It isn't just Flint: Scientists find alarming deterioration in DNA of the urban poor

[Octafish]

19. You're welcome, Omaha! Wish we had more info...

What we could learn about the health effects of poverty, were scientific research not so closely tied to money.

The trend is undeniable. In 1965, the federal government financed more than 60 percent of all R&D in the United States. By 2006, the balance had flipped, with 65 percent of R&D in this country being funded by private interests. According to the American Association for the Advancement of Science, several of the nation’s science-driven agencies—the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Department of Agriculture, the Department of the Interior, and NASA—have been losing funding, leading to more “outsourcing” of what were once governmental science functions. The EPA, for example, recently began conducting the first nationwide study on the air quality effects of large-scale animal production. Livestock producers, not taxpayers, are slated to pay for the study. “The government is clearly increasing its reliance on industry and forming ‘joint ventures’ to accomplish research that it is unable to afford on its own anymore,” says Merrill Goozner, a program director at the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a consumer advocacy group.

SOURCE: http://discovermagazine.com/2007/oct/sciences-worst-enemy-private-funding

[/div class]

Captivating. And considering how these are the wealthiest times in human history, especially shows Austerity for the corporate-conservative government organized hypocrisy it is.