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Over the Past 20 Years, Commercial Influences on Scientific Research Have Become Increasingly Detrimental. Discuss

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Over the Past 20 Years, Commercial Influences on Scientific Research Have Become Increasingly Detrimental. Discuss
Over the past 20 years, commercial influences on scientific research have become increasingly detrimental. Discuss

Undoubtedly, the links between commercial sectors and science have increased over the past two decades. Where universities and research institution used to be generally independent, increasing opportunities for short-term profits have led to more commercial pressure on these bodies. Despite the fact that there are some advantages of scientific development with funding from the private section, it will be seen that scientists are now experiencing some concerns.This essay will discuss negative commercial influences on scientific research, with a particular focus on priority for short-term profits, the lack of ethical standards and neglecting the public interest.

Many people argue that commercial influences on science are positive for both science and commerce, because research can receive more financial support and research results can be used in practice as soon as possible. Meanwhile, business companies can make a profit from research results. However, there is increasing evidence that commerce has brought a wide range of detrimental influences on scientific research. One of the most negative influences is that academic research overly focus on short- or medium-term benefits. To begin with, because of profits, scientists are forced to turn their attention from pure research to producing patentable materials, as well as prioritizing their work in a manner that would yield the most short-term financial gain. Accordingly, beneficial research is ignored because it cannot offer obvious short-term financial gain. For example, in agricultural science, due to genetics can receive short-term gain so that it occupy most funding which comes from private and public. Therefore, many other fields of agricultural science are overlooked, such as chemical fertilisers, pesticides and improving food distribution ( Parkinson & Langley, 2009 ). On the other hand,

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