Bringing in millions through patents invariably requires university leadership to confront what a patent is: an authorization to sue for infringement. Patents confer the right to exclude others from using a given invention, without the patent holder's permission, for a twenty-year term. Permission, of course, costs money--something universities…

Librarians and scholars who seek to counter the rampant commercialism and consolidation that endanger equal and affordable access to knowledge can learn from the recent successful effort to pass health-care reform. Organizations with a commanding presence in an industry naturally seek to institutionalize their indispensability. They finance…

Few issues have drawn such persistent and divisive debate in recent years as tobacco-industry funding of university research. Although a number of institutions have developed policies to prohibit such funding in the last few years, others have taken large grants from tobacco companies. Today, a number of prominent hospitals, medical schools, and…

During the past two decades, historians have been brought into legal cases in unprecedented numbers. As the courts have tried to adjudicate responsibility for environmental and occupational diseases, history and historians have played an increasingly central role in shaping decisions in the cases themselves as well as in related social policy. In…

In June 2010, the Association of American Medical Colleges issued the third and final portion of its conflict-of-interest policy initiatives. The task force on "Conflicts of Interest in Clinical Care" did not mince words when it described the impetus for these initiatives: "It is imperative that the possibility or perception of [financial conflict…

Sewage sludge is composed of residuals removed from wastewater that comes from homes, hospitals, and industries. Wastewater-treatment systems are designed to remove pollutants that could contaminate public waterways. Sludge--called "biosolids" by those who produce it, spread it, and regulate it--includes these pollutants as well as…