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The ivory towers have fallen. British science has been captured by
corporations, claims George Monbiot’s Captive State: The corporate takeover
of Britain. In a chapter on research, for example, he shows how BP, Shell,
Zeneca, Sainsbury’s and other corporations dominate research funding councils
and Foresight Panels, deciding what is researched and what is not. Often the
result is “an inverse relationship between research needs and research funds”,
he says. As when university energy research serves the needs of what he
describes as fat-cat oil-industry paymasters, rather than kick-starting
renewables for the 21st century. We all make our compromises: Monbiot’s
back-flap biography plugs Sony and Lloyds. Still, this important piece of
investigative journalism reveals how far we have all succumbed to the corporate
culture. Published by Macmillan, £12.99, ISBN 0333901649.