I think President Obama needs to present a state of the sciences in address; like the state of the union. Yes, of course, I’m biased in this subject, but times are desperate. I work in a university hospital and train physicians and scientists at the cutting edge of technology. What we do is discover new ways to diagnose brain disorders and new was to treat them etc. But we cannot find the students to engage in doing this work or to train for the future. The average age of the nation’s scientists is increasing. We are going to lose a generation of scientists because new people are not learning from experienced scientists.

Why are the bright young students shying away from science and technology? Well, because they are smart. Teaching science in high schools and colleges pays very poorly. Plus because of dwindling enrollment those programs are being cut. Moreover, many types of research are seen as socially unacceptable. Medical research to save lives, may involve animal research and that is perceived as cruel. Scientists are called vivisectionists and targeted by animal rights groups with bombs and smear campaigns. Other technologies are sometimes associated with environmental accidents or global warming. Who wants to be associated with such negative connotations?

Research funding has dried up. Less than 1 out of every 10 grants submitted to the National Institutes of Health get’s funded. “Researcher” as a career title is a misnomer because almost all one’s time is spent writing grants. Ask the average Nobel Prize winner in chemistry if they did their prize winning experiments and many will say no it was a student or technician they supervised.

The average scientific researcher will spend 10 or more years learning laboratory skills. Some of these skills can be exceedingly technical. But in today’s research environment many of those so called ‘successful’ scientists will abandon those skills and write grants and papers often without adequately training the next generation in those skills. New students see senior scientists locked in offices writing grant after grant followed by paper etc and choose another discipline.

So we need to keep science in the lab and off the grant administrators table. This can only be done by a paradigm shift in society. We need to remember that the future of a creative and productive society is with scientists and technologists and that these people are trying to improve society. Second, we need to ensure that scientists can do science. This means that administrators and paperwork that prevents a researcher from his or her research needs to be drastically cut if not eliminated. This is not a problem that needs a trillion dollar fix. This needs intelligent minds to find some simple solutions. In the short term and long run it will save society money and bring great advances in our future. Mr. Obama, do not throw money at this problem capriciously, improve the process and image of science and research in our nation.