– Pfizer CEO Hank McKinnell, interviewed by CNN's Aaron Brown, Dec. 20, 2004
How will the public remember science in the early 21st century? If 2004 was any guide, science may be recalled as a field in which principles were overtaken by filthy lucre.
It became even more fashionable than ever in 2004 to slam pharmaceutical companies at every turn for allowing the lure of profits to influence how they conducted research and interpreted data. To name a few episodes: the prolonged reexamination of the...
Meet This Issue's Writers
Richard A. Cherwitz says he became a professor because he believed "that academe was one of the few environments in which change is governed by the rigor of ideas rather than political whim." But he soon found that universities are quite resistant to change. That's led him to urge his colleagues to step out of the seclusion of their ivory towers and become engaged in society – a project he discusses in this issue's
When he's not studying "The Magnificent Seven," the seven-helical G protein-coupled receptors (
Edward R. Burns learned about intellectual property the hard way when, as he puts it, he "fell victim to the naiveté of the young, foolish and eager" some 20 years ago. Having invented a medical device, but not yet patented it, he contacted a company to gauge their interest. "The design was taken, commercialized and made highly successful with neither my university nor I being able to live on the easy street of royalties." Read how he's profited from that experience on
Karen Hopkin, who contributes regularly to