Who Owns Science? Rejuvenating Public Sector Science

Citing the "moral corruption" of organized medicine, Sir John Sulston, the British genome scientist who won the 2002 Nobel Prize for medicine, is launching a new institute on science, ethics and innovation. He wants to put innovation in medicine back on track by limiting gene patenting. According to this BBC report, he also blames disease mongering by the big pharmaceutical firms for distracting researchers from dealing with the serious problems facing millions of poor people around the world. He's holding a conference in London this weekend entitled, "Who Owns Science."

The Center for Science in the Public Interest's Integrity in Science project will hold a conference in Washington, DC today. The featured speaker at "Rejuvenating Public Sector Science" will be James Hansen of NASA, who has been speaking out on global warming since the late 1980s. A 2 p.m. panel on comparative effectiveness in medicine features Gail Wilensky, Ezekiel Emanuel and Gregg Bloche and will be webcast by the Kaiser Family Foundation. If you're in Washington and can make it down to the Reagan Center at 13th and Pennsylvania, registration is available at the door.