It’s disgusting to see scientists trying to extract more money from their governments – at the expense of their fellow citizens. Of course, US scientists did this and “won” with the January stimulus bill. (I hear that NIH researchers are currently putting in a lot of time trying to figure out how to spend!, spend!, spend!) Now, the Brits and Canadians are petitioning their governments to direct money their way. The Canadian government has wisely cut budgets in at least this one area of science research funding, and the British scientists are probably not going to be successful in extracting more cash.
Of course, they use the fallacious logic that spending on science and technology is the only road to prosperity. These guys are bright – they could learn economics if they wanted to (a rudimentary understanding is pretty easy after Quantum Mechanics, Calculus, or Organic Chemistry). But they don’t want to.
Canadian link via Nature.
3:44 pm on April 16, 2009
