ABSTRACT
In a recent magazine article, the issue of government control of research agendas was explored by using the metaphor "Science is a flashlight." Science, like a flashlight, is bounded in its scope: Only areas directly under its beam are visible. So far, the metaphor may seem obvious, but a further implication is that because of this boundedness, decisions about the direction of the beam are crucial. Until recently, the article pointed out, scientists have had the major say in where the flashlight was aimed, but increasingly it is government agencies, not scientists, who control the direction of search. The notion of controlling the direction of science was presumably not a new issue to readers. Nevertheless, the metaphor contributed a new connection: The fact that vision is limited makes it crucial who controls its direction.
