Though high in national ranking, Kershaw University is a dysfunctional institution. Its geriatric president is afflicted by dementia. The faculty is embroiled in bitter vendettas. The students, when not partying or sleeping late, are in rebellion. And, under an Army contract in a secret lab on campus, Kershaw's star scientist is developing an anti-sleep drug to keep troops permanently awake. Hot on the trail, a dropout scientist working for an investment firm schemes to buy up the secret formula, with time out only for his hyper-busy love life.

In recent years the news media have been awash in stories about increasingly close ties between college campuses and multimillion-dollar corporations. Our nation's universities, the story goes, reap enormous windfalls patenting products of scientific research that have been primarily funded by taxpayers. Meanwhile, hoping for new streams of revenue from their innovations, the same universities are allowing their research--and their very principles--to become compromised by quests for profit. But is that really the case? Is money really hopelessly corrupting science?
With "Science for Sale," acclaimed journalist Daniel S. Greenberg reveals that campus capitalism is more complicated--and less profitable--than media reports would suggest. While universities seek out corporate funding, news stories rarely note that those industry dollars are dwarfed by government support and other funds. Also, while many universities have set up technology transfer offices to pursue profits through patents, many of those offices have been financial busts. Meanwhile, science is showing signs of providing its own solutions, as highly publicized misdeeds in pursuit of profits have provoked promising countermeasures within the field.
But just because the threat is overhyped, Greenberg argues, doesn't mean that there's no danger. From research that has shifted overseas so corporations can avoid regulations to conflicts of interest in scientific publishing, the temptations of money will always be a threat, and they can only be countered through the vigilance of scientists, the press, and the public.
Based on extensive, candid interviews with scientists and administrators, "Science for Sale "will beindispensable to anyone who cares about the future of scientific research.

Each year, Congress appropriates billions of dollars for scientific research. And each year, scientists complain of insufficient funding and lobby (usually successfully) for more. Who receives the money, and the tactics they use to get it, are explored in this hard-hitting, meticulously documented expose by veteran journalist Daniel S. Greenberg.
From the end of World War II to 2001, and from medical research to particle physics, Greenberg reveals the little-known but all-pervasive links among science, money, and politics in the United States. He takes us behind closed doors in Washington, drawing on archival research as well as astonishingly frank and revealing interviews with presidential science advisers, congressional and White House staffers, and elected officials.
Along the way we encounter some startling revelations. We learn about exaggerated claims of disease cures; how politicians supportive of medical research are rewarded with buildings named for them at the National Institutes of Health; why Ronald Reagan's science advisers remained silent, even though they knew that false claims were being made for a scientific breakthrough in the Star Wars missile-defense program; and how, even as research lagged in the expiring USSR, leading American scientists warned Congress of Soviet scientific superiority--and the need for increased U.S. science funding to counter it.
Thoroughly documented, engagingly written, and based on decades of investigative reporting, "Science, Money, and Politics" blows the whistle on the scientists, politicians, and government officials who sacrifice ethics--and science itself--for money.

Each year, Congress appropriates billions of dollars for scientific research. And each year, scientists complain of insufficient funding and lobby (usually successfully) for more. Who receives the money, and the tactics they use to get it, are explored in this hard-hitting, meticulously documented expose by veteran journalist Daniel S. Greenberg.
From the end of World War II to 2001, and from medical research to particle physics, Greenberg reveals the little-known but all-pervasive links among science, money, and politics in the United States. He takes us behind closed doors in Washington, drawing on archival research as well as astonishingly frank and revealing interviews with presidential science advisers, congressional and White House staffers, and elected officials.
Along the way we encounter some startling revelations. We learn about exaggerated claims of disease cures; how politicians supportive of medical research are rewarded with buildings named for them at the National Institutes of Health; why Ronald Reagan's science advisers remained silent, even though they knew that false claims were being made for a scientific breakthrough in the Star Wars missile-defense program; and how, even as research lagged in the expiring USSR, leading American scientists warned Congress of Soviet scientific superiority--and the need for increased U.S. science funding to counter it.
Thoroughly documented, engagingly written, and based on decades of investigative reporting, "Science, Money, and Politics" blows the whistle on the scientists, politicians, and government officials who sacrifice ethics--and science itself--for money.