Despite the National Institutes of Health's imprimatur, critics from the larger medical community say the center is pork barrel that has produced no significant findings. Wallace Sampson, professor emeritus at Stanford University's School of Medicine, is a longtime critic of alternative medicine. He founded the Scientific Review of Alternative Medicine, a journal that scrutinizes the claims of alternative medicine. Sampson says that the center's research is wasting money on the unethical study of the implausible.

"The methods that [the center] funds are worthless," he charges. "Some are absurd, such as healing by distant prayer or contemplation; some are absurd and already disproved, such as therapeutic touch, chelation therapy, and homeopathy. Many of the trials are so ill conceived the results will be uninterpretable.

"[The center] is an employment agency for pseudoscience and should be defunded quickly, with the funding diverted to valid basic scientific research," says Sampson.

Straus says he "respectfully" disagrees with such critics and says people who are passionately for or against alternative medicine are extremist minorities. "[The center] is not a rogue enterprise," he says. "This is the National Institutes of Health."

To his credit, Straus has earned the respect of his fellow directors at the institutes, many of whom are cosponsoring studies with the center. "I think he's brought scientific discipline to an area that has needed it," says Stephen Katz, director of the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases. Katz is cosponsoring a study of acupuncture as a treatment for arthritis pain.

In fact, Straus says, conquering the controversy has been one of the most gratifying aspects of his job. "I think we've succeeded in changing the dialogue to a great extent," he says, adding that people have gone from asking why the center should exist to asking what results it has produced. "Most people are fascinated by this. They are applauding what we're doing, and they're impatient for evidence."

Armed with a love of research and an open mind, Straus is unfailingly upbeat about the challenges he faces. And he has no worries about tarnishing his reputation as a legitimate scientist.

"My entire career has been about discovery, and I think we as a society can benefit by good and considerable investment in research in any area," he says. "I like what I do-I love coming to work every day. What's to worry about?"