From JONATHAN KATZ
Daniel Greenberg is half right: the ‘crisis’ in American science is
not phoney, but it is self-inflicted (Talking Point, 2 February). The genuine
crisis concerns the large numbers of productive and original scientists
who have lost all research support or never obtained any; the many more
who have been forced to divert much of their research effort to proposal
writing; and the large numbers of quite good PhDs who are unable to obtain
permanent employment even 10 years after their degrees.
The reason for this crisis is the growth of ‘big’ science and academic
empires at the expense of the individual university scientist. This is the
result of the exercise of political influence by the leaders of big science
and an excessively competitive system of grant awards which prefers groups
to individuals, and ‘sure-thing’ research to risk-taking.
The solution is not to ask for more science money from Congress, but
to cancel a few gigaprojects, distribute the money in small grants, and
train fewer research students.
Jonathan Katz Washington University, St Louis Missouri, US
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