Race for the exits on antibiotic research...because its not profitableenough

In light of the latest "superbugs" that are on the move, one would think that big Pharma would be scrambling to respond with a new array of broad-spectrum antibiotics.  After all, these bugs are defying our current arsenal and scoffing at what a few years ago was the latest and greatest of our new broad-spectrum antibiotics.  Why wouldn't they want to get "in" on the next antibiotic wave?

Because it isn't profitable!

Of purple squirrels, job impossible and the "skills mismatch"….

About a year ago a friend of mine who is still a working scientist read a job description to me and asked me what I thought.  It took five minutes just rattle off the list of required skills and experience. I started doing some quick math.  The list was Byzantine at best.  Why anyone would take such a twisted path through a maze of seemingly unrelated scientific disciplines baffled me.  I couldn't imagine that anyone in the world would have that skill set.  But had someone actually managed to fit that job description, they couldn't be a day under the age of 60.  I told my friend this and she agreed and asked: "But why?"

Why indeed would anyone put out a job description that no one on the planet could possibly fulfill?  Its an interesting question and though its an issue that is not unique to science, the long training pipeline of the scientist brings an issue that seems to be plaguing our grim job market into sharp focus.

Of Clean Energy and Creative Destruction…

Clean renewable energy - the need has never been more urgent and the goal always seems to be tantalizingly unreachable.

But why?  Jimmy Carter was trying to get alternative energy studies funded back in the dark ages of the late 1970s.   Why has it been so ridiculously tough to get alternative energy studies funded?  Is it because clean and renewable energy is nothing more than science fiction?  Do we need to consign renewable and clean energy to the same category as Star Trek's warp drive and "beam me up, Scotty" transporter fantasies?

Innovation with a little "i" or a big "I"?

Public emphasis on little "i" innovation….

Innovation means many things to many people.  I hear a great deal about Steve Jobs, Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg as being iconic innovators for the late 20th to early 21st-century world. These are the names people know.  In the public eye, they are the icons of American exceptionalism and innovation.

But are they really?  I'm not trying to take anything away from these innovators.  But I am trying to get people to put these products and applications in their proper perspective.  Because that's what they are: products and applications using existing technology. They aren't groundbreaking and game-changing in the same respect as the creation of the internet of our generation or the mainframe computers of 50 years ago.   These products were built on the foundation of those discoveries.

The Sequester is no way to enhance innovation…or the economy…

We are now entering the sixth year of an economic depression.  Personally, I  stopped calling it the Great Recession about six months ago because I believe in calling things what they are.    And now, those who work in STEM fields have yet another black swan to deal with - "The Great Sequester".