So, there are a lot of scientists in the world, and a reasonable number of jolly good ones. Of these, a fair proportion will end up with some untreatable progressive disease such as cancer or Alzheimer's. I've known eight or ten world- class scientists, for instance, who have fallen to cancer of one type or another. Most of them (in fact, all of them now I think about it) worked right up to the end.
Now, somebody once said something about imminent death focussing the mind wonderfully. And, as it happens, laws governing experimentation on oneself are quite lax (at least in the UK, and probably elsewhere).
So, here's the plan. Set up, and fund, the Hail Mary Institute for Biomedical Research. Suitably talented scientists, faced with a bleak prognosis, are given lifetime (hah!) tenure. During this time, they are encouraged to work flat out on finding a cure for what ails them. They cannot, of course, use any other human subjects in their work. They will be focussed like nobody else can be; they will be reckless; there's a good chance they will simply accelerate their own demise; they will document their efforts. But they will spend their last months doing what they love and, once in a few hundred times, they may come up with something that works and that nobody else was crazy enough to try.-- MaxwellBuchanan, Jan 27 2020 Hachimaki https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hachimaki" ... worn as a symbol of effort or courage by the wearer ... " [8th of 7, Jan 27 2020] "Explaining the missing documents" https://www.imdb.co...haracters/nm0001329Second quote ... [8th of 7, Jan 29 2020] Mission Statement http://www.google.c...c=c22u53WTPmyXdM%3AProphetic ... [8th of 7, Jan 29 2020] Do they get to wear a Hachimaki too ?-- 8th of 7, Jan 27 2020 You try and stop 'em.-- MaxwellBuchanan, Jan 27 2020 A complete, fully-stocked laboratory, tinkering with biologic heroic measures to save myself at 'end of life', when all hope is lost, in a race against time--what a way to go! Sign me up!
(Can one be disqualified after a lifetime spent biohacking? Asking for a friend.)-- Sgt Teacup, Jan 28 2020 This idea has been awarded my second most crispy, steamy and buttery hot bun.-- Voice, Jan 28 2020 What are you trying to say [MB]? Everything okay? Want me to put in a good word for you with the Big-Guy? I can do that you know. He figures you're pretty cool so it shouldn't be a hard sell.-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, Jan 28 2020 [+] I like the more risk part.-- wjt, Jan 28 2020 //Want me to put in a good word for you with the Big-Guy?// All's well. But tell the BG he still owes me a fiver.-- MaxwellBuchanan, Jan 28 2020 This is my plan even if the ailment in question is well outside my field of study. Yes, I already signed up for cryonic freezing. No, I can't realistically expect it to work.-- sninctown, Jan 29 2020 "I know, great news isn't it? 5 clean scans, looks like a total cure...... my lab books... ah, there was a freezer defrost problem, and the water damage is remarkably complete... along with the frozen samples sadly. Still, should my most recent application be funded, I'm sure I can get the critical stuff down from memory, or even find that back-up"-- bs0u0155, Jan 29 2020 HAH !
<link>-- 8th of 7, Jan 29 2020 <link> I would say an example of creative genius if it weren't just an abbreviated version of the actual truth.
I suspect most science from the last, say, 3 decades is recorded in a ludicrously vulnerable manner. The stability of DVD-R disks selected by price and stored on window ledges is questionable at best. It's been years since I saw a zip drive, longer for a 5.25" disk drive and then there's data saved in proprietary formats with software written for companies that no longer exist. Paper is no better, 10yo color graphs are all various shades of red-yellow - on a background of yellow paper.-- bs0u0155, Jan 29 2020 // a ludicrously vulnerable manner. //
In a fairly random selection of two-kilo lumps of greyish-pink jelly, attached to absurdly failure-prone, fragile and inefficient support systems ?-- 8th of 7, Jan 29 2020 Jelly is comprised structurally of non-cellular collagen, while the brain is supported by cell-based glial cells. Therefore my brain is in no part made of jelly.-- Voice, Jan 30 2020 No ? Just wait until we've finished "re-educating" [bungston] and [bs] ... we will demonstrate that your brain is indeed jelly.
Well, by the time we get it out of its container to show it to everyone, it will be. Post hoc, ergo propter hoc.-- 8th of 7, Jan 30 2020 I thought you didn't trust propter-hocs?-- MaxwellBuchanan, Jan 30 2020 We certainly don't, which proves the point rather neatly, doesn't it ?-- 8th of 7, Jan 30 2020 Uh...-- MaxwellBuchanan, Jan 30 2020 If you're indecisive, you've only got yourself to blame. Or then again, perhaps not. You don't have to be decisive at all, unless you want to be, in which case you can be, unless of course you choose otherwise. Which might or might not be your decision.-- 8th of 7, Jan 30 2020 The problem is that I can never be sure if what you say you thought you said is actually what you believed you said you thought you said.-- MaxwellBuchanan, Jan 30 2020 //recorded in a ludicrously vulnerable manner//
Needs a JDLinearBC driver to get it all backed up to clay tablets.-- pertinax, Jan 31 2020 I posted something similar to this.-- nineteenthly, Feb 01 2020 Max - Is that why you you've been chomping down all that Monsanto GM toxic muck? Ha-- xenzag, Feb 01 2020 At times I feel I've lived my life by "Heal Thyself" precepts. That is to say, I've passed a lot of false alarms and pursued the self-enlightenment in each for what it was worth. I guess I'm stronger thereby, since the scares haven't killed me yet.-- reensure, Feb 10 2020 //Therefore my brain is in no part made of jelly//
Thou, sir, art a braggart-- shapu, Feb 10 2020 random, halfbakery