Putting your money where your mouth was

The first was the news that the late Professor Sir Kenneth Murray, founder of Biogen, left £9m to the Darwin Trust of Edinburgh, and £2m to the Royal Society and various other organisations to support young biologists in doctoral studies. Here is a man who enriched the science and business of biotechnology throughout his career, and is now – even after his death – enabling promising scientists to follow his pathway in the best way … with hard cash. Professor Murray, we salute you and take a good hard stare at all those slightly less-deceased scientists who have made their money from mega-deals and exits. We know who you are, so if you are feeling both generous and perhaps slightly unwell, now is the time to reach for the quill and inkpot and make that gesture. Your kids won’t thank you, but we will.

A little ray of Golden sunshine?

Next is the great news that there is some positive spin in the press on GM crops, or at least something that moves the argument temporarily into a sphere of reality.  It is always welcome, even when both sides are masters of the PR (dark) art. People should think about the impact of crops such as Golden Rice on the health of people in economies far different from their own. Block this, actively denying nutrition to millions that need it based on your own principles – when you yourself have enough to eat – and what kind of person are you becoming? Someone who pushes over old people when they are indecisive in queues? Oh wait, that last one was me.

Good things come to those that mess about in labs

If proven to be replicable, the news that stem cells can be created just by dipping blood cells into acid is a great example of two things: (1) that it is critical to persevere with potentially great science, and (2) that you should always dream that you can have a breakthrough doing something really simple. Sometimes life is good like that.
So January was generous with great reports (apart from the being dead bit in the first story) and I have demonstrated all the impetuosity of a genius scientist by jamming them all into one test tube and heating it, rather than spreading them out over three sensibly planned columns. See you next time, and let’s hope that the gods of interesting science are as active in February as they were in January.