Derek Lowe

He had this thing he called the Golden Fleece Award, where he would pick the stupidest sounding research projects and talk about how those idiot eggheads are wasting your money studying, you know, mosquitoes and, you know, whatever, these tiny little fish that no one cares about. It's an anti-intellectual cheap shot.

I mean, if they had stopped that petunia flower experiment, how long would it have taken us to pick up on the mechanisms of RNA interference, et cetera, et cetera? It's really impossible to say. There are a lot of these studies that are never going to turn out to be much good for anything, but we don't know which ones those are.

I mean, if they had stopped that petunia flower experiment, how long would it have taken us to pick up on the mechanisms of RNA interference, et cetera, et cetera? It's really impossible to say. There are a lot of these studies that are never going to turn out to be much good for anything, but we don't know which ones those are.

I mean, if they had stopped that petunia flower experiment, how long would it have taken us to pick up on the mechanisms of RNA interference, et cetera, et cetera? It's really impossible to say. There are a lot of these studies that are never going to turn out to be much good for anything, but we don't know which ones those are.

Exactly. And I mean, at one drug company where I was working, they sent out a directive that we should try to concentrate on the studies that we thought were most likely to work. And we all looked at that and started laughing. I said, well, that is such a hell of an idea. If only. Yeah, if only we thought of that. Why don't you come down and tell me which ones are going to work? I had a fit.

Exactly. And I mean, at one drug company where I was working, they sent out a directive that we should try to concentrate on the studies that we thought were most likely to work. And we all looked at that and started laughing. I said, well, that is such a hell of an idea. If only. Yeah, if only we thought of that. Why don't you come down and tell me which ones are going to work? I had a fit.

Exactly. And I mean, at one drug company where I was working, they sent out a directive that we should try to concentrate on the studies that we thought were most likely to work. And we all looked at that and started laughing. I said, well, that is such a hell of an idea. If only. Yeah, if only we thought of that. Why don't you come down and tell me which ones are going to work? I had a fit.

I got up and more or less yelled at someone. from the main management saying, look, I don't care what it says on the org chart. My real bosses are a bunch of cells growing in dishes and a bunch of rats living in little cages, and they cannot be coached for success like your poster says over there. They do whatever they damn well want, and I have to listen to them.

I got up and more or less yelled at someone. from the main management saying, look, I don't care what it says on the org chart. My real bosses are a bunch of cells growing in dishes and a bunch of rats living in little cages, and they cannot be coached for success like your poster says over there. They do whatever they damn well want, and I have to listen to them.

I got up and more or less yelled at someone. from the main management saying, look, I don't care what it says on the org chart. My real bosses are a bunch of cells growing in dishes and a bunch of rats living in little cages, and they cannot be coached for success like your poster says over there. They do whatever they damn well want, and I have to listen to them.

I have a mixture of alarm and hope. The alarm is because, as we've mentioned, nothing like this has ever happened before. We've never had just a frontal sustained assault on the idea of government scientific funding. And that's just terrifying, and I think that's one of the things it's supposed to be.

I have a mixture of alarm and hope. The alarm is because, as we've mentioned, nothing like this has ever happened before. We've never had just a frontal sustained assault on the idea of government scientific funding. And that's just terrifying, and I think that's one of the things it's supposed to be.

I have a mixture of alarm and hope. The alarm is because, as we've mentioned, nothing like this has ever happened before. We've never had just a frontal sustained assault on the idea of government scientific funding. And that's just terrifying, and I think that's one of the things it's supposed to be.

It is supposed to be terrifying and to leave the people involved confused, demoralized, shocked, upset. Well, it is doing that. But at the same time, there's a lot of pushback happening, both in public, in print, and especially in the courts. There are lawsuits flying so hard it looks like it's snowing, asking for injunctive relief, asking for blocks, for stays, for restraining orders.

It is supposed to be terrifying and to leave the people involved confused, demoralized, shocked, upset. Well, it is doing that. But at the same time, there's a lot of pushback happening, both in public, in print, and especially in the courts. There are lawsuits flying so hard it looks like it's snowing, asking for injunctive relief, asking for blocks, for stays, for restraining orders.

It is supposed to be terrifying and to leave the people involved confused, demoralized, shocked, upset. Well, it is doing that. But at the same time, there's a lot of pushback happening, both in public, in print, and especially in the courts. There are lawsuits flying so hard it looks like it's snowing, asking for injunctive relief, asking for blocks, for stays, for restraining orders.

And that's what we're going to find out. Will that line of defense hold? I am hopeful that it will. If it doesn't, we're in big, big, big trouble.

And that's what we're going to find out. Will that line of defense hold? I am hopeful that it will. If it doesn't, we're in big, big, big trouble.

And that's what we're going to find out. Will that line of defense hold? I am hopeful that it will. If it doesn't, we're in big, big, big trouble.