Model scientists

Abstract

There is an increasing trend for the focus of biology to be determined more by administrators who have short-term pecuniary interests in science rather than by individuals who are "doing science" to further the fundamental human desire to understand ourselves, the natural environment, and our place in the world, though questioning. We feel that this ceding of the scope of science from the questioners to the administrators is at variance with the traditions of science, which heretofore have resulted in the remarkable advancements made in the field of biology. In contrast to the plethora of day-to-day conversations on how to fit into the administrators' directives, this essay provides a historical context, particularly though its extensive bibliography, to encourage today's biologists to question authority and question nature."If it be of importance and of use to us to know the principles of the element we breathe, surely it is not of much less importance nor of much less use to comprehend the principles, and endeavour at the improvement of those laws, by which alone we breathe it in security."-Jeremy Bentham1.

Keywords: courage; curiosity; model organisms; model scientists; pecuniary interests; science.