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.

Research progress

The Business of Basic Research

Nicholas Wade at the New York Times characterized NIH's funding of basic research as a risky government venture that produces far fewer hits than misses, but blogger Michael White at Science 2.0 thinks that basic research proceeds more through a series of "incremental" advancements that ultimately lead to success. S. Pelech agrees with Dr. White and notes that grant panels favour "safe" research where there are solid hypotheses and a wealth of preliminary data from investigators with the consequence that most basic research is pedestrian and plodding, but steady in its progress. Read More...