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Cannot agree with this more. I'm a little sick of all these articles on how science is in so much trouble and is doomed. I've been a biologist now for ~18 year
by skosuri 10y ago
Cannot agree with this more. I'm a little sick of all these articles on how science is in so much trouble and is doomed. I've been a biologist now for ~18 years. In that time, I've seen so much advancement and real breakthroughs I'm at times astounded and giddy. If folks are really disappointed in the progress in at least biology over the last two decades, people aren't paying attention. I am also very optimistic that progress will only continue to accelerate.
I'm not saying it's a perfect system, or it wouldn't be nice to a be a little less competitive, easier to get longer-term grants, more stable and certain paths for careers, etc – but to say the system is not producing important results is in my opinion wrong.
- scrollaway 10y ago> In that time, I've seen so much advancement and real breakthroughs I'm at times astounded and giddy. Can you share some with us that we might not have heard about outside of the field of biology? I'd love to share a little of the excitement. :)
- dekhn 10y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shinya_Yamanaka#Yamanaka.27s_research https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shinya_Yamanaka#Yamanaka.27s_r... "Shinya Yamanaka proved that introduction of a small set of transcription factors into a differentiated cell was sufficient to revert the cell to a pluripotent state. Yamanaka focused on factors that are important for maintaining pluripotency in embryonic stem (ES) cells" That you can revert a differentiated cell into a pluripotent embryonic stem cell using just four transcription factors is astounding.
- witty_username 10y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CRISPR https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CRISPR