How a Shrimp Treadmill Became a Political Plaything
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How a Shrimp Treadmill Became a Political Plaything
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Re: How a Shrimp Treadmill Became a Political Plaything
#2I've heard same thing happened in Europe to a research of mechanism of flea jumping.
Which, as you can imagine, is very important in both tackling flea-borne infections in animals and, potentially, in jumping mechanisms.
The truth is, further a person is removed from productive activity, more fierce they become towards "wasting on needless research" or whatever. Politicians are a good example
Re: How a Shrimp Treadmill Became a Political Plaything
#3War on Science in US is astounding. It is amazing how US still manages to be ahead in most areas of science and technology.
Re: How a Shrimp Treadmill Became a Political Plaything
#4War on Science in US is astounding. It is amazing how US still manages to be ahead in most areas of science and technology.
It's not just the US. Just today the UK press made the lead scientist of the Rosetta mission cry by attacking his SHIRT instead of celebrating his achievements.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/space/11231320/Rosetta-mi...
Re: How a Shrimp Treadmill Became a Political Plaything
#5I highly recommend folks watch Particle Fever (for a variety of reasons, and it's on Netflix), but one section particularly stuck out, when the documentary addresses the original LHC location in Texas being de-funded. It shows members of congress arguing how "discovering the origins of the universe" should not be a priority.
I think it's easy to make a very public argument against budgeting research, as the general public doesn't necessarily understand the larger implications of these experiments (at a cursory glance, I rarely see it myself, but I generally give research the benefit of the doubt). Particle Fever addresses this point blank with the discovery of Radio Waves, how nobody really knew what this discovery meant until years/decades later when it became a massive step forward in communication.
My dad is a bit old fashioned, and if you told him in a soundbite that congress was spending money on shrimp treadmills, with no other context he'd immediately make his snap judgement that the government is once again wasting his money. Hard thing to overcome, no matter how important the research might end up being.
Re: How a Shrimp Treadmill Became a Political Plaything
#6Add it to the list along with the million dollar space pen[0]. Oversimplifying things like that seems to be pretty common in politics. When you say something like "the government spent millions of dollars on a shrimp treadmill!!", the desired reaction is achieved well before any well-reasoned rebuttal can be made. And by the time that the truth comes out -- if it ever does -- it's too late to correct the audience's idea that the government is wasting money.
Re: How a Shrimp Treadmill Became a Political Plaything
#7It's of course that politicians are only speaking what the electorate wants to hear. Anti-science language wouldn't fly if it didn't result in votes. The sentiment against science in large tracts of the country is frankly scary. When you see that the Department of Biology at Baylor University, a respectable institution associated with the Baptist Church, feels compelled to make a statement in favour of evolution (http://www.baylor.edu/biology/index.php?id=77368) you know it's time to emigrate.
Re: How a Shrimp Treadmill Became a Political Plaything
#8I can't deal with politics since about five years ago, it just makes me feel stressed-out and sad. Living in DC made me hate it, all of it. (I moved.)
Re: How a Shrimp Treadmill Became a Political Plaything
#9Add it to the list along with the million dollar space pen[0]. Oversimplifying things like that seems to be pretty common in politics. When you say something like "the government spent millions of dollars on a shrimp treadmill!!", the desired reaction is achieved well before any well-reasoned rebuttal can be made. And by the time that the truth comes out -- if it ever does -- it's too late to correct the audience's i…
"A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes"
Very few people will see this truth.
Re: How a Shrimp Treadmill Became a Political Plaything
#10War on Science in US is astounding. It is amazing how US still manages to be ahead in most areas of science and technology.
It's not just the US. Just today the UK press made the lead scientist of the Rosetta mission cry by attacking his SHIRT instead of celebrating his achievements. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/space/11231320/Rosetta-mi...
Nonsense. His achievement was celebrated as well.
His shirt is the kind of thing that keeps women away from science, so the fact that he publicly acknowledged his error will make other scientists more consciously think about inclusivity, helping science in the long run.