Source: Taipei Times
Wire Service: AFP
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2005/10/21/2003276707
On October 21, 2005 Agence France-Presse reported, "US neurologists have raised objections to plans for exiled Tibetan leader the Dalai Lama to open their annual convention, saying that a non-scientist has no place lecturing them about science.
More than 700 members of the Society for Neuroscience petitioned the organization to rescind its invitation to the Buddhist leader to give the inaugural lecture at their conference in Washington next month.
'What I object to is having a non-scientist address a scientific community about science,' said Nancy Hayes, a neurobiologist at the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in New Jersey.
Some 30,000 scientists from around the world are expected to attend the Neuroscience 2005 conference, where more than 17,000 neurology-related research presentations and over 50 symposia are scheduled, according to the society.
The Dalai Lama is to address the group on the neuroscience of meditation, based on the work of US researchers looking to see whether the intense meditation practiced by Buddhist monks can generate positive emotions."