>> “The exception that proves the rule are scientifically oriented companies with a vested interest in research (e.g., pharmaceuticals).” <<
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I sure wouldn’t number Pharma with “scientifically oriented companies;” their interest is not in science, but in technology that will turn a profit, and get a drug approved, even though almost all of the drugs so approved have been proven by science to be harmful, and life shortening (recent example: Avandia, known to be harmful from the beginning, but kept on the market to the bitter end, and Viox = Ditto)
Why, then, as we take more and more of these pharmaceuticals, are we living longer and longer and longer?
If what you say is true, it should be the other way around.