It’s been spring in Toulouse the entire week, which has not been much incentive to write in a blog. I’m also neck-deep in work – my student will submit an abstract to her last big conference at which I hope she will meet up with prospective postdoc advisors in the U.S. this summer, a collaborator is patiently awaiting quantitative RT-PCR results that I am unable to duplicate, another one was less patiently awaiting but has now received some DNA, and so on. Meetings galore.
As I was sneezing this morning, I was just thinking how easy it is to take the good things for granted. How quickly one gets adjusted. I was an asthmatic kid, and only now get asthma when I have to stick around my daughter’s horseback riding lessons Friday afternoons. But something has bloomed lately that still makes me allergic, possibly the cypress – the car is covered in fairy dust.
I was complaining internally about that, instead of remembering to marvel at how gorgeous everything is now! About the fact that the “lawn” needs to be mowed, rather than appreciating the fifteen varieties of wildflowers I can see in it!
This is leading up to: I hope that American biomedical scientists within the country’s borders do not forget to be grateful for the April showers of money and goodwill that will yield flowers in May and for some time beyond. Kurt Gottfried and Harold Varmus have published an editorial in Science entitled, “The Enlightenment Returns” which I don’t think overstates things. They remind us scientists that
The [U.S.] president has taken a large and inspiring step to restore the historically beneficial balance between science and government; we should all now offer to help with the enlightened effort just launched.
They suggest we can do so:
by informing students, colleagues, and fellow citizens about the issues at stake; by willingly offering professional advice to government either informally or when invited to serve on agency panels; by supporting and encouraging scientists who are considering careers in government; or by taking a turn in government service.
I find it interesting that the four suggestions are rather arranged in chronological order as far as a scientific career is concerned. They sound good to me – you know where you can reach me, Dr. Kington.
