Wednesday, October 18, 2006
Of Money and Mouths
Professor Jim Chen, who originated and administers the Jurisdynamics site which I have mentioned a number of time before, most recently in connection with Professor Chen's article on the Enforcement First Immigration Reform Act, as well as the Scientific Lawyer site that is in my links roll and which is a very good resource for science news, now has a relatively new site named BioLaw: Law and the Life Sciences. Professor Chen expects it to deal frequently with issues of science education. It looks to be another valuable and interesting addition to my reading list.As an example, there is this article on the choice the people of Missouri are facing this November. The Stowers Institute For Medical Research, the second richest private medical research institution in the world, with an endowment fund in excess of $2 billion, already has about 60 000 square meters of premium laboratory space in Missouri, and plans to add an additional 60 000 square meters every decade, "in perpetuity".
But there is a catch involving an amendment to the Missouri constitution to allow, protect, and implicitly promote stem cell research in the state.
[T]he Institute - and its founders - have let it be known in no uncertain terms that expansion can only be assured upon successful passage of Amendment 2. Rumors of expanding in California or Massachusetts have concentrated the minds of politicians and voters alike.
Hmmm ... money or ultra religious purity. Money ... purity ... Stay tuned.
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Illustration created by Isaac Yonemoto with pymol, inkscape, and gimp from NMR structure 1ai0 in the pdb. Ref: Chang, X., Jorgensen, A.M., Bardrum, P., Led, J.J. This file is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License. Image taken from Wikipedia article, "Biotechnology."
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