Monday, July 28, 2008 The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com 5 ELAINE MORTON I NATURE CALLS E-MAIL MORTON AT EMORT@UMICH.EDU Speeding up science 6bD Hey check 11i~5hI ou M Steal Michigan Gov't Now! You know a ballot initia- tive is promising major changes when it has an exclamation point in its official name. The Reform Michigan Government Now! proposal (assuming it clears a few ROBERT lingering legal SOAVE hurdles) will be on the ballot this November, bringing with it a storm of political changes. The proposal is being marketed as an antidote for bureaucracy, aim- ingto reduce the size of the Michi- gan Supreme Court and cut salaries for elected 'officials among other changes. Unfortunately, it now appears that the proposal is actu- ally a less-than-honorable attempt by the Democratic Party to control the state government without hav- ing to win costly elections. When I first heard about the pro- posal, it had my support. It seemed like Reform Michigan Government Now! wanted to accomplish a won- derful thing - shrinking the size of the Michigan government. And it was going to accomplish this by taking the issue straight to the peo- ple, via ballot initiative. Choosing other people to run our society for us is never some- thing I advocate, and voting for ballot initiatives seemed to me to be preferable, at least theoretically. They allow the people to make their own choices, in the style of a true direct democracy. They essentially embrace a positive view of human nature: If you believe as I do that the average person is smart enough to know what's best for himself or herself, then it is difficult to deny the allure of ballot initiatives. And then my eyes were opened a little wider to the realities of Reform Michigan Government Now!, and my faith in ballot initia- tives has been shaken ever since. Further inspection of the pro- posal has revealed that it is likelyto be a Democratic ployto grab power in the state government. The dis- covery was made by Jim Vote, an intern working for the Mackinac Center for Public Policy (a libertar- ian think tank) who found a Pow- erPoint presentation on the website of the United Auto Workers Region 1C of Flint. The presentation mar- keted the proposal as, "Changing the rules of politics in Michigan to help Democrats." The bottom line of the presenta- tion is thatthe Democrats will have a hard time winningstate elections in the near future. Their solu- tion is to use this ballot initiative to remove Republicans from the judiciary. This way when matters of legislative redistricting end up before the courts, the Democrats will have solid judicial majorities to rule in their favor, gaining them extra seats without the necessity of winning elections. Under the guise of eliminating bureaucracy, the proposal will cut the two most recent appointees to the Supreme Court - both are Republicans. The Court of Appeals will lose eight judges - most of them appointed by John Engler, a former governor and Republican - if the initiative passes. The cir- cuit courts, however, would gain ten judges to be appointed by the governor, an office currently con- trolled by the Democrats. Slide 11 of the PowerPoint pre- sentation sums up the approach quite nicely: "In 2008, use the pub- lic's very negative mood and high level of discouragement about state government ... to enact a ballot proposal which comprehensively reforms state government, includ- ing changing structural objections to Democratic control of govern- ment in 2012-2021." The truth of the matter seems to be that stacking the court is simply easier than winning elections. It's even less expensive - advancing the proposal only costs $4.9 mil- lion, which is, as the presentation points out, "less than half the cost of trying to beat one incumbent GOP Supreme Court Justice." It's a shamethat the ballotinitia- tive is actually so crooked because some of its apparent goals are very positive. As millions of people in the state have suffered job loss and salary cuts because of our dis- mal economy, it is only fair for our elected officials to share the pain. But the ballot initiative has only been padded with these salary cuts in order to make the proposal more appealingto voters - in hopes that they will gloss over the parts about removing "structural objections to Democratic control." Betrayed by ballot initiatives. Reform Michigan Government Now! has severely diminished my affinity for ballot initiatives. In order for them to work, their lan- guage must match their content. But the extent to which this ballot initiative was able to conceal its dishonorable intentions has raised serious doubts in me as to whether any ballot initiative can achieve such clear language. Robert Soave is a summer associate editorial page editor. He can be reached at rsoave@umich.edu. When you're on your cell phone, the last thing you're probably talking about is how much electromag- netic radiation is being emit- ted into your noggin by your little electric _ blue Razr. TOM Well, it might MICHNIACKI be if you were talking to Dr. Ronald B. Herberman, director of the University of Pittsburgh Can- cer Institute. According to MSNBC, he is so concerned that cell phones may cause cancer that he sent out a warning last week to his employees to limit their use of cell phones. But his recommendation contradicts already-published studies showing that there is no link between cell phone use and cancer. Interestingly, he's basing his opinion on unpublished data. The results of the study won't be avail- able for a while, but he believes that science is acting too slowly. Hearing about Dr. Herberman's claim that science is sluggish real- ly got me thinking: What makes research so time-consuming? And is this lack of quick results costing people their lives? Studies are oftenlengthybecause of the huge amount of bureaucratic hoop-jumping facing researchers. Laboratories are often just as full of paperwork as they are of Bun- sen burners. Stacks of forms must be submitted to verify the ethical nature of an experimental protocol and to obtain grants. Big bureaucracy isn't the only reason for the dilatory pace at which experimental results are obtained. Having previously worked in a neuroscience lab, I can tell you that many research- ers (including myself) are perfec- tionists. Every minute detail of an experiment must be performed without error. To be fair, that microscopic attention to detail is valuable - perfectionism breeds slow science, but it also creates scientific valid- ity. When one shows extra care, the data and results are much more likely to be accurate. A tiny mis- step could ruin months of research or put individuals in harm's way. But without a doubt, right now the field takes this diligence to the extreme. In the depths of scientific exploration, researchers often lose sight of the ultimate goal of sci- ence: to make timely discoveries that will benefit humanity. Experimentation must be exact to ensure accuracy, but it must also be performed with some urgen- cy. Scientists should realize that swiftly releasing data is just as much a priority as obtaining valid information. The balance of importance in the scientific world right now is far too skewed towards exactness. Tipping this balance may give the public valuable knowledge just in time to save lives. I don't know about you, but saving lives sounds like a pretty good idea to me. The perfectionism that is per- vasive in the scientific community also needs to be dealt with. Striv- ing for an errorless experiment is a good thing, but attempting a pro- cedure repeatedly when it has no chance of working isn't. Quicker research could save lives. A quest for perfection also means that a researcher will spend far too much time trying to discov- er and comprehend an experimen- tal element. Attempting to uncover every tiny detail of the biological mechanism in microscopic detail linking cell phone use to cancer is important work. But holding up the publishing of important find- ings for this reason loses sight of the bigger picture. There is no shame in releasing a study early, even if you do not thor- oughly understand all outcomes of the research - further studies can be conducted after initial results are brought to light. The impor- tance of the research will not be diminished; in fact, it may be ele- vated if its results save lives. It's interesting that science is one of the few things in our world today that hasn't become high- paced. Research needs to catch up to the fast tempo of the society we now live in. Slow scientific experi- mentation, relaxing Sunday after- noons and using home phones are now things of the past. Well, maybe not using home phones. Thanks for giving us a warning, Dr. Herber- man. Tom Michniacki can be reached at tmich@umich.edu.