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Russia reviving science + Coronavirus is exposing America's contempt for old age

#1
C C Offline
Russia aims to revive science after era of stagnation (Putin community)
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-00753-7

EXCERPT: . . . Physicist Denis Kurlov isn’t the only scientist sensing change in Russia. After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, Russia’s economy plummeted and tens of thousands of scientists moved abroad or abandoned their careers. The country hasn’t managed to recover its former levels of science funding (after adjusting for inflation, see ‘Spending’) and its researcher workforce has fallen by one-third, although it remains the world’s fifth-largest. But over the past decade, Russian President Vladimir Putin has been promising to reform his country’s languishing science system to make it more competitive and attractive to foreign talent.

In 2018, Putin approved a national research strategy that stretches to 2024. It calls for more money, extra support for early-career scientists, and some 900 new laboratories, including at least 15 world-class research centres with a focus on mathematics, genomics, materials research and robotics. Last year, the government completed a sweeping evaluation of scientific performance at its universities and institutes; it has vowed to modernize equipment in the 300 institutes that made the top quartile. And it says it wants to strengthen previously neglected areas, including climate and environmental research (see ‘Russia’s climate-science ambitions’).

The reality on the ground is mixed. There are patches of promise in some research sectors, but much of Russia’s science remains poorly funded and little-cited; this year, hundreds of Russian-language papers have been retracted because of plagiarism. Researchers still complain about bureaucracy and political interference, and some Russians working abroad say they couldn’t contemplate returning to a country that cannot guarantee its scientists safety and freedom of expression. “I would not want to live and do science in a country where there is continuing government repression of civil society,” says Fyodor Kondrashov, a biologist at the Institute of Science and Technology Austria in Klosterneuburg.

But many scientists in Russia do feel the culture is changing for the better, says polymer physicist Alexei Khokhlov, who is a vice-president of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS) in Moscow. Academic salaries have risen, and merit-based competition is replacing academic networks built on insider relationships, he says. “Many research positions in Russia were in the past occupied by people who produced little, if any, real science. Now institutes must think about hiring people who will attract grants and write good papers.” (MORE - details)



Coronavirus is exposing America's contempt for old age (EDBM community)
https://theweek.com/articles/903081/coro...pt-old-age

EXCERPT: . . . the flippancy this woman will no doubt rue having exhibited on camera is not only unfortunate for her personal health. She may survive a coronavirus infection unscathed but pass it on to someone who cannot. There is a selfishness and unconcern for the elderly in the refusal of the young to take this pandemic seriously. It evinces an ugly disrespect for old age which the coronavirus has revealed anew.

Lest it seem unjust to diagnose a whole society on the strength of a single person's comment, I grant that her attitude is not universal. At this level, it's probably a minority perspective, and displays like this have been balanced by widespread calls to protect the elderly.

But neither is she an outlier. Similar St. Patrick's Day partying continued in cities including Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, Nashville, New Orleans, Seattle, and Washington. A Cincinnati megachurch pastor named Brian Tome came under criticism for a video to congregants in which he swigged Corona beer and suggested young people have no reason to worry. "I'm not saying people aren't dying, but they tend to be very old people," Tome said. "You're going to be okay." Beaches in Florida, a state with a large population of retirees, have been swarmed with spring breakers who went ahead with their vacations despite the pandemic. The same was true of South Padre Island in Texas until the city on Monday declared a state of emergency and banned large gatherings. "We tell everybody: 'Wash your hands, don't stand too close to each other, wear condoms' — you know, the usual," said Clayton Brashear, a local business owner. "But these kids don't listen."

To be fair to "these kids," their disregard for the elderly is not really their own invention. It did not appear in a cultural vacuum. Western cultures in general and American culture in particular tend to prize youth over age, vigor over wisdom. We have lost the traditions of reliance on the experience of elders which other cultures have preserved. We're comparatively willing to outsource care of our parents and grandparents to professionals — multigenerational households are making a comeback because of economic pressures and demographic changes, not because the white majority (which remains least likely to have this living arrangement) suddenly decided it's important to keep your elders around.

A curious corollary of this cultural distaste for old age is the elderly's failure to recognize it in themselves and take precautions accordingly... (MORE - details)
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#2
Zinjanthropos Offline
Yes I’m a boomer but just thinking that for the most part it’s the other way around when wars are fought. At least couple generations of youth destroyed only last century.
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