Hired brains:
There is now a web site scienceexchange.com (Research for Hire, NATURE vol. 476 no. 7361 August 25, 2011 page 377) where you can post a research project you would like done and others can come bid on how much they could do it for. Assuming that there is empty lab space anywhere and that there are also languishing projects it is obviously a win-win idea. The one with the research need gets to choose the cheapest place to outsource and the one with idle resources gets income to keep the team and equipment ticking.
When I checked today, I did not see that any project related to fertility has actually being pursued by any of their clients. But it’s a lose-lose situation for me anyway. There aren’t that many feasible experiments that rush to mind, and I couldn’t afford it if there were.
In years gone by I thought that outsourcing was what I wanted to do and there was clearly empty bench space that I surely could have afforded. But the web site was not then available. Oh well.
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