Benefits of Basic Science
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Jennifer Harrison @GeneticJen · Jan 26 So much anti-science crap on Twitter this morning. Not just climate change denial stuff but people against wasting money on basic research |
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Jennifer Harrison @GeneticJen · Jan 26 This is a dangerous game to play because basic research, which may seem unimportant on case by case basis, DRIVES discovery |
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Jennifer Harrison @GeneticJen · Jan 26 Climate change affects us all. It affects the economy, biodiversity... and it's the basic research of our world that solves big problems |
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Jennifer Harrison @GeneticJen · Jan 26 The connection between basic research and world-changing applications can be loose and almost invisible to some people. Here comes a thread: |
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Jennifer Harrison @GeneticJen · Jan 26 I want to tell a little story. It'll just be a few tweets. It's about a famous physician called Sir Cyril Clarke (1907-2000) |
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Jennifer Harrison @GeneticJen · Jan 26 He didn't really do medical research when he was a physician but he did study butterflies and became a famous lepidopterist |
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Jennifer Harrison @GeneticJen · Jan 26 How's that for wasting time and money? Butterflies! This was in the 60s and his findings prompted him to suggest the idea of supergenes |
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Jennifer Harrison @GeneticJen · Jan 26 Being a physician right when modern genetics was taking off, he wanted to take what he was learning with butterflies and apply it to us |
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Jennifer Harrison @GeneticJen · Jan 26 This led directly to him studying blood groups as markers for diseases in humans rather than wing colouration in butterflies |
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Jennifer Harrison @GeneticJen · Jan 26 This research directly led to him studying Rh disease. If the mother is Rh negative and father Rh positive then immune system attacks fetus |
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Jennifer Harrison @GeneticJen · Jan 26 He worked alongside his wife and she came up with a genius and seemingly counter-intuitive idea: inject the anti-Rh anti-bodies in mother |
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Jennifer Harrison @GeneticJen · Jan 26 It worked. It was one of the biggest medical breakthroughs of the 20th century. We can reliably prevent Rh disease now and it saves lives |
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Jennifer Harrison @GeneticJen · Jan 26 It's been estimated that the prevention has saved around a million lives since it became standard. Think about that, a million people |
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Jennifer Harrison @GeneticJen · Jan 26 How many people can you name that have saved a million lives? And the point of all this: studying butterfly genetics led directly to this |
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Jennifer Harrison @GeneticJen · Jan 26 The very nature of basic research means we don't know exactly what research will lead to something important, but we're lost without it |
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Jennifer Harrison @GeneticJen · Jan 26 I think it's safe to say that studying butterflies is something these people would say is unimportat and a waste of resources |
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Jennifer Harrison @GeneticJen · Jan 26 Climate scientists are wasting money looking at clouds, ice, sea levels, biodiversity, and the air around you. But it's all so so so vital |