Australia to Create Biomedical Lobby Group Baylor Faculty Upset Over

Home , Fringe theory, Michael Polanyi Center

with colleagues in the sciences.” Baylor faculty upset over science and religion center Sloan rejected a 26–2 vote by the sen- One year after a Kansas Board of the theory’s chief proponents. ate to dissolve the center, and instead is Education banned the study of evolution- Unlike creation science, which holds putting together a review committee to ary biology in its public schools, the latest that scientific evidence proves the Bible’s study the issues raised by faculty. In an clash between evolutionists and creation- creation story, ‘intelligent design’ stops official statement, Sloan says he rejects ists—those who believe God created short at giving God credit and shies away creation science and would never bar life—has erupted at Baylor University in from biblical references. Still, some anyone at Baylor from teaching evolu- Waco, Texas. At issue is the establishment Baylor science faculty argue that ‘intelli- tion. He does, however, believe that God of the new Michael Polanyi Center, gent design’ is a fringe theory that created the world. which aims to be an “an active partici- doesn’t have any real standing in the aca- Baylor, which houses an Institute of pant in the growing dialogue between sci- demic community. “We are mainstream Biomedical Studies in affiliation with ence and religion.” scientists and we’re concerned that the Baylor College of Medicine, is the coun- Critics say Baylor’s president, Robert B. Polanyi center casts us as something than try’s largest Baptist university. The Sloan Jr., set up the program with no for- other than that,” says Charles Weaver, an school’s commitment to the sciences in- mal input from the faculty, and they are associate professor of neuroscience and cludes plans for a new $60 million sci- perturbed that it will be dominated by psychology. ence building and $20 million in proponents of ‘intelligent design’, a the- “The directors of the center claim to be renovations to existing laboratories. The ory that draws on physics, mathematics doing science; that is, they argue for in- director of the biomedical institute, and philosophy to argue that living things troducing intelligent design into science Darden Powers, who is also chairman of are so complex, evolution could not have as an explanatory category,” Robert the physics department, says he supports

.com produced them. Thus, life had to have Baird, chairman of the Faculty Senate, the president’s position on the Polanyi been the work of a higher power. The cen- wrote in the senate’s newsletter. “Yet the center but declined to comment further.

.nature ter’s director, William Dembski, is one of Center was created without consultation The clash comes at a time when an increasing number of universities are revis- iting the uneasy relationship between religion and science. Programs range Australia to create biomedical lobby group from the American Association for the Australia wants to emulate the US success ognized by the Wall Street Journal, which Advancement of Science’s decidedly pro- http://medicine ¥

story Research!America by setting up reported, “the driving force behind the evolution “Dialogue on Science, Ethics the country’s first umbrella group for huge 15% increase in the NIH budget to and Religion,” to the three-year-old God grassroots community advocacy of med- US$15.6 billion (in 1998) was an um- and Computers course and lecture series ical research. Stakeholders in Research brella organization called Research! at the Massachusetts Institute of Australia held an inaugural meeting last America.” Wills believes corporate phil- Technology, to the graduate school pro- month, securing broad support from re- anthropy and government spending will gram at the Institute for Creation search institutes, disease foundations, the increase in response to the enthusiasm of Research in southern California. pharmaceutical and biotechnology sector ordinary Australians, with polls already Tinker Ready, Boston and the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX). showing 80% of people want to hear 2000 Nature America Inc. The creation of a body to engage the more about medical research.

© With only weeks to go before the biennial World public in setting the scientific agenda fol- The ASX wants to play a lead part in en- AIDS Conference begins in Durban, South Africa lows the federal government’s endorse- couraging the diversion of some corpo- (9–12 July), stakeholders in the sub-Saharan epi- ment last year of the Wills report, chaired rate sponsorship dollars from sport and demic are increasing their activities. President by Garvan Institute of Medical Research the arts to medical research, says Michael Thabo Mbeki’s controversial advisory panel of chairman Peter Wills (Nature Med. 5 9; Roche of ASX. It will offer seed funding AIDS ‘experts’ (Nature, 405, 105; 2000) will pre- 1999). At the time, Prime Minister John to Research Australia, whose initial oper- sent its report on the reasons for the spread of Howard indicated that he was “attracted ating budget is estimated at A$500,000 the disease in the region prior to the start of the to how this is done in the US through the (US$290,000). meeting. Meanwhile, an 11 May Executive Research!America alliance.” Wills told The Australian Society for Medical Order by President Bill Clinton, announcing that Nature Medicine, “Now I’ve taken the Research backs the new group, pledging the US will allow sub-Saharan Africa special lee- baton and run with it.” He says although that far from the prospect of a ‘turf war’, way to import and manufacture patented AIDS inspired by the “simplicity and power” of its members look forward to benefiting drugs, plus a same-day statement by five lead- the US lobby, the Australian version from a broadening of the base of political ing pharmaceutical companies and UNIADS would be tailored to reflect different po- and corporate support for medical re- that they will slash the price of AIDS drugs to litical and social realities and would advo- search. “At this point there’s plenty of Africa, may calm potentially vociferous demon- cate for public health as well as laboratory people within the research sector who are strations by activists. research. active, but the public hasn’t been in- Nature Medicine will be in Durban covering Since its inception in 1989, Research! volved, and that’s the key distinction,” the conference—proposed boycott by the America has lobbied congressional mem- says ASMR board member Peter World’s HIV scientists permitting—to bring you bers relentlessly, commissioned public Schofield. A business plan for Research news of the meeting via our website at opinion polls, funded advertising cam- Australia will be drawn up by August, www.medicine.nature.com and in the next paigns and sponsored awards, all to boost with a formal launch later in the year. issue of the journal. research dollars. Its muscle has been rec- Rada Rouse, Brisbane

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