when being right is not enough
TRANSCRIPT
TRENDS in Cell Biology Vol.11 No.2 February 2001
http://tcb.trends.com
59News&CommentNews&CommentNews&Comment
UK science funding boostThree major UK funding initiatives havebeen announced recently that aredesigned to greatly increase research inthe areas of bioinformatics, structuralgenomics and proteomics. The Britishgovernment announced a £725m increasein the overall science budget over the nextthree years, incorporating a £356mincrease for basic research. This is brokendown in two parts: £252m targetedspecifically at the areas of genomics(including gene function, structuralanalyses and the development ofpostgenome technologies), e-science(bioinformatics, terascale computing andhigh-performance visualization) and basictechnology (notably in nanotechnology).The remaining £104m will go to theresearch councils to boost their ownbudgets. A further £10m fund is to be set up to aid the commercialization ofresearch funded by the public sector,providing funds to bridge the gap betweenthe end of research funding and the stage at which the private sector might becomeinvolved. This welcome boost to UKscience funding is enthusiastically backedby the British Prime Minister Tony Blair,recognizing the importance of science tothe economy. The government has alsopromised to continue to increase sciencespending, reversing the underinvestmentimposed by previous governments. D.S.
European science and societyinitiativesMuch interest has been focused on theinterface between science and society. Athree-day conference, ‘Science andSociety: Developing a new Dialogue’jointly sponsored by the EuropeanMolecular Biology Organisation andLaboratory, was held in Heidelberg inNovember 2000. Many problems werediscussed, ranging from the impact ofbiotechnology, potential abuses of genetic information and the role ofscientists and scientific information incases such as the ongoing BSE crisis. Thekey importance of such debate is furtherhighlighted by the presentation of adocument by the EU science commissioner Phillipe Busquin toEuropean research ministers addressingsimilar themes. The document focuses on four aspects: science–society relations,
the definition of research priorities, riskmanagement and dialogue betweenscientists, politicians and individuals. Anongoing debate along these lines is likelyto form a key component of future EUscience activity. D.S.
French cell biologist receivesgovernment awardA leading cell biologist has beenrecognized by the French government forhis lifetime contributions to science. Daniel Louvard was awarded the Légiond’Honneur on 18 October 2000 by François Jacob at a ceremony held at theInstitut Curie in Paris. Previous recipientsof the Légion d’Honneur include writers,artists, and even athletes, for theircontributions to French society and culture. Louvard is currently the director of the Research Division of the InstitutCurie, where he also heads the laboratory of Cell Signalling andMorphogenesis. R.M.G.
Stipend increase for BritishPhD studentsThe UK government has announced a risein research council stipends for PhDstudents. Stipends will increase stepwiseover the next three years rising to £9000for 2003–2004. This sustained increase isdesigned to indicate to young people thatscientific research is no longer what thegovernment terms a ‘Cinderella career’.Ensuring that sufficient high-qualitystudents enter the scientific career path isclearly essential to the future well-beingof UK science; however, these increasesstill do not match the levels of grantsgiven by the Wellcome Trust, and there isalso no money in the new budget toincrease postdoctoral or higher-levelsalaries. D.S.
When being right is not enoughWho has not been in the situation where one has spent months, or evenyears, collecting data on their favoriteprotein, only to find themselves stillputting together their slides while sitting in a train on their way to a meeting? This inability of biologists toappreciate the value of communicatingtheir results is becoming a seriousproblem now that biology has entered the realms of politics and theeconomy. One frightening example of what can happen when scientistscommunicate badly to those who need to hear them comes from the study of the crisis of the bovinespongiform encephalopathy (BSE), or mad cow disease, which has gripped Europe.
BSE was first reported in a bovine herd in Britain in 1987. If humans eat meat from infected cattle, there is a risk of acquiring a variant of theCreutzfeldt–Jacob syndrome, which is a neurodegenerative disease that hasbeen linked to at least 82 deaths in Britain and two in France. Public fears and misunderstanding are now crushing the cattle industry in manyEuropean countries. For example, inFrance, during November 2000, beef sales plummeted by 40%, and the fate of 4.5 million cattle and half a million tons of cattle feed hangs in limbo.
Although many political and economic factors led to the BSE crisis inEurope, scientists have now been officially cited as being partly responsible. The British inquiry on BSE by Lord Phillips of Worth Matraversstates that, in 1989, British scientists had anticipated that BSE could betransmitted to humans and that the health consequences would be severe.The criticism of scientists in the BSE crisis was not about them being right or wrong but about their failure tocommunicate the significance of theirfindings to the government in 1989. The message from the government tobiologists is clear: being right is notenough. Learning to communicateeffectively will add to the pressures that influence biologists’ lives. It alsomeans that we can search for newactivities to fill the hours while traveling to give our well-preparedseminars. R.M.G.
News&Comment
This month’s ‘In Brief’ articles were
written by Jan de Boer
Roy M. Golsteyn
Sean Lawler
([email protected]) and
David Stephens