Science and Springsteen.
(As aired on All Things Considered, October 28, 2002)

 

JOHN YDSTIE, host:

Scientific research in the US is dependent on scientists from other countries. At the National Institutes of Health, for example, 63 percent of the post-doctoral fellows are not US citizens. Commentator Joe Wright spent most of the last year working in a lab at the NIH.

JOE WRIGHT:

My friend T.K. got her PhD in India, but after she finished her doctorate, she wanted to push herself as a scientist. In the field of science she was interested in, that meant leaving not only her city, but her country. She ended up as a post-doctoral fellow in an immunology lab where I was a student. T.K. and I became friends during my first summer in the lab. She and I argued about philosophy and politics while our centrifuges were spinning late at night, and we often talked about the United States and India and what we liked about our home countries and what we didn't.

That's actually a frequent topic among scientists, I think. Science is an international language and most high-level laboratories are international places. Our lab wasn't a large one, but in addition to some Americans, last year's crew included T.K. and people who'd grown up in Haiti, Turkey, Spain, Germany, Iran, Italy, Canada and Korea. I might find one post-doc teaching another how to use the flow cytometer, all in Turkish. Sometimes a nice-sounding older woman called, speaking Italian. I soon learned that whatever she was saying meant that she was hoping to talk to her scientist daughter.

This summer, when Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band started their tour, T.K. decided she had to go see Bruce. Of course, tickets sold out, so T.K. had to win tickets from the classic rock radio station she always listens to. When you heard two Bruce Springsteen songs in a row, you could call in to win. She put her radio by her microscope and another little radio by her desk, so wherever she was working she'd know when it was time to dial.

I always love these moments when T.K. gets wrapped up in Americana. Recently, she startled me with a pitch-perfect imitation of the Budweiser `Whassup?' I make no secret of my hope that she'll eventually become an American citizen. And if she does, it'll be a win for our team.

For now, though, I think she's often as troubled by the United States as she is seduced by it. She told me she hated the Fourth of July and I asked her why. `All the barbecues,' she said. `Think of all those cows.' And for all that talk of going it alone, it's not always easy to be away from her family. And if I think about it objectively, much as I want her to stay here, I remember that India needs her expertise.

When I talk to scientists from other countries, some want to return home more than others. Those who are inclined to stay here give a variety of reasons. Some talk about shortages in funding and difficulties in getting supplies and equipment, others don't like the hierarchies of science in their home countries. As for T.K. she's just focusing on getting her current research wrapped up and published. Until then, she won't know what's next.

But whatever the details of why people stay, a big part of the reason scientists come is that the United States invests more in basic biomedical research than any other country. That's opened up more fellowships for younger scientists than there are younger American scientists to fill them. As long as that's true, we'll keep being blessed by people like T.K.; people from all over the world, working in labs late at night, taking calls from Mama, dialing in when they hear two Bruce songs in a row, and making new discoveries that will revolutionize science.

copyright 2002 joe wright
broadcast and transcript, copyright 2002 national public radio