The Scientist Staff | Dec 11, 1988 | 3 min read
As university after university joined the patent chase, one academic institution stood out as a bulwark of ethical resolve—that is, until now. The university was Harvard, and even though the school began licensing inventions more than a decade ago, it earned its reputation as a bastion of purity because of landmark decision in 1981. At issue then was a controversial proposal involving molecular biologist Mark Ptashne, whose advances in recombinant DNA techniques were giving rise to new t