Fellow members, my term as President finishes this month. It has been abusy year and I appreciate the support that I have received frommembers and fellow Directors. Martin Playne suggested that I shouldwrite some hard-hitting, fearless piece as this is my last editorial.Well I am not sure. Maybe we are all weary of talk aboutinfrastructure, basic research funding, government incentives, venturecapital funds and so on. We seem to be either talking about theindustry revving up or complaining about the lack of governmentsupport. We applaud every IPO, every successful company listing andevery new strategic venture from Canberra. But we don't hear so muchabout the plight of scientists and the fact that many are doing itpretty tough. The science career path in Australia has always beenrisky. Ask any scientist if they can name a colleague earning over$100K - chances are they can't, apart from the odd vice-chancellor, ifthey happen to work in a university. Ask if they can name someone inbusiness and most will have no difficulty naming half a dozen. Ask acolleague if they personally know an Australian working in the US, orif they know of a friend, relation, or colleague recently maderedundant and you'll get a yes...
