
Two scientists meeting on a bus leads to discovery in the lab - dnetesn
http://www.hhmi.org/bulletin/spring-2015/merging-minds-and-molecules
======
qCOVET
I think Universities need to actively promote common spaces where researchers
and graduate students from different faculties could meet and talk about
different ideas.

These common and fertile space would allow for collision of ideas to take
place and help new innovations emerge.

Much like the english tea houses of the renaissance, Universities need these
spaces to help transform ideas and research work into commercial success
stories that would have a global and positive impact on humanity.

Author Steven Johnson: 'Where good ideas come from' \-
[http://www.ted.com/talks/steven_johnson_where_good_ideas_com...](http://www.ted.com/talks/steven_johnson_where_good_ideas_come_from?language=en)

Note: For the sake of innovation, I very much support Beer Gardens and I hope
it gets funded centrally in every University ~_~

~~~
shas3
Few places in the world are as poor in terms of lack of public spaces as the
US. Roadside cafes, town squares, etc. are the norm in Europe. In the US, very
few cities have such features. They are increasingly common these days in the
form of 'suburban town squares', but they are almost always in some shopping
mall or similar commercial enterprise, rather than in truly public spaces. To
further complicate matters, even in college towns, faculty and researchers
prefer driving to work than riding public transport. Nowhere is this more
common than in the American Midwest, with its combination of vast sprawls and
severe winters.

~~~
gohrt
> but they are almost always in some shopping mall or similar commercial
> enterprise, rather than in truly public spaces.

why would that matter at all?

~~~
superuser2
Malls will throw you out if you clearly have no intent of buying anything.

~~~
chrismcb
Needs citation.

------
digi_owl
Not sure where i read it, but it kinda reminds me of how a math professor
walked past a room where a presentation on some problem (not sure if it was
biology, physics, or something else) was held.

One glance at the formula on display, and he recognized it as something that
had long been solved in mathematics.

------
Thriptic
I've often thought about how difficult it is to find people with the
information and insight you need in universities / cities. I'm not even
talking about people who can provide profound insight, which is more
complicated, merely someone with domain expertise. Generally speaking, I
rarely know what most people in my lab are working on, let alone what people
in other labs on the same floor have expertise in. This service may already
exist, but it would be interesting if there was a utility which allowed you to
enter you research interests and expertise / have your published papers be
parsed and have that information extracted from them; prompt you to enter what
skill sets you had questions about or problems you were looking to solve; and
have you matched with someone looking for complementary skills.

~~~
a_bonobo
This is why I enjoy going to random talks advertised by your department/other
departments - you are exposed to ideas outside of your specialization, you
have a chance to meet other researchers etc. Sadly most universities (in my
experience) don't have a central newsletter for these, usually only for
generic talks that are more designed around a "science is interesting!" theme
for the public layman.

Some people at the the University of Queensland used to run the COMBIO
seminars, small seminars with sponsored pizza & beers afterwards. Two
scientists would present anything related to computational biology, didn't
matter what exactly, or what their specialization was. These were a great
starting point for networking.

If you're working at a university and would like to see something similar I
strongly suggest you set it up yourself, it's a lot of unpaid work but "if you
build it, they will come".

------
dkural
It's a feel good story but the path do a drug is anything but linear like this
portrays. The vast majority of compounds, even when there is a molecule
targeting it; fail in Phase I, II, or III trials; or fail to improve upon
existing therapies. The truth is, there are about ~5K genes in yeast, and
about ~8K yeast geneticists. A lot of stuff that works in the lab doesn't work
on actual people or the drug has side effects due to lack of specificity.
Selection bias will make a bunch of them look like they're ahead of the curve.
A bit like star mutual fund managers.

------
jldugger
> palbociclib

That looks an awful lot like an anagram of placibo...

------
lobo_tuerto
I think a better title would be:

"Two scientists meeting on a bus leads to discovery in the lab of a
breakthrough cancer drug"

------
wfunction
The title is so bad. I thought one of the scientists pointed out the other one
had cancer...

~~~
qCOVET
That is what I thought ... ahah

