Nobel Laureate Eric Kandel Condemns ‘Censorship' Of Scientists...;

[Up2Late]

(I doubt that this will suprise many here)

Nobel Laureate Eric Kandel Condemns ‘Censorship' Of Scientists; Calls Current Climate For Science As “Disastrous" As McCarthy Era

Main Category: Public Health News
Article Date: 03 Apr 2006 - 0:00am (UK)

Noting that it's “a terrible time for science” in the U.S., Nobel Laureate Eric Kandel has compared the effects of government science policy to the Eisenhower-McCarthy era, when scientists were persecuted for their political beliefs.

Kandel's remarks came during an interview with Science & the City, the webzine of the New York Academy of Sciences, about his new memoir, In Search of Memory: The Emergence of a New Science of Mind (Norton, March 2006).

“There's very little funding, there's political censorship about what one does and how one speaks about it,” he said. “I think the scientific community is extremely concerned about the future of this country given the restrictions on science at the moment.”

He added later that these restrictions are “all the more tragic since biomedical research is at a wonderfully productive point right now and in a position to have a profound impact on the treatment of disease. Moreover, the country is training the next generation of scientists and unless more funding is forthcoming, we cannot assure their future or the American leadership in science.”

(more at link below)

<http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/medicalnews.php?newsid=40773>

[lindisfarne]

1. What most people also don't realize is that a good portion of funding has

been re-direction toward Department of Homeland Security "security"/"anti-terrorism" efforts. So there's even LESS funding available for the scientific research that was being carried out pre-9/11.

As one scientist said a while ago (paraphrased): a good portion of the existing funding is going toward very unlikely scenarios (bioterrorism such as anthrax, etc.), while very real and far more likely scenarios (natural diseases, etc.) are being ignored. (sorry - don't remember the person's name).

[fshrink]

3. You know, after all,

it's a good thing. This country, including all parties, is well on its way toward generalized stupidity and has cornered itself in such an impossible situation, with such an amount of duplicity and hypocrisy, that I don't see any turning back now. Escape velocity has been reached. Progress will emerge from somewhere else. Who cares?

[hatrack]

2. One of the most important and one of the most underreported stories around

I read a related post a few weeks back about a couple of students from (I believe) either France or Scandinavia who had won full-ride scholarships to MIT. They turned them down for better opportunities elsewhere, where they would be able to count on funding levels being maintained for basic and applied research.

Societies can survive many things - war, disease, economic collapse, even famine or genocide - but one thing they cannot survive is a self-lobotomy, willingly self-administered for short-term political or emotional gain.

[Up2Late]

4. I couldn't agree more.

It sort of reminds me of the 2002 Bruce Springsteen song from "The Rising" called "My City Of Ruins," Except substitute Country for city, and there you have it. <http://www.brucespringsteen.net/albums/rising.html> :cry:

[truthisfreedom]

5. bushco hates progress. they define conservatism as "remain the same,don't

advance."

[BiggJawn]

6. But, BUSHCO supports "science"....

CREATION "Science", that is....

"I don't care about Technology! What's important to me is, are YOU Right with GAWD?!?!? Hey, help me set this thing up to record Ernest Angely while I'm at Bible Study!"

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

7. k

[jasmeel]

8. Kandel is so brilliant-and always wears a cute bowtie!