You Won’t Get Burned At the Stake

Not like you would have been in times past; at least in most parts of the world. Not for under­tak­ing sci­en­tific research that is not approved by the estab­lished powers.

Most sci­en­tific research requires spon­sor­ship. In today’s world, only a very, very lim­ited seg­ment of the­o­ret­i­cal research can be exe­cuted with­out sig­nif­i­cant finan­cial sup­port. Only a very few indi­vid­u­als posses the inde­pen­dent per­sonal wealth to fully sup­port them­selves while under­tak­ing an exten­sive research activ­ity. Few of us really need as much as we might think to live, but we do need basic human sup­port and that does cost.

The vast major­ity of sci­en­tific research under­taken today requires very major finan­cial sup­port. This sup­port comes almost exclu­sively from one of three sources; gov­ern­ment, indus­try or endowed pri­vate research institutions.

Any of these three sources of fund­ing have a trait which has the poten­tial to per­vert the sci­ence per­formed under its fund­ing. Each insti­tu­tion has inter­ests other than the objec­tive and unbi­ased exe­cu­tion of the sci­en­tific research. When the find­ings of a research activ­ity run counter to the objec­tives of the fund­ing insti­tu­tion, a moral con­flict is cre­ated that threat­ens the very basis upon which good sci­ence must be per­formed. Does the researcher fully report their find­ings and risk con­flict with their spon­sor or does the researcher sup­press, or even worse, fal­sify their results?

There was a time when the researcher risked being burned at the stake for pub­lish­ing in dis­agree­ment with their spon­sor. Today all the researcher risks is ter­mi­na­tion of their fund­ing. Per­haps not death, but death of their research.

Is Still Here