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(The FASEB Journal. 1998;12:263-264.)
© 1998 FASEB

LIFE SCIENCES FORUM CORRESPONDENCE

"Hard Days on the Endless Frontier" Revisited

Josna Kanungo, Ph.D.a

a Department of Pharmacology, SUNY at Stony Brook, Stony Brook, NY 11794, 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

I think that never before has The FASEB Journal attracted more diverse readers as the issue (August 1997) that included Dr. Robert Pollack's article. I do not know how many scientists heard him deliver the lecture, but of those who did, if most were not struck by this speech, I am sure we are already headed toward a professional catastrophe.

I have been in research since 1981 for my Ph.D. degree (India), following postdocutoral work in several laboratories in the U.S. Nationality does not make a difference in the gradual but steady disappearance of morale among scientists. It has been so rampant over the years that a calm witness urges one to predict that immoral scientific conduct will affect the future generations in such a devastating manner that everybody will fall a silent victim to it.

Volumes could be written to jolt society into an awareness of the fact that in its search for the truth, science has gone wayward itself. Scientists are more busy than ever building their careers, no matter what it takes. The Nobel prize, grant funding based on journal publications, job security based on funded grants, etc., have never emphasized individual scientific conduct. A socially conscious person would know how it feels not to care for the overall social values in the name of personal career development.

In the future, if current science faces a revolution, Dr. Pollack's name should be engraved in gold as one of the pioneers: being a scientist himself, he could stand up to pinpoint the faults in his tribe, whether that be an effect of the pressure of life itself or the personal moral regression that accompanies science as civilization proceeds.

Response to Professor Kanungo

Robert Pollack Professor Kanungo makes me blush, so I will not have much to add. I do not wish to see a revolution of such magnitude and disruption that my face might appear on a medal struck by the victors. Rather, I would prefer to be around to see a slow recognition by colleagues of all ages that it is in their own interest to change the system smoothly and without disruption so that their lives, too, might be easier and happier. Now, on the other hand, a postage stamp. . . .





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