Already the poster child for how a major biomedical research facility can become a patronage playground for political hacks, the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey is the gift that keeps on giving. The latest report from Newark's Star-Ledger newspaper details, among other fiscal tragedies, a $21 million bioterrorism lab approved in 2003 that remains unbuilt and a nine-story, $110 million cancer center that is mostly empty because no one thought to provide any operating funds.
With research funding stagnant and post-docs twisting in the wind it is all the more excruciating to witness this political farce. We have to laugh to keep from crying.