"Hard Days on the Endless Frontier" Revisited

^a Department of Cellular and Molecular Physiology, Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine, P.O. Box 850, Hershey, PA 17033, USA

August's LSF article, "Hard Days on the Endless Frontier," by Robert Pollack, generated a number of responses. The following letters are published, along with Dr. Pollack's replies, in order to continue the dialogue on morale in the biomedical sciences. VTM

This letter is in response to Robert Pollack's essay, "Hard Days on the Endless Frontier." I found Pollack's essay insightful and a bit stirring. Since I am a graduate student whose `light' has finally appeared at the end of my educational tunnel in the biomedical sciences, I am growing increasingly concerned with the state of biomedical research. The raison d'etre for the Ph.D. is becoming vague in this age of decreased funding and decreased morale (to which Pollack eludes). With a small number of academic appointments relative to the number of new Ph.D.'s, alternative careers are a necessity. One possible fate of the doctoral recipient could be in the field of scientific mediation. The following analogy can easily illustrate the need for scientific mediators as well as many of the problems in the biomedical sciences that Pollack discussed.

Until now, the accumulation of biomedical knowledge could be viewed as building an upside-down pyramid. Each scientific problem that was solved brought with it many more questions, so each successive tier of the pyramid gets larger. Each tier also brought with it more researchers to answer these questions. The pyramid has become increasingly large; successive tiers result in its constitutive blocks becoming relatively smaller, and seemingly less significant. Drawn from this analogy, a decrease in morale is inevitable, and researchers encounter difficulty finding meaning and purpose in their work. Funds become more and more scarce, so fewer blocks can be filled in on each tier. Without organization of the blocks, the structure will eventually become unstable. With unlimited funds, the pyramid would continue to expand; however, with only limited resources, the shape of the structure must change from pyramidal in order to adopt vertical borders that are parallel—similar to an upside-down Washington monument—or the structure will become diffuse and lose meaning.

Pollack describes the state of biomedicine in his essay, "All the social structures that connect scientists to one another will be based solely on each scientist's latest piece of individual work: a Hobbesian world of each against all." This notion of a Hobbesian world is particularly scary. In the early days of science, it was more commonplace to view the works of an individual scientist as significant. But early scientists, even as early as the middle of this century, were low on the pyramid and more noticeable. As time goes on, it becomes harder to be noticed from the outside. We need to remove the word `recognition' from our definition of significance, and our career goals should shift from satisfaction of personal aims to a contribution to the greater good. The Hobbesian philosophy even states that the fruits of selfish aims will be relinquished to an absolute monarch if it is for the greater good. After all, the individual fibers of a rope are much stronger when woven together.

Many have expressed the need for scientific mediators and a more integrative emphasis on our research efforts. Researchers who don't necessarily participate in bench research, but try to tie together the numerous findings and then place them in a palatable, cohesive context, could perhaps help the morale problem in biomedical science. Navigators who help us to plot our course and engineers who pave the road behind us are needed to maintain meaning and shape in our work. As a physiologist-in-training, it has been emphasized to me that this would certainly be one of the roles of the physiologist in the future. However, I haven't seen any 'help wanted' signs for the position yet. Who would fund this new entity? At what level should their placement be: government, institutional? The existence of such positions may even be scorned by the many hard-working bench scientists whose very definition of scientist implies the use of beakers and flasks. However, since the advent of molecular biology, complaints have been lodged about the lack of cohesiveness in the scientific realm. Logistical problems will no doubt complicate the establishment of these mediators, but as the papers flood in, it is obvious that mediation is becoming a very real need. To suggest that networking between labs and groups does not occur would be inaccurate, but the mechanism by which networking occurs is disorganized and chaotic. Competition between groups also adds to this problem, where certain knowledge is excluded.

It could also be argued that scientific mediation would not be a cure-all for the present morale problems. Strict adherence to the Carville hypothesis would suggest that mediation is a stupid idea since it will undoubtedly cost money, detracting from pure research. However, the concept is a potential treatment for what ails the field of biomedical research, and it is worth finding out whether its benefits outweigh its costs.

Response to Mr. Crist

Second, so long as government agencies like the NIH and the NSF are willing to accept lip service to the greater good in the 'significance' part of a grant application as sufficient, however hackneyed and cynical it may be, there will be no reward to the applicant for helping another person except by sheerest happenstance. I see no third honest alternative to the two straight-talking paths open to practicing scientists today: either to make an honest attempt to link their work to human needs or to admit that the work is not so linked, and then to ask for the money anyway.

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