments with centralized academic funding mechanisms (e.g., the United Kingdom and Australia) have already implemented research evaluation systems and distribute at least a portion of research funding on the basis of quality assessments. The National Science Foundation is

A proposal to create a senior scientist position at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is winning support from Congress. In June, a National Academy of Sciences panel recommended creating the position to bolster EPA's use of science, and at a House subcommittee hearing this summer, U.S. Rep. Vernon Ehlers (R-Mich.) announced that he was preparing legislation to create the deputy-level (agency head) science position. "Scientists need more clout," he said. But EPA needs more than Ehlers' r

Illustration: A. Canamucio Leading practitioners in most professions strive to work with the most up-to-date tools available, especially when faced with challenging tasks. Similarly, people relying on the skills of these top practitioners expect them to use the most advanced tools possible. Few patients, for example, would feel comfortable submitting to difficult medical procedures knowing their dentist, doctor, or surgeon was working with outdated instruments when a more modern version with su

A few years ago, when I was relatively new to the University of Connecticut Health Center, I invited Barry Bloom, my mentor from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, to present a seminar sponsored by a Burroughs Wellcome Visiting Professorship. We have a ritual in the immunology graduate program that is, I suspect, not unique to us. Following the seminar, we arrange for the graduate students in the program to share lunch with seminar speakers and talk to them. This is usually a somew

Illustration: A. Canamucio I knew, back in March, that I was taking a gamble. The fourth edition of my human genetics textbook would be published in July, and judging from the rate of genomes being sequenced, it looked like Homo sapiens might join the list come summer. Unless the new edition assumed that the project was completed, my book would be obsolete before it was printed. So I E-mailed the great and powerful J. Craig Venter, president of Celera Genomics Group in Rockville, Md., to ask ab