But generally there's less rot and bullshit in science than other human endeavors, especially compared to banking, the military, and politics.
I wouldn't work for Monsanto. Nope. And I avoid their products. I don't use pesticides in my own home and garden, I watch what I eat too. I think corn grown for animal feed or ethanol is a blight on the landscape.
There's a lot of rot in the pharmaceutical corporations too, pushing expensive drugs that are more dangerous and less effective than inexpensive alternatives. They are also notorious for misplacing research that reflects poorly on a profitable product. I'd like to see generous federal funding of pharmaceutical research, with the results of that research released to the public domain, worldwide, in direct and aggressive competition with the for-profit pharmaceutical industry as it now exists. These corporations spend more on advertising and political favors than they do on actual research, and there research is directed toward profit, not what is best for the public health or the most wretched but rarer diseases.
On the other hand, I take multiple prescription pharmaceuticals daily. I keep up to date on my vaccines too. I got a bad roll of the dice with asthma, allergies, and arthritis. Without meds my mind is not all that dependable either. But maybe that's from eating and drinking and breathing all that "scientific" crap of the fifties and sixties, things like leaded gasoline, plastic additives, polychlorinated biphenyl, and the residues of pesticides that are no longer used.
I'm indifferent to manned space exploration or nuclear power. I don't believe either will "save" the human race. Others may disagree.
Unmanned space exploration is awesome science.
Science in all domains, whether it seems "impractical" at the moment or not, ought to be well funded. Nobody can predict where tomorrow's magic will come from.
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