BY BENjamin CORB
Have you heard the latest attacks being made on peer-reviewed science? Whether it's criticisms from well-respected interest groups or fringe elements with very specific social agendas, lately it seems that everywhere you turn the peer-review process in agencies such as the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health is being questioned.
As groups grapple over a shrinking pile of federal dollars, once-sacred areas of federal investment, including basic biomedical research, have become political fodder for both sides of the aisle. Your public affairs staff here at the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology headquarters has been working diligently to dispel and debunk rumors, innuendo and out-and-out lies by conducting more than 40 meetings with members of the U.S. House of Representatives since the summer began. But we need your help.
Here are some things you can do to help take the politics out of science.
Talk about your research. Whether it's in line at the grocery store, sitting at a ballgame, or even at the bake sale after church on Sunday, strike up conversations and talk about your science. Did you know that one in four Americans cannot name a scientist? And half of Americans, when asked to name a scientist, only could name Albert Einstein. Surely, Einstein did a great deal to advance science, but with 12,000 members in the ASBMB alone, our neighbors should know scientists.