Are restrictions to scientific research costing lives?
September 6, 2012
In “Censors on Campus,” Index on Censorship magazine asks whether lives might be saved by making vital research freely available.
Some parts of Asia and Africa the fight against malaria is severely hampered because doctors and researchers are denied full access to the 3,000 articles published on the disease each year. At the same time, scientists living and working in developing countries are prevented from becoming global players in the public health arena.
In this special issue looking at academic freedom around the world, Thomas Doherty argues that government cuts are endangering the pursuit of knowledge in UK universities and Heather L Weaver looks at new tactics to bring creationism into the classroom. Plus exclusive reports about protest on campus in Israel, Turkey and Thailand.
Also in this issue: the Leveson Inquiry prepares to report on the culture and ethics of the press in the UK.
Launched in 1972, Index on Censorship is the only magazine devoted to protecting and promoting free expression. International in outlook, outspoken in comment, and publishing some of the world’s finest writers, Index exposes stories that are suppressed, publishes banned writing, initiates debate and gives breadth to news that has often been “dumbed down” in the world’s media.
Previous contributors include Margaret Atwood, Noam Chomsky, Nadine Gordimer, Aung San Suu Kyi, Salman Rushdie, Tom Stoppard and Ai Weiwei.
Comments (9)
by Wayn
Check out “open access.org”
by David Ish Shalom
heather L Weaver looks at new tactics to bring creationism into the classroom. Plus exclusive reports about protest on campus in Israel, Turkey and Thailand. Well anti creationism has nothing to do with science and everything to do with dogma. And the only protest on campus in Isrel is by traitors supporting the destruction of the state by replacing it with hostile Islam ridden Palestinian dictatorship.
by Gabriel
Kind of a silly headline; of course restrictions are costing lives. It’s one thing to “limit the pursuit of certain kinds of knowledge” as Bill Joy said, for our own good…it’s another thing to, especially out of ignorance or moral reasons, to try to thwart scientific research, especially if it’s the name of “helping people”.
You’d have to be a very detached person to limit research when people are dying and still believe you are doing the right thing.
by Vin
Yes. (Duh).
by tedhowardnz
Without doubt.
It is a fundamental problem with money and markets.
Markets cannot place any value above zero on anything that is abundant. Thus there are many artificial mechanism to make information scarce, rather than having it essentially free.
As a result, we all suffer.
It is worse.
The same logic applies to all things.
Markets provide abundance for the wealth few, but the very logic of markets guarantees that the incentives are in place to ensure that there remain some scarcity, and therefore, some people will not have their needs met.
Markets cannot, and do not, value abundance.
Money is a market measure of value,
Therefore, money cannot value abundance
With our current societal focus on money at all levels of governance, the many abundances that life require (at many levels) are under threat from those who wish to make them sufficiently scarce (by whatever mechanism) to be able to monetise them, and extract as much profit as possible.
It is time that humanity moved past money as a system of valuation.
by Rob Larson
Twisted logic, nice. The reason markets put value on things is because resources are scarce. We also need to understand what a market is. A market is everyone. A market is exchange. We meet our wants and needs by participating in markets by both contributing according to our skills and trading with others for that which we cannot make for ourselves.
If there is no system of valuation, trade breaks down and theft breaks out. Once people lose the trust and security of voluntary exchange, the specter of having to do without shows up and turns men into monsters. Basically communism on an individual scale.
The reason this information is not provided to where it is needed is not due to market forces, but outside organizations thwarting the markets, namely governments.
by GatorALLin
You would think the Gates Foundation or a dozen others could strike up a deal or partnership with them to just make this happen and get some great free publicity out of the process….
http://www.gatesfoundation.org/Pages/home.aspx
by Alex
A university in Cape Town, South Africa, has recently found what they believe to be the cure to malaria :)
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/health/2012/0904/1224323572234.html
by Bri
Thank heaven that this issue is being exposed. So much is suppressed.