Research and Academia Books

One only needs to take a stroll through the campuses of major universities to sense that something is a bit awry these days: Football coaches making half a million dollars a year while humanities department budgets are slashed should make any one with an academic conscience grow suspicious that corporate powers are calling the shots. Soley does a superior job of providing ample evidence of big money influence on the curriculums of universities and how professors are farmed out to testify for tobacco companies, etc. and making hefty sums in the process. This is a MUST READ for anyone who cares about the future of education and wants to take it out of the hands of the corporate powers.

Jaye Beldo: netnous@aol.com

This is a book that was written in response to the initial flurry of "unlimited horizon" books about the possibilities of genetic engineering. I had read about 3 of them with increasing boredom, and was delighted to find one that actually took a more critical attitude than bland techno-boosterism. It is about the investment community, the drug approval process, and the difficulties of harnessing basic science for profit.

As such, it is a very useful book, though certainly has been superceded by others in the field.