The annual AAAS meeting is coming up in February. The meeting offers a good snapshot of the state of science across the spectrum, but it’s not an academic meeting. So, don’t expect a shower of news about the next best thing.

That said, a paper on “convergence” produced by MIT authors promises a “”https://www.aaas.org/news/releases/2011/0118convergence.shtml?sa_campaign=Internal_Ads/AAAS/AAAS_News/2011-01-14/jump_page">Third Revolution" in biomedicine “that may be as profound as the two life-science revolutions that preceded it: the breakthroughs accompanying the development of molecular and cellular biology, and the sequencing of the human genome, which has made it possible to identify the genetic foundations of many diseases.”

As the MIT report notes, convergence establishes a two-way street in which “fundamentally different conceptual approaches from physical science and engineering are imported into biological research, while life science’s understanding of complex evolutionary systems is reciprocally influencing physical science and engineering.”

Groundbreaking idea? To some, perhaps. One thing is not new — it comes with a call for more funding. Ironically, MIT uses the “Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research” as an example of “how to incorporate convergence into the infrastructure of science. Biologists, engineers, and others in the physical sciences work together in a new building and on the same floors.”

As pointed out earlier, institute patron David Koch – who donated $100 million to the project — is a big supporter of the conservative Tea Party movement. Aren’t those folks adamantly against more government spending? So, will we see new private money flowing into the center when their DC reps cut or freeze the NIH budget? Plug any of the researchers at the Koch Institute into the NIH database and you’ll see that pretty much every researcher there relies on the millions of dollars in NIH and NSF money that flows into the Institute every year.

So, would it be fair to say the patron gives with one hand (his own, which he can control) and takes away with the other – taxpayer money, which we control? Don’t expect to hear any of this discussed at the building’s March dedication ceremony. Academia’s free exchange of ideas tends to end at the development office door.