Defence

摘要

The liability culture has well and truly taken hold, representing a real threat to science. We have all seen the warning on cups 'caution: contents can be hot' and labels informing you not to put your cat in the microwave. For scientists and academics, this may seem to be something that doesn't really affect them. But in fact it does. There seems to be an increasing refusal to accept that such a thing as simple bad luck exists. After the earthquake in L'Aquila in Italy in 2009, scientists were condemned for failing to predict it. If even natural phenomena can no longer be categorised as bad luck, any information that you collect is by definition dangerous because it could be used against you. You'd be better off pretending to be stupid.