From NPR Morning Edition, a great summary of our current biomedical research crisis.

The root cause is plain, and it’s not just about a current shortage in funding: The NIH budget shot steadily upward from 1998 to 2003. That spawned great jubilation in biomedicine and a gold-rush mentality. But it didn’t last. Since 2004, the NIH budget has decreased by more than 20 percent. 

Many scientists hold out hope for a simple solution: more money. But the current U.S. Congress has no appetite to spend more — even on health research that has broad, bipartisan public support.

So a group of leading scientists is trying to figure out how to repair the hobbled biomedical enterprise without a cash infusion.