Science and Grants (Introduction)

by David Turell @, Wednesday, December 16, 2009, 19:00 (5252 days ago)

Climategate may be all about the money. If the alarm is loud enough, then the cry for grants can be louder and more lucrative. Yes, we have had a warming trend since 1970, but 1934 was the warmest American year in the last century. 1998 was second. After the 30's there was a distinct cooling trend until the 70's. In the early 70's Newsweek had an article about the next ice age probably on its way.-Peer review and huge government grants make for easy scientific collusion. This article shows Michael Mann's grants from 2006 onward totalled $4,165,000. He is the debunked 'hockey stick' author.-
http://spectator.org/blog/2009/12/02/manns-mad-money-An article showing why the Climategate emails are so damning:-http://www.spectator.co.uk/melaniephillips/5632946/why-those-emails-are-lethal.thtml-And a daily Mail article in the same tone:-http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1235395/SPECIAL-INVESTIGATION-Climate-change-emails-row-deepens--Russians-admit-DID-send-them.html-Moral: the current system of scientific discovery is dangerously concentrated by government grant money control. I have discussed this before, and I see the same pattern in Darwin research. We need to trust the findings and the conclusions, with full exclosure of all original data, to 'agreers' and skeptics alike.

Science and Grants

by xeno6696 @, Sonoran Desert, Saturday, December 19, 2009, 16:35 (5249 days ago) @ David Turell

David,-You paint a picture of a bogeyman here; both for climate and for research. There is no Illuminati at work here. I agree however that the financial accounting should be clear, but listing predispositions of viewers? That sounds much more like 1984 than what you propose is currently being done. By announcing predispositions, you polarize people in advance. There's no equivalent to the DI on the other side of the camp, unless you count the NSF as such an entity. Bad ideas are always expelled from science by scientists, never once has an idea been debunked due to financial ties. -Though one point you bring up that I think is valid--a journal writing is always a summary of all a person's work. Why isn't there a place to deposit all raw data the scientist produced?-In my mind, think of all the potential information that is lost because the scientist thinks something is unimportant. Some outlier, etc; you know what I mean here. -THAT's the kind of thing that universities need to undertake.

--
\"Why is it, Master, that ascetics fight with ascetics?\"

\"It is, brahmin, because of attachment to views, adherence to views, fixation on views, addiction to views, obsession with views, holding firmly to views that ascetics fight with ascetics.\"

Science and Grants

by David Turell @, Saturday, December 19, 2009, 21:41 (5249 days ago) @ xeno6696
edited by unknown, Saturday, December 19, 2009, 22:20

David,
> 
> You paint a picture of a bogeyman here; both for climate and for research. There is no Illuminati at work here. I agree however that the financial accounting should be clear, but listing predispositions of viewers? That sounds much more like 1984 than what you propose is currently being done.-I did not say anything like 1984. The agreers and disagreers about climate are well known to each other; the climategate emails indicate the stonewalling that went on when disagreers like Mc Intyre asked for original source data to review. McI is now a peer reviewer for the IPCC. The real issue is transparency.
>
> Bad ideas are always expelled from science by scientists, never once has an idea been debunked due to financial ties. -The time is now. Your life's experience is getting in the way. Remember, when there is fraud follow the money.
> 
> Though one point you bring up that I think is valid--a journal writing is always a summary of all a person's work. Why isn't there a place to deposit all raw data the scientist produced?-That's the point. It isn't being done properly.
> 
> In my mind, think of all the potential information that is lost because the scientist thinks something is unimportant. Some outlier, etc; you know what I mean here.-Agreed. 
> 
> THAT's the kind of thing that universities need to undertake.-But they are contaminated by huge grants also.-Read Pat Michaels. He is an honest disagreer who debunked material that James Hanson fooled congress with several years ago. Hanson presented temperature records that left off heads and tails of preceeding and following years of data, with obvious changes to the slope of temperature over many decades when everything available was added back. Hanson started this phoniness.-http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704398304574598230426037244.html

Science and Grants

by xeno6696 @, Sonoran Desert, Sunday, December 20, 2009, 21:28 (5248 days ago) @ David Turell

David,-> > Bad ideas are always expelled from science by scientists, never once has an idea been debunked due to financial ties. 
> 
> The time is now. Your life's experience is getting in the way. Remember, when there is fraud follow the money.-Alright, humor me. What was the last scientific idea that was debunked due to money? -> > 
> > Though one point you bring up that I think is valid--a journal writing is always a summary of all a person's work. Why isn't there a place to deposit all raw data the scientist produced?
> 
> That's the point. It isn't being done properly.-Well, arguably--it's never been done. Not in the US, not here, not anywhere. Most data that scientists accrue accrues between the ears. Part of the reason for that computational biology project at UNO is to gain access to those biochemical insights that don't get published. I think we might be talking at two related, but different points.-> > 
> > In my mind, think of all the potential information that is lost because the scientist thinks something is unimportant. Some outlier, etc; you know what I mean here.
> 
> Agreed. 
> > 
> > THAT's the kind of thing that universities need to undertake.
> 
> But they are contaminated by huge grants also.
> -Ah... so the only bodies conducting this kind of research apparently can't be trusted because they get big grants? Not a terribly convincing argument. -> Read Pat Michaels. He is an honest disagreer who debunked material that James Hanson fooled congress with several years ago. Hanson presented temperature records that left off heads and tails of preceeding and following years of data, with obvious changes to the slope of temperature over many decades when everything available was added back. Hanson started this phoniness.
> 
> http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704398304574598230426037244.html-Isn&... Hanson the hockey-stick graph guy?

--
\"Why is it, Master, that ascetics fight with ascetics?\"

\"It is, brahmin, because of attachment to views, adherence to views, fixation on views, addiction to views, obsession with views, holding firmly to views that ascetics fight with ascetics.\"

Science and Grants

by David Turell @, Monday, December 21, 2009, 02:47 (5248 days ago) @ xeno6696

David,
> 
> > > Bad ideas are always expelled from science by scientists, never once has an idea been debunked due to financial ties. 
> > 
> > The time is now. Your life's experience is getting in the way. Remember, when there is fraud follow the money.
> 
> Alright, humor me. What was the last scientific idea that was debunked due to money? -We are going through it right now with the global warming. but more than that,and I only have supposition: the fraud committed with cold fusion. i'm sure it involved grants and tenure. 
> 
> > > 
> > > Though one point you bring up that I think is valid--a journal writing is always a summary of all a person's work. Why isn't there a place to deposit all raw data the scientist produced?
> > 
> > That's the point. It isn't being done properly.
> 
> Well, arguably--it's never been done. Not in the US, not here, not anywhere. Most data that scientists accrue accrues between the ears. Part of the reason for that computational biology project at UNO is to gain access to those biochemical insights that don't get published. I think we might be talking at two related, but different points.-I don't think so. Tree ring analysis is numbers. Most results are numbers or EKG's or whatever. My paper with Hellerstein on mode of dying, 1959, had all the EKG's available for anyone to review at our offices.
> 
> > > 
> > > In my mind, think of all the potential information that is lost because the scientist thinks something is unimportant. Some outlier, etc; you know what I mean here.
> > 
> > Agreed. 
> > > 
> > > THAT's the kind of thing that universities need to undertake.
> > 
> > But they are contaminated by huge grants also.
> > 
> 
> Ah... so the only bodies conducting this kind of research apparently can't be trusted because they get big grants? Not a terribly convincing argument.-Humans are driven by money. You saw my numbers on Michael Mann. 
> 
> > Read Pat Michaels. He is an honest disagreer who debunked material that James Hanson fooled congress with several years ago. Hanson presented temperature records that left off heads and tails of preceeding and following years of data, with obvious changes to the slope of temperature over many decades when everything available was added back. Hanson started this phoniness.
> > 
> > http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704398304574598230426037244.html
... 
> Isn't Hanson the hockey-stick graph guy?-I spelt Hanson wrong: should be Hansen. Mann is the hockey stick character, and that is totally debunked, but the IPCC has only rescently quit using it. The UN is run by third world countries and they want lots of money transferred to them from us. That is the major point of this whole Copenhagen fiasco. Shakespeare was right. There is something rotten
 in Denmark.

Science and Grants

by xeno6696 @, Sonoran Desert, Monday, December 21, 2009, 03:51 (5248 days ago) @ David Turell

David,
> > 
> > > > Bad ideas are always expelled from science by scientists, never once has an idea been debunked due to financial ties. 
> > > 
> > > The time is now. Your life's experience is getting in the way. Remember, when there is fraud follow the money.
> > 
> > Alright, humor me. What was the last scientific idea that was debunked due to money? 
> 
> We are going through it right now with the global warming. but more than that,and I only have supposition: the fraud committed with cold fusion. i'm sure it involved grants and tenure. -Cold fusion was debunked because other scientists couldn't replicate the results; try again. -> > 
> > > > 
> > > > Though one point you bring up that I think is valid--a journal writing is always a summary of all a person's work. Why isn't there a place to deposit all raw data the scientist produced?
> > > 
> > > That's the point. It isn't being done properly.
> > 
> > Well, arguably--it's never been done. Not in the US, not here, not anywhere. Most data that scientists accrue accrues between the ears. Part of the reason for that computational biology project at UNO is to gain access to those biochemical insights that don't get published. I think we might be talking at two related, but different points.
> 
> I don't think so. Tree ring analysis is numbers. Most results are numbers or EKG's or whatever. My paper with Hellerstein on mode of dying, 1959, had all the EKG's available for anyone to review at our offices.
> > -I'm not referring to the lab notebooks or whatever; completely failed and unpublished articles still produce useful information. One drawback to the present system is that it isn't enough like wikipedia.

--
\"Why is it, Master, that ascetics fight with ascetics?\"

\"It is, brahmin, because of attachment to views, adherence to views, fixation on views, addiction to views, obsession with views, holding firmly to views that ascetics fight with ascetics.\"

Science and Grants

by David Turell @, Monday, December 21, 2009, 14:06 (5248 days ago) @ xeno6696

Alright, humor me. What was the last scientific idea that was debunked due to money? 
> > 
> > We are going through it right now with the global warming. but more than that,and I only have supposition: the fraud committed with cold fusion. i'm sure it involved grants and tenure. 
> 
> Cold fusion was debunked because other scientists couldn't replicate the results; try again.-I know, but why did they do it? Tenure, fame, money? -
Read the following review of a book. The system now involves huge amounts of grant money, tightly controlled peer review which can allow for incentuous relationships or even collusion. No, I don't have an exact example, but Google is full of entries under 'science fraud'. Human nature and love of money will obviously produce scoundrels:-http://omega.twoday.net/stories/394532/

Science and Grants

by xeno6696 @, Sonoran Desert, Monday, December 21, 2009, 17:32 (5247 days ago) @ David Turell

Alright, humor me. What was the last scientific idea that was debunked due to money? 
> > > 
> > > We are going through it right now with the global warming. but more than that,and I only have supposition: the fraud committed with cold fusion. i'm sure it involved grants and tenure. 
> > 
> > Cold fusion was debunked because other scientists couldn't replicate the results; try again.
> 
> I know, but why did they do it? Tenure, fame, money? 
> -Right, but what my point is, is that disclosing financial information up front serves no good purpose UNTIL something fraudulent happens, and disclosing it up front serves to polarize a reader in advance. Many people I know in academia are biased against researchers who work for "for-profit" institutions; a classic rivalry. Forcing financial disclosure could also cause a chilling effect on contributions--at UNMC where I worked, there are several prominent area families that will only donate anonymously. Same goes for particular causes--people doing stem cell research might find that their funding dries up because people don't want to get death threats from abortion activists. -I think the present system works just fine; only time financials are pertinent is if there really IS fraud. -
> 
> Read the following review of a book. The system now involves huge amounts of grant money, tightly controlled peer review which can allow for incentuous relationships or even collusion. No, I don't have an exact example, but Google is full of entries under 'science fraud'. Human nature and love of money will obviously produce scoundrels:
> 
> http://omega.twoday.net/stories/394532/-I will once I get home.

--
\"Why is it, Master, that ascetics fight with ascetics?\"

\"It is, brahmin, because of attachment to views, adherence to views, fixation on views, addiction to views, obsession with views, holding firmly to views that ascetics fight with ascetics.\"

Science and Grants

by David Turell @, Tuesday, December 22, 2009, 00:37 (5247 days ago) @ xeno6696


> I think the present system works just fine; only time financials are pertinent is if there really IS fraud. 
> 
> 
> > 
> > Read the following review of a book. The system now involves huge amounts of grant money, tightly controlled peer review which can allow for incentuous relationships or even collusion. No, I don't have an exact example, but Google is full of entries under 'science fraud'. Human nature and love of money will obviously produce scoundrels:
> > 
> > http://omega.twoday.net/stories/394532/-
You are missing my point or I'm not making it well enough. This is the last paragraph of the review:-"Most worrisome of all, most of the fraud Judson describes was done by individuals seeking acceptance and advancement in the world of science. Increasingly, a great deal of research is in fact product development; researchers often have more than their egos and grants on the line--a fortune can rest on their results. Judson paints a dark picture of science today, but we may see far darker days ahead as proof and profit become inextricably mixed."-Disclosure of the financial arrangements is not the point. The point is the massive amounts of money in the current grant system will twist some people's scruples. They will try to destroy rivals, or block them in peer group reviews. Humans are not nice folks. The current system itself raises the problems. And this will occur even where it is pure science without product development

Science and Grants

by David Turell @, Tuesday, December 22, 2009, 13:51 (5247 days ago) @ David Turell


> Disclosure of the financial arrangements is not the point. The point is the massive amounts of money in the current grant system will twist some people's scruples. They will try to destroy rivals, or block them in peer group reviews. Humans are not nice folks. The current system itself raises the problems. And this will occur even where it is pure science without product development.-Just discovered a UK news story (Telegraph) that suggests strongly, my follow the money theories are correct:-http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/6847227/Questions-over-business-deals-of-UN-climate-change-guru-Dr-Rajendra-Pachauri.html

Science and Grants; another addendum

by David Turell @, Tuesday, December 22, 2009, 16:36 (5246 days ago) @ David Turell


> > Humans are not nice folks. The current system itself raises the problems. And this will occur even where it is pure science without product development.
> 
> Just discovered a UK news story (Telegraph) that suggests strongly, my follow the money theories are correct:
> 
> http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/6847227/Questions-over-business-deals-of-UN-climate-cha... this comment in a comment section below an article that tried to equate Darwinsim with climategate:-"It is patently unfair to equate the Climategate fraud with the defense of the Theory of Evolution. -I have read a *ton* of stuff from the Creation Science crowd and every scrap of it demonstrates a fundamental ignorance of Evolution. -In fairness, Evolution is a slippery concept that seems to defeat many, biologists included. I have no doubt that you believe that complex structures cannot evolve. Your inability to understand how it works does not make it any less 'true'. -Meantime, by conflating the phony Creation/Evolution debate with the exposure of the Climategate fraud you do everyone a disservice. You are (inadvertently I hope) wrapping 'Climate Science' in the mantle of 'Biological Science'. Surely even you would agree that these are not equivalent. -As an aside, God has created this incredible universe with elegant mechanisms, Evolution being one of them. I am constantly astonished that Creationists attempt to diminish this with arguments for crude, ham-handed 'direct creation', rather than the truly elegant mechanisms for which God has provided more than ample evidence. They should be marveling at its beauty and working diligently to understand its subtle mechanisms. Instead, they waste everybody's time by perverting discourse in an attempt to promote their own (dangerously arrogant) assumptions about the meaning of the Bible. -God speaks to all of us in many different ways. With all due respect, I think that you should listen to him more carefully.
Dec 22, 2009 @ 06:15 AMDeepNorth, Canada"-Fits my world view almost exactly. Evolution is coded into DNA from the beginning. It is an elegant mechanism provided by God. Proof to me is 'punctuated equilibrium'. Meaning giant leaps and few small steps.

Science and Grants

by David Turell @, Friday, December 25, 2009, 14:23 (5244 days ago) @ xeno6696


> I think the present system works just fine; -> > 
> > Read the following review of a book. The system now involves huge amounts of grant money, tightly controlled peer review which can allow for incentuous relationships or even collusion. No, I don't have an exact example, but Google is full of entries under 'science fraud'. Human nature and love of money will obviously produce scoundrels:
> > 
> > http://omega.twoday.net/stories/394532/
> 
> I will once I get home.-And may I suggest the following WSJ editorial (European addition):-http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704238104574601443947078538.html

Science and Grants

by David Turell @, Friday, April 29, 2011, 21:12 (4753 days ago) @ David Turell


> > I think the present system works just fine; 
> 
> > > 
> > > Read the following review of a book. The system now involves huge amounts of grant money, tightly controlled peer review which can allow for incentuous relationships or even collusion. No, I don't have an exact example, but Google is full of entries under 'science fraud'. Human nature and love of money will obviously produce scoundrels:
> > > 
> > > http://omega.twoday.net/stories/394532/
> > 
> > I will once I get home.
> 
> And may I suggest the following WSJ editorial (European addition):
> 
> http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704238104574601443947078538.html-More comments on the mess in science, grantsmanship, etc.
http://www.lab-times.org/labtimes/issues/lt2011/lt02/lt_2011_02_24_31.pdf

Science and Grants

by David Turell @, Friday, October 08, 2010, 15:36 (4957 days ago) @ David Turell


> Moral: the current system of scientific discovery is dangerously concentrated by government grant money control. I have discussed this before, and I see the same pattern in Darwin research. We need to trust the findings and the conclusions, with full exclosure of all original data, to 'agreers' and skeptics alike.-The folllowing site reviews Martin Raff, a wonderful scientist who has been around almost as long as I have. Please note his comments on peer review and government grants, and post-docs:-
http://www.the-scientist.com/2010/10/1/60/1/

Science and Grants

by David Turell @, Saturday, October 09, 2010, 14:48 (4956 days ago) @ David Turell


> > Moral: the current system of scientific discovery is dangerously concentrated by government grant money control. I have discussed this before, and I see the same pattern in Darwin research. We need to trust the findings and the conclusions, with full exclosure of all original data, to 'agreers' and skeptics alike.-Here is another marvelous explanation of the subversion of science by grant money from the government:-http://thegwpf.org/ipcc-news/1670-hal-lewis-my-resignation-from-the-american-physical-society.html

Science and Grants: search for money

by David Turell @, Monday, April 01, 2019, 19:36 (1859 days ago) @ David Turell

This article reviews the issue of finding funds for research by med schools, independent institutions and the pharmaceutical industry:

https://www.the-scientist.com/news-opinion/opinion--the-money-culture-in-academic-biome...


"Recent New York Times’s articles focused on Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center have drawn attention to conflicts when academic biomedical researchers consult for pharmaceutical companies. Such conflicts are only one symptom of an expanding “money culture,” where revenue is valued more than research and basic science is diminished. This will delay the advances needed for future clinical breakthroughs.

"Academic biomedical research occurs largely at university medical schools and a few free-standing centers. Research spans clinical studies to laboratory investigations of fundamental disease processes. Clinical researchers deliver patient care at organizationally separate academic hospitals.

"These institutes face significant financial pressures. They do not receive a university operating budget and must pay their own way. Some even pay a form of “rent” to parent universities. Tenure is infrequent and rarely covers a full salary. From deans to junior faculty, in times flush or lean, there is funding anxiety.

"The anxiety diminishes basic science. Seeking more clinical revenue, institute leaders have accommodated hospital executives in expanding routine clinical volume well beyond that needed for clinical research and training. Academic hospitals have been busy buying community practices. Research institutes increasingly resemble large community medical provider groups. Basic science departments stagnate as leaders focus on managing ever larger clinical workforces.

"There is also destructive interaction between financial anxiety and the genomic revolution. Spurred initially by hopes of curing disease and profitable low hanging fruit, such as human insulin, fund-hungry institutes have shifted the focus of basic laboratory research to drug development. Partnerships with pharmaceutical companies and faculty consulting have proliferated. There is a frenzy to patent every minor advance and many institutes have acquired pharmaceutical manufacturing technology, systems requiring industrial engineering expertise rarely found in academia. Comparing my work evaluating projects for the Southern California Biomedical Council, an industry trade group, with 17 years at academic biomedical research institutes, I find it increasingly difficult to distinguish institute laboratory research from company research.

***

"Unlike most academic disciplines, biomedical research involves a massive and technologically complex infrastructure. I have observed that, relegated to the category of support staff, the necessary management experts have little status or influence in this MD-dominated world. As a result, tradeoff studies are rarely performed and institute investment strategy is often determined by the squeakiest faculty wheel. The typical response to the resulting inefficiency is to seek additional funds, further increasing inefficiency. Basic science is a poor way to “feed the beast.”

"Lack of patience for life cycle cost analysis is an example. In my experience as a senior administrator at a number of academic medical centers, I have seen leaders jump at every expansion opportunity while ignoring downstream costs. But donors want their names on new buildings, not on the resulting parking lots, utility systems, roads, etc. The more money raised, the more money needed. To compensate, institute leaders tie faculty incentives, such as salaries, bonuses, institutional support, and minor perks, to the volume of activities generating overhead revenue. Quantity replaces quality and growth becomes the most important metric. No wonder there is concern about scientific accuracy and reproducibility. The “money culture” is incompatible with science."

Comment: I've not copied his 'solutions', but his description of the problem tells us why there is so much hype and fake science news. Basic research unearths how life works in order to find ways to interrupt failed systems with new profitable drugs and adds tremendously to our knowledge of the complexity of living biology, as a secondary benefit.

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