Faustian Bargain

In his Opinion article, T.V. Rajan has written a thoughtful and accurate portrayal of what has happened to too many biomedical researchers in recent years. I agree with virtually everything he says.

I am a college professor who teaches and does modest research with undergraduates. After a quarter-century, I still love science and show it, still do my own research, and still spend hours in the library reading papers to try to keep up. When my students go off in the summers to do research at large centers, they find team leaders and entrepreneurs, not scientists. And they come back to my classroom confused. Doesn't a scientist do science? they ask. Don't scientists like science? Is this a life to which my students should aspire?

Too many faculty colleagues of mine at research-intensive institutions spend all day in their offices writing grants to "lay more bricks." They certainly don't seem...