SAN DIEGO--In a laboratory at Stanford University Medical Center in Palo Alto, Calif., Michael J. Campbell conducts experiments on mice in an attempt to develop a vaccine for deadly B-cell lymphoma. But the 28-year-old biologist is also fighting what he regards as another deadly affliction, this one a threat to science itself.
Two years ago, Stanford proposed building a new facility to house animals used for research - and found itself under siege by animal rights groups (The Scientist, November 28, 1988, page 1). The activists attacked the building by alleging that the research would be hazardous to the community. They challenged the permits needed to construct the facility and delayed the new building for more than a year - at an estimated cost to the university of between $700,000 and $1.5 million. And Campbell thought it was high time that scientists themselves stepped into the fray.
"For a long ...