I’m a pebble in the avalanche

I wasn’t going to do any more blogging today, but damn, this makes me mad. There’s posts on DrugMonkey and Female Science Professor that also take this apart.

This seems to me like a coded argument to thin the competition for resources by deciding, a priori, that certain kinds of research are “a problem.” It’s balkanization (see also here).

By their argument, whole swathes of scientific endeavor should just... go away. Do we really want nothing but cancer research? Because that’s the kind of thing that would happen under their scheme. Biology would become medical research and not much else.

Arguing that certain kinds of research aren’t worth doing is arguing for ignorance. Sorry, but as far as I am concerned, knowledge is better than ignorance.

ARGH! (If you were in my office, you’d be hearing the greatest hits of “What is your favourite curse word?” from the Pivot questionnaire.)

Now, please excuse me. I have to go back to destroying science by writing my latest manuscript.