Why you shouldn't steal from the French
What a semi-hazardous bike ride I just experienced.
For those who do not know, I am kind of short. Not super-short, but still mildly vertically challenged. As such, when bicycle seats are set too high, I become unhappy. By the way, the curbs around the end of Science Dr are GREAT for using to get on bikes that are too high for you. Some curbs around here are kind of short (like the ones around my apartment), which doesn't help me much. (By the way, if you were around my apartment this morning around 9:07 am and saw me fall off trying to get on the bike, please don't tell anyone.) Anyway, shoutouts to Tucker and Julian who guided me back safely (I would not advise trying to bike through the gardens at 9:30pm) and who attempted, albeit unsuccessfully, to lower my bike seat. Oh, iron filaments..
Anyway, on to the topic of today's blog post: Responsible Conduct in Research! Kudos to Mr. Howard Hughes (and his constituents) for making this a required portion of this summer internship. Actually, though, even though I bemoaned to my fellow lab-mates about having to watch a 2.5 hour movie on ethics, I would do it again. You see, I was expecting some informative video (think Highschool Lab Safety videos), but I got something way different when I got to room 2231 of French Family Science Center. It was fun and entertaining - but still carried an important message beneath the surface.
There are lots of pressures that drive scientific research, as exemplified in the film. When a scary and unknown killer (such as HIV) strikes, it becomes a race against time to uncover the killer's identity and find a way to stop it. The researchers of that time were under a lot of pressure - people were dying every day, all over the country, and victims weren't restricted to a certain age group, gender, race, or sexual orientation. Someone had to figure things out, and quickly.
Unfortunately, we face similar pressures today as we try to understand things like cancer, the H1N1 virus, and other medical mysteries. But there's also other pressures: like getting published. Scientists have to fight for a limited number of grants to fund their research; following this, there is a pressure to publish groundbreaking data in order to keep the money flowing in (this is how I understand things, anyway). This reminds me of something my mentor said when I interviewed him: he explained that the only thing he "didn't like" about science was the competition amongst researchers, and the fact that people were losing focus on what they were working for, which was learning more and bettering the world.
I don't know how to stop this from happening - maybe it never will. Maybe we just need more grants available to discourage people from fudging results in order to get funded. Maybe we should stop researchers from getting paid for working so they'd have no motivation to cheat. (Just kidding on that one). This is why I don't like ethics. There are no actual answers!!
