"Kim Stanley Robinson - Forty Signs of Rain" - читать интересную книгу автора (Robinson Kim Stanley)

тАЬHmm.тАЭ People read past the abstract.

тАЬWhat are you thinking?тАЭ Frank said after a while. тАЬI see Habib has given it a тАШGood,тАЩ Stuart a тАШFair,тАЩ
and Alice a тАШVery Good.тАЩтАЭ

This represented the middle range of their scale, which ran Poor, Fair, Good, Very Good, and Excellent.

Habib replied first. тАЬIтАЩm not so sure that you can get these biochips to array in neural nets. I saw Inouye
try something like that at MIT, and they got stuck at the level of chip viability.тАЭ

тАЬHmm.тАЭ

The others chimed in with questions and opinions. At the end of fifteen minutes, Frank stopped the
discussion and asked them to mark their final judgments in the two categories they used:intellectual merit
andbroader impacts.
Frank summed up the responses. тАЬFour тАШGoods,тАЩ two тАШVery GoodsтАЩ and a тАШFair.тАЩ Okay, letтАЩs move on.
But tell you what, IтАЩm going to start the big board right now.тАЭ

He had a whiteboard in the corner next to him, and a pile of Post-it pads on the table. He drew three
zones on the whiteboard with marker, and wrote at the top тАЬFund,тАЭ тАЬFund If Possible,тАЭ and тАЬDonтАЩt
Fund.тАЭ

тАЬIтАЩll put this one in the тАШFund If PossibleтАЩ column for now, although naturally it may get bumped.тАЭ He
stuck the proposalтАЩs Post-it in the middle zone. тАЬWeтАЩll move these around as the day progresses and we
get a sense of the range.тАЭ

Then they began the next one. тАЬOkay. тАШEfficient Decoherence Control Algorithms for Computing
Genome Construction.тАЩтАЭ

This jacket Frank had assigned to Stuart Thornton.

Thornton started by shaking his head. тАЬThis oneтАЩs gotten two тАШGoodsтАЩ and two тАШFairs,тАЩ and it wasnтАЩt
very impressive to me either. It may be a candidate for limited discussion. It doesnтАЩt really exhibit a grasp
of the difficulties involved with codon tampering, and I think it replicates the work being done in Seattle
by JohnsonтАЩs lab. The applicant seems to have been too busy with the broader impacts component to
fully acquaint himself with the literature. Besides which, it wonтАЩt work.тАЭ

People laughed shortly at this extra measure of disdain, which was palpable, and to those who didnтАЩt
know Thornton, a little surprising. But Frank had seen Stuart Thornton on panels before. He was the
kind of scientist who habitually displayed an ultrapure devotion to the scientific method, in the form of a
relentless skepticism about everything. No study was designed tightly enough, no data were clean
enough. To Frank it seemed obvious that it was really a kind of insecurity, part of the gestural set of a
beta male convincing the group he was tough enough to be an alpha male, and maybe already was.

The problem with these gestures was that in science oneтАЩs intellectual power was like the muscle mass of
anAustralopithecus тАФthere for all to see. You couldnтАЩt fake it. No matter how much you ruffed your fur
or exposed your teeth, in the end your intellectual strength was discernible in what you said and how
insightful it was. Mere skepticism was like baring teeth; anyone could do it. For that reason Thornton was
a bad choice for a panel, because while people could see his attitude and try to discount it, he set a tone