This is a short recording about observations on science and
scientists.  http://www.newrealities.com/index.php/blogs/item/2019-paul-talking-on-the-limits-of-science

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Someone just wrote:

"I have to agree with comments about scientists in today's email from Paul.
I look around at my senior colleagues (microbiology and health researchers)
and I find no single role model that inspires me. I appreciate their work
and connect with them as I understand the 'life as a scientist', but I
struggle daily with worries that I will become just like them, which means
pretty boring, not vividly alive, stuck in a mind that has zeroed down on
specific details for so long, that it is almost impossible to step back,
see the bigger picture, the wonder, the possibilities.

"During my six years as an assistant professor, I have somehow survived
continual rejection from grant applications, fighting to get my manuscripts
published (sometimes a year of revisions to satisfy reviewers who are
vengeful) and have hardly any real support or acknowledgment from senior
'leaders' about the creative, interesting and relevant research we are
doing. It's a punishing system that demoralizes, and only rewards a person
that sacrifices everything else to succeed. And many of them marry other
scientists and doctors, which often makes thing worse.

"The science is often framed, presented in a way that tells a good story,
but often excludes any data that doesn't fit, and there are more and more
examples of fraudulent publications. The experiments for new grant
applications need to be practically complete at the time of submission,
very little room for exploration. And of course, all research needs to be
'translational', which means has potential for new and immediate treatments
and commercialization. You can't have discovery without basic and
exploratory research! Most diseases are preventable if we focused on health
instead of disease, and the fact that we are mostly healthy, most of the
time.

“However, I love my day to day work, the challenge, the unknown, I love
inspiring people in their work, I am very thankful that  my partner is not
a scientist and exposed me to Paul Lowe and much more. (lucky her, she
worked as a nanny for a family that had Paul Lowe tapes sitting around the
house 20 years ago.)

"I no longer take this game seriously, and my future has limitless
possibilities…”

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