I'm not sure that I agree that scientists are not responsible for their discoveries and what we might do with them. I'm not sure we can hold them accountable per se, either, but the fact remains that you are creating knowledge in a context and it's too easy to say 'I didn't know what you guys would do with that!'... right now if you're helping locating genes that you know companies will patent and then use that to force farmers to use their seed every year, you can't just say you were just the scientist and the consequences have got nothing to do with you. You're part of society just like anybody else.

Not that we'll ever have that debate, but I really do think we should sit and think about the way in which we seek knowledge. And wonder to what extent we need to learn more in certain areas when we're lacking knowledge in fields that we should know more about. Basically it comes down to the fact that I sometimes wonder if knowledge for knowledge's sake is really a good concept or just an excuse that we use more and more to wash our hands from the consequences of what we create.