Undoubtedly, the pace of innovation is accelerating. The past few decades have seen more and more inventions hitting the market, but, around the world, scientists have been raising their eyebrows at the direction in which science in general is going. There is very little emphasis being placed on the common good at this point, and research teams doing this are unfortunately the exception, not the rule. The state of affairs can be attributed to creeping corporate and commercial influence on scientific research, as well as the strides for implementing commercial mentalities in the scientific community.As ethicists say, inventions and innovations must not address only the commercial sector, but also everyday life directly. In a new report from the Scientists for Global Responsibility (SGR), by experts Stuart Parkinson and Chris Langley, the influence of five commercial sectors on the scientific community is analyzed. While the negative influence of the pharmaceutical and tobacco industries has been studied before, this investigation is among the first to look at the oil and gas, defense and biotech sectors, which have largely escaped scrutiny, NewScientist reports.
One of the most negative consequences that corporations and industries had on research was forcing scientists to turn their attention fr... (read more)
