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The End of Public Funded Research

republicanwhip.house.gov

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Re: The End of Public Funded Research

#11

Post by dbingham »

yummyfajitas wrote: post #5

Title is blatant editorializing. Editors, please change it. This is an attempt to crowdsource the process of finding wasteful spending within a government agency. I.e., instead of saying "hey, the NSF has too much money, lets cut the total budget", Congressman Smith wants to cut specific wasteful items from the NSF budget (presumably while preserving the useful ones). I suspect this is an effort to head off claims li…

The problem with it, is that it puts the fate of research grands in the hands of people who know nothing of the value of the research at hand. It also puts it in the hands of people who don't believe in research. For example, I'm sure climate change research is going to get targeted by climate skeptics as wasteful, evolution and big bang research by creationists, etc.

That said, the two he listed do sound pretty ridiculous. And I'm sure there are more that need cutting. It's the idea of having your grant judged by people who know jack shit about the science involved -- or are even actively hostile to it.

Re: The End of Public Funded Research

#12

Post by joshfinnie »

What is scary is people don't see the big picture, they see $750,000 to develop computer models to analyze the on-field contributions of soccer players, I see $750,000 to research another branch of game theory that could be used to help ease diplomatic tensions in third-world countries (I know it's a stretch, but go with it).

Add to the fact that, as said in other comments, the contribution to NSF is marginal when looking at the entire budget, and I feel downsizing can be found elsewhere and save our scientific research.

Re: The End of Public Funded Research

#13

Post by itg »

imp wrote: post #2

Although this article is a bit scary, the title is completely editorialized. Nowhere does it indicate that this is the "end of public research." The republicans are simply asking Americans to review publicly funded projects.

I think allowing the public to decide what scientific research to fund or not is a horrible idea.

Re: The End of Public Funded Research

#15

Post by yummyfajitas »

bioinformatics wrote: post #3

You have one person to blame for most of this: Palin, and her "fruit flies in France" spending. This might change a lot, or might not change how science is funded at all. But if the Republicans get the presidency, the house and senate, expect a lot of change, to the worse.

If Republican presidents behave as they have in the past, science funding is likely to increase.

http://www.aaas.org/spp/rd/trtot08p.pdf

http://www.aaas.org/spp/rd/trres08p.pdf

Don't know about the house and senate.

Re: The End of Public Funded Research

#16

Post by 700ravens »

yummyfajitas wrote: post #5

Title is blatant editorializing. Editors, please change it. This is an attempt to crowdsource the process of finding wasteful spending within a government agency. I.e., instead of saying "hey, the NSF has too much money, lets cut the total budget", Congressman Smith wants to cut specific wasteful items from the NSF budget (presumably while preserving the useful ones). I suspect this is an effort to head off claims li…

I actually made an account so I could post as myself. Although someone has already made my point, I need to reiterate it -- crowdsourcing scientific review is an awful idea. Journals and funding agencies use peer review specifically because a review needs knowledge of the subject area and of the context of the research. Few scientists will review a wasteful proposal in kind terms. The research dollar is so limited that the ridiculous and the out-of-context tends to get flagged as such.

The problem with research (including much of my own work) is that it is difficult to explain quickly and in simple terms. Science tends to make crappy sound bites, but an unpoliticized research establishment is almost certainly good policy.

Re: The End of Public Funded Research

#18

Post by juiceandjuice »

yummyfajitas wrote: post #15
bioinformatics wrote: post #3

You have one person to blame for most of this: Palin, and her "fruit flies in France" spending. This might change a lot, or might not change how science is funded at all. But if the Republicans get the presidency, the house and senate, expect a lot of change, to the worse.

If Republican presidents behave as they have in the past, science funding is likely to increase. http://www.aaas.org/spp/rd/trtot08p.pdf http://www.aaas.org/spp/rd/trres08p.pdf Don't know about the house and senate.

http://www.nsf.gov/about/congress/107/highlights/cu02_1219.j...

Long story short: Republicans go along with the minimum budget increase possible.

Re: The End of Public Funded Research

#19

Post by brlewis »

dbingham wrote: post #11
yummyfajitas wrote: post #5

Title is blatant editorializing. Editors, please change it. This is an attempt to crowdsource the process of finding wasteful spending within a government agency. I.e., instead of saying "hey, the NSF has too much money, lets cut the total budget", Congressman Smith wants to cut specific wasteful items from the NSF budget (presumably while preserving the useful ones). I suspect this is an effort to head off claims li…

The problem with it, is that it puts the fate of research grands in the hands of people who know nothing of the value of the research at hand. It also puts it in the hands of people who don't believe in research. For example, I'm sure climate change research is going to get targeted by climate skeptics as wasteful, evolution and big bang research by creationists, etc. That said, the two he listed do sound pretty ridi…

The two he listed sound ridiculous, but he cites no source, so I don't know if they are fair descriptions or not.

Re: The End of Public Funded Research

#20

Post by sukuriant »

scottbessler wrote: post #7

Is there an award number for airport body scanners? ;)

You know, while it's funny you mention that, the research done to develop those scanners, if continued and put in the right hand, could have actual benefits. Security? No. That's needless, infringing, and potentially unsafe. However, the things learned from that research could be used in future research for some sort of medical examination.
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