Freedom and fun, key to science: Gajdusek

JAKARTA (JP): A visiting Nobel laureate yesterday reminded researchers of the two essentials to boosting science -- freedom and fun.

"A researcher would rather be given an empty warehouse, than a laboratory based on someone else's idea," American Daniel Carleton Gajdusek, 1976 Nobel prize winner in Physiology and Medicine, said in a speech before the National Research Council.

A strong sense of fun in seeking the unknown guarantees "a great career in science," Gajdusek said.

He said that it pays for any country to invest in scientists. "It is not all that expensive to invest in young people, as the ones most willing to be scientists will not be those looking for very large salaries," he said.

Gajdusek was invited to speak as part of the Council's 10th anniversary.

The council announced on Monday the eight winners, out of 410 entries, of the national research contest.

Gajdusek's address on boosting scientists hit home, as researchers said freedom is a luxury where essentials, even journals and research time, are lacking.

The biotechnology inter-university center at the Bogor Institute of Agriculture, for instance, has not subscribed to a single journal for a long time, until funds were recently obtained from the research fellowship of the Research Council.

"It's even hard to find what you need at the library of the Indonesian Science Institute although the catalog lists all the titles," said Antonious Suwanto, who won this year's research selection in the biotechnology category.

Gajdusek stressed that research agencies must allocate part of their budget for studies in basic science and not simply spend them all on applied science.

Coordinator of the National Research Council, Samaun Samadikun, said that from 4,500 entries in this year's selection, almost all were in the fields of applied science and new technology.

Only few were in basic sciences and practical, production technology, he said. "This was surprising," Samaun said.

Gajdusek, a 71-year-old pediatrician and neurologist, was awarded the Noble prize mainly for his studies in the field of child growth and development and disease patterns.

The Research Council requested his advice on fostering research, to which he responded he had never been an administrator, and that good scientists must never be asked to hold administrative positions.

Among some of the winners of the research contest were the teams under Umar Anggara Jenie in medical technology, Djarot Sasongko Hami Seno in biotechnology for husbandry and Indarto Katim in process technology.

Hadi Prasetyo from the Ministry of Mining and Energy won the geology category, Ihsan Hariadi from the Bandung Institute of Technology in microelectronics and Achiar Oemry from the Indonesian Science Institute won in the development of new material. Riwanto Tirtosudarmo, also of the Institute, was selected for the social sciences category. (anr)