Varmus on the Daily Show
Just heard about this nice interview from Monday night of Obama science advisor (and former NIH head and Nobel laureate) Harold Varmus with some details on what went wrong over the last few years:
Best line from Jon:
Does 8 years in the wilderness do real damage to science? You think about the Middle Ages.
Another interesting exchange, where Jon asks about skills needed to be a successful scientist:
Jon: I’ve never met a man of your stature as a scientist so well-versed in the bureacratic process. Is that part of being a scientist now? Do you have to also know how to navigate those waters?
Varmus: Look, I went to Washington as someone who had been a lab rat for 25 years [...] and suddenly I had to run a big agency. You learn it. It’s like anything else.