While all of the problems associated with global warming can initially be countered to some extent in some, most, or all places given enough capital outlay for technology, etc., the basic problem this article1 points out is that, at some point in time, if global temperatures continue to rise, there will eventually not be enough resources everywhere to handle things.
For example, the increasing incidence of malaria will eventually outcompete all of the public health management that society will be able to throw at it. Also, because humans, as well as all land animals, have limited behavioral and homeostatic mechanisms to handle higher and higher temperatures, there just won’t be enough resources to air condition every place, day and night, to preserve everyone’s lives.
Personally, I would rather pay for the large investment in technology to reduce the threat than to shovel our entire...
Paul Stein
Oxnard, CA
2: “the line dividing do-it-yourself biology from a start-up company operating in a garage,” it sure hit home. I’m a degreed biologist who has discovered that it’s almost impossible to pursue my own research projects without a commercial shipping address. It’s pretty ridiculous that a physical address carries more weight than the expertise of the person purchasing the products. It seems the deck is stacked fairly heavily against the biotech equivalent of Hewlett Packard emerging from an innovator’s garage. Public safety is certainly a valid concern, but it’s disturbing how government is limiting access to technology and its tools in ever-increasing ways.
Chad Kimrey
Austin, TX
3 about introducing synthetic alcohol substitutes are good, but I don’t think he’s thought through all aspects of his suggestion. I fear that the cure may be worse than the disease. If his proposal were adopted, we would have many cases of “wide-awake drunks.” Back when I was preparing to take the EMT exam we were warned never to feed coffee to a drunk because, “it doesn’t sober them up; it just creates a wide-awake drunk, and nothing is worse than a wide-awake drunk.”
I can imagine huge carnage on the highways if we create a large population of intoxicated people who think they’re coordinated and awake enough to drive while under the influence. At least the medical impact of alcohol consumption is self-inflicted; what about all those innocents killed by the users of these new designer drugs?
I’m certainly not advocating the long-term abuse of alcohol, but sometimes we’re actually better off with the devil we know. In this case I think we need to be really careful that the unintended side-effects don’t make things worse, rather than better.
Andrew Ostrom
Carlisle, MA
4 about institutional listing policies in papers by foreign postdocs: Student is enrolled at Institution X and takes a sabbatical at Institution Y in any country (or within the same country). Student brings salary support associated with Institution X, while the host lab in Institution Y is paying the research costs and, in some cases, even supplementing the student’s salary.
Is it not obvious that any subsequent manuscripts list each author’s affiliation, and that a visiting student be listed as affiliated with both Institution X and Y? Where’s the controversy? A stipend that precludes the student from listing the host institution Y clearly would be wrong. Listing only the host institution also would be wrong, particularly if such a requirement was stated upfront prior to the acceptance of the student at Institution Y.
Science is an international endeavor. The success of science is catalyzed in no small part by the borderless exchange of ideas. In terms of the issues we have to deal with as scientists, I can’t think of anything much more trivial than full disclosure of the institutions that an author is affiliated with.
Fred Schaufele
UCSF
San Francisco, CA
5: Neuroscientist Beau Lotto deserves a Nobel nomination. His collaboration with 8- to 10-year-old children to design and conduct this research leads us to knowledge not just about bees but about the “bee-havior” of children. Lotto’s passion and belief in the capacity of children to learn free of institutional manipulation and control is inspiring. Play is hardwired into the hearts and minds of the young; kids are tuned in on the play wavelength. Consider the isolation of children in our classrooms, deprived of play, bred on a strict diet of academics. Without play children cannot learn self-direction, self-navigation, self-regulation.
Jeffrey Peyton
Founder, References:
Correction: In the January 2010 issue of The Scientist, Anna Kashina was incorrectly described as an Assistant Professor of Cell and Developmental Biology. She is an Associate Professor of Biochemistry.
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