Reply re: C. elegans, trash, and taxes

[dchitwood]

Dear Paul Kayne:

Sam Donaldson did a piece on using your tax dollars to fund basic 
research funded by the National Institute of Mental Health.  It aired on 
"Prime Time Live" May 17 at 10:00 EDT.  One of the items focused upon was 
the research of Chris Cherniak.  My impression of the piece was that Sam 
was making a certain congressman appear shortsighted and that Sam was 
supportive of basic research, including that done on "roundworms".  Although 
others may have different a different impression, the producer of the 
piece certainly impressed upon me his supportive for basic research.  

Sam's approach was one of agreeing with the congressman at first, 
laughing at studies of nervous systems in roundworms or song patterns of 
canaries; but the potential of all of this reserach to cure Alzheimer's 
and Parkinson's Diseases, etc., had Sam changing his tune.

I took a keen interest in this segment because the C. elegans footage 
used in the piece was videotaped in my lab, as was some of the footage of 
Chris Cherniak.


David Chitwood