RETURNING to school for a refresher course in biotechnology, Janet Hope becomes alarmed when each concept is presented along with a corporate logo and ownership claim. Here’s a technique, her professor tells her: expression of proinsulin in E. coli – “owned” by Hoechst and Eli Lilly. And here’s another: expression of mini-proinsulin in S. cerevisae – “owned” by Novo Nordisk.
Hope’s fellow students are focused on careers in the corporate world, a focus that seems to overshadow any wonder about science itself. She contrasts this state of affairs to that of free software development, an area that earlier caught her fancy when she heard a talk by free…
