This will be a bit of inside baseball to some of you. But for anyone who followed the progress of the Human Genome Project you may be aware of Francis Collins.
From Genome-Technology Online today I was led to this post about this topic at A Vote for Science on ScienceBlogs.
Francis Collins, the former Director of the National Human Genome Research Institute and lead on the Human Genome Project has just published an opinion piece in the Virginian Pilot endorsing Barack Obama.
From the Vote for Science page you can link to a scan of his article, which appeared in a VIRGINA newspaper that doesn't seem to have it online.
Dr. Collins had recently resigned from his long-held position at the NIH/NHGRI to "pursue other projects" and there was scuttlebutt that it might include something political....As Genome-Technology headlines: Probably a Wise Move for Someone Rumored to Be a Possible Science Advisor.
Some people will remember the day Bill Clinton announced the completion* of the human genome project. Francis Collins was one of the guys standing there.
Francis Collins is a very, very smart guy--but he's also engaging and eager to explain science to non-scientists. He's also a Christian. Here's an image of him signing at the White House Prayer Breakfast.
Although quite non-partisan outwardly in the past, he did get involved in the legislation to protect your genomic information, known as GINA. I diaried about that here and some other folks did as well.
Some people are familiar with his book The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief. I haven't read it, but I appreciate that a Christian scientist can demonstrate that the progress of science does not have to conflict with a Christian perspective.
So I would say this is another example of Obama drawing the right correct people together.
Our future can involve science progress if we get this right in 3 weeks.
*Yeah, I know, not done. Still working on it.
There are a number of Francis Collins videos on YouTube, here's a sample of
Swimming to the Other Side:
Images in public domain:
Lab coat one. http://www.genome.gov/...
Caption: Dr. Francis S. Collins, Former Director of NHGRI.
Credit: Maggie Bartlett, NHGRI
Prayer breakfast one http://www.whitehouse.gov/...
Caption and credit: President George W. Bush and Representative Emanuel Cleaver, D-Mo., listen to Dr. Francis Collins during the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, D.C., Thursday, Feb. 1, 2007. Dr. Collins is the director of the National Human Genome Research Institute. White House photo by Eric Draper