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Scientists: fill yer boats

Science has always been mixed up with money and power, but as a decorative facade for megayachts, it risks leaving reality behind altogether, write ROX MIDDLETON, LIAM SHAW and MIRIAM GAUNTLETT


BILLIONAIRE FAD: OceanXplorer docked at Wiltonhaven Schiedam/Rotterdam. Pic: kees torn/CC

“WHO pays the piper calls the tune.” The maxim is a familiar one to Marxists, and throughout history, money’s role in guiding and controlling scientific endeavour is powerfully visible.

For hundreds of years, astronomers and other scientists found employment at the courts of monarchs and emperors — Galileo, a court mathematician and polymath, being just one example among many.

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