It has become increasingly difficult for people to get reliable and critical scientific information for deciding not only which technologies to adopt, but more importantly, which scientific research to support on the basis of social, ethical, environmental and aesthetic merit. There is a widespread and mistaken assumption that science is neutral or ‘value-free’ and hence beyond reproach, so it is only the technology arising from the science that can be good or bad. Science, as opposed to religious dogma, is not about certainties; it is changing all the time. But, as in any other field of human endeavour, the status quo tends to hang on for far too long, because of vested interests in huge profits, top jobs, big research grants, and personal prestige and reputation. It is incredibly hard for new findings and new ideas to get a hearing in the wider scientific community, or for old, discredited theories to die. And all the more so when the old guard are backed by big corporations that have taken over every sector of society including our most sacred and revered academic institutions. Corporate interests have so thoroughly infiltrated our academic institutions that scientists are no longer free to work for the public good or tell the truth, or do anything new and exciting. Honest scientists who insist on doing so are persecuted and victimised, and by their own academic institutions that should be protecting and defending them.
Source: ISIS Report 09/01/13
http://www.i-sis.org.uk/Liberating_science_and_imagination.php
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