[Neuroscientist and Nobel laureate Eric R.] Kandel, a professor at Columbia University and a Howard Hughes Medical
Institute investigator, was in Southern California for the recent
Society for Neuroscience conference in San Diego and the Leo Rangell
Lecture at UCLA's Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, where he is a visiting scholar. He sat down to talk about his books, his work and the state of neuroscience...
Q: Is there anything being lost in the effort to map the brain, as proposed by the Obama administration?
A: There was a worry in the beginning, when terms like this were
being thrown around loosely … but early on, Francis Collins and the
leadership of [the National Institutes of Health] had the sense to call
around, and they put together an extraordinary science advisory board …
and to a person this is first-rate. They’re really studying the problem.
… I think it could have a major impact. The problem is there’s no money. The amounts of money that Obama’s
thinking about just don’t come close to approaching what needs to be
done. And the worry is that some of those funds that will be used will
be taken away from ongoing research efforts. Never in my life has the
ongoing research effort suffered as much as it is suffering now. It’s a
terrible time out there. What needs to be done besides the Obama
funding, is just general funding for science.
Q: Is the problem from the sequester, or politics in general in Washington?
A: Since the [NIH Director Harold E.] Varmus era (1993-1999), there
has been an enormous decline in the funds available. … People can’t get
jobs. If they can get a job, they can’t get funding. It’s a very, very
difficult situation out there. When I came along, if you could read and
write in science, you were supported -- if you were at all decent. Now
it’s very hard. Good people are not getting supported. … It’s a tragedy
to have such good people not have optimal jobs that they want...
Full interview at www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-qa-kandel-biology-of-mind-20131117,0,1045025.story
No comments:
Post a Comment