Page 97 - Just Deserts

PIVOT

clearly been obsessed with this work for decades; we are, perhaps,
witnesses to a mid-life crisis.”
For a few seconds the peers were silent. Then Euell Skinner
exploded in wrath. “Personal and corporate ethics aside, this is too
much! The ‘Journal of Experimental Genetics’ cannot afford to be
the forum for a charlatan! The mutually profitable relationship
between funding and research, so carefully crafted over so many
years, is jeopardized whenever industry loses confidence in the
academic product. Furthermore, we would be the laughingstock of
the scientific community once Professor Kingswater’s hoax became
public—and given the proclivity of our unsolicited correspondents,
that would not take long! We will not publish PIVOT. Any
objections?”
The others looked down at their papers.
“No,” replied Wahl, shaking his head sadly. “We have no other
choice. In a way, I feel sorry for Dr. Kingswater: our rejection will
effectively terminate his ability to get additional funding for his
research, and he may find himself consequently persona non grata at
Bordham University. Does his theory hold water? It may well be
another generation before that line of inquiry is taken up again. And
who knows: by then civilization may have found other solutions to its
problems of environmental pollution.”

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