One to share with my screenagers

🧪This is a good article explaining why the NIH is such an important institution that benefits all Americans and others globally. For example, NIH funding contributed to 99% of drugs approved for treatment. Drug approval comes after clinical trials.

www.americanprogress.org/article/how-...

“ scientist is largely taught by apprenticeship, with each generation teaching the next.

We risk losing the next generation, our “seed corn”, if they are driven from science by uncertain funding and by political rhetoric that disparages science. “

Sustain regular predictable funding cycles

“Vannevar Bush .. understood that most companies are unwilling to invest in unfettered, curiosity-driven, fundamental research because the fruits of such research and when they will emerge are usually unpredictable.

Our investment in fundamental research has paid for itself many times over.”

“Pursuing new, and sometimes heretical, ideas, and turning them into reality, also requires scientists and investors who can tolerate risk.

In some countries, the worst thing you can do is to fail conspicuously while trying something new rather than to have quietly played it safe. ”

“The fact that so many of the world's best scientists and engineers live in the United States was not, however, preordained. How did we get there?

… doing great science requires the ability to challenge conventional wisdom. It is hard to innovate in cultures that emphasize conformism. “

Incredible insight by Nobel Laureate Bill Kaelin. How to build an innovation economy

Embrace
- freedom of thought,
- break down hierarchy
- challenge the status quo,
- be brave, risk failure
- prime basic research
- encourage diversity.

A great first session with @dchenshall.bsky.social @brendangilmore.bsky.social Laoise McNamara and @aedinculhane.bsky.social … fundamental research usually and ultimately leads to important applications … uncertain, unpredictable, often delayed … but valuable. Curiosity reveals what’s important!