Science Policy
evolgen | November 17, 2006 . . . and so does the current grant review system. And manuscript review sucks, too. And your argument is based on flawed data.
A couple of months ago I posted on an article in Cell that drew parallels between the NIH grant review process and the TV show American Idol. As someone new to the grant writing game (and who has never seen what happens when they get reviewed), I wasn't sure if the metaphor was appropriate or not. Michele Pagano's article also advocated prescreening proposals, switching to an electronic system, and holding review panels over teleconference. These suggestions are…
scientificactivist | November 10, 2006With the election results almost completely finalized, it's time to reflect on what they mean. Make no mistake about it, Tuesday demonstrated a true mandate for the Democrats. The Democrats achieved a majority in both the Senate and the House, picking up 6 seats and 29 seats, respectively. The Democrats did not lose any seats in either house. In total votes, the Democrats had a 13.4% advantage over the Republicans in Senate races and 5.6% advantage in House races (this shows that, in the Senate in particular, the 2 seat advantage that the Democrats hold hardly does them justice). The main…
purepedantry | November 9, 2006Shelley Batts has this to say about the poor funding situation of late:
At the Society for Neuroscience meeting last month, there was a special symposium regarding the current NIH funding situation that was supposed to be given by the current director of the NIH, Dr. Elias A. Zerhouni. Due to his plane being delayed, he was a no-show, although the talk was instead given by a few of the directors of NIH divisions. The gist of the talk was this: despite the NIH's budget being doubled a few years back, demand for grants has risen much faster and hence the paylines have decline dramatically. And…
purepedantry | November 6, 2006Eugene Volokh has written an article in the Harvard Law Review arguing that abortion is constitutional. This is not shocking. The Supreme Court has made clear that abortion is constitutional. However, he is arguing -- rather than from the point of view of right to privacy -- abortion to save a woman's life is constitution because of the right to self-defense:
Three women lie in adjoining hospital rooms. A fourth lives a block away. All are in deadly peril.
Alice is seven months pregnant, and the pregnancy threatens her life. Her fetus has long been viable, so she no longer has the Roe/…
scientificactivist | November 2, 2006There's a hot congressional race going on right now deep in the heart of Texas in District 17, which stretches from just north of Houston to just south of Fort Worth and includes my alma mater, Texas A&M University. The contest pits incumbent Democrat and local guy Chet Edwards against Republican Van Taylor, who was apparently flown in by the GOP for this race. Edwards had a tough but successful race in 2004, when he was the only Texas Democrat targeted by Republican redistricting to retain his seat. So far things are looking good for Edwards this year, but, as with in the rest of the…
ddobbs | October 20, 2006
Image from the "For Family and Friends" page of Eli Lilly's Xigris website.
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Even among the other scandals the drug industry has produced lately, the behavior described in the latest New England Journal of Medicine stands out as particularly stunning. According to a Perspective written by Peter Q. Eichacker, a National Institute of Health senior investigator in critical care, the drug giant Eli Lilly, seeking to incrrease sales of an anti-sepsis drug, Xigris, that had fallen short of its blockbuster expectations (in 2002, e.g., Lilly…
revere | October 19, 2006You may have heard of sequestered juries in the courtroom but probably you haven't heard of sequestered science. Sequestered science is the name given by the project on Scientific Knowledge and Public Policy (SKAPP) to scientific knowledge concealed from the public. [Full disclosure; I am personally acquainted with the SKAPPers]. Last year they held a scholarly conference on the subject. It is published in the journal Law and Contemporary Problems and you can download the papers for free at the SKAPP site.
It's not that there aren't reasons to keep some kinds of science from public view, for…
scientificactivist | October 18, 2006Last month, a group of prominent scientists launched the new organization Scientists and Engineers for America (SEA). The organization has already received quite a bit of press (including a nice article in The New York Times, but I would be remiss if I didn't give them a shout out and let readers know how they can help out.
The group is dedicated to supporting science-friendly candidates for public office, pushing for the proper use of science in formulating science policy, and opposing political interference in science. Among the points in its "Bill of Rights for Scientists and Engineers"…
evolgen | October 11, 2006Busting my balls, indeed. Check out this headline:
Intelligent design gets political
Geoff Brumfiel
Teaching creationism becomes an election issue in Michigan.
Intelligent design didn't get political in Michigan. Intelligent design is politics. Intelligent design isn't science; it's a political movement. And they sure as hell ain't offering anything new in the philosophy front (Paley is so last millennium). And my religious friends tell me that it's not even satisfying for the faithful. Intelligent design is just a well funded campaign to destroy science education. Can't get any more…
scientificactivist | September 13, 2006Since I reported yesterday on a letter in Science describing the current decline in funding of NIH (National Institutes of Health) R01 grants, several others have chimed in as well. PZ Myers of Pharyngula gave the post a mention, and Mike the Mad Biologist as well as Orac of Respectful Insolence gave their own detailed commentary.
