He's a delusional kook, but Collins is also a competent administrator, and I have to give him credit when he does the right thing.
The NIH, led by Dr. Collins, has recently accepted a recommendation from the National Institute of Medicine that future chimpanzee research funding shall be suspended, and that exceedingly strict guidelines are to be imposed.
They're just too close to us, and should fall under the penumbra of the same ethical considerations we apply to humans. I'd say the same of gorillas and orangutans…but I don't think there is any biomedical research being done on those animals, so the restriction would be unnecessary.
(Also on FtB)
More like this
Bill Maher, anti-vaxxer and Germ Theory denier, got an award named for Richard Dawkins from an atheist group.
An article yesterday in Slate discusses Sociologist Harry Collins's recent experiment with credibility and authority: "The Amateur's Revenge: Posing as a physicist--and getting away with it."
He did this:
There are a number of people who, even when they are right, get things very wrong.
Matt Nisbet thinks that Francis Collins should be the next presidential science advisor.