This
post might seem to be a departure from my usual subject matter, but it’s really
not. For the past 15 years, I’ve been developing my own outside-the-box
approach to the study of literature, with heavy reliance on literary sleuthing
out of covert textual clues left behind by the greatest authors like Austen,
Shakespeare, and Joyce. And for the past 15 years, my eldest son Ethan has been
developing his own outside-the-box approach to biology, informing his
theorizing with an evolutionary perspective. As we’ve each moved on our
separate paths, we have often noted the parallels between the study of
literature and the study of nature, and so, today’s post is in honor of my son,
who is putting on the following-linked crowdsourcing
event in NYC on Thursday evening October 4 at Dewey's Flatiron.
Ethan
is one of the new breed of scientists who are looking to break free of
longstanding models for the funding of basic science via traditional sources
like government (which seem in grave peril of drying up these days) or Big
Business (which does not always have the public's interest at heart, to put it
mildly).
The
research project he wishes to crowdfund is explained briefly in the link, and
is on a modest budget with reasonable expectations of fulfilling their specific
goal in demystifying the mechanism of the
amphetamine
class of drugs on people. Ethan is very Internet savvy, and his Twitter name is
@eperlste. He Tweets frequently, if you want to get a more specific sense of
what he is about as a scientist.
For
the past 5 years, after obtaining his Ph.D at Harvard, Ethan has been
developing a new evolutionary approach to pharmacology at his lab at the Sigler
Institute at Princeton. In this planned project, he will collaborate with David Sulzer, whose Columbia
Med School lab has for nearly 2 decades been a leader in psychopharmacology.
Members
of our family will of course be among his crowdfunding donors, not just because
he's our relative, but because we believe in his ability to use his ingenuity
and expertise to make this new kind of
science
happen, and be part of a growing wave for change, which will ultimately benefit
our society as a whole.
This
event will be in NYC, perhaps some of you (or anyone you know) who live in the
NYC area
might
want to attend and see if you want to find out more, and maybe decide to be a
donor too (we're not talking about big bucks here overall, and the idea is to
get lots of smaller donors!). Feel free, therefore, to circulate this post to
any prospective attendee or donee!! And of course if anyone has a question for
Ethan, let me know and I will put you in touch with him to answer it!
I've
been his non-scientist "muse" for 15 years now, from the days when he
managed to wangle himself an internship with a prominent immunologist at the
NIH while he was still in high school--and I can say
that
it has been a fantastic experience, as a layperson, to tag along with him on
his theoretical journey to the point he has reached now, where he has developed
an outside-the-box approach to pharmacology that really may bear rich fruit
during the next decade. So, if any of you are non scientists, and want a ring
side seat to watch how cutting edge science is done these days, this is your
chance! If this sort of thing catches on
among scientists worldwide, who knows, maybe one day there will be no depending
on the likes of Paul Ryan or Mitt Romney to decide if they want to fund science
that the world desperately needs!
Cheers,
ARNIE
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