Impure Science: Fraud, Compromise and Political Influence in Scientific Research

The author lifts the veil of secrecy from scientific research conducted in this country. He presents a shattering indictment of the scientific community from the halls of government to the research centers at major universities and corporations. Documents case after case of influence peddling, doctored research and outright fraud, and reveals how the twin forces of money and status compromise and corrupt the pursuit of scientific truth.

In an alarming expose of the scientific community, City University of New York economics professor Bell charges that all aspects of our welfare, social and military infrastructure are threatened by extensive fraud, secrecy and fierce competition for research funds from government and industry. While whistle-blowers are penalized, he notes, especially for exposing such costly fiascos as the space shuttle and the Hubble telescope, control measures--e.g., replication, peer and journal reviewing--are prone to abuse, as are the grant-awarding procedures of the National Science Foundation, the Pentagon and Congress. Among the author's sometimes over-detailed examples--such as the recent case of scientific data faking which forced Nobel Prize winner David Baltimore to resign the presidency of Rockefeller Institute--Bell also condemns drug companies for gross violation of FDA regulations. The author's very tentative solutions call for excluding peers from investigations, providing increased protection for whistle-blowers and meting out stiffer penalties for offenders.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

A compendium of scientific scandal from Bell (Economics/CUNY; You Can Win at Office Politics, 1984, etc.), who, in case after exhaustively detailed case of scientific research, exposes lying, cheating, and stealing. In both academia, with its cutthroat competition and links to corporate interests, and governmental contracting, rife with conflicts of interest, Bell unearths the failure of the scientific establishment to safeguard integrity. He demonstrates the ineffectiveness of the peer-review system at the National Science Foundation (a scientist's funding is cut off by rumors of a CIA link--most probably begun by a rival), and highlights how political patronage is involved in big-science funding (the locating of a $25 million earthquake-research center in Buffalo instead of at Univ. of California). Star Wars was funded against the advice of science advisors, Bell says: While Reagan was told that one component would be in production within three years, the scientist in charge of developing it said, ``The most you could say is that it didn't violate the laws of physics''--and his reports were buried. In medicine and elsewhere, whistle-blowers exposing fraud have had their careers derailed as the scientific establishment closes ranks around the accused. Bell contends that greedy pharmaceutical companies hide and doctor data, resulting in unnecessary deaths; and that Pentagon contractors overcharge and turn in defective weapons. (``At any given moment, roughly 60 of the top 100 Pentagon contractors are under criminal investigation.'') Mostly a dry barrage of facts and figures, but bound to create a stir. -- Copyright ©1992, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Economics professor Bell chooses a synecdochical approach to examine "big science" as it is funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Pentagon, and the drug companies. For each type of abuse, such as conflict of interest or the falsification of data, he provides one or two well-documented and exhaustively researched examples, including several from prominent medical schools and several ghastly government boondoggles such as the decision to place an earthquake research institute in Buffalo, New York, rather than someplace with earthquakes. This is a startling compilation, in that it gathers together egregious examples of fraud and waste from every corner of scientific inquiry and makes much use of painstakingly acquired official documents and official accounts--a classic muckraking work with good endnotes. Essential for any library at an institution that receives research funding, although administrators won't like it one bit. Well written, too.
-Mark L. Shelton, Athens, Ohio
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.