Scientific research increasingly fueled by prize money
Thursday, January 10, 2013 - 22:00
in Psychology & Sociology
Prize sponsors, like those in centuries past, say that offering financial incentives gets new people thinking about old problems. But some worry the trend could distort scientific priorities.Back when he was in medical school in the 1970s, Gary Michelson was nauseated by the portion of his training known as dog lab — a class where surgeons-in-training removed dogs' organs one at a time, over 13 weeks, with no post-operative pain relief, until their animal "patients" could no longer survive.