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Artist, Heather Oliver             

“And If I Cried Out, Who Would Hear Me…?”

— Reiner Maria Rilke, the first line of The Duino Elegies

You may recall I wrote about the condition of biomedical research a while ago: Of Federal Research Grants and Dancing Bears.

The NIH, the sole major funding source for such research, has stagnated for the last decade. People are trying to get a measly single-digit increase this year to staunch the bleeding. To get considered, the relevant petition must gather 25,000 signatures by this Sunday, March 18. If you care about basic research or therapeutic applications, follow this White House link. You will need to create an account, but the only thing they request are your name and e-mail. You can also boost this signal, if you wish. This part of the future may still be in our hands, if we don’t sit passively by.  Thank you.

Image: Allies, Susan Seddon Boulet.

3 Responses to ““And If I Cried Out, Who Would Hear Me…?””

  1. Dylan Fox says:

    Signed, and Facebooked. I don’t have many followers, but you never know. Everyone helps, and it’s certainly not going to do any harm.

  2. Jim Fehlinger says:

    > People are trying to get a measly single-digit increase this year to staunch the bleeding.

    http://www.dailywritingtips.com/stanch-and-staunch/

    :-0

  3. Athena says:

    Thank you, Dylan, I appreciate it very much.

    Stanch and staunch used to be synonyms, Jim. It’s only in very recent times that staunch got gradually restricted to its adjective meaning. Any other nitpicks?