Category Archives: Funding

More On Bogus NIH Budgets

Posted on March 23, 2017 by mikethemadbiologist

Last week, we discussed Il Trumpe’s magic asterisk NIH budget, which supposedly will find a way to cut over $6 billion in spending through what is essentially pixie dust: What’s idiotic is that there’s no way ‘consolidations’ could possibly bring … Continue reading →

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A Small Example Of The Scientific Infrastructure Crisis: The Karst Edition

Posted on February 16, 2017 by mikethemadbiologist

Despite what is commonly depicted in books, television, and movies, the state of much of our scientific infrastructure is threadbare: One of the ridiculous things about many depictions of science in TV and movies is the notion that there’s this … Continue reading →

Posted in Funding, Museums etc., Plants | 2 Comments

Ethics And Publication

Posted on January 4, 2017 by mikethemadbiologist

Recently, Drugmonkey noted the following: If the lab head tells the trainees or techs that a specific experimental outcome* must be generated by them, this is scientific misconduct. Which brings us to this NYT article (boldface mine): The bee findings … Continue reading →

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Will The War On Science Become Budgetary?

Posted on December 20, 2016 by mikethemadbiologist

Let’s ignore that Il Trumpe’s budget director nominee is a fan of the rightwing extremist John Birch Society. You know, what? Let’s not (boldface mine): In the speech, Mulvaney blasted the Federal Reserve, saying its actions have “effectively devalued the … Continue reading →

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Meanwhile, U.S. Suburbs Are Still Fiscally Unsustainable

Posted on November 10, 2016 by mikethemadbiologist

I’ve made this point before, but the financial crisis soon to hit U.S. suburbia is another critical issue that wasn’t discussed at all during the presidential campaign, yet affects about half of all U.S. households (boldface mine): With infrastructure crumbling, … Continue reading →

Posted in Funding, Urban Planning | 1 Comment

Our Scientific Infrastructure Is Decaying

Posted on October 24, 2016 by mikethemadbiologist

Let’s ignore for a moment that we just shut down a fusion power research center that recently set a scientific record. Because that’s just too depressing to think about. Instead, let’s move on to how we’re getting our butts kicked … Continue reading →

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Is NIH Purchasing Risk-Free Science?

Posted on September 28, 2016 by mikethemadbiologist

Drugmonkey, building on a comment left at his blog, claims the following (boldface mine): This comment from dsks absolutely nails it to the wall. The NIH is supposed to be taking on a major component of the risk in scientific … Continue reading →

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Putting Defense Accounting Problems Into Scientific Context

Posted on August 24, 2016 by mikethemadbiologist

What’s $62.4 billion among friends (boldface mine)? The United States Army’s finances are so jumbled it had to make trillions of dollars of improper accounting adjustments to create an illusion that its books are balanced…. The report affirms a 2013 … Continue reading →

Posted in Fucking Morons, Funding, Military | Comments Off on Putting Defense Accounting Problems Into Scientific Context

Barriers To Data Sharing

Posted on July 1, 2016 by mikethemadbiologist

I’ve made this point about the role of funders before, but Fiona Nelson is absolutely right (boldface mine): Genomics is a data science. The human genome is vast – 3 billion base pairs. To make any significant findings from the … Continue reading →

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What Should Be The Long-Term Fate of Scientific Databases?

Posted on June 29, 2016 by mikethemadbiologist

One of the problems that all scientific databases face is funding. From the funders’ perspective, they are being asked to make a commitment in perpetuity: with rare exceptions, there is always more work to be done. At the same time, … Continue reading →

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