The New Scientist interviews Margaret Atwood about her new book Oryx and Crake (about “blue penises and plague, ‘pigoons’ harvested for organs and armed guards at the gates of privileged scientists”). Atwood's comment on recent science:

There is no more pure science, but if you've looked at a university recently you know that the people who get the grants are the people that large corporations think might be doing something useful for them. What you have mostly is people thieving from graduate students, as it were. The students do the work, the guy puts his name on it and collects the rewards.

p. s.: Was natürlich nicht so allgemein zutrifft. Aber neulich habe ich gelesen (wo blos?), daß Urey seinem Studenten Miller für die berühmte Arbeit über die Ursuppe empfahl, als einziger Autor zu publizieren. Hat man sowas jemals wieder gehört?