Abstract
Prof. Haldane's denial that “before the War men of science could choose their own field of research” seems to be based on his own academic position—which is surely an exceptional one. By far the majority of university chairs are not endowed by private individuals, and most of them that are have no ultra-specific conditions attached to them. Prof. Haldane's statement that “the fields of scientific research in Great Britain are to a considerable extent determined by the wishes of rich men and women” savours of naïvety. Further, he states that there is no chair of genetics in England; this seems to overlook the Arthur Balfour chair of genetics at Cambridge, recently vacated by Prof. R. C. Punnett, and temporarily in suspense.
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Can Science be Independent?. Nature 147, 416 (1941). https://doi.org/10.1038/147416c0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/147416c0
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