the cutting edge

[rayilynlee <rayilynlee@xxxxxxx>]

Remember Dr. David Hager,the Bush ob-gyn appointee to the NIH who prescribes 
bible reading for PMS?  Ray

"Sharon Begley who has a great weekly science column in the Wall Street 
Journal, exceeded her usual high standard today in a column on "U.S. Science 
Research Is in Danger of Losing Place on Cutting Edge". My favorite parts were 
near the end: 

  Some appointees to federal scientific advisory panels have been chosen for 
their ideology rather than their expertise; staffers with no research 
credentials alter the scientific (not only the policy) content of reports on 
climate change. ... Politicians' attacks on the science of evolution continue, 
even though "intelligent design" may make a fascinating lesson for a philosophy 
class, but is not biology. ... "This anti-scientism couldn't be more damaging 
to young people contemplating devoting their life to research," says 
neuroscientist Ira Black... ... Since scientific innovation has long fueled 
economic growth, there is a danger "that the U.S. will no longer be dominant in 
innovation," says G. Wayne Clough, president of the Georgia Institute of 
Technology and a member of the President's Council of Advisors on Science and 
Technology. " ... 
And finally, I am convinced the ending paragraph will prove prophetic: 
  An interesting battle will come when a lab in Singapore or Seoul or Britain 
uses embryonic stem cells to develop a therapy for diabetes or Parkinson's or 
heart disease. Its use in the U.S. would require approval by the Food and Drug 
Administration. Will opponents of stem-cell research demand that the FDA reject 
it and deprive patients of their only hope? "


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  Yes,they will.