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Science for Sale Science for Sale The Perils, Rewards, and Delusions of Campus Capitalism Daniel S. Greenberg The University of Chicago Press :: Chicago and London Daniel S. Greenberg is a journalist who has written extensively on science and health politics. He is the author of Science, Money, and Politics: Political Triumph and Ethical Erosion and The Politics of Pure Science. The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 60637 The University of Chicago Press, Ltd., London © 2007 by Daniel S. Greenberg All rights reserved. Published 2007 Printed in the United States of America 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 09 08 07 isbn-13: 978-0-226-30625-4 isbn-10: 0-226-30625-9 12345 (cloth) (cloth) Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Greenberg, Daniel S., 1931– Science for sale: the perils, rewards, and delusions of campus capitalism / Daniel S. Greenberg. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. isbn-13: 978-0-226-30625-4 (alk. paper) isbn-10: 0-226-30625-9 (alk. paper) 1. Research—United States—Finance. 2. Universities and colleges— United States. 3. Research institutes—Economic aspects—United States. 4. Science—Economic aspects—United States. 5. Federal aid to research—United States. I. Title. q180.55.f5g74 2007 500.71⬘1—dc22 2006102639 ⬁ The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements 䊊 of the American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ansi z39.48-1992. Contents A Background Note and Acknowledgments Introduction vii 1 Part One: The Setting and the System 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Money for Science: Never Enough Elusive Industrial Angels Commercialize! It’s the Law Changing Attitudes The Price of Profits Confl icts and Interests A New Regime 11 38 51 82 101 127 147 Part Two: As Seen from the Inside—Six Conversations 8 9 10 11 12 13 Success and Remorse A Congenial Partnership When the Rules Change in Midstream Profits and Principles Generations Apart The Journals Revolt 181 195 205 220 233 243 vi CONTENTS Part Three: Fixing the System 14 What’s Right and Wrong, and How to Make It Better 257 Epilogue: A Parable for Our Time List of Abbreviations Notes Index 286 295 297 313 A Background Note and Acknowledgments This book draws on a career in science journalism that began in 1961, when I joined the staff of Science. Since then I have been continuously steeped and educated in the ways of science through innumerable interviews, hearings, briefi ngs, conferences and meetings, and visits to research centers. During a decade at Science, I served as reporter, news editor, and London-based European correspondent. Along the way, I held an appointment as a research fellow in the Department of History of Science at Johns Hopkins University while writing my fi rst book, The Politics of Pure Science, fi rst published in 1967 (new edition in 1999 by the University of Chicago Press). In 1971 I founded Science & Government Report, an internationally circulated newsletter, which I edited and published for over twenty-five years. I’ve also written for other publications, including the New England Journal of Medicine, Nature, New Scientist, the Economist, and the Lancet. And for many years, I wrote an op-ed column on science and health politics that appeared in the Washington Post and other newspapers. My second book—Science, Money, and Politics: Political Triumph and Ethical Erosion (University of Chicago Press, 2001)—was written while holding an appointment at Johns Hopkins as a visiting scholar in the Department of History of Science, Medicine, and Technology. A BACKGROUND NOTE AND ACKNOWLEDGMENTS viii In focusing on the present book, I have benefited from a great deal of assistance. The Br