PHUTATORIUS
While conservatives continue to root through the stimulus bill in search of causes for outrage (can't they just watch MTV?), and while we're on the subject of funded research, it's worth noting that the Senate version of the bill proposes $6.5 billion in research grants through the National Institutes of Health.
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This is huge. NIH funding had petered out over the last decade, just when the potential economic and public health gains of having a vibrant, dynamic biotech industry were becoming more pronounced.
It's not wholly unreasonable to argue that someone other than the government could be funding scientific research, if the payoffs are so tangible and considerable. The thing is, many of the big breakthroughs come in basic, not applied, research, and they're a long time in coming. Companies aren't going to take on the expense of big, basic research labs. Universities will — and do. And as a result, we have biotechnology, we have Google — we have the dynamic that transformed our economy from the backdated manufacturing model of the late '70s to the thriving tech-savvy machine that powered us through the '90s and early Oughts (before bankers killed it dead).
On a list of What Makes America Great, funded research has to make the Top Five. I know that doesn't sit well with conservative orthodoxy: not only are we talking about government spending, but it goes to "university elites" who work on projects that may not promise an obvious, immediate payoff. But government grants are exactly the sort of "investment" that pays off in spades. And in the short term, with every single NIH grant creating or supporting seven jobs, and while hundreds of researchers sit on the sidelines with worthy projects delayed by nothing but lack of funding, a grants boost ought to be a no-brainer.
It's so easy to come down hard on Congress for its failings. Let's give a big cheer to the Senate for getting something right.
Showing posts with label funded research. Show all posts
Showing posts with label funded research. Show all posts
Monday, February 09, 2009
Embryonic Step Forward
MITHRIDATES
While we debate the merits of the stimulus package and which group of partisans is more partisan, let's not overlook certain obvious and clear benefits of replacing Bush with Obama. Under Bush, the U.S. government refused to fund embryonic stem cell research, "one of the world's most promising medical technologies," according to The Economist.
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Obama has yet to make this official, but word is out that an executive order lifting the ban is forthcoming. This is not only a no-brainer for the advancement of medical science, but for the long-term competitiveness of the United States — a topic which will be a focus of this blog (or at least this writer). As The Economist puts it, "American academics will no longer have to watch enviously from the sidelines as their colleagues in Australia, Britain, China, the Czech Republic, Israel, Singapore, and South Korea push ahead." The United States has been at the forefront of medical research for a century, and it must be a top priority of any American administration to maintain — and improve upon — this position.
Bush apologists will point out that the Administration only withheld funding and did not ban any research practices, that for that matter not all stem-cell research was subject to the funding ban, that embryonic stem cells pose risks, that stem-cell research is is unproven at this point, and that opening up funding for one type of research will no doubt reduce funding for others. All true, but let's acknowledge here that the best way to push science forward is to let scientists pursue the most promising paths forward without government getting in the way. Moreover, because the funding ban required researchers to compartmentalize all grant expenditures away from stem-cell research — for example, stem-cell researchers could not use devices or materials bought with grant money for other purposes — the restriction added a layer of bureaucracy that made even privately-funded stem-cell research a costly and burdensome proposition.
To be fair, one of John McCain's signature maverick positions was to oppose Bush on his ban, and Obama overstated the difference between his and McCain's positions. But who knows if a President McCain would have had to appease the Palin crowd on this one?
Anyway, we're still waiting for the order, but this is a step forward. Hopefully tough financial times will not cause the new President to balk in his stated support of science and that he'll recognize how critical maintaining our lead in scientific research is to our long-term competitiveness. There is no country in the world that can innovate the way America can — at least for now — but other countries are eager to catch up. As India, China, and others begin to develop better institutions of higher education and promote technology centers, the incentive for those countries' leading minds to stay home will grow. The United States must do everything it can to continue to attract the brightest scientists and innovators from around the world — it's the surest way to maintain our long-term scientific and economic leadership.
While we debate the merits of the stimulus package and which group of partisans is more partisan, let's not overlook certain obvious and clear benefits of replacing Bush with Obama. Under Bush, the U.S. government refused to fund embryonic stem cell research, "one of the world's most promising medical technologies," according to The Economist.
More...
Obama has yet to make this official, but word is out that an executive order lifting the ban is forthcoming. This is not only a no-brainer for the advancement of medical science, but for the long-term competitiveness of the United States — a topic which will be a focus of this blog (or at least this writer). As The Economist puts it, "American academics will no longer have to watch enviously from the sidelines as their colleagues in Australia, Britain, China, the Czech Republic, Israel, Singapore, and South Korea push ahead." The United States has been at the forefront of medical research for a century, and it must be a top priority of any American administration to maintain — and improve upon — this position.
Bush apologists will point out that the Administration only withheld funding and did not ban any research practices, that for that matter not all stem-cell research was subject to the funding ban, that embryonic stem cells pose risks, that stem-cell research is is unproven at this point, and that opening up funding for one type of research will no doubt reduce funding for others. All true, but let's acknowledge here that the best way to push science forward is to let scientists pursue the most promising paths forward without government getting in the way. Moreover, because the funding ban required researchers to compartmentalize all grant expenditures away from stem-cell research — for example, stem-cell researchers could not use devices or materials bought with grant money for other purposes — the restriction added a layer of bureaucracy that made even privately-funded stem-cell research a costly and burdensome proposition.
To be fair, one of John McCain's signature maverick positions was to oppose Bush on his ban, and Obama overstated the difference between his and McCain's positions. But who knows if a President McCain would have had to appease the Palin crowd on this one?
Anyway, we're still waiting for the order, but this is a step forward. Hopefully tough financial times will not cause the new President to balk in his stated support of science and that he'll recognize how critical maintaining our lead in scientific research is to our long-term competitiveness. There is no country in the world that can innovate the way America can — at least for now — but other countries are eager to catch up. As India, China, and others begin to develop better institutions of higher education and promote technology centers, the incentive for those countries' leading minds to stay home will grow. The United States must do everything it can to continue to attract the brightest scientists and innovators from around the world — it's the surest way to maintain our long-term scientific and economic leadership.
PHUTATORIUS
This is one of the great disasters of the Bush Administration. Not only did he cut off the funding by executive fiat — he subsequently vetoed a funding bill that had substantial bipartisan support.
(Remarkably, Bush defended his veto by stating that "Destroying human life in the hopes of saving human life is not ethical — and it is not the only option before us." This from the man who threw thousands of lives and billions of dollars behind the proposition of elective, preemptive war.)
There was talk that Obama might duck the issue and simply defer the matter to Congress, with the expectation that they could muster another bill like the one Bush vetoed. Let's hope he doesn't go that route. Bush invoked executive authority to turn off the funding faucet; Obama is at the very least empowered to turn it back on.
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