Other observers wonder whether Star Wars will replace space exploration as the government's principal means for funneling tax dollars into technology. "The role of government is to build technological infrastructures, which should be flexible at the leading edge,' says Jerome Simonoff, a Citicorp vice president who specializes in aerospace investment. He hypothesizes that no one, except maybe the President, believes SDI will actually work. But he says it represents the only consensus on how to underwrite expensive high-tech science.
Our experience suggests that the scientific community is not yet willing to evaluate and remedy its shortcomings. Scientific research is expensive, and the public pays for most of it, particularly in the health sciences, where a defective article can have particularly destructive consequences. Scientists have an obligation to make sure that published research is actually what it claims to be. Scientists should find out how common professional misconduct really is Then ...
