PROFESSOR
RITA
COLWELL
T
he earthquake struck Haiti at 4:53 p.m. on Jan. 12, 2010. More than three years later, the number of people sickened in its devastating aftermath is still unknown, with estimates as high as 500,000. What we do know is that in late October 2010, cholera broke out in Haiti. In its early weeks, it claimed lives at a rate of 50 a day. To determine what caused such an epidemic, I led a team of researchers that found a cholera strain in Haiti, one that very likely existed naturally and contributed to this outbreak. Our findings, published in the Proceed-
ings of the National Academy of Sciences, sparked controversy in some quarters because they challenged the prevailing theory that cholera was brought to Haiti by Nepalese soldiers on a peacekeeping mission. The idea that cholera may have been endemic to the island, where cholera had not been reported for many years, was contrary to that conclusion. In interviews with media from all over the world, I stated that we did not challenge those who have claimed the Nepal strain was the single cause of the cholera epidemic. We simply presented our scientific data. As scientists, we should stand fearlessly behind our work and let the
implications of the data play themselves out, however strong the opposition. This process has stood the test of time in all the research discoveries or new paradigms of history. The so-called miasma (“bad air”) theory was used to explain cholera outbreaks until scientists, including Louis Pasteur and Robert Koch, in the late 19th century developed the germ theory to explain infectious diseases. Though universally accepted (and proven) that a bacterium is the cause of cholera, it was a contentious idea at the time. When British naturalist Charles Darwin developed the theory of evolution in 1859, his ideas were also roundly dismissed by the scientific establishment. Perhaps the most famous example of persecution of new ideas is Galileo Galilei, a 17th-century Italian physicist, mathematician, astronomer and philosopher. He championed heliocentrism, the theory that states the Earth and planets revolve around the Sun (not the other way around). Galileo was ordered to Rome to stand trial and was found guilty of heresy. He was confined to house arrest for the rest of his life. These examples illustrate a basic point, perhaps the true essence of scientific research. A scientist, no matter the discipline, must fearlessly follow where the data lead. Fretting over the reception of that data or over the negative consequences risks the validity of that research. The late Fang Lizhi, an internationally respected Chinese astrophysicist, said, “Science begins with doubt. No one’s subjective view starts ahead of anyone else’s in the pursuit of objective truth.” History is replete with examples of scientists who challenged conventions, who questioned the scientific establishment, who were not afraid in their pursuit of truth. They share a very important trait: They were fearless. RITA COLWELL is president of CosmosID,
senior advisor and chairman emeritus of Canon U.S. Life Sciences, and distinguished university professor at the University of Maryland and Johns Hopkins University's Bloomberg School of Public Health. 30 TERP SPRING 2013
PHOTO BY JOHN T. CONSOLI