Blog Comments

Kinetica Online is pleased to provide direct links to commentaries from our senior editor Dr. Steven Pelech has posted on other blogs sites. Most of these comments appear on the GenomeWeb Daily Scan website, which in turn highlight interesting blogs that have been posted at numerous sites in the blogosphere since the beginning of 2010. A wide variety of topical subjects are covered ranging from the latest scientific breakthroughs, research trends, politics and career advice. The original blogs and Dr. Pelech’s comments are summarized here under the title of the original blog. Should viewers wish to add to these discussions, they should add their comments at the original blog sites.

The views expressed by Dr. Pelech do not necessarily reflect those of the other management and staff at Kinexus Bioinformatics Corporation. However, we wish to encourage healthy debate that might spur improvements in how biomedical research is supported and conducted.

Animal Research

Animal Research Provokes Some 'Misgivings'

A recent Nature poll of 1,000 international biomedical researchers showed that while 90 percent of them say research on animals is "essential," 16 percent say they have "misgivings" about using animals, and 33 percent had "ethical concerns" about the role animals play in their research. However, only apparently, only 15% of the respondents claimed to have changed the direction or practice of their research by the actions of animal activists. S. Pelech comments that whenever possible one should find alternative approaches to minimize the use of experimental animals, but acknowledges that it is impossible to eliminate the use of animals in biomedical research. He notes that less than 0.25% of the land animals killed by humans are used for research purposes of any kind and suggests that it would be far more impactful for animal activists to tackle the food industry and the greater than 95% of the world population that are consumers of meat products. Read More...