It was refreshing to read T.V. Rajan's Opinion in the April 29, 1996, issue of The Scientist ("Cause Of Current Funding Crisis May Lie In De-emphasis Of Scholarship," page 10). Most impressive is to see someone with enough guts to admit and detail some of the problems already outlined by many of us.
The situation hurts us all, and one way or the other I am sure opinionated investigators will be punished for opening their big mouths, even in this free society. However, anyone with a clear conscience and a bit of knowledge about the issues at stake at study sections knows that, as Rajan nicely stated, ". . . who gets funded and who does not is ludicrously capricious." Quoting Rajan again, ". . . a typically excruciating discussion of the most minute and insignificant details of a grant proposal . . ." ensues, probably, as he puts it, ...