Here's what Mike had to say:
For faculty, many of whom have guaranteed salaries if they are tenure-track or tenured, this is an inconvience. For those whose salaries are dependent on this funding, this is far, far worse.
In the medium term, this is really going to…
scientificactivist | September 12, 2006In a letter in last week's issue of Science (subscription required), two scientists from the National Caucus of Basic Biomedical Science Chairs--H. George Mandel and Elliot S. Vesell--describe in detail the funding crisis currently plaguing American scientists. The authors demonstrate a shocking decrease over the last seven years in the allocation of NIH (National Institutes of Health) R01 grants, the nation's keystone funding program for supporting biomedical science.
Here's the data:
Fate of unamended (unsolicited) R01 research grant applications
Fiscal year
Number submitted
Number awarded…
scientificactivist | September 7, 2006Student Pugwash USA (SPUSA), an organization that encourages the inclusion of social responsibility considerations in our scientific dialogue, has started a new blog called MindFull. The blog has already tackled a variety of issues from "ethical stem cells" to defense policy, and it should be an interesting source of information and commentary.
evolgen | September 5, 2006Razib pointed out this blog article on theory in biology. The author deals with three, self defined, points:
Unifying theory in biology.
Theory vs. experimental biology.
Justification through medical applications.
His first point, that biology (or a given biological discipline) lacks a unifying theory, is a bit silly and comes across as physics envy. But even physics doesn't have a unifying theory, with different models for small objects and large objects. In his second point, he argues that there is a rift between theoretical and experimental biologists. He is correct, there is a rift…
evolgen | September 3, 2006In case you don't know why, check this out. Even Stephen thinks you better watch your back:
ddobbs | August 29, 2006Having written the below as a comment on my previous post , I realized it should perhaps be its own post.
My previous post drew notice to Malcolm Gladwell's recent article and blog posts about the competitive disadvantage our employer-based health-insurance system (and retirement system) inflicts on many American industries. Only hours passed before a commenter offered the (well-worn) argument that providing the obvious solution to this problem -- a national single-payer system providing universal health care -- "would be disastrous ...[if done] before tackling the cost issue."
This "but…
purepedantry | August 27, 2006This is completely unacceptable:
The constant calls, the people frightening his children, and the demonstrations in front of his home apparently became a little too much.
Dario Ringach, an associate neurobiology professor at the University of California at Los Angeles, decided this month to give up his research on primates because of pressure put on him, his neighborhood, and his family by the UCLA Primate Freedom Project, which seeks to stop research that harms animals.
Anti-animal research groups are trumpeting Ringach's move as a victory, while some researchers are worried that it could…
evolgen | August 25, 2006As a fledgling scientist, I am not privy to the process of grant view. It may as well occur behind a green curtain, and all I get to see is the hologram of the intimidating wizard in the form of an email announcing that I did or did not get the tiny morsel of cash I so politely requested (sorry for the bad Wizard of Oz metaphor). But real people review those grants, and those real people have personalities. Some are surly and dominant. Others are polite and passive. In fact, we can draw parallels between reviewers and American Idol panelists, as this Correspondence to Cell cleverly does:
A…
evolgen | August 24, 2006The Chronicle of Higher Education reported earlier this week that the U.S. Department of Education neglected to include "Evolutionary Biology" in it's list of eligible majors for the new Smart Grant program (the NYTimes and New Scientist also report on this, as does the NCSE). This drew extra attention because the omission left a blank space where the option had been removed. Blank spaces were also created when they eliminated the "Exercise Physiology" and "Heating Ventilation and Air Conditioning Technology" majors from the list. This leads one to believe the Department of Education…
scientificactivist | August 23, 2006Over at Retrospectacle, Shelley reports on a Forbes article detailing the impressive degree to which various billionaires are picking up the slack left in the wake of restrictive Bush Administration regulations on federal funding for embryonic stem cell research. From the original article:
Since the ban, federal funding of embryonic stem-cell work has risen to all of $40 million a year, just one-fifth of the money for other kinds of stem cells and a pittance in the $20 billion research budget of the government's National Institutes of Health. But Eli Broad and a few other billionaires--some…
evolgen | August 13, 2006I tend to avoid writing about creationists (despite what Orac believes) because I find them quite boring. Sure, they can be amusing (scoring high on the unintentional comedy scale), but I'm not a huge fan of willfull ignorance, deception, and attacks on eduction. I'd rather waste my time writing about real advances in biology instead of attempts to undermine the scientific method. So, I present for you, without much comment, some new anti-anti-evolution resources and a bit of anti-science from a US politician.
The first is a pile blog where you can leave comments that would be deleted if…