Pesky Regulations

James Watson was at University College Cork in Ireland last week to give the inaugural talk at the Cork cancer research center, reports The Guardian's Science Blog. During his lecture, he lamented the slow progress toward a cure for cancer. "We should try and cure cancer now, not 10 to 20 years from now," Watson said. "It would be sort of irresponsible to all those people who would die of cancer if we don't try and do it now." In addition, the Science Blog reports that Watson called for a relaxing of clinical trial regulations. "We're terribly held back on clinical tests by regulations which say that no one should die unnecessarily during trials; but they are going to die anyway unless we do something radical," he said. "I think the ethics committees are out of control and that it should be put back in the hands of the doctors."