Tom Bethell, author of The Politically Correct Guide to Science and Questioning Einstein, is this week's guest on Inside Academia, where he speaks about the forces driving scientific conformity in American universities. He says, "grant-seeking is enforcing a tremendous orthodoxy within the academic world in science, which is precisely where orthodoxy should not be maintained."
Click on the video below to watch the 15-minute interview.
From InsideAcademia.tv:
Key Take-Aways
- 2:08 – How the Green movement was hijacked by social and political activists (1 min)
- 5:20 – Academics within a field are terrorized if they depart from the orthodoxy (2 mins)
- 8:00 – They’re terrified of getting grants cut off if they’re derided as mavericks (1 min)
- 9:50 – Science was much more open when it was funded privately (1 min)
- 11:50 – If you think independent thoughts you have to do so on your own (1 min)
- 13:45 – The way to bring back open and free academic thought (1 min)
