All of us are clearly aware that the funding levels for some institutes of NIH have been failing, some precipitously so, over the last several years. However, the most recent actions (fiscal 1990) that have further reduced funding levels brings the scientific community to the edge of a present, and future, catastrophe. The Bush administration says we have a crisis in science education; the crisis is in our ability to conduct science itself.
There are many bright, talented young investigators who are sitting on, for example, approved grant applications at the 13th or 14th percentile that will not be funded because funding levels in some institutes will now not go above the 11th to 12th percentile. Inevitably these individuals are beginning to ask themselves how are they going to have a research career if they do not have the opportunity to get one started. It is well known that some ...
