Basic science rocks!

The economical crisis is affecting everything. We are all familiar with "budget cuts", "restrinctions", "debt", "risk premium",... In most high income countries the new mantra are "make things profitable", "tax-payers money should be used only to support areas with added value", "let´s avoid unnecessary things", ... Not surprisingly this politicians view is also affecting science. Five to seven years ago many grant funding agencies, including the European Comission, started to deem basic science as a low priority area. Instead, major funding efforts are increasingly been devoted to those projects/areas showing great promises of transfer the knowledge to the market in a short time. In many places, at least in my own country Spain, basic science is mostly considered a waste of money. Now in every project you write you really need to make a clear business case of the importance of your research, and expected results, for health, society, market,...In the context of biomedical research, my own area of research, projects should be truly oriented to impact significantly the National Health System (NHS).

Is it really true that we, basic scientists, are wasting tax-payers money? Is there not anymore space in our society for curiosity driven research funded by the goverments?

Science-fashion

Ready-to-wear or prêt-à-porter is the term for factory-made clothing, in standardized sizes, as distinct from haute-couture (high-fashion) design clothing. The former is based upon a pattern that is then duplicated and advertised to raise the visibility of the designer. The latter is endowed with great doses of novelty and creativity. In fact, it is believed that fashion design anticipates costumer tastes and, actually, marks the next tendencies. Fashion is everywhere and references to anything that is the current trend in interior design, furniture, food, music,...and science?

Can we consider science under the light of fashion? Are there prêt-à-porter and  haute-couture science? Are there trending topics? At least in the Microbiology field this is the case.

The circle of science

"There's more to see than can ever be seen
More to do than can ever be done
There's far too much to take in here
More to find than can ever be found"

Many of you know this part of the lyrics of "The lion king". I think it reflects nicely the driving force of most scientists that I know, or at least my own. Actually, I like to think that I continue the line of those famous explorers of the the last centuries: Stanley, Amundsen, Sarmiento de Gamboa, Magallanes,...jut to mention a few. It may sound a bit pretentious. However, at a reduced scale, I believe that my excitement when opening the incubator to check the outcome of the last experiment after an overnight incubation is similar to the feelings of those great explorers when reaching the end of the journey. I enjoy the daily life at the lab, even the small things: when a cloning is done or when we construct a new bacterial mutant lacking a, hopefully, new virulence factor. But it is a long, tough, dificult process to get to this situation. I will leave for another post the description of the so-called "scientific career". Instead, for those not familiar, I will summarize here the whole process of "doing science".