Molecules: You'd better learn to live with them.
The Seed people inquired with each of us as to what we hope and fear to be blogging about next year. Since a list of molecules wouldn't make any sense here, it is more of a general sense of what I hope is driving the times (which, in turn, determines which molecules we interact with).
Hope to be blogging about:
I would love to be talking about how we're allocating our math and science talent more effectively than ever. I think America is exceptional in at least one sense: especially in science and engineering, it is a country where you can have some out-there ideas and enjoy substantial compensation if you can bring these ideas to fruition. Historically, the combination of a tolerance (encouragement, even) for oddballs and the prospect of large rewards has meant America excels at innovation. This isn't to say the US has a monopoly on intellectual pluralism or free markets, but in recent history, we've done a great job encouraging these things. I hope to describe how we're rising to some once-in-a-generation challenges.
Worry I will blog about:
We face some terrifying macroeconomic realities, and we have to consider the fact that this is likely to affect science on both the academic (e.g., federal funding) and industrial (e.g., continued pharma layoffs) sides. Innovation is the motor that drives the continued enhancement of human welfare, and the worst thing that could happen to us is that that motor seizes up. This is the story I hope not to be telling next year.
Politics
Comments
Inert intelligence is the paradigm of institutional racism. The legislated and impressed goal for all aspects of American society is failure. If we don't change direction soon, we'll end up where we're going.
Sometimes tolerences average - that's freedom.
Sometimes tolerences add - that's tyrrany.
Posted by: Uncle Al | November 20, 2008 11:36 AM
Well said. Now if I had a blog, I would hope to be blogging about: President Obama adopting a french bulldog named Satsu.
I worry that I may have to blog about: Satsu having epilepsy or an eye infection.
Keep up the good work! I love your blog.
Posted by: Vince Noir | November 20, 2008 1:18 PM