YOUNG, BRILLIANT & UNDERFUNDED

In Nogales

Back when it was safe to visit

 

In the 19th century and earlier many creative scientists could function without grants.  Some were wealthy men who did science for fun, or out of curiosity – Darwin, for instance.  Others had to work for a living and did their science on the side, as a sort of hobby – example: Newton.  But with rare exceptions you can’t do significant science today without financial support.  If you don’t work for a drug company or the like, you need a grant.  The National Institutes of Health gives grants to researchers in the medical field.  Who gets them?  Well, mainly old folks.  (Not  old , perhaps, but certainly mature.)  The median age of recipients of the most significant N.I.H. grant is 52.  More people over the age of 65 are funded than those under 35.  Does this make sense?

Of course it doesn’t.  A  government study  in 2005 reported that the bulk of Nobel Prize winners in science were between the ages of 35 and 39 when they did their significant work.  It is well known that even brilliant mathematicians flame out after about age 30.  Same way in physics.  Then shouldn’t we  be directing our resources toward younger scientists? Of course we should.  But we aren’t.

Patting myself on the back: I began to realize that this was the case several years ago, through my volunteer work.  I hinted at these opinions many times (in several earlier blogs), but it wasn’t until I read Clifton Leaf’s The Truth in Small Doses that I realized I had it right.  To read my review of Ciff’s book, click on http://ljb-quiltcutie.blogspot.com/2014/06/the-truth-in-small-doses-at-long-last_7.html 

Well, here’s more evidence, in the form of  a short essay by an ex NIH research scientist now serving in Congress.  He says what Cliff and I have been saying for some time: to conquer ovarian cancer, Alzheimer’s, or any of the other dreaded  human medical maladies, it will not do simply to attempt to smoother the problem in money.  Rather, the money must be used like a very sharp knife, precisely manipulated by the best, most original, most innovative workers in the field. In other words, by the young, the brilliant and the (currently) underfunded.  We are making shamefully slow progress in our “war on cancer”.  The problem isn’t lack of money.  The problem lies in how it is deployed.  Ii's as if on D-day we landed our troops on the beaches of - - Australia.  Pretty far-fetched and stupid analogy, I know, but the best I can do this morning. 

Here is the NY Times article  http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/03/opinion/young-brilliant-and-underfunded.html?smprod=nytcore-ipad&smid=nytcore-ipad-share