Politics of the life scientific
Nature Podcast
podcast@nature.com
4.5 • 893 Ratings
🗓️ 29 October 2020
⏱️ 25 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Science and politics are not easy bedfellows - "Stick to the science" is a three part series which aims to find out why.
In this episode we're asking how politics shapes the life of a working scientist. Be it through funding agendas, cultural lobbies or personal bias, there's a myriad of ways in which politics can shape the game; influencing the direction and quality of research, But what does this mean for the objective ideals of science?
Tell us what you think of this series: https://go.nature.com/2HzXVLc
This episode was produced by Nick Howe, with editing from Noah Baker and Benjamin Thompson. it featured contributions from many people, including: Mayana Zatz, Shobita Parthasarathy, Michael Erard, Peg AtKisson, Susannah Gal, Allen Rostron, Mark Rosenberg, and Alice Bell.
Further Reading
Brazil’s budget cuts threaten more than 80,000 science scholarships
Move to reallocate funds from scientific institutions in São Paulo
Backlash to “Shrimps on a treadmill”
Explanation of the Dickey Amendment
After over 20 years the CDC can now fund gun violence research
Spirometer use “race-correction” software
Black researchers less likely to get funding from the National Institutes of Health in the US
Black researchers may get less funding from the National Institutes of Health due to topic choice
Black researchers fill fewer academic roles in the UK
Clinical trials use mostly white participants
The Received Wisdom Podcast, with Shobita Parthasarathy
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | On the first day of Christmas my true love said to me |
| 0:03.9 | Rip up the chariot |
| 0:05.6 | Forget about the telly |
| 0:07.6 | Let's play scratch cards |
| 0:11.1 | Coins out to scratching |
| 0:12.6 | Everybody laughing better not be cheating |
| 0:15.3 | And the chance to win a pound or three |
| 0:18.2 | Add some play to Christmas |
| 0:20.1 | With scratch cards from the National Lottery. |
| 0:22.7 | Please gift responsibly. Rules and procedures apply. |
| 0:24.7 | Players and gifters must be 18 or over. |
| 0:26.1 | And the chance to win a pound or three. |
| 0:32.1 | The funding for research is growing down every year. |
| 0:36.1 | This is Mayana Zats, a geneticist based in Sao Paulo, Brazil. |
| 0:40.7 | San Paulo state is responsible for 40% of the publications in Brazil. And very recently, there is a proposal, |
| 0:53.4 | a bill, that want to reduce the funding. |
| 0:57.3 | And what do you think will be the effects if this bill did pass? |
| 1:01.2 | Certainly, we won't have any approval of new projects during probably the next two more years. |
| 1:10.0 | I'm afraid that many scholarship could be interrupted. |
| 1:12.6 | We have young scientists that are brilliant and they are going away because they are trying to have better conditions to research. |
| 1:25.6 | I'm Nick Howe and welcome to Stick to the Science. |
| 1:30.1 | This is the second in a three-part series Nature is making about science and politics. |
... |
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