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Bullying and harassment are just plain wrong. (Alyson Fox, director of grants, Wellcome Trust)
A top geneticist has lost her funding based on bullying allegations, reports Nature.
The top scientist, Nazneen Rahman, was accused by scientists and staff at the Institute of Cancer Research (ICR) in London of bullying behavior. Following the allegations, the ICR commissioned a law firm to carry out an independent investigation. Rather than waiting for a disciplinary hearing, Ms Rahman instead notified the ICR that she would leave after her research grant would be finished come October.
Now the UK biomedical charity which funded Ms Rahman's research has decided to act earlier, and pulled her funding. This, the Wellcome Trust claims, is in line with their new anti-bullying policy. In this, the Trust, as a first in the UK, followed the lead of the US National Science Foundation.
While the NSF's policy focused on sexual harassment, the Trust's policy takes things a bit further.
Their policy defines bullying as a misuse of power that can make people feel vulnerable, upset, humiliated, undermined or threatened. It says harassment is unwanted physical, verbal or non-verbal conduct that has the purpose or effect of violating someone else's dignity, or creating an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment for them.
It should be noted though that the Trust bases its decision on allegations without having detailed knowledge of these allegations; nor has Ms Rahman been able (or willing) to defend herself against these allegations.
The Trust states that bullying "causes significant harm, stops people achieving their full potential and stifles good research."
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Thursday August 23 2018, @07:34PM (2 children)
I only write software. So I could be wrong. I suspect you are confusing scientists who do the real science from the politician "scientists".
I'm not sure what you mean about built around a leader. There may be someone who discovered something, and they get recognized and remembered for it. But others may build upon their discoveries, or even later prove certain elements of their discovery to have been wrong. Newton's Laws of Motion are so useful you can plot a course to Pluto using them. Yet Newton's Laws are still wrong now that we understand relativity.
The "consensus" of science is not because of a popular vote. It is because reasonable scientists can verify the result, and all can agree it is true. Unless they're being paid or have some other interest in not being part of the consensus. If they are not part of the consensus yet turn out to be right, then they merely have a better theory that explains all of the observed evidence, plus some new observation that the old theory didn't explain.
I'm not sure how liberal artists versus non liberal artists would be any better or worse as artists? If you can paint, it doesn't matter if you are liberal. If you can sing, it doesn't matter if you are liberal.
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 2) by legont on Thursday August 23 2018, @09:26PM (1 child)
I just mean that scientific truth is not absolute even at a given point, but simply a consensus among scientists. That's a statement from philosophy of scientific knowledge.
Most people believe that scientific knowledge represents truth in a certain scene, say Platonic or countless other versions. Nothing can be farther away from it. Scientific knowledge is simply an opinion of a majority and that majority is hugely influenced by the current leaders. That's why journals are so powerful.
Don't get me wrong, science sure works as evident by technology. It does not mean though that scientific knowledge is truth or even correct.
"Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Friday August 24 2018, @04:07PM
I'll stick to the reproducible results.
It represents truth in the sense that most scientists can reproduce the result and THUS the consensus is formed. Or can reproduce the observations.
Those whose results CANNOT be reproduced are the ones crying "bully"!!!
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.