Much of their plight is told in cold facts and figures: in reports and surveys conducted by government agencies, society task forces, sociologists, psychologists, and employment analysts. But perhaps the most compelling testimony is given by the scientists themselves, in interviews, over the Internet, and in published accounts. Some of these tales take on an almost soap opera-like quality:
An experienced biochemist becomes a victim of a pharmaceutical company merger and moves his family nearly across the country with only the hope of finding employment. A 38-year-old National Institutes of Health postdoc with impeccable credentials avoids personal relationships because he has no idea where he will work from year to year. A newly minted biochemistry Ph.D. ponders the option of enrolling in business school. A young faculty member loses his funding and his assistant professorship and must subsist on his wife's earnings sewing teddy bears.
Daniel Hughes sees the fallout ...
