Laboratory managers like to attend to positive subjects (such as the emergence of new products and processes) while their research colleagues tend to focus on the laboratory bench. But it is becoming clear that fraud, extortion and other crimes are with us on such a large scale that advance preparation is necessary; mere tactical responses are no longer sufficient. For this reason, scientists, engineers and laboratory managers alike must learn to adapt to a new age in which security is of paramount importance.
First, it is not only criminals in pursuit of personal gain who disrupt, kidnap or extort. There are also dissident political minorities who break the law in support of causes (such as those of the rights of ethnic minorities or of women) that ultimately succeed. A democracy demands both that the majority opinion be upheld and that violence in support of these minority opinions be restrained. At...
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