Recently, MIT professor and Nobel laureate Susumu Tonegawa has come under attack for allegedly opposing the recruitment of a female, prospective junior faculty member to MIT because her work would compete with that of his laboratory. While the accusations are still under internal investigation, this incident raises the important issue of how we scientists as a group succeed or fail as mentors for junior faculty.
Andrew R. Marks
Scientists are usually thought to be beyond reproach, but with the recent spate of high-profile ethical transgressions by scientists, the public’s trust in science and scientists is deteriorating. The numerous cases of scientific misconduct that have crossed my desk in the last year leave me disenchanted, disappointed, and disillusioned.
Ushma S. Neill
The feedback received regarding my recent editorial “Rescuing the NIH before it is too late” has been fascinating to read. The opinions expressed illustrate a huge divide between those in charge of the NIH and those who rely on extramural funding to support their research.
Andrew R. Marks
Belief in God and belief in the science of evolution are not mutually exclusive concepts. Thousands of scientists who believe in God are able to separately study and teach evolution. As scientists and parents, we owe it to our children to ensure that public school science curricula teach the science of evolution and not promote a particular religious faith or belief system.
Ushma S. Neill, Andrew R. Marks
In the Coen brothers’ The Big Lebowski the hero, who calls himself “The Dude,” has just had his apartment broken into by some dumb thugs. One of the thugs lifts the Dude’s prized bowling ball and says, “What . . . is this?” The Dude replies, “Obviously you are not a golfer.” The current state of the NIH prompts me to say to its director, Dr. Elias Zerhouni, “Obviously you are not a scientist.”
Andrew R. Marks
President George W. Bush and Senate majority leader Bill Frist have recently publicly advocated teaching intelligent design in science classes. Their endorsement of a discredited, nonscientific view could signal a huge step backward for scientific education. It is time for educated, motivated scientists to get involved and to educate others.
Ushma S. Neill
Yes, even the JCI can weigh in on celebrity gossip, but hopefully without becoming a tabloid. Rather, we want to shine a light on the reckless comments actor Tom Cruise has recently made that psychiatry is a “quack” field and his belief that postpartum depression cannot be treated pharmacologically. We can only hope that his influence as a celebrity does not hold back those in need of psychiatric treatment.
Ushma S. Neill
In the “Policy on enhancing public access to archived publications resulting from NIH-funded research,” the NIH requests that all publications resulting from primary research supported by NIH grants be deposited in PubMed Central (PMC), the online repository of the National Library of Medicine. The NIH requests that all manuscripts accepted for publication after May 2, 2005 be deposited in PMC, and that those manuscripts be made freely available to the public within 12 months of publication. The JCI supports this policy: we will continue to make all content freely available in PMC immediately upon publication, and the entire JCI archive is freely available through PMC.
Ushma S. Neill, Karen Kosht
The national debate over Terri Schiavo exposed a critical gap between emotional fervor about brain-injured patients and the medical science that informs standards of care for them. Some of the questions raised in the public and legal forums point to a need for research and enhanced understanding of the mechanisms of recovery from disorders of consciousness.
Joy Hirsch
The recent uproar over comments about women in science made by Harvard University President Dr. Lawrence Summers has helped focus much needed attention on an issue of great importance. Whatever motivated Dr. Summers to make statements about the “different availability of aptitude at the high end” as a possible explanation for the lack of gender diversity in science and engineering, we should all thank him for putting the question of why there are not more women in science where it belongs — front and center.
Andrew R. Marks
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