What happened to all the uber-competent people you read about in books like Preston’s The Hot Zone — the ones at the CDC and USAMRIID in the ’80s and ’90s? Growing up, I dreamed of becoming a virologist working in a Level 4 facility, doing cutting-edge research and tackling high-stakes public health mysteries. I’m pretty heartbroken about where we’ve ended up. I too wonder: how do we get back to that vision of civic-minded, scientific excellence?
It's a great question. The leverage that technology and modern capital markets provide means that the best people are going to be drawn there. Many of the names I listed above have secondary engagements in tech apart from being academic scientists. Secondary engagements in the 1950s and 1960s for excellent scientists tended to be in government because it was the most prestigious, highest leverage thing you could do at the time.
We should also recognize the drawbacks to having talented scientists deeply involved in government projects because they are subverted into doing insane things. The 1950s was a wild time for scientists working in government.
What happened to all the uber-competent people you read about in books like Preston’s The Hot Zone — the ones at the CDC and USAMRIID in the ’80s and ’90s? Growing up, I dreamed of becoming a virologist working in a Level 4 facility, doing cutting-edge research and tackling high-stakes public health mysteries. I’m pretty heartbroken about where we’ve ended up. I too wonder: how do we get back to that vision of civic-minded, scientific excellence?
It's a great question. The leverage that technology and modern capital markets provide means that the best people are going to be drawn there. Many of the names I listed above have secondary engagements in tech apart from being academic scientists. Secondary engagements in the 1950s and 1960s for excellent scientists tended to be in government because it was the most prestigious, highest leverage thing you could do at the time.
We should also recognize the drawbacks to having talented scientists deeply involved in government projects because they are subverted into doing insane things. The 1950s was a wild time for scientists working in government.