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A noteworthy article partially reproduced here. Good science takes time.
That's something worth stressing to the public.
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November 11, 2008
Talking Business
Taking Science Personally
By JOE NOCERA
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/business/columns/josephnocera/?inline=nyt-per>
A few years after Michael J. Fox
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/f/michael_j_fox/index.html?inline=nyt-per>
revealed that he had Parkinson’s disease, he attended the annual charity
auction for the Robin Hood Foundation, a New York philanthropy financed
largely from donations by wealthy hedge fund managers. Mr. Fox was in
his late 30s at the time. He had been living with Parkinson’s since
1991, when he received the diagnosis at the age of 30, but had kept
quiet about it while he continued his acting career. It was only in
1998, when his symptoms — the uncontrollable tremors and halting speech
that characterize those with Parkinson’s — had become pronounced enough
that he could no longer continue with his hit show “Spin City” that he
finally let the news out.
...
What makes the story of the Michael J. Fox Foundation different — nay,
what makes it important — is that it doesn’t just dole out money to
scientists and hope for the best. It has used its money to take control
of Parkinson’s research like few other foundations have ever done. In
the process of trying to solve the mysteries of Parkinson’s, it has
upended the way scientific research is done, and the way academics
interact with pharmaceutical and biotech companies, at least in its
little corner of the world. It demands accountability and information
sharing that is almost unheard of in the broad scientific community. And
it has managed to become, in its short seven-year life, the most
credible voice on Parkinson’s research in the world. “If you are a
serious Parkinson’s researcher,” said Malu Tansey, a scientist at the
University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, “you live and die by
the Fox Foundation’s Web site.”
...
He wanted the foundation to have a powerful sense of urgency, and for
that reason he insisted that it had to spend the money it took in,
rather than building up a large endowment, which often becomes the end
instead of the means. (“_The goal is to go out of business,” he said._)
He wanted it to be an organization that was about science rather than,
say, patient advocacy. Mainly, he wanted his foundation to approach the
problem differently from the way other foundations had approached it.
But he didn’t know exactly what that meant.
--
Wayne Watson (Watson Adventures, Prop., Nevada City, CA)
(121.01 Deg. W, 39.26 Deg. N) GMT-8 hr std. time)
* 'That's one small step for a man; one giant leap for
mankind.' Neil Armstrong
** A thin man ran... makes a large stride... left
planet... pins flag on moon... on to Mars!*
//
Web Page: <www.speckledwithstars.net/>
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