Published on [Permalink]
Reading time: 1 minute
Posted in:

Why is progress in biology so slow?

Samuel G Rodriques [Note: If you were looking for his blog’s RSS feed, you won’t find one listed. Thankfully, NetNewsWire was able to dig up the url. ] is an inventor, entrepreneur, and author of my favorite blog post so far this year:

Serious drug developers have long since learned not to trust animal models when it comes to predicting the efficacy of a treatment for most diseases.

And also:

There is a phenomenon that all biologists will be aware of, where after working on a new idea for 2 years, you one day come across a paper from 2008 and say, “oh my god, if only I had known this two years ago.” If we want biology to move fast, we need to figure out how to eliminate this phenomenon.

And:

In biology, until recently, it seemed like everyone wanted to be a professor or start a company, i.e., that the only high status thing you could do after your PhD was to become a manager.

Not sure I agree with his prescriptions, but the diagnosis is right!

✍️ Reply by email

✴️ Also on Micro.blog