Self-censorship must be contagious!  Notice that
this news story never discusses the real source
of the problem other than to say that this is a
"powerful example of how the political
environment can shape what scientists chose not
to study."  While reporting on an important study
on how research is impacted by politics, this
story also serves to support the elevation of
anti-intellectual, religious fundamentalist
opinions to the status of a "controversy".    The
world is beginning once again to respect us and I
hope minority extremist viewpoints are no longer
allowed to hide under the cover of mainstream
American debate.   Journalists (and their
publishers) should at least have more guts than
those invertebrates in Congress who allow their
concern over re-election to jeopardize research.

Charlie

At 12:01 PM 11/18/2008, you wrote:
>An article of interest:
>
>http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/11/081117203829.htm
>
>ScienceDaily (Nov. 18, 2008) — A survey of
>scientists whose studies became the focus of a
>public debate about NIH grant funding has found
>that many of them engaged in self-censorship as
>a result of the controversy. The study found
>that following the criticism of their research,
>scientists removed politically sensitive
>language from grant applications and stopped studying certain topics.
>
>--
>Zoya Hamilton, CRA
>Sr. Associate Director, Research Administration
>Office of the Vice Provost
>Tufts University
>Tel (617) 636-6709
>Fax (617) 636-2917
>http://www.tufts.edu/central/
>
>
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