Some young biologists might think that getting NIH funding has never been harder than it is now, but those of us who have been around for a while can remember a period in the early 90’s when NIH funding seemed to all but disappear. I’m talking 7% paylines at some institutions. I went through a period where I submitted 12 unsuccessful proposals in a row. Somehow I survived along with many of my colleagues, so excuse me if I don’t quite feel yet that the apocalypse is upon us. At the time, however, many of us felt exactly that way. We called the dramatic drop in funding “the asteroid strike”, in honor of the recently discovered impact site of the asteroid thought to be responsible for the extinction of the dinosaurs at the end of the Cretaceous period.
Revised: October 13, 2009 |
Published: February 1, 2008
Citation
Wiley H.S. 2008.Think Like a Cockroach: How I Survived an Extinction Event in Biological Research.The Scientist 22, no. 2:29.PNNL-SA-58583.