From Roderick Dewar, University of New South Wales
Australia
According to Ron Freedman, social scientists can offer research labs valuable
know-how on monitoring the satisfaction of their customers
(Forum, 2 August, p 46).
And why not? After all, on the roller coaster of commercialised science,
social scientists are as much entitled to enjoy the ride as are accountants and
lawyers.
Perhaps Freedman could also advise funding bodies on how to monitor more
effectively the satisfaction of those scientists who are motivated not by the
desire to please clients and balance the books, but simply by (in Feynman’s
words) “the pleasure of finding things out”.
