tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1812431336777691886.post55619751419413648..comments2024-02-29T03:57:00.088-05:00Comments on The Mermaid's Tale: Credible researchAnne Buchananhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09212151396672651221noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1812431336777691886.post-58449618386328763092009-04-08T11:08:00.000-04:002009-04-08T11:08:00.000-04:00Once a scientist is a professor, running a lab, he...Once a scientist is a professor, running a lab, he or she has is then responsible for paying the salaries of the post-docs, students, lab techs, for repairing and replacing equipment and so on, and it's very expensive. Indeed, most professors don't set foot in the lab except to get their coffee -- and since they are so out-of-practice, their post-docs usually prefer it that way. And many, if not most, scientists submit grant applications for every deadline, multiple times a year.<BR/><BR/>So, the preoccupation with getting and maintaining funding is completely understandable, given that the system is as it is. It's when the very real need to fund a research program begins to depend on exaggeration, stretching the truth, explicitly or implicitly providing the results the funders want, and so on, that, to us, things get problematic.Anne Buchananhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09212151396672651221noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1812431336777691886.post-25388510429423074162009-04-08T10:58:00.000-04:002009-04-08T10:58:00.000-04:00No, we're like any other profession, a mix of moti...No, we're like any other profession, a mix of motivation. Some see it as engineers, ways to tinker with Nature. Others come into it with childhood fascinations about bugs, evolution, whatever. Most would get their exposure to science from television or from school (including college), where the main or even only thing they see is the science itself. Their motivation would not be venal, though they might ask about job opportunities before committing to graduate school.<BR/><BR/>The conflicts of interest come in starting, largely, at graduate school and then in subsequent careers, that depend on results, funding, jobs, salaries, and so on. It is hard not to be affected by the real-world pressures, no matter how much one's initial motivation is to understand Nature.<BR/><BR/>Likewise, the excitement of understanding things never seen or known before doesn't go away, and even the most materialistic scientists, at least those we know, retain a strong component of that.<BR/><BR/>The problem is the degree to which everyday pressures, that are largely materialistic, affect what one does, the fraction of time one spends on doing science vs raising funds, and the other aspects of human failings that impact daily life.<BR/><BR/>I would not argue that we are that different from other industries (medicine included). But there are fields that should have a greater degree of objective disinterest than other fields. Science and medicine should be as disinterested as possible--especially at universities where things should be open and free from commercial and other similar constraints. The commercial world is a different story,though not entirely so, as the tainting of medical and food research by commercial pressures shows.Ken Weisshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02049713123559138421noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1812431336777691886.post-87418904683928998212009-04-08T10:38:00.000-04:002009-04-08T10:38:00.000-04:00So the prevailing opinion about research scientist...So the prevailing opinion about research scientists is that they are in it for the money and not doing their life's work because of an innate curiosity and need to know. That sounds like people insisting that all doctors or rehab therapists, etc., keep making successive appointments with patients just for the money. I just can't believe that the majority of highly educated people choose a field of interest and invest that much time and energy in learning with their primary motivation being money. I do acknowledge that money can taint, but I don't believe it's all for the money.Jenniferhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10781510687154219618noreply@blogger.com