I just read Stuart Parkinson’s article about the upcoming Big Bang Fair in the UK, which describes itself as “the largest celebration of science, technology, engineering and maths for young people in the UK.” As Parkinson, writes, however, this conference is not simply a congress on the practice of scientific thought, but seems more like a large recruitment center for some controversial corporations. While it is true that scientific practice is used heavily by employees of these companies, their end goals leave something to be desired.

Some of the companies giving the biggest contributions to the Big Bang Fair include arms companies BAE Systems and General Dynamics, along with the oil company Shell. Of course the scientific field is not the only one that has such practices happening, but it’s still odd to me the way in which such large input from a certain sector exists in a field which tends to define itself as having an allegiance only to reason.