Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!bonnie.concordia.ca!thunder.mcrcim.mcgill.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!apple!bionet!kristoff From: kristoff@genbank.bio.net (David Kristofferson) Newsgroups: bionet.molbio.bio-matrix Subject: Re: real science, science, genomes etc. Message-ID: Date: 11 Feb 91 18:29:19 GMT References: <9102111606.AA25622@genbank.bio.net> Organization: GenBank Online Service Lines: 34 A couple of quick points and then its back to the grind ... (actually I am taking a vacation day today ... what am I doing logged in here from home 8-)! Keith, I would be elated to hear that the attitudes I described towards industry were being turned around. The experience I described dates back from 1986 and earlier, so it would be great if the tide has started turning in the last five years. Regarding the "Genome Boondoggle", although I have seen arguments on both sides, it is still not clear to me that the funding for the Genome Project is coming at the expense of R01 grants, and the people I know at the NIH vigorously deny this. I think it is more likely that Congress sees potential commercial payoffs and "enhanced U.S. competitiveness" in the Genome Project and is thus looking to add funds that would not have been available to pure research anyway. However, I would not be surprised that if overall federal money is tight, some impact might be felt on R01's ... I haven't carefully researched all sides of this issue. I would suggest the possibly controversial position that people like Dr. Ellington might actually want to encourage this project! I never suggested that he personally get involved with cataloguing genes, but I think passions have flared up a bit (Peace 8-), and he might have taken it this way. Instead, budding academicians might find that the Genome Project creates sufficient industrial opportunities to siphon off a lot of their competition!! Thus the end result, surprisingly, might be less competition for pure research funds and more private sector jobs. This might make everyone better off! Hmm .... can such optimistic scenarios really occur, Pollyanna?? We have become so accustomed to always envisioning the worst possible outcomes that sometimes we forget how to hope. Dave Kristofferson